Title card for
La Reine Réticente
La Reine Réticente | Trega drottningin
“The Reluctant Queen”
Genre: Drama, Historical Drama
Network: STV-RÚV coproduction
No. of libres: 7
Year/s Aired: 2019-2021
Description: La Reine Réticente | Trega drottningin is a Santonian-Prydanian co-production telling the story of the 19
th century Queen Luta Loðbrók of Saintonge, a rebellious Prydanian princess to stowed away for love and renounced the comfortable and glorious life prepared for her… only to have it come full circle later on.
Storyline (spoilers!)
Book 1
The series starts in Prydania, where as a young child, the elder daughter of King Rikard IV of Prydania (Rune Skakkebaek), Luta Loðbrók (Kristrún Midtbö), was being groomed to rule the country. King Rikard IV had no sons, and Luta was the crown princess.
Luta, however, chafed under the regimented royal court life, struggling with the demands and expectations for a girl destined to become the queen of a country.
In her teenage years, Luta (Gytta Soltvedt) started to rebel even more. Luta’s parents had been pressuring her to find someone in the nobility, such as the haughty eldest son of the Thane of Jórvík (Gaston-Baldr Kollerup) or the ambitious third son of the Thane of Eiderwig (Sigurthór Knuth). King Rikard IV even tried to arrange marriages with foreign princes. Luta and her loyal servant Metta (Álfrún Bödskov) ingeniously frustrated many of these pairings.
Luta did fall in love eventually... but with Koðrán (Kolbjörn Nylund), the son of a Royal Guard. Koðrán gave Luta a taste of what life was like outside the walls of the Palace grounds. Koðrán and Luta would sneak out, disguised as commoners, into the city of Býkonsviði, then a thriving port in the Auburn Sea.
However, Koðrán, a commoner, and Luta, a royal princess (and the crown princess of Prydania at that) were socially incompatible. When King Rikard IV found out about Koðrán, he forcefully separated the two teenagers. However, Koðrán and Luta still found ways to meet, and when King Rikard IV found out, he punished Koðrán and his family by transferring Koðrán and his father (Ásthór Nylund) from the Royal Guard to the Prydanian Army, which was being sent away to fight in the Second Nordic-Syrixian War.
Koðrán and his father perished in the war, something that made Luta furious at her father and angry at her lot in life. With her young love dead and despising her cushy but constrained life, Luta wanted out of the figurative cage that she was in.
Luta after learning that Koðrán died in the war.
Book 2
Luta, with the help of Metta, started doing what she and Koðrán used to do – sneak out to the city. Wearing commoner's clothes, the disguised Luta would wander the city, usually alone. At the docks of Býkonsviði where she and Koðrán used to watch passing ships, somebody noticed her.
Brice de Montescourt (Maximilien Semundseth) was a teenaged sailor-apprentice aboard the Santonian ship
Aurore, which was making regular annual trips between Prydania and Bâle, in Saintonge. Formerly apprenticed to his maternal uncle in Vallauris, who was a baker and confectioner, it was Brice the provincial boy’s first trip on a ship.
Brice’s father, Thibault (Gabriel-Gaël Guermeur) was a seasoned sailor and part-owner of
Aurore. He took his only son in as an apprentice, hoping that he would continue in the family business. Having a fortnight’s stop in the Prydanian capital, Thibault let his son explore the city. That was when Brice noticed the forlorn Luta by the dockside.
Having heard of numerous stories about sailor’s widows and girls waiting for their beloved to come back, Brice assumed Luta was one of them. Brice found Luta’s situation similar to that of his mother Pauline (Ernestine Collin de Gourgues) every time his father goes out to sea. It was also the reason why it was just at the age of eighteen did Brice set out to sail – his mother was against him becoming a sailor too.
Brice struck up a conversation with Luta and tried to comfort her. At first Luta was dismissive of the foreigner. But on the second day that Luta was out in the docks, Brice found her again and earnestly insisted on helping her. Luta told Brice about Koðrán but did not reveal her true identity.
