Irene Pendragon

Irene Pendragon (née Chester) was the mother of Colleen and Colin Pendragon as well as the wife of Benedict Pendragon and served as his queen consort. She was born in the House of Chester and married Benedict when she was fifteen.

## Irene Pendragon

### Aliases

Queen Irene
Irene of Chester

The Queen Mother

Dowager Queen of Estines

### Relatives

Benedict Pendragon (husband, deceased)
Henry Chester (father, deceased)

Colin Pendragon (son)

Colleen Pendragon (daughter)

Stella Pendragon (daughter-in-law)

Demetrius Pendragon (grandson)

Dorothy Pendragon (granddaughter)

Daniel Pendragon (grandson)

Samuel Chester (relative)

Elaine Pendragon (mother-in-law, deceased)

Andrew Pendragon (father-in-law, deceased)

### Appearance

Only two portraits are seen of Irene, both of which she is wearing the Three-Pronged Crown and wearing pearls with a long, red and white dress. She wears her long, dark hair in a chignon in both portraits.

### Personality

According to Colin, Irene was someone who had almost no warmth. She took her role as queen and later queen mother very seriously and generally viewed her role as mother and grandmother as secondary. She felt little empathy for non-royals and especially non-Estinians. She was the one who convinced Benedict to start the War of Plaines and encouraged him to be as brutal as possible, correctly guessing a brief, victorious war would raise patriotism and the people's devotion to the Crown.

### History

Irene was born to the House of Chester five months after the birth of at the time Prince Benedict. Due to the early death of Prince Alexander, who did not marry until his late twenties, the Pendragon Family wanted to make sure Benedict married young and ensured had an heir early on. Irene was viewed as an ideal candidate due to being born so closely to Benedict and being the daughter of the Chester Head Henry. At Benedict's first birthday his future engagement to Irene was announced to the Nineteen Noble Families. While the selection of the future Queen Consort isn't abnormal, the announcement of it is. Typically, the family will inform the girl's parents that they intend on making her the future Queen Consort and to raise her appropriately. They don't publicly announce it in case she is found to be barren, and they need to select someone else.

Because Irene was publicly announced as the future wife of Benedict, her education was funded completely by the royal family and was given an education equivalent to the Crown Prince. It's believed she lived in the palace fulltime and only saw her parents a handful of times in her life. Her instructors noted that she seemed to understand the importance of her job and future from a young age and never complained about the difficulty of the lessons.

On Benedict's fifteenth birthday they were officially engaged, and they had their wedding on his sixteenth when she was still fifteen.

Unlike other queen consorts, Irene was one of Benedict's closest and most trusted advisors. By many within the Pendragon family, she is credited with keeping the monarchy afloat through his reign. She knew the monarchy was decreasing in popularity and knew that a war they could swiftly win would help rehabilitate the people's opinion on it. Irene was also infamous for having several affairs during her marriage to Benedict. After giving birth to Colin, Irene supposedly told Benedict that she wasn't interested in being intimate with him any longer and sought various lovers. These lovers include Herbert Snow, General Hopkins, and various male servants and staff throughout the palace. For this reason, Benedict lacked respect from nobility, who believed it was his job to keep Irene in line, and Irene was widely disliked.

After Benedict passed away, Irene became Queen Dowager. Like her role as Queen Consort, she took it extremely seriously. She was noted to have little faith in Colin's ability to rule, going as far as to ask Benedict on his deathbed to allow Colleen to be the heir. This request was denied and Colin ascended to the throne as expected. As protest, Irene didn't attend his coronation and refused to support him until her final breath.

At sixty-three, Irene grew ill and died a few months later. She wrote a long letter to Colleen that made it clear she believed Colleen, who was older than Colin, was the rightful heir to the throne and once again detailing why she believed Colin was incompetent. Despite everything, Colin ensured she received a funeral and a proper burial, although this may be due to Irene's popularity. Irene was buried next to Benedict in the Hall of Monarchs.