Princess of the Black Death | ✔️

Chapter XVI

Summer 1339, Royal Palace, Dresdon, Holy Roman Empire

By late in the summer, Joan realised it had been a full year since she had last seen her father and seen her home country. Initially, the homesickness ache overwhelmed her for the first few weeks, an unbearable weight that felt like it was crushing her, until it slowly lifted and there were days she didn't even think about her homeland.

She had embraced her new German land and finally started to feel a part of it. She had spent a good deal of time with all of her cousins that they truly felt like her family now. They included her in conversations and games. Margaret and to a lesser extent Louis filled in for some parental affection.

Joan remembered what her parents and her sister and brother looked like, but the details felt less sharp in her mind. She had no images of them, only her memory, and a year was a long time for a child. She wondered if she would forget what they looked like and if they forgot her. They had not entirely, as she still got letters from them, but she wondered if she was out of their hearts.

At summer's end, Joan walked down a corridor and saw Elisabeth, Louis, and William outside a partially closed door. They waved her close. Inside, Joan heard raised voices and quietly listened in.

"I will not marry a child!" Anna shouted.

"John has become Duke of Lower Bavaria upon his father's death and the best way for Lower Bavaria to stay loyal to me and one day be united to Upper Bavaria is to have a House of Wittelsbach duchess sitting next to him," Emperor Louis said. "He is not yet ten but he is Duke nonetheless. The timing is what it is. You are 13, so his age is still close to yours."

"Am I meant to consummate on the wedding night with the child Duke?" Anna asked.

"Child, don't be vulgar."

"Can't the marriage wait until we're both older?"

"No. His mother is cunning, and she'll put her own Luxembourg family ahead of ours when making a match. He's young and must be influenced by loyalty to me alone. If John's father hadn't died now, it could wait, but now it has happened, it cannot."

"Why am I being married first if I'm the second eldest?" Anna asked.

"Because Bavaria is important. But not important enough to use Margaret."

There was a distinct silence. Joan couldn't see Anna's face, but she felt a sting in her own heart. Anna had called herself a lesser princess because her father treated her as such.

"They're coming," Prince Louis whispered. Everyone outside the door scattered to make it seem as if they had not been listening to the private conversation. Anna said nothing when she came out and walked to her bed chamber.

"Should we talk to her?" Joan asked.

"No, let her mourn alone," Elisabeth said.

By that evening, an official announcement of the betrothal was made. Anna was stoic in front of court, her face blank like a statue. Everyone in attendance applauded.

At night, the usually fiery-tempered princess said little and openly cried in bed.

Joan wanted to make her feel better. "At least he is German, like you," Joan said. "You speak the same language. You have the same traditions. Your family will travel to your castle."

"They won't," Anna said.

"We'll write to you," Elisabeth added. "The Duke may be very nice. He might be a good husband. He will listen to you because you're older than him. You can tell him what to do, and then when he's bigger than you, he'll still listen."

Anna didn't say anything else as they all went to sleep.

Within a couple days, Anna's things were prepared for her journey. She wore a beautiful velvet and fur-trimmed gown and had a tall conical hennin headdress attached to white veils for her final appearance as the emperor's maiden daughter.

Unfortunately, only weeks earlier, Empress Margaret went into confinement for another childbirth. She was kept away in her own quarters, and Anna could neither visit her to say goodbye nor could word be given lest it disturb the Empress. The health of the baby meant no stress could be put upon the Empress. She would be informed that Anna was betrothed and sent away until after the birth occurred.

The rest of the family said farewell to the beautifully dressed bride-to-be for the last time. Anna wordlessly boarded her carriage and didn't look back as her family waved goodbye.

Despite how good her life was compared to so many less fortunate, Joan saw her own life being sent away was the same. Blacksmiths' daughters and shepherds' daughters never moved far away from their families. They even had a little say in a choice for a husband.

Sometimes she wished she had been a peasant girl. Fine dresses didn't seem like enough at times like this.