The Death of Queen Griselda

DaBotz, The Death of Queen Griselda, around  C.E 1038.

<<

This is Dabotz first sketch for its infamous painting "The death of Queen Griselda".

The story of Griselda and Drok the Impaler is widely known, but often misinterpreted.

King Drok - then known as "Drok the Reformer", or "Drok the Gentle" - had successfully mutated the country into a parliamentary monarchy and, being already 35, he was forced by dynastic considerations to take a wife.

The ever powerful forces of diplomacy and power play in the region, landed him with Griselda de Hoffenheim-Wiesbach, fifth daughter of the Great Elector of Sassamagburg and 24th in the succession line of the Holy Skrastic Empire.

The much younger Queen proved to be a good choice, as she managed to promptly fall pregnant.

More unfortunately, she also managed to alienate much of the conservative party who, in a twist proper of our country history, had obtained an absolute majority in the newly constituted parliament (famously, their conservativism stopped, for some reasons, short from shutting down the parliament and give the powers they enjoyed back to the King).

In this tense political climate, it was then publicly discovered that the King was, in fact, sterile.

The Royal child could not be the King's son.

The conservative party hence pushed for the law to be followed to the letter, much to the chagrin and against the opposition of the King, who was restricted from issuing a Royal pardon.

Dabotz was strongly impressed by the barbaric execution, the last public impalement conducted in our country, and would then proceed to create a powerful rendition of it in the haunting "The Death of Griselda ".

This, in turn, led to the late fame of King Drok, "Drok the Impaler". This moniker is the one the layman always associates to Drok.

Modern historians contend that the King ordered the apposition of weights not as a vengeance but, rater, as the only form of clemency the situation afforded him: to shorten the pains of the Queen and her child, rather than in a sanguinary fit of rage, like conservative propaganda affirmed at the time.

Contrary to the rendition of him in the painting, this sketch shows the King crying for his Queen. There are no proof that the conservatives paid for the creation of the painting, but it became an effective tool in their effort to have the King abdicate in favor of his more pliable brother, "Drek the Dumb".

It is probably in this moment that Drok decided that the time of the monarchy was over, and resolved himself to transform the country in a full fledged democracy.

A century later, documents were discovered that show that the King already knew, by the time he agreed to marry Griselda, that the  gold foil lacing the Golden Throne was contaminated with radioactive materials.

These materials have likely rendered sterile every man - or woman - that has spent more than three months governing from it, ever since its introduction in the middle age.

As such Drok himself, and at least 20 of his 23 antecessors, was necessarily the product of an illicit liaison and, if the dynasty had to survive, he knew his much awaited son too was to be  bastard.

It is much debated if the Queen effectively followed orders from the King, in choosing and arranging the affair.

What is known is that Drok remained faithful to his beloved Queen till his death.