lightningwaltz, 2020-12-25 [original]

Oh wow I love this!

You're so, so great at showing just how nervewracking it must be to come into all that power as a teenager. Right from the first line! I don't blame Philippa at all for being nervous. I think anyone would be marrying into the chaos that was England at that time!

I also really loved your take on Edward. He's clearly intelligent and serious-minded, but he's also just a kid on his wedding day! He's seriously so endearing here. I especially loved the detail about him being excited to secretly break protocol, while being the picture-perfect monarch during the wedding itself!

Just... these kids are both so darling and awkward here, but you can see the seeds of how they will both be rather formidable rulers for quite a while!

Oh, oh, and I also loved that bit about them meeting while Edward is in exile! I loved how it was halting and uncertain but also rather idyllic in some ways!

And then you included the uncertain nature of Edward II's death! I was so gleeful about that (haha does that sound terrible?) I loved how you connected it to Edward III's marriage, too. He'll probably have unanswered questions for the rest of his life, but at least he has a great partner to share in those burdens.

Some favorite quotes:
"But going by the welcome she’d received, such a concession had hardly been necessary. Perhaps it would have been better to slight her new subjects in this small way, just so they would have more realistic expectations of her in the future."

I love seeing how her mind works here. She's nervous but clearly has a grasp on the complexities of the situation.

\“Nonsense,\” he said. \“Besides, we’re already married, from what I’ve heard. Wasn’t there a man we sent to your father’s court – some piddling provincial bishop?\”

This made me laugh. I've always been amused at how medieval royalty could be married from afar like that!

"It was a complex situation to have found herself thrust into, she thought as she muttered the Agnus Dei."

Hahaha, and that's putting it mildly!

"This time, she felt an unexpected prickle of unease at his mention of their first meeting. It had been an odd period that the two of them had spent together in Valenciennes, with little to do but wander her father’s grounds and become acquainted with each other, with the strange unspoken knowledge that soon they were supposed to be spending the rest of their lives together. That proposition had seemed impossible to take in at the time; in fact, it had felt more like they would never see each other again when Edward returned to England, and it was perhaps for that reason that they had been able to develop such a remarkable bond in such a short time. By the time the prince departed, they had established a real connection, and when Edward left, Philippa had wept. It embarrassed her to remember it, and, in fact, to remember that whole period."

Quite a long quote but I really just... loved it all. It's some an amazing mixture of how this is a political match that will shape the destinies of two countries (and many more beside...) but it's also just so teenager-y and uncertain! At the heart of all this there are two kids who have to somehow figure out how to survive this mess.

Thank you so much for this fic! You included one of my favorite historical mysteries as well as a lot of my favorite tropes (arranged marriages! fish out of water in a foreign court!) and I'm so delighted with this!

Beatrice_Otter, 2020-12-25 [original]

Great story, love it!

aseneth, 2020-12-26 [original]

Thank you!

ivyspinners, 2020-12-27 [original]

That scene where Edward and Phillipa fail at consummating their marriage is -- weirdly enough -- the highlight of the story for me. They're nervous, Edward is grieving, but it so very much shows why they'll have a happy marriage. They talk things over and accept each other, and they're awkward, but they are friends.

FilipaMariaKecharitomene, 2022-12-08 [original]

Oh my! I was just thinking about how its sad Edward and Philippa aren't so known in today's world and such...they have such the makings of a great T.V. series. Youth, drama, coming-of-age, and impressive amount of devotion. I read somewhere that like Edward I and Henry 7 Edward didn't take a mistress...well, until his wife was sick and he was starting to lose his marbles. I like to think that his unstable childhood taught him to value the loyalty and family Philippa gave him.
I love how you wrote them! Philippa is such a sensible, down-to-earth young girl, fully realizing that she has duty to uphold and people to serve. And Edward is on that point where he is at the brink of manhood after the childhood from hell...seriously, with parents like his, its downright in impressive that he became as successful as he was at Kingship. I can imagine him and Elizabeth I in Heaven going to "My father actions made my life harder" group therapy sessions.
I hope to see more of this couple written from you!! Maybe a oneshot of the time when the Queen and some ladies were on a wood stage at a tournament and it broke (and Philippa had to calm Edward down from hanging the carpenters?) Or when she interceded for the Burghers of Calais?
Very, very, well down!