02x03 - Coronation

[bunniefuu]

Previously on Reign...

Catherine: For God's sake, go to him.

Is the king all right?

Guard: The king is dead!

I remember holding you in my arms when you were this little.

Who are you talking to?

Don't you recognize your own father?

What did you just say?

Did I say something, Your Grace?

As a royal, you're given your position by birth, or marriage, but your power comes from nobles.

Eduard: Villagers are burning the homes of the infected.

Those are the holdings you were counting on.

We have no grain.

I think you know who was really responsible for your son's death.

You are. And you will learn never to cross me again.

(horses neighing)

Catherine: A banquet for 1,200, a m*llitary parade all with new uniforms featuring blood red satin sashes of my own design.

Now, as for entertainment, dancing elephants were proposed.

I thought that was a bit excessive.

We went with a golden-horned unicorn.

What? You look displeased.

We just came through a plague that decimated the region's populace.

Famine follow plague, and people are dying of starvation every day.

We spent a fortune on Father's funeral.

We have massive w*r debts from Father's campaign, much of it owed to our guests.

Hmm, so you're saying my preparation for your coronation is in poor taste?

No, I'm only saying...

It's not just poor taste.

It's grotesque, unaffordable and shameful.

Excellent.

That's precisely the effect I was aiming for.

Your coronation is not about affordability.

It's about survival.

Leaders from 50 countries will be here this week, staying in those pavilions.

They are lions, studying our every move for signs of weakness.

If we economize, if we dither about expenses in any way, we look like the wounded gazelle we truly are, begging our foes to align with our enemies, test our borders, challenge our interests.

From there, it is a short slide to our severed heads riding on pikes.

What good does it do us to pretend to be strong if it bankrupts us?

Truly, Francis, I don't know why she's even in this conversation.

Didn't you promise the nobles you'd muzzle her?

Muzzle?

That is what you told Lord Narcisse.

The man controls 90% of the grain in the region.

In a famine, that is not just wealth.

That is power.

What grain?

Lord Narcisse has delivered nothing but excuses.

A new one every day.

I imagine he might've be more cooperative had you not m*rder*d his son.

What I did was justice, not m*rder.

All right, the both of you, enough.

Mary understands that she needs to take a step back until after the coronation.

Mary understands?

Doesn't look that way to me.

Mary willingly played along to fool Narcisse.

She will continue to "know her place" until we have gotten his grain.

And if he offers nothing but more delays, I have another plan.

I'm negotiating with young Lord Ducasse for his harvest.

You've been busy.

And behind Narcisse's back.

He won't like it.

Lions study our every move.

What better time than my coronation to show them that we can feed our own people?

One way or another, that is what I'll do.

Mary?

Francis, I understand you need me to play the part.

The pretense will help keep Narcisse quiet and give us a better chance at his grain.

And it won't hurt to show the nobles, many twice my age, that if you obey me, they can, too.

Are all powerful men so insecure?

A few.

Many.

Most.

Summoner: Quiet outside.

I need quiet.

The dead do not shout.

I cannot tell you their words if I cannot hear them.

Is there some spirit you're expecting to hear from?

Francis?

Is anything wrong?

Nothing.

I must find Lord Ducasse to discuss our deal for his grain.

He promised me an answer soon.

Coronation Day. A new king.

And the king's child publicly claimed.

Land and title both.

You must be so happy.

I suppose I must be.

Will you visit your summer home before the chill?

Hope to.

It's beautiful this time of year.

Lady Lola will visit her new château, of course.

The little baron will be so happy there.

Lady Kenna, what about you?

Poor thing... lost her home in one of those horrid plague fires.

That's no fun, is it?

Not really, no.

I did not think I'd ever wear a gown again.

Three days until the coronation, and a dress for every occasion.

It's not fair. Where's our new château?

You are the king's deputy.

I love Lola like a sister, but the idea that Unnamed Baby has been granted vast holdings.

Since when was there any land available?

There isn't.

Not within two days' ride of the job you begged me to take at the castle.

Yes, but don't forget the title that comes with it.

How could I?

Do you know what a title like that would've meant to me?

Baron Sebastian instead of Bastard Sebastian?

In other words, we cannot begrudge Lola and her child any gifts they may receive, if it makes life easier for them than it was for you and your mother.

In those words exactly.

