Bridget MacMalcolm
Bridget MacMalcolm, Queen Consort of Fatherland, was a master diplomat who served as the head of international relations for her husband. Like her estranged mother before her, she was a shrewd negotiator who managed to bring prosperity to her own country while never entirely alienating any of their neighbors.
Born in 143, she was the heir apparent to the the throne of the Highlands from her birth until the adoption of male-preference primogeniture in 164. Raised to be a monarch, the bright, bold, and assertive Bridget felt betrayed by the law her mother had established to pacify the Highlands nobles. And so, the very next year, following the death of her father and the coronation of her younger brother, Bridget left her family behind and married into the first royal house that would have her.
Her marriage to Wilhelm II, which began as a strategic union, blossomed into a loving relationship. Wilhelm was a modest but capable ruler and earned Bridget’s respect over time. Bridget was a feisty and assertive force of nature, the perfect person to bring the occasionally timid and too-careful Wilhelm out of his shell. Respect turned to admiration, admiration turned to affection, and affection turned to love.
They had two children together, Felix in 165 and Fiona in 167, a pair of troublemakers who challenged their parents at every turn. But no matter how much mischief the children got up to, Bridget loved them fiercely. In fact, it was the early death of Fiona in 199—at just age 32—which proved the only thing capable of undoing the incredibly well-put-together Bridget.
After Fiona’s death, Bridget spent the last seven years of her life drowning her sorrows in drink. She died of cirrhosis and a broken heart—just like her father before her.
That's so sad, glad she made some happiness for herself before she fell to her demons.
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Yeah, me too. I'd forgotten the ending I'd written for her in her husband's article last year, so only in the end did I realize how much crap I'd thrown at her altogether.