The winds are changing. The Coexistence is under threat. The sisters are scattered. And the King has died.

The Princess Mary seizes both the throne and the young heir, her nephew, believing the state needs a strong ruler, but in doing so she casts the kingdom into turmoil, and she is named the Queer Queen. In the Highlands, her younger half-sister, Mad Maud Moran, raises a rebellion, spurred on by her conniving council, and crowns herself the Iron Queen. Across the kingdom, the youngest of the three sisters, Anabella of Arte, is crowned the Kind Queen, but the glamour and glory fades and she struggles with power and faces womanhood in a regressing world.

Sister is turned against sister as the Kingdom of Amica is engulfed in war, while plots and intrigue conspire against them all, and the wolves snap at their skirts.

Three Queens and the Sisterly War is a story that follows three very different sisters as they fall into a dynastic civil war in the Kingdom of Amica, a medieval fantasy setting. This story explores the themes of power structures, intersectional issues, regressive rhetoric, and the need for solidarity.

Story of the Three Queens

Good King Malcom passes away in his sleep on the first night of the year 423 AC. By the law of absolute primogeniture, the crown ought to pass from him, through his late eldest daughter, and onto her young son, turning a toddler into a king, but the boy’s aunt, Princess Mary, can’t let that happen. She believes the kingdom needs a strong ruler, she believes the Coexistence needs to be protected from those who would exploit a boy king into repealing it. Within moments, Princess Mary makes a decision that will change the Kingdom of Amica forever, as she takes the crown forever, promising herself she will reign only as a Regent Queen, with the full power of a monarch but only for ten years, until her nephew is old enough to rule. In doing this, she triggers the age of Three Queens and the Sisterly War.

In the Amican Highlands, Princess Maud, known as the fearsome warrior Mad Maud Moran, finds out that her father is dead and her half-sister Mary has taken the throne for herself. Approached by a cunning couple, High Lord Fergus and his wife the Lady Joan, Maud is convinced that Mary has slain their father and nephew and seeks to impose her own cruel rule upon everyone, and so Maud crowns herself and raises a rebellion, becoming known as the Iron Queen. Across the Kingdom of Amica, the youngest of the three surviving sisters, Anabella of Arte, is approached by her own advisors, her weak uncle Duke Remy and the rich and powerful High Lord Becket, who convince her that her sisters do not wish to rule, and that it has come to her to claim the throne, for the good of the realm, leading Ana to become known as the Kind Queen.

Maud is met by her old friend, Earl Jude, whose warnings of crown politics and the precariousness of the Coexistence falls on deaf ears. Maud convenes her first crown council, appointing Lord Fergus as her royal steward, Lady Joan as her advisor, Earl Jude as her sworn sword, and is convinced by the former two to appoint Noble Bethad as her exchequer. In this meeting, Maud is manipulated into chipping away at the Coexistence, much to Jude’s chagrin. Meanwhile, Anabella is signing decrees laid before her, despite not understanding them, though she starts to suspect her allies are not being entirely honest with her. Mary reunites with her old lover, a lowborn serving girl named Lady Elle, who was sent away by her father when their affair was discovered. The two rekindle their relationship before Mary attends her own crown council, effectively managing her territories and negotiating alliances, though she starts to make sacrifices to protect her own reign.

Both Mary and Maud ride out to meet one another in battle in a valley known as the Teats. Maud empowers her allies as she is convinced to chip away at more and more of the Coexistence, slowly realising what is happening, but having little political acumen to do argue against it. Mary arrives and witnesses the conflict, with Maud cutting down Mary’s own general and winning the Battle of the Teats, forcing Mary to flee back to the Capital and prepare for a siege. Anabella hosts a ball for her thirteenth birthday, but joy turns to fear as she slowly realises that her sisters are at war with her for the crown, that she has been lied to, that the Coexistence has been utterly repealed in her territories, and that her friends are all suffering from the proxy reign of Lord Becket. When pushed into a corner, Lord Becket proposes a marriage alliance between them, and now keenly aware of the danger she is already in, Anabella has no choice but to accept.

