Queen Aurora of England

**Queen Aurora of England** (20 March 1354 - 5 April 1454) was Queen of England and the state of Ulstead, ruling alongside her husband King Philip of England. She was well-known for her tumultuous upbringing, warfare and longevity, being 100 years old at the time of her death. Queen Aurora reigned for forty-six years, until her husband's death. The royal families of Avalor, Schwartsvald, England and France descend from her.

## Biography

### Birth and background

After sixteen years of marriage and twelve stillbirths and miscarriages, Queen Leah of England gave birth to Aurora. She was named after the dawn, for she was "the dawn of a new era". King Stephen's claim to the throne was very faint. Since 1334, when King Edmund I died, there had been a war over the throne between Edmund's daughter Matilda Forbedun and his nephew Stephen. Stephen also married his second cousin Leah (great-granddaughter of King Edward II).

Aurora's christening was attended by most nobles, except the few who still supported Matilda's claim (mostly because she had a son). Also attending the christening were Matilda's maternal cousin King Hubert of Ulstead and his son Philip, who was expected to wed Aurora. Matilda showed up on the christening, with her army and announced that her son would marry the Queen's younger sister. She also predicted (wrongly) that this child, the Queen's thirteenth, would not survive into adulthood.

### Childhood

For her safety, Princess Aurora was sent to the convent of Saint Claire, where she was cared for by Sister Flora, Sister Fauna and Sister Maria. They instructed her in kingdom management, embroidery, cooking, meteology, etiquette and religious service. By all accounts, Aurora excelled in her studies though she was also a dreamy child and socially awkward from having so little interaction with the outside world. Contact with her parents was extremely limited, and unannounced, but she saw her half-brother Phoebus more often. He described her as "*fair, with hair golden as the sun, lips as red as the rose. She is very mature from her age and responsible. She is dreamy and socially inapt, but can listen well."*

### Marriage

Aurora's engagement to Philip was announced on her sixteenth birthday in 1370. Aurora and Philip joined King Stephen and Queen Leah at their court. After Matilda Forbedun died, Aurora and Philip finally married on 17 December 1372, an moved to the recently built Honeymoon Cottage. While pregnant with her first child, Aurora's father died and Philip and Aurora became King and Queen, making Ulstead an official part of England. Their first act was to summon David and Rachel Forbedun and ask them to accept exile or renounce their right to the throne. They chose the latter.

In Honeymoon Cottage, Philip and Aurora welcomed five children:

* Princess Rose of England (5 May 1375), later Queen of Avalor by marriage to Francesco X.
* King Edmund of England II (25 December 1377), later King Edmund II of England.
* Queen Oriana of Schwartsvald (21 June 1380), later Queen of Schwartsvald by marriage to William III.
* Princess Ophelia of England (21 June 1380), later Countess of Llyr by her marriage to her cousin Godric Fitzroy.
* Princess Diana of England (10 October 1390), later Duchess of Forbedun by her marriage to Ian, Lord Forbedun.

### Later reign

In 1402, Aurora's half-niece Eilonwy Fitzroy ran away with a farmer. Queen Aurora was initially outraged, especially because only a year earlier, her daughter Ophelia had married Eilonwy's brother Godric. Eventually, her husband King Philip and her son Prince Edmund convinced her to let the couple manage a small estate near Nottingham.

## Trivia

* The annexation of Ulstead by England through the marriage of its Queen was the basis for the unification of Bavaria and Schwartsvald after the wedding of Queen Blanche (Aurora's great-great-great-great-granddaughter) and King Florian of Schwartsvald.