Reformation

BY ISABEL SU

1. the seduction 

eyes glint, dark and dancing in the candlelight: a single potent glance over a pale shoulder. an opposing set of blue-green eyes stray away from the faithful, the religious: an old queen, nervous and drawn, crucifix weighing down on her chest. an all-powerful man, spoiled with self-importance from childhood, caught between the two: his old love/the queen, his new fancy/the temptress.

2. the chase

strings of iridescent pearls, rich brocades, lofty promises. a title in her own right, a chase like no others; the ceaseless conquest of a comely conceit. but the old queen lives, fights, regally ignores the wandering of her husband’s eyes and heart. 

3. the honeymoon 

she, the infanta, the bygone object of the king’s Loyal Heart is no more; a mysterious death of poison/exhaustion/despondence? a new church, a new supreme head: a corrupted, greedy prince redefining heaven and earth for his desires. and, at long last, a clandestine marriage, an ostentatious coronation, a novel queen for the people. 

4. the vilification

a whore and a witch is what they call her: for reaching too high, for the birth of a girl, for the miscarried children.

5. the end

cold stone of a scaffold, pale cheek warm against the block, an executioner from calais: an eleventh hour pantomime of mercy. a cheering crowd as the condemned speaks her last, before the sword cleaves through the air. the king, downriver, exalts the death of his wife, with a new beloved: bound to obey and serve. 

this is how it goes, the fall of a woman once-transcendent, bound to the treacherous whims of a king only loyal to the caprices of his own beating heart: the death of a queen. 

About the Author

Isabel Su is a current high school junior at The Hotchkiss School in Connecticut.