Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of I Heart Radio and Aaron Manke.

Listener discretion is advised.

Once upon a time there was a princess locked away.

In this type of story, it's always an evil older woman holding the beautiful princess hostage, right?

In Cinderella, it's the evil stepmother who locked Cinderella in her bedroom

so that the prince won't try to fit the left behind glass slipper on her perfect tiny foot.

Rapunzel was locked in a tower by the witch who became her guardian,

who stole her away from her parents as payment for the vegetable they stole from her garden.

Sleeping Beauty is put to sleep by a jealous and malevolent fairy.

For our Bella Stewart, the captain was her grandmother,

the formidable Bess of Hