I was born a royal daughter, but never the one expected to rule. My childhood ran alongside religion, a fractured family, and a crown that kept sliding from one branch of us to another. My father lost his throne. My sister and her husband took it. I stood to one side while ministers and bishops and armies argued over what the kingdom would become. They died without children, and the succession came down to me. By then my own life had already gone wrong in the worst way. I was pregnant again and