For the next few days, Luta and Brice met at the same spot at the dockyards, hanging out and talking about life and their dreams. Luta had to conjure up a made-up life that she dreamed of – away from the rigours of a cosseted life, “just an ordinary person” as she told Brice.
Brice was smitten by the Prydanian girl who spoke Santonian (she made up the excuse that her high-born mother was a tutor to children of wealthy families in Býkonsviði), something that was not actually common in Prydania at that time. Páll (Anders Wighammer-Brinch), the innkeeper at the nearest dockside tavern, backed up the story about “Lotte Rikardsotter”, which he genuinely thought was the name of Luta. (It was a made-up name by Koðrán so that she won’t be recognised.)
As Brice’s time in Prydania was up, Luta realised that she had become enamoured by the dashing young Santonian sailor. The stories he painted about Saintonge – a sunny land of warm people – appealed to Luta. Saintonge was a continent away and far from the reach of her father.
Before Brice left, the pair confessed their feelings for each other, but Luta got cold feet. She wanted to test Brice first. Brice promised Luta that he will wait – if she could wait. They swore to meet each other next year at the same place, same date.
Brice and Luta confessing their feelings for each other.
Book 3
Unlike the stereotype of most sailors, who had a wife/girlfriend at every port, Brice de Montescourt stayed loyal to the Prydanian girl he met in Býkonsviði. He clearly took after his father Thibault, joked Gilles (Marc-Gauthier Lespiault), one of his father’s sailor friends and one of the co-owners of
Aurore. Thibault neither encouraged nor stopped his son, who wrote letters to Luta at
Aurore’s every port of call. “I did that for your mother too,” Thibault told Brice.
Back in Prydania, Luta eagerly waited and cherished the letters Brice was sending via Páll, the half-blind semi-senile innkeeper who she tricked to believe she was someone else. Luta paid Páll to receive Brice’s letters on her behalf, which she picked up every time she wandered the city in disguise. She could not reply because Brice was at sea with no permanent return address, but he told her about the new lands he was seeing and how he wanted to take her with him. Brice promised Luta “Santonian flowers” when he came back. Luta’s dream became more and more vivid and detailed, like Brice was painting the future life that she wanted.
When Brice returned to Býkonsviði, Luta was
not there waiting for him. Brice was almost crushed, thinking that his love was gone. Luta had missed sneaking out because of her father’s suspicions; the King had scheduled a ball for her and her younger sister Alexandria (Filippa Klungland) that day.
Luta returned the next day to their designated spot and Brice was not there. She hurried down to the docks and sought out
Aurore. There, she found the sad Brice, who became overjoyed when she found him again. She had to conjure even more excuses about why she wasn’t there on the designated date, an excuse that Brice accepted. It was on that day that Brice introduced Luta to his father Thibault and his sailor friends.
Although Brice was happy to see her back, he teased her about not fulfilling her promise. Luta shot back: “you also promised me ‘Santonian flowers’. You have no flowers for me.” Shocked that Luta remembered that, Brice realised that Luta had been receiving, reading, and appreciating the letters he had been sending her. Brice absentmindedly promised Luta the Santonian flowers, a promise that his father overheard. When Luta left, Thibault de Montescourt told his son: “Where are you going to get flowers in the middle of a Prydanian winter? You promised too much.”
Book 4
Having two days before meeting Luta again, Brice racked his brains on where to get the flowers he promised. And then came an idea – make the flowers. Having been apprenticed to a baker and confectioner, Brice knew how to make
marzipan fruits and flowers. Brice toiled day and night making a bouquet of marzipan flowers using some of the almonds that their ship was supposed to sell in Prydania. (Almonds do not thrive in Prydania and are a delicacy in the northern nation.)
Brice surprised Luta with the (literally) sweet gift of a bouquet of marzipan flowers the next time they met. Luta was surprised about receiving flowers in the middle of the winter! A sweet gift from a sweet guy! She fell in love even more with Brice, who was proud of his handiwork.