When Mary arrives back to the Capital, she begins to make compromises for the sake of political survival, chipping away at the Coexistence in order to gain key allies in this war. Lady Elle grows disgusted by Mary’s actions, as civil liberties are stripped away and the witchburnings return to Amica, all so Mary could appease the right people and maintain her power. Maud hosts a celebration feast, but during it she alienates Lord Fergus and Lady Joan and announces that she will defend the Coexistence and undo what she has done to it, believing that all will be well now. Lord Fergus and his wife launch a coup against her, killing their expendable stooge, Noble Bethad, and fatally wounding Earl Jude, who then blames Maud for all this pain and suffering with his dying breath. Maud fights back and defeats the traitors, but is too late to save Earl Jude. Anabella sees what her rule has done to her lands as she is transported towards Lord Becket’s castle to be married. She steals a dagger and makes a plan with her traumatized friends to refuse to become slaves to these men, even if it kills them.

Lady Elle tears into Mary and how she has betrayed the very reason she took the crown in the first place, and Mary admits that she wants to protect her own reign, the crown and the kingdom, more than she wants to protect the Coexistence. Maud has Lord Fergus and Lady Joan executed, and sends a request to Mary for a parlay. Both sisters confront each other and discuss their own shortcomings, with Mary realising that she does not need to destroy the Coexistence if she gains Maud’s support, before both queens together with the singular purpose of saving Anabella from Lord Becket. At the wedding, Anabella is ready to go out fighting, but just before she has a chance, Mary and Maud ambush the church. Lord Becket takes Anabella hostage, but she and her friends fight back and cut Lord Becket down, allowing Ana to be reunited with her sisters. The Three Queens confront one another and agree to hold each other accountable going forward, protecting the Coexistence and the Kingdom of Amica together, with Mary as the Regent Queen for ten years, Maud as her general, and Anabella as her advisor. Before her official coronation, Lady Elle leaves Mary’s service and becomes a rebel and traitor to the crown, blaming the dynastic feudal monarchy for causing all the troubles of the land. Mary is crowned as the Regent Queen, with both her sisters by her side.

Main Characters

Additional Characters

LADY ELLE - Lady Elle of Stonewall, First Servant and Lady-in-Waiting to Queen Mary

STEWARD JEAN - Steward Jean de Salandra, Royal Steward to Queen Mary

GENERAL CLANCY - Sir Clancy of Karcia, General to Queen Mary

EARL JUDE - Earl Jude Richter, Petty Overlord and Third Earl of Morningside, Sworn Sword to Queen Maud

LORD FERGUS - Lord John Fergus, High Overlord of the Amican Highlands and Earl of Auldarran, Royal Steward to Queen Maud

LADY JOAN - Lady Joan Fergus, Wife to High Lord John Fergus and Lady of Auldarran, Advisor to Queen Maud

NOBLE BETHAD - Noble Bethad u Mahli, Baron and Honorable Noble of Amica, Royal Exchequer to Queen Maud

LORD BECKET - Lord Preminger Becket, High Overlord of Broulliard and Duke of Eidyn, General to Queen Anabella

DUKE REMY - Duke Remy Wickart, Petty Overlord and Seventh Duke of Arte, Royal Steward to Queen Anabella

MADAM LOBELIA - Madam Lobelia Becket, Daughter and Heir to Duke Otho Becket and Madam of Castle Armstrong, Friend to Queen Anabella

MADAM BUTTERCUP - Madam Buttercup Dior-Dumas, Daughter to Duke Dicky Dior-Dumas and Madam of Goldengrass Manor, Friend to Queen Anabella

MADAM MARILYN - Madam Marilyn Lily Lebeau, Daughter to Duchess Alys Lebeau and Madam of Dynwater Keep, Friend to Queen Anabella

MASTER PRIEST - Reverend Orion, Master Priest of the Church of Aemon of the Kingdom of Amica

DYING SOLDIER - One Dying Soldier from the Bloody Battle

THE HERALD - Hoddy the Herald

Setting

The Three Themes

Solidarity and Survival in a Regressing World

The primary theme of the play is the necessity of solidarity in order to survive and fight back in an increasingly conservative and bigoted society. When regressive forces attempt to turn marginalised people against one other, often using wedge issues and manipulative language, they aim to divide and conquer, and use the following political turmoil to strip away the rights of everyone, including their own kind and the people who claim to support, to create a new social order that will benefit them. To combat this, as well as to survive under it, marginalised peoples, and all peoples really, should band together in solidarity.