Still, what does a baby need with all that land anyway?

When do we get what we deserve? Hmm?

Is that?

It is.

The Prince of Conde.

He's here for the coronation.

We should make him welcome.

Hello.

Louis, I don't believe I've had the pleasure.

This is my new friend.

We only just met.

(quietly): Why don't you wait for me at my pavilion.

I'll be there in a moment.

Majesty. Greer.

Have you come here to make me feel welcome?

I believe you've quite managed that on your own.

Is that judgment in your tone?

Mary: Uh, I'm sure she intends only admiration.

You've moved on quite adroitly from your lady friend after she shipped off to Amsterdam.

What was her name again?

Lady Doutzen, I think.

So much admiration from you both.

I think it's more than I can bear.

Majesty.

She's a courtesan.

I know.

Did you notice her eyes?

One was blue and the other was green.

It's a shame about Lord Conde.

I thought he might make a suitable match for Lola.

He's pleasant enough to look at, but I think Lola prefers a man who doesn't measure love by the hour.

Lola: Francis.

You're the king, so I suppose you can dismiss people as you please, but I wish when it's one of our nannies you'd consult me first.

Caroline was my favorite.

Such a gentle touch with the baby.

I'm sorry, but when I visited the nursery, I found the baby alone.

Caroline was nowhere in sight.

That doesn't sound like her.

She's devoted to the child.

Lola, forgive me, I don't have time to discuss household arrangements.

But...

Later. Please.

Did you talk to Lord Ducasse about his grain?

No. He postponed his arrival until tonight.

Narcisse: Your Majesty.

Lord Narcisse.

Are you well?

I didn't hear back from you and expected an answer.

I had no idea. About what?

About your grain.

My grain, really, if your promise is still good.

Yes, well, that's a sad story.

Still?

Hmm.

A workforce decimated by the plague.

And those who can work, forever making excuses not to.

They're too hungry to work.

Too sad from the loss of their families and friends.

It's pitiful, really.

So many different words to describe simple laziness.

I'm sorry to hear it.

France is starving, and surely we all feel a duty to help make the suffering end.

Can you give me a date, a specific date, when I can expect the first shipment?

Soon, Your Majesty.

Very soon.

How dare he?

He calls men lazy while they starve?

While they grieve?

Take his land and be done with it.

And in taking it, I would anger every French nobleman two days before they gather here to help put the crown on my head.

Mother was right about one thing.

Narcisse wants revenge for his son's death, and withholding grain is how he's getting it.

Please tell me you're going to hear from Ducasse soon.

We can't wait for help much longer.

Stop him! Stop!

Stop the thief!

Thief!

Stop this man!

Thief!

Don't let him get away!

Stop! Stop him!

Stop that man!

(grunts)

(gasps)

(chickens clucking, crowd murmuring)

He was just trying to feed his family.

We can't wait.

(excited chattering)

I can't stop thinking about that poor man.

The guards thought he att*cked that noblewoman.

They were wrong, but...

He didn't deserve to die.

Not for a chicken and some bread.

Your Majesties?

Lord Ducasse.

The title still seems strange to me.

But given with good reason.

You served my father well at the southern border.

Your Majesties, allow me to present my wife Monique, my son Guy.

And how old are you, Guy?

Six, ma'am.

Your Majesty.

"Ma'am" is fine.

Your grain is ready for shipment?

Yes. All prepared.

It's just...

What's wrong?

Was my offer not fair?

Very fair, Majesty.

But... there's a reason other nobles make excuses when asked for their grain.

Lord Narcisse.

Ducasse: I'm recently titled, but not so recent that I don't fear his reach.

He has brought down far more powerful men than me.

I am king.

You have nothing to fear from Narcisse or anyone else.

(laughter)

Did you find out what I asked?

Lord Montgomery left court after he was pardoned for k*lling our father at the joust.

Found work as a Habsburg mercenary in Bohemia, and hasn't been back since.

And the list I gave you?

There's no connection between him and anyone on it.

I believe Lola's nanny, Caroline, was listed.

Yes, but she arrived after Montgomery left.

Why would Montgomery have anything to do with Lola's nanny?

What are you after?

I asked you to handle this because I trust you.

I trust you not to ask questions I can't answer.

(crowd chatter)

♪

Your Majesty.

