she begs to be loved

Queen in prayer, ca. 1350, France [2978 x 3722]

gtkm ♡ favourite female characters [9/15] » rose tyler (doctor who)

He needed to learn.

1861 Franz Xaver Winterhalter - Princess Alice, later Grand Duchess of Hesse

Elsa Lanchester as Mary Shelley in THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1935)

“… It is a common staple of mother-in-law jokes that having one come to stay over is a nightmare. But having this mother-in-law to stay can only be a blessing. For Princess Alice is that rarest of creatures, a member of a royal family that has suffered more than the rest of us, worked harder than the rest of us, and created more good than the rest of us. Congenitally deaf, she was consistently misunderstood, marginalised and underestimated. Doctors inflicted untold horrors on her, x-raying her womb to bring on menopause and reduce her libido, and electroshock treatment to treat her hysteria. But instead of bitterness, Princess Alice dedicated her life to charity work, public service, and campaigning for social justice, often at great personal risk.”

If history teaches us one thing, it is this: terrible things happen to kings. You were anointed by God, blessed by the sun, but you do not yet possess what really matters — the power. Without it, you will perish and all of France along with you. For a king without a castle is no king at all.