When the Three Queens are divided and turned against one another, reactionary figures use that turmoil to push their regressive agendas, and the lack of solidarity between the sisters and the wider kingdom tears it apart and allows a bigoted and fascistic society to emerge in its place.

Reactionaries use Deceptive Language as a Weapon

The core theme of the play is the power of language in politics and how controlling the information and framing allows one to control the conversation as well manipulating legislature. When reactionaries cannot openly spout their bigotries, they must instead use deceptive language to shift the window of discourse into place that will then tolerate their hatred, normalising their regressive worldviews. This is done by using careful wording and hiding their intentions under positive-sounding rhetoric via dog whistles; when reactionaries claim they are fighting to ‘protect traditional marriage’, they almost always mean that they are actually fighting against gay marriage. They will also begin with soft phrases such as ‘concerns have been raised’ about a particular group, and as they shift public perception against those groups, they will begin to be empowered to speak more boldly in their hatred.

One of the queens knows little and less of politicking and so trusts her councillors when they place legislation in front of her that ‘upholds the rights of men and women’, and it’s only after she has signed these decrees that it becomes apparent that the law exists solely to attack trans rights.

The Curse of the Crown: Politics vs Ethics

The underlying theme of the play reveals that the very institution of feudal monarchies, and all dynastic hierarchies of concentrated powers, are inherently unjust, immoral, and will always incline towards extreme conservativism and bigotry, reducing people to their basic functions. Such systems of government rely on, and exploit, tradition, and the existing power structures to survive, and so must work to ensure those systems and ideas remain entrenched and unchallenged within society. It also explores the corrupt nature of high politics, where people become statistics, and presents kingship as inherently tyrannical and corruptive. Anything that can benefit the crown must be employed, and given that dynasties rely on reproduction, bioessentialism becomes paramount and so women’s rights and queer rights are at odds with the inclinations of such a system.

All of the Three Queens face pressure and susceptibility towards restricting or repealing the Coexistence, as doing so could benefit their positions and the wider institutions of the crown, and the ethical considerations begin to give way to faceless statistics; it takes steadfast conviction in the face of more effective political routes to do the right thing.

Why This Needs To Be Made Today

The rights of marginalised people are under threat across the world today. Reactionaries are increasing their attacks on women’s rights, transgender rights, queer rights, the rights of religious minorities, the rights of refugees, and the rights of people of colour. The right to an abortion is being limited in the US, self-identification laws are being blocked in the UK, refugees are being denied asylum across Europe, hate crimes are increasing across the world, and fascistic talking points, including bioessentialism and condemnations of ‘degeneracy’, are being normalised in the window of discourse. There is a clear and rising danger. Many aren’t even aware it is happening, mostly due to cultural shifts, systemic inclinations, and deceptive language. The greatest glimmer of hope is the solidarity amongst the masses who come out in defence of the rights of minorities. Reactionaries, however, are attempting to destroy that solidarity through the use of wedge issues and dishonest framing. We need stories that represent these trying times in a more dramatic context, we need plays that reach out to the audience and show the need for solidarity, the dangers of reactionary rhetoric, and the corruptive nature of systems that enable such issues. We need stories that show how a bright world can transition into darkness, and how there can still be a shining light within that dark night. We need stories that opens the audience’s eyes to very real tactics used in our society to dehumanise groups of people and empower regressive and reactionary thinking. We need entertainment that serves as fantastical escapism while promoting a sense of agency and urgency within the audience to stand up for our rights.

This play asks several key questions, with two of the most important being: what makes a good monarch and what makes monarchs a good thing anyway? Other questions include: Is it better to use an unjust power to do a moral act, or let a just power do an immoral act? Who should rule a society and why? What is a woman’s role in society and is that question even valid? Is it more important to have a stable country than a just country? And what are the limits of solidarity?