Herr Schuler, welcome.

We're so glad to have you.

We know that you're a long way from home.

I know that there has been some bad blood between Protestant Germany and Catholic France.

Francis does not want to continue the old battles.

Give us the chance to prove it to you.

Here is your chance. I seek the release of Protestant prisoners jailed by King Henry.

Men whose only crime was to make a new relationship with God, as I do.

I knew nothing of this.

Then release them.

What better way to herald a new era?

France is sick with famine.

I come from a region rich in German grain.

If the new king will release the prisoners to me, I will give him the grain he needs.

(crowd chatter)

Help me, please, I beg you.

You're the king's deputy, my last resort.

My husband was m*rder*d.

No one believes me, but it's true.

My husband is dead, and I cannot find him, and he did it.

Who did it?

Lord Barnard!

He thinks he can k*ll any man and get away with it!

Come with me.

Narcisse: It must be hard.

Once a queen, now queen mother.

Decorative like an expensive vase, and not a great deal more relevant.

I'm not the only one.

There's a new day coming, and you are on the wrong side.

Am I? Hmm?

Francis and Mary see the world differently.

They are moral.

They care about the people.

More than they care about money or power... or men like you.

Time will teach Francis to think like his father.

I wonder about that.

But you didn't come here to discuss the future, did you?

Francis double-deals behind my back.

Reaching out to other French nobles for grain.

Despite the long-term relationship I have with the Crown.

Is that the relationship where you promise vital goods that never arrive?

They might arrive faster if your husband's debts to me were repaid.

Don't pretend this is about money.

You have all the money you need.

You want power.

You want revenge.

But how could I possibly help you?

I'm irrelevant.

Lady Kenna?

Have we met?

In the tent city.

Noble wives bragging about their summer homes at your expense.

They are preening pea hens with empty heads.

Are they not your friends?

I prefer friends with more between their ears than chiffon and puff pastry, don't you?

I prefer friends I can trust.

Especially now, I imagine, with your husband's position so sensitive.

Is any man closer to the king?

I can't imagine all the gifts and tribute you must receive.

Every noble eager to curry favor with an important man like that.

No gifts, no land.

No tributes of any kind, actually.

Must be doing something wrong.

Nobles are like geese. They fly in flocks.

If one does something, the others will follow.

But perhaps I can help.

How?

My husband is helping dispose of estates left without owners after the plague.

Some are rather expansive.

Unless you'd rather avoid the bother of managing property.

No, not at all. That... that sounds lovely, actually.

Oh.

I spoke to the German duke, Schuler.

The dour Protestant?

He didn't just come here for the coronation.

He came to make a deal.

He has grain.

What kind of deal?

The Protestant prisoners your father jailed.

He offers grain in exchange for their freedom.

It's a good deal, and one that you're in dire need of.

And German dukes aren't afraid of Lord Narcisse.

Asking you to know your place is like asking the sun not to shine.

I know it's not part of the plan, but Schuler approached me.

If only it weren't a solution that made more problems.

A deal with a Protestant duke would anger every Catholic noble.

This is not the week for that.

Lord Ducasse's grain will put an end to the crisis.

Your Majesty? We found the nanny.

She took a room in the village.

Thank you.

You're looking for a nanny?

One of Lola's?

I dismissed her, but Lola wants to pay the woman the money she's owed.

Oh.

(crickets chirping)

Please explain to me why my son disappears, and then your man comes to my suite to invite me here.

Where is he?

Guy: Papa!

I found your boy playing alone in a castle corridor.

He should have been asleep, but he's safe with me.

Guy: It's cold out here. Can I come in now?

Man: Not now.

Look at the stars.

I know what it's like to lose a son.

I lost my son, my heir, during the plague.

I feel his absence every minute of every day.

I hope you never feel pain like that.

It would destroy you.

(gasping)

(crying)

But what happened? Why did Ducasse change his mind?

He didn't give a reason, but he suddenly claims not to have the grain that he promised.

Narcisse is behind this.

He may well be, but it makes no difference.

There's no deal.

But there is.

With Schuler, the German duke.

He offered to exchange grain for the Protestant prisoners.

I can't release prisoners without knowing their crimes.

They might be dangerous men or usurpers.

There's too many Protestants determined to put one of their own on my throne.

Until I find out, keep the German duke in place.

