Circles in the Water (Cecily Duchess of York, PG13)

[lareinenoire.livejournal.com]

Title: Circles in the Water
Author: lareinenoire
Fandom / Character: Shakespeare, first history tetralogy / Cecily Neville, Duchess of York
Rating: PG13
Warnings: Nothing explicit, but a very high body count. Spoilers for all three parts of Henry VI, Richard III, and the last forty years of the fifteenth century.
Prompt: #9. Guard your honour. Let your reputation fall where it will. And outlive the bastards. -- Lois McMaster Bujold
Summary: 'Long die thy happy days before thy death, / And, after many length'ned hours of grief, / Die neither mother, wife, nor England's Queen!' (R3 I.iii.206-8) The curse was not meant for her, but Fortune's wheel cared not for intentions.
Wordcount: 6971 (excluding notes)
Notes: This is not historically accurate. It takes as its basis Shakespeare's version of the fifteenth century though I have tried at points to compromise between Shakespeare and reality. Since the Duchess is absent during the three parts of Henry VI, I have taken some minor liberties with the text, and added elements from Edward Hall's Chronicle, Polydore Vergil's Anglica Historia, Thomas More's History of King Richard III, and The Mirror for Magistrates. There are more detailed notes marked throughout. Many thanks to rosamund and angevin2 for beta-reading my several thousand drafts.

( It was said that time ran in circles, that the deeds of men were no more than points on blind Fortune's wheel. )

( Notes )