Luta couldn’t eat it all, though, so she brought some home for Metta to try. However, it nearly brought her into more trouble. Luta’s mother (Hendrikka Grodaas-Bouchereau) discovered the marzipan flower bouquet and demanded to know where Luta got it. Her parents were becoming more and more suspicious of her frequent disappearances from the Royal Palace.
Luta also sensed this and realised that if her parents found out about Brice, it would be all over for them and her dreams of a quiet life in Saintonge.
Aurore was set to leave that night, maybe it was the time?
So Luta packed a few things – some money, a golden locket with a miniature painting of the royal family, a few jewels, some small valuable and sentimental possessions – into a purse and went out again in disguise for the last time. She didn’t take much for fear of alerting her family as to her disappearance.
Luta met Brice again and begged him to take her on his ship, which was about to sail away. Brice was eager to take her in; his father, not so much. However, Gilles and his father’s friends, co-owners of
Aurore, egged Thibault to allow to his son to bring his fiancée in. Luta became the only woman on board
Aurore as it sailed away from Prydania.
Luta’s family discusses her disappearance.
Book 4
The sailors and crew of
Aurore gave Brice de Montescourt and “Lotte Rikardsdotter” a sailor’s wedding at
Aurore’s next port of call, Norvalle. Meanwhile, back in Prydania, it became a scandal as the Crown Princess of Prydania disappeared without a trace. Rumours circulated that she was kidnapped by a greedy noble or by their Syrixian enemies in the war. A few years later, King Rikard IV gave up Luta for dead and instead made Alexandria the crown princess of Prydania.
On
Aurore, Brice and Luta started to live as a couple. Being the only woman aboard the ship, Luta attracted unwanted attention. A drunk François (Hreinn Falck), Gilles’ son, attempted to rape Luta; Brice had to physically fight François to stop him. François ended up stabbing Brice, who nearly died and was saved thanks to the interventions of Martin (Joseph-Lambert Peyssard), the
Aurore’s naval surgeon.
At Thibault’s insistence,
Aurore headed back to Bâle to let Brice recuperate and to have François face the admiralty tribunal. Luta and Brice settled in Brice’s hometown of Vallauris, where Pauline helped her son regain health. It was also when Luta found out that she was pregnant.
The young couple lived happily in Vallauris for a few years with their growing family. Soon, Brice had to return to being a sailor, but he remained loyal and loving to Luta. “Lotte” never told Brice or her in-laws about her true identity. This was despite Brice’s mother Pauline learning that she actually descended from minor nobility – she was a long lost daughter of a baron in the Griffonné whose line was presumed extinct after the Santonian Revolution. It triggered flashbacks and a personal quandary in Luta, who, despite avoiding reading the newspapers, knew from the seafaring community that her disappearance provoked a crisis in Prydania.
Luta opted to stay silent. “Lotte” was, after all, living the simple, ‘ordinary’ life she had dreamed of with her loving Santonian husband and their children: Johanne-Pauline and Éric-Ketille.
Brice and Luta with their son Éric-Ketille.
Book 5
In 1840s Saintonge, there was a succession crisis. Pope-King Justin I was celibate and had no descendants – the Santonian Royal Family was extinct in the male line. Thus the Santonian government started inquiries regarding the female-line descendants of King Charles IX of Saintonge. In 1847, the Santonian government official in charge of the investigation, Gilbert-Pierre Laudonnière (Timothée de Saint-Ogan) informed Pauline de Montescourt (Brice’s mother) that
she was the last living descendant of King Charles IX of Saintonge!
Laudonnière was there when Brice arrived home from his most recent seafaring trip. Laudonnière told Brice what it was and what it meant. Brice and Pauline were floored.
The Montescourts were invited by Pope-King Justin I of Saintonge (Gustave-Émile Faulcon du Couëdic) to the Royal Palace in Saintes. The Pope-King wanted to meet his distant relatives and told them they were to become royals!
Brice de Montescourt and “Lotte” meeting the Pope-King of Saintonge.
The Pope-King told them that they will be King and Queen of Saintonge later on; Pauline had already declined to become the heir to the throne, saying that “I’m too old, my son Brice can handle that better.”