Two days until the coronation.

Then Schuler will leave court and go home.

Plenty of time till then.

Tell that to the people starving outside our walls.

I heard the news.

Your Grace.

Young Lord Ducasse's sudden desire to keep his grain for himself.

It's funny how that worked out.

Yes.

You want to teach my son a lesson about who holds the power in France.

The lesson is this.

You will pay for my son's death.

You can't put a price on such a loss, but your son needn't have d*ed in vain.

You need a friend at court.

You?

Mm.

What do you want?

Grain... sold to me if you won't sell it to Francis.

Corn if you have it.

And in exchange, you will convince Francis to put my friend Lord Robuchon on his privy council.

I won't corrupt my son's council.

I'm here to make Francis a stronger king, not a weaker one.

An advisor of my choice, or regrettably, there is no deal.

I shall get my grain elsewhere.

You didn't come here because your heart bleeds for your starving countrymen.

What are you hiding?

Well, perhaps I'm hiding a bleeding heart.

Your Majesty? The meeting is arranged.

We can escort you to the tent city when you have the time.

Now. Let's go now.

Mary: Herr Schuler!

Good news about the exchange we discussed last night.

I'm listening.

The king is intrigued by the prospect, but more so by the new alliance it ratifies.

He simply needs time to consider.

The king is intrigued? He needs time to consider?

Yes, but...

Maybe I should have spoken to the king.

You may deal with me directly.

Very well. I'm telling you that I'm going home. Now.

If peace is a thing you need to consider,

I have no interest in dealing with you or the king.

My husband simply wants to confirm what the men were imprisoned for.

The word of a German duke is not enough?

I told you.

My friends were jailed for their faith, nothing more.

The coronation is in just a few days. If...

I came here to free my friends. I didn't come to watch Rome prop up a new puppet king.

(horse neighing)

Your Majesty, it is a great and unexpected honor to sit with you.

I have little time, and none of it for flattery.

What can I do for you?

I'm told that you speak with the dead.

There is much to learn from them.

I suppose that might be true if I thought it were possible.

Then why are you here?

There's a woman I want you to meet.

She acts as if she is possessed.

I want you to tell me if she is deceiving me on purpose, or if she is in the grip of some madness.

But what if it's neither?

What if her possession is real?

I don't believe in ghosts.

Mm.

Undertaker's apprentice.

He was a good man, your master?

Yes, my lord.

And the dead are listed here?

Them that was removed from the pit.

"Unknown woman, d*ed of plague.

Unknown child, plague."

Are you familiar with Lord Doisneau?

Do you know the name?

Lord Barnard?

Boy. You are under my protection.

Do you understand?

Tell me what you know.

Lord Doisneau was kind to everyone.

And Barnard?

No one's good enough for him.

There's rumors he wants the coal under Lord Doisneau's land.

His wife insists he's dead, but the name "Doisneau" isn't in here.

Wait.

Lady Doisneau said they were recently titled.

And if they were given title, they were given name.

There it is.

Doisneau's patronym.

My lord?

The name he was born with.

Bouchard.

It's here.

His throat was slit.

Greer: You're going to do this before we find Francis?

Mary. Are you sure?

A villager k*lled his neighbor this morning fighting over a rancid potato.

People are starving and dying, and there will be more.

Didn't Francis say he wanted to rule on the bargain himself?

He wants his people to eat.

I'll do what I have to to feed them.

Can't it wait till we find him?

We've been looking for him everywhere.

The Germans are packing to leave as we speak.

They hold the only grain we can get on short notice.

We're out of other options.

Herr Schuler.

Thank you for your hospitality, but we are leaving now.

The kingsguard have been ordered to accompany you and your men to the garrison where the Protestant prisoners are being held.

It's a short ride. Once there, they will be handed over into your custody, as agreed.

This is good news, Your Grace.

I'm surprised... pleased that the king has agreed...

You'll have your prisoners.

And you will have your grain.

France thanks you.

And my husband the king thanks you.

I still don't understand what I'm doing here.

I don't remember any of what the king talked about.

There's nothing to fear. I will guide you.

Just relax your mind.

This mesmeric elixir, the rarest metals reduced, summons spirits of the dead.

Which you may host.

Your Grace, please understand there's no guarantee that...

Weakness is a fatal flaw in a king.

