Malcolm I
Malcolm I, King of the Highlands, was a sickly and weak-willed monarch who wilted in the presence of the three strong women who dominated his life: his mother Johanna, his wife Bonnie, and his daughter Bridget. The antithesis of his brave, bold, and brash father, some Highlanders joked that Malcolm been conceived without any involvement from the king. And each time Malcolm’s wife gave birth, those same folks were convinced that Malcolm—the “man in shape only”—must’ve hired a surrogate to fulfill his part of the obligation.
Born in 124 in the capital city of Connor’s Gob, Malcolm MacHamish was sickly from the start. He required constant supervision by court physicians and his mother in order to make it to his first birthday, and rumors swirled forever after that he was kept alive only by the darkest magics of the queen.
Kept away from other children for the sake of his health, Malcolm grew up with naught but tutors for friends. But while this made him a smart young man and gave him plenty of time to devote to his hobbies of singing and painting, it also robbed him of any chance to develop the social skills which might have served him later in life. In 142, when he was betrothed to Bonnie MacAdam as part of the Treaty of Meltwater, the meek young Malcolm couldn’t find the words to say he didn’t want to be married to a woman—nor, indeed, to anyone at all. And even if he had been able to find the words, he wouldn’t have known if he was allowed to speak them aloud.
All that said, his marriage to Bonnie was not an altogether unpleasant affair. Though Bonnie was a commanding presence, she was not a domineering one. Unlike his mother, Malcolm’s wife listened to him—even if that listening sometimes consisted of hours of silence preceding a single awkward sentence of spoken words. When he asked her to manage most of the day-to-day affairs of the kingdom, she agreed, but she met with him regularly to make sure that he was still happy with the arrangement. And when the public and the nobles began clamoring for an heir, Bonnie never pressed the issue. In fact, she brought him research from the Edenian Athenæum on how they might transition their monarchy to another system of government instead. Ultimately, however, the couple opted not to pursue that possibility.
For two years, the heretofore abstinent Malcolm decided to experiment with sharing his wife’s bed. This resulted in two children—Bridget in 143 and Malcolm II in 144—and an agreement between the king and queen to never try that again.
The remainder of their marriage and of Malcolm’s life was loveless but cordial, distant but productive. Malcolm focused on his artistic pursuits, Bonnie ran the kingdom, and the pair of them did the best they could at parenting their kids.
In 164, near the end of his short life, Malcolm was caught in the middle of a bitter dispute between his wife and daughter. Queen Bonnie, ever the negotiator, had pacified the nobles by accepting male-preference primogeniture as the law of the land—a move which would deprive her firstborn of the throne. Princess Bridget, as feisty a 21-year-old as ever there was, demanded that her father enter the fray on her behalf. And Malcolm, afraid of upsetting either woman, began to drink heavily to calm his nerves.
Sadly, in early 165, overindulgence brought an end to Malcolm I. His frail body just wasn’t able to withstand the pressures being suddenly thrust upon his shoulders, nor the drink he’d hoped would ease the burden, and he died during the first days of the new year.
Reading these out of order is interesting. Like in real life, being born royal seems to be a total mixed bag on your world. As it should be!
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Yep! Part of that is to keep it interesting for myself. I'm glad to be getting this part of the worldbuilding done, so that I better understand the history that Frieda is stepping into in the comic, but man will I be happy when this last line of kings is over and done with.