The Constant Princess

Words have weight, something once said cannot be unsaid. Meaning is like a stone dropped into a pool; the ripples will spread and you cannot know what back they wash against.

Just because one man calls him Allah and another calls him God is no reason for believers to be enemies.

He may well speak French and Latin and half a dozen languages, but since he has nothing to say – what good are they?

You have to have faith that you are doing God's will. Sometimes you will not understand. Sometimes you will doubt. But if you are doing God's will, you can't be wrong, you can't go wrong.

War does not answer war, war does not finish war. The only ending is peace.

They say that at the mountain pass he looked back at his kingdom, his beautiful kingdom, and wept, and his mother told him to weep like a woman for what he could not hold as a man.

True obedience can only happen when you secretly think you know better, and you choose to bow your head. Anything short of that is just agreement, and any ninny-in-waiting can agree.

In Spain," indeed! He would have got no closer than the Indies if I had not showed him how to do it. Stupid puppy.

We are both people of faith," he said quietly. "Our enemies should be the people who have no faith, neither in their God, nor in others, nor in themselves. The people who should face our crusade should be those who bring cruelty into the world for no reason but their own power. There is enough sin and wickedness to fight, without taking up arms against people who believe in a forgiving God and who try to lead a good life.

I realize that I can laugh, that it is possible to be happy, that laughter and hope can come back to me.

God does not make the way smooth for those He loves. He sends hardships to try them. Those that God loves the best are those who suffer the worst.

Knowing that you do not know is to ask humbly, instead of tell arrogantly. That is the beginning of wisdom.

when i first saw him i thought he was as beautiful as a knight from the romances, like a troubadour, like a poet. I thought i could be like a lady in a tower and he could sing beneath my window and persuade me to love him. But although he has the looks of a poet he doesn't have the wit. I can never get more than two words out of him, and i begin to feel that i demean myself in trying to please him.

Then life taught me a harder lesson, beloved: it is better to forgive an enemy than destroy him.

I am a child of the true religion and you are an infidel,’ she said, but with less conviction than she had ever felt before. ‘We are both people of faith,’ he said quietly. ‘Our enemies should be the people who have no faith, neither in their God, nor in others, nor in themselves. The people who should face our crusade should be those who bring cruelty into the world for no reason but their own power. There is enough sin and wickedness to fight, without taking up arms against people who believe in a forgiving God and who try to lead a good life.

He could not have got through the Sierra Nevada if she had not been sending him men and digging teams to level the road for him. No one else could have driven a road through there. He would have trusted no one else to support him, to hold the kingdom together as he pushed forwards. She could have conquered the mountains for no one else; he was the only one that could have attracted her support. What looked like a remarkable unity of two calculating players was deceptive—it was their passion which they played out on the political stage. She was a great queen because that was how she could evoke his desire. He was a great general in order to match her. It was their love, their lust, which drove them; almost as much as God.

I was born to be Queen of England and mother of the next King of England. I have to fulfill my destiny, it is my God-given destiny.

She would not let it go. “I had thought to be Queen of England and see my son on the throne,” she repeated.

And swore that whatever the obstacles before me, I should be Queen of England.