Leave us. Now.

Go.

Is it you?

What's your name?

I'm Henry.

Where were you born?

Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye.

That's a funny question.

And your father... where was...

He d*ed on my birthday.

28 candles on my birthday cake.

I d*ed, too.

I don't want to talk about that.

But I did not rise up afterwards.

Something seems to hold me.

Why am I here?

What holds me?

Perhaps your sins.

I don't remember them.

They were many.

But I remember my death.

I feel the horse beneath me... a joust and I cannot lose.

Montgomery rides against me, but he never rode like that... the way he held the lance, aimed at my head and not my shield.

I should've seen it.

I should've known.

It was not Montgomery, it was some other man.

Oh, my God. It's you.

You changed.

I saw it before I d*ed.

The way you looked at me.

Plots and plans and plots and plans.

Could you?

Would you dare raise a hand against your...

Stop. Please.

Leave me alone.

Where have you been?

I've been looking everywhere for you.

Mary, please, not now. I need sleep.

It's about the German duke. Francis, I ordered the king's guards to accompany him to the garrison to free the Protestant prisoners.

Without consulting me? Why?

We had an agreement.

There was no time.

Two days was more than enough time.

I told you I would look into it.

Schuler was leaving court and I couldn't find you.

Mary, I warned you.

Provoking French noblemen, taking on Narcisse.

Hours before my coronation.

He offered a fair deal.

The only deal that could keep France from the famine. German grain. A new alliance.

Every ruler at court will hear how I lacked the power to make my own nobles deliver a simple commodity.

They will hear how I couldn't control my own queen.

Tell them a different story, then.

Tell them how you faced down your nobles, forged an alliance to feed your people.

But the king didn't do that. The queen did.

In the king's name. I don't see how this does any harm.

Mary, this is not about my vanity. This is about my legitimacy.

I am a new king, trying to fill the shoes of a man those people feared.

I don't need their fear, but I need their respect.

How can I ask them for it if I can't even get it from you?

You don't think I respect you?

Not enough to obey me.

Let me prove it, then. Let me help them see...

No. I'll have no more help from you. I've had more than enough already.

Kenna: You're awake.

Good news.

Apparently.

I met a noble lady and the noble lady's very rich husband wants to curry favor with the king's deputy, so the very rich husband is giving us a gift.

What sort of gift?

A beautiful château.

Not far, modest in size, but more than an adequate replacement for what we lost, and the noble is willing to sell us title to the land for a price that we can easily afford... next to nothing, really.

I don't understand.

Who would do such a thing? How did this happen?

It's all thanks to my new friend, Lady Barnard.

She seems very nice.

Generous to a fault.

Oh, Kenna.

It's not a gift, it's a bribe.

I'm investigating her husband for m*rder.

M... perhaps the man you're investigating is some other Barnard?

No, it's the same man.

I had no case against him until I found proof that Doisneau was m*rder*d.

And now this bribe is confirmation.

I'm closer to proving his guilt than I thought.

You tricked me.

Your husband is a criminal and you are nothing but a deceitful...

I am a loving wife trying to protect my husband from false accusation. He is innocent.

Bash will determine who is guilty and who is not.

He is the most honest man I've ever known.

Which is more than I can say for you.

It's good to love one's husband.

I appreciate your devotion.

But if you don't stop your husband's investigation into mine, your devotion will be to a dead man.

The nobles already hate him for trying to usurp the throne.

That wasn't Bash's intent nor his doing.

The two of you hang from the thinnest of threads: Francis' and Mary's inexplicable devotion to you.

It keeps you at court, but it won't save you.

It won't save your husband.

(gasping)

(applause)

(horse neighs)

(hoofbeats approaching)

It's the German duke.

I have been ill-used, lied to.

Verraten.

Herr Schuler, what has happened?

What's wrong?

We rode to the garrison as instructed to release the prisoners, as promised.

But the prisoners were not there.

They'd been removed two days before.

Impossible.

How did this happen?

You are no more or less than the son of your father.

And it was your father who threw innocent men into prison for no other reason than the way they worship God.

A prison where they were tortured.

Do not forget you are speaking to the king of France.

Show them.

(gasping)

Knee crusher, cat's paw, rat's cage.

This is not our doing.

Come.

We'll find the prisoners ourselves.

Not with weapons, you won't.

