I have read fanfic where Belle is Princess of Avonlea, who will one day be Queen. I have also read fanfic where she is the daughter of a border knight – Sir Maurice, who looks after a small area of the kingdom of Avonlea.
Now the Once Upon a Time wiki lists him as Sir Maurice – not King Maurice. However, in Skin Deep wasn’t he wearing a crown? I’m just wondering what it is in canon. I mean the whole arranged marriage for an army thing, makes Belle and Maurice sound more important than just a knight and his daughter.
So is Belle a Princess or just a Lady? Anyone know or is it up for debate and pick whatever option makes most sense for the story? I’m plotting something and I want to get it right.
That’s a question that’s been debated before, and as far as I know, the fandom never reached a satisfactory answer that we could all agree had been backed up by canon. The show runners seem to have left it deliberately vague. But I’ll signal boost you & see if anyone else wants to chime in on this.
Part of the fun of fanfic is that you can spin things any way you want without being overly concerned with canon!
That said, Sir Maurice just has a cool hat on in Skin Deep, not a crown, and Rumple talks about saving their “little town,” not their kingdom, so there are signs that he’s more of a lesser lord and definitely not a king. The ruling structure of the Enchanted Forest has never been fully defined, so it’s hard to say if Maurice is a knight or a successful merchant or what. I don’t know anything about historical hierarchies for comparison. Maybe someone else can shed some light?
I’ve always just gone with what worked for the story. Sometimes she’s the daughter of a knight, sometimes the princess of a small merchant kingdom. At this point, there really isn’t any one right answer so just do what you want. Nobody is going to pillory you in the town square on this one.
I suspect he wasn’t a king, but then in Her Handsome Hero this season, they made him one or made him higher ranking. I’m pretty sure I remember Gaston explicitly asking Belle to be his queen so that means someone in this is a prince or princess. I believe it’s Belle.
But exactly what Mantis said. Do want works for the story. That’s why it’s an AU. 🙂
Thanks for your answers guys! Super helpful. I really appreciate it 🙂
I’m going to make her a Princess (and eventual Queen) because it works better for the story. If the answer had been that she was definitely just a knights daughter, then I would have had her become Queen/ruler of the kingdom some other way, this just makes it simpler. I just wanted to get it right in the first place.
I guess I wasn’t sure what the canon was because canon isn’t sure. Maybe she started off just a noble but then as rowofstars said, they made her more later on. Anyway, it works.
Thank you!