“Lotte” managed to dodge most of the questions the Pope-King threw about her and her identity; all she said was that she was Prydanian. The Pope-King, obviously sensing that “Lotte” was hiding something, ominously told her: “truth will set you free.”
Luta’s behaviour also aroused the concern in Brice, who was embarrassed by her evasion and piqued by the mystery. Luta, on the other hand, was flustered and apprehensive after she was told that she was to become the Queen of Saintonge – being a queen was precisely the fate that she wanted to avoid that’s why she eloped with a foreign sailor!
Brice, noticing the change in Luta’s behaviour, started to question her. Finally, “Lotte” broke down and admitted everything to Brice.
Luta admitting her true identity to Brice.
Contrary to Luta’s expectations that her husband will despise her for lying and living a lie, Brice just hugged her and told her: “It’s your destiny to be queen, my love. Destiny finds you.”
Book 6
Laudonnière brought back news that the Santonian Parliament have approved the legislation making Brice de Montescourt the Crown Prince of Saintonge and the successor to Pope-King Justin I. Pauline and Brice and his young family were invited to live in the Royal Palace as royals, something that Luta had an odd familiarity with.
The family resolved to tell Laudonnière about “Lotte”’s identity. Laudonnière said that it might provoke problems with Prydania, where Luta’s younger sister, Alexandria (Gissunn Kojedal-Hambro) is now the reigning queen after King Rikard IV died a few years earlier. Luta resurfacing might complicate Alexandria’s hold on the throne; it may also be seen as an attempt by Saintonge to take over Prydania. Laudonnière asked the new royals to wait for now before revealing anything publicly.
Laudonnière also wanted confirm the claims of “Lotte.” Laudonnière invited the Prydanian ambassador to Saintonge Ormar Laufland (Laurent-Tobias Hyllestad) to interview the Crown Princess of Saintonge – Prydania already knew that the wife of the Crown Prince of Saintonge was Prydanian.
“Lotte” told her entire story to Laudonnière and Laufland. Laufland demanded proof. Luta produced the locket with the miniature paining of the royal family, along with some jewels and proof of her parentage – things that she had kept from her husband all those years. Everyone was surprised, and convinced, by the revelations. Even Brice was surprised. His wife was indeed the heir to the throne for longer than he was!
Both Laudonnière and Laufland wanted to consult their governments first. Luta became very much anxious and miscarried her pregnancy. She was anxious that she would be queen. She was anxious that she would let her husband down. Or even worse, she was anxious that the affair over her identity would lead to her husband being disgraced and the title taken away from them just to prevent issues with Prydania – this was something that Laufland openly raised with Laudonnière.
Brice lovingly supported his wife throughout the entire ordeal, telling her that “they can take the crown prince away from me but I will never let them take my Luta away from me.” He also said “so what if I am no longer crown prince? I will just set sail again.”
Book 7
Luta’s resurfacing provoked a crisis and consternation in Prydania. Queen Alexandria never wanted the throne too, but she wouldn’t just let Luta come and claim it. And then there were also complications if Brice de Montescourt became King of Saintonge and Luta became the Queen of Prydania – will it mean that Saintonge and Prydania would become united as one country?
As Brice, Luta, and their family were adjusting to court life, diplomacy was ongoing to resolve the issue. It was no longer a personal issue, but a political and dynastic issue. Brice tried to shield his wife from the intrigues. Finally, in 1853, the Santonian and Prydanian governments hammered out a compromise – the Treaty of Fontainebleau, wherein Luta renounced her claim to the Prydanian throne, letting Alexandria reign. The Treaty stipulated that if Alexandria’s male line becomes extinct, Luta’s line would inherit.
Luta as Queen of Saintonge.
The two sisters – queens of Prydania and Saintonge – reunited for Luta’s coronation in 1855. It was an emotional reunion, where Luta had to tell her story and explain her reasons for leaving to her younger sister. Her younger sister who was now addled with all the responsibilities of being the Queen of Prydania.
The two sisters parted on a good note, with Queen Alexandria of Prydania signing the Treaty of Fontainebleau before leaving. Both promised that they will see each other again, someday.