You're on French soil.

Guards.

(horse neighs)

Francis: Herr Schuler, please...

You lie to your guests and then you thr*aten them with v*olence? We will not be treated this way.

That is enough!

Every man here will lower their w*apon!

(sighs)

(groans) Protestant Germans threatened by Catholic Frenchmen when they are our guests, each side reminded of the hate they felt for the other, and none of it had to happen.

I spent the last hour convincing the Germans we weren't deliberately humiliating them.

There's still time to fix this.

How?

The deal with Germany is up in smoke, we have no grain and the prisoners who were under my protection have vanished.

Then let's find them.

Mary, I thought I was clear.

You cannot be a part of this.

I won't talk to a single nobleman or foreign diplomat.

Not Narcisse or the Germans, no one who knows or cares who I am.

But... but what will you...

You have a delicate peace to maintain.

That is a king's work.

And I have a mess to clean up.

And that is, if you ask your nobles, a woman's work.

But this time, since I got you into this, I don't mind doing it.

I'm sorry.

Then it's true?

I dragged Lord Barnard into my offices, presented him with the evidence in this ledger.

But the proof of Doisneau's m*rder, the page was torn out.

And it was obvious that Barnard knew about this before he ever entered the room.

Give it to me.

I can't. I b*rned it.

I didn't do it for the bribe. I won't take anything from them. I did it to save your life.

Barnard's wife swore that you would be k*lled if her husband were ever prosecuted.

Kenna, we are better people than the Barnards.

We have to be.

We just need the courage to fight.

Not if fighting means dying.

I won't risk the loss of you.

I can't.

I can't blame you for wanting your husband alive.

I should love you for it.

I do.

But there's something you need to understand about me.

This role that I now have, it matters to me.

I will always fight for what I believe, risk or not.

You were the guards stationed at the garrison where the Protestant prisoners were being held. And yet you were absent when they were taken.

We stopped at a tavern before.

Like we always do.

Them prisoners been there for years and nothing ever happened when we left before.

How long were you at this tavern?

Well, there was a woman.

A whore.

She offered herself to us.

One after the other.

She was so beautiful.

A face you could never forget.

And why is that?

Her left eye was blue.

Her right eye was green.

And she kept 'em open the whole way through.

Mary: It was you. You took the prisoners from the garrison.

With the help of a beautiful woman.

One eye green, the other blue.

Why?

I put my lover on a ship to Amsterdam.

But the ship was commandeered in German waters, all aboard taken c*ptive.

So you took the Protestant prisoners to make a deal with the German duke yourself.

When I learned why the German duke was coming to court, I knew it was the best and only way to ransom my friends.

I took the prisoners, yes.

But do you know why the ship was taken?

Old hates between Protestant Germany and Catholic France.

Hates inflamed by Henry's intolerance and prodded by his bankers in Rome.

And your husband, despite all talk of new beginnings, has ruled no differently.

You have it wrong about Francis.

Do I?

On the day Nostradamus was nearly drawn and quartered, Francis sided with Narcisse. And at your expense.

I am a man of France. But I'm also a man of my word, and I promised to get Lady Doutzen to safety.

Even if doing so condemns innocent men and women, children to starvation?

And you call Narcisse a k*ller who hides behind skirts.

I think that you're a better man than that.

Prove me right.

Deliver the prisoners back to the castle.

What kind of man wouldn't do everything in his power to bring back the woman he loved?

The kind of man who puts country before love.

A king.

Well...

I'm only a prince, not a king.

Thank God for it.

Francis: What is it you want me to see?

(horse neighs, sputters)

(horse neighs)

It's Conde with the prisoners.

We don't need Narcisse anymore.

He'll see he needs us.

(bell clanging in distance)

Lord Narcisse.

Your Majesty.

It's a great day today.

And made even better by good news.

Mary, why don't you tell him?

The Protestant prisoners have been located.

We have traded their liberty for some much needed grain, a boon to a hungry France and to the cause of religious tolerance.

Is that all?

No. I understand that you'd like to teach me how to rule.

Let me tell you what I have learned.

A king needs to know who his friends are and keep making new ones all the time.

Luckily, there are so many to choose from.

Without betraying his old ones, I trust.

I don't think my husband needs a lecture from you on betrayal.

Do you accuse me of something?

