King Charles the Old (the First)
Intro
- Storyteller: Fiammetta
- Fiammetta disapproves of the amount of discussion about the previous story, so she abandons her first choice of tale to keep the peace.
- She's going to tell a story about a king so valiant that no one can argue about it.
Story
- When King Charles conquered Manfred and drove the Ghibellines out of Florence, a Ghibelline knight called Messer Neri gathered up his goods and family and fled the city.
- Neri makes an Edenic garden outside of his new mansion in the countryside. It's so pretty that King Charles decides he wants to see it, even though Neri's his enemy.
- Messer Neri makes the King very welcome anyway, serving him luncheon in the garden.
- As an entertainment, Neri has his lovely twin daughters, Ginevra and Isotta, wade into the fishpond to catch dinner for King Charles. They're wearing very sheer dresses, BTW.
- The king is so enchanted by the girls' beauty (and especially by their bodies beneath their wet dresses) that he falls violently in love with them both.
- He continues to visit Messer Neri so that he can catch glimpses of the girls. He decides he likes Ginevra slightly better, but plans to kidnap both of them to keep the matched set together.
- When his subject Count Guy learns of his plan, he takes the king to task.
- What on earth can he be thinking? To violate his reputation as king and protector to deprive a kind host of his daughters?
- This is exactly the kind of thing that got Manfred into trouble, Guy reminds him. Shame on him. He's better than that. Plus, he's way too old for these girls.
- King Charles realizes that Guy's right; he's got to conquer his desires if he's going to be a real king.
- So he decides to control himself and deal honorably with Neri. He arranges good marriages for both Ginevra and Isotta.
- Then he hides away in Apulia to rid himself of his lust.
- King Charles does such a good job at this that he never suffers from such passions again.
- Fiammetta ends by saying that King Charles was generous in this instance not just because he gave the girls away in marriage, but that he did it without "plucking any fruit" for himself first.