I have bestowed my heart with my true love, the duke of Tintagel. I am deeply in love with him, and I have not the desire nor the inclination to seek affection from any other man for the remainder of my days. Not all the gold or riches in all the world would I trade for a lifelong love with the duke.
However, the King has betrayed the duke and attempted to disgrace my name. He has expressed his affection for me with the full knowledge of my marriage to the duke of Tintagel. The King has only befriended my husband so that I might've been stolen from him. With no other option foreseeable to allow my husband and I to remain together, I fled with him and retreated to his own land of Tintagel.
But the King was not pleased with our reaction, and he sent for us to return immediately. I have been tricked. On an evening which I had laid with who I perceived to be my husband the duke, he had been killed - and I know it was by order or action of the King himself. But then who was it that slept beside me that night? I may never know, and I feel quite shameful for that lack of knowledge. Upon the death of my husband, the King offered to accept me as his queen, and I could not have a deeper aversion to do so - even with all the wealth and honor that will be rewarded to my family as a result. What can a woman do? How does she refuse the most noble status of Queen? I cannot. I must have this child fathered by who I thought was the duke, but his fate, I do not know.
Ygerne