Oh, many things, I'm sure.

But let's start with the betrayal of promises.

Unless somehow your grain has arrived beneath our notice.

She speaks for you in this?

"She" is my queen.

And, yes, she does. In this and most things. You'd do best to remember it.

Unless you want your king to look elsewhere for friends.

Because the time will come, most unexpectedly, when you will need one, I can assure you.

Yes, Majesty.

Majesties.

Oh, and I'm pleased to inform you that I've just learned deliveries of my grain will arrive here. Today.

(horse sputters)

(horse sputters)

Thank you for returning those prisoners.

Why did you do it?

I suppose I wanted to be the man you saw in me.

The better man. (Chuckles)

You will have your German alliance?

Not an alliance just yet but an understanding.

And as part of that understanding, Lady Doutzen and her household will be returned home.

Herr Schuler was very helpful.

You're a wonder.

Queen, diplomat, white knight.

Francis dealt with Herr Schuler directly.

It was his doing.

He's a good man, you know, and he'll make a good king.

Your opinion is enough for me.

And your lover, Lady Doutzen, when will she return to you?

She won't.

But I thought...

I didn't trade those prisoners to bring her back to me.

Lady Doutzen was en route to her husband when my ship was taken, a destination she will now reach, thanks to you.

She has children.

He's a good and loving father.

There's a powerful bond between parents that... a bond you'll discover when you have children with Francis.

Soon.

Yeah.

Francis.

If I'm bothering you...

Bother?

Never. He's your son.

Francis, I... I know you have bigger problems, but I asked the other nannies about Caroline and none of them saw anything like what you described.

Is there something you're not telling me? Some... indiscretion of hers?

Not an indiscretion.

No. I can't tell you about Caroline except to say that...

... she reminds me of someone.

Someone and something I need to forget.

Can we leave it at that?

I was wrong.

What I asked of you, the backwards step.

You must know, I want the same world as you do, the better one.

And the only way to build it is together.

We do greater things when we act as one, when we trust each other as equals.

This is not a coronation for a king.

It is for a king and queen.

♪ We built these walls of stone ♪
♪ And then they crumble back to dirt ♪
♪ We spin these tales of love ♪
♪ Out of trust and hope and hurt ♪
♪ Underneath our wounds ♪
♪ Where our demons have their hold ♪
♪ The truth can be exposed ♪
♪ There's a strength in letting go ♪
♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh ♪
♪ Oh... ♪
♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪
♪ Oh, oh, oh... ♪

All: Long live the king!

♪ Hey, hey, hey ♪
♪ Hey, hey ♪
♪ Here's to life ♪

(bell tolling)

♪ Hey, hey, hey ♪
♪ Hey, hey ♪

(bell tolling)

♪ Here's to life ♪
♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh ♪

All: Long live the queen!

(bell tolling)

♪ Oh... ♪
♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪

(bell tolling)

♪ Oh, oh, oh ♪
♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪
♪ Oh, oh, oh ♪
♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. ♪

What are you doing out here?

There's a party inside to celebrate the new king.

And queen.

Her, too.

And what do you want?

You bought grain with your Medici money after all.

Just not from me.

True, it was a small amount, hardly enough to solve your son's problems, but... you weren't thinking about your son, were you?

Now you're going to tell me what I think.

There's a village in the north, not far, not near.

Your grain was delivered there.

Compliments of Catherine de Medici.

Hmm.

I hear the townspeople are toasting your name... their savior.

But they're not the first to benefit from your generosity.

A church rebuilt, a new well dug.

And each town more grateful to you than the last.

I do what I have to do.

For the people.

You do it for yourself.

To ensure that you're loved, protected, by at least some within the realm.

For when Francis and Mary produce an heir, and all your other children move to the back of the line, and you with them.

I don't see that happening any time soon.

Because Mary hasn't fallen pregnant yet?

It can happen in the blink of an eye.

It hasn't been that long, and they're both young.

Just getting started.

Lola, the time for anger is past.

But you never really got angry with me, did you?

You wanted to publicly claim your son.

This is how it's done.

(Horse whinnying)

I worry that you come to resent me.

I don't think I've been this happy in my entire life.

Lola!

Don't you turn your back on me.

I am more than your friend.

I am your queen.

Reign, all-new episode, next Wednesday at 8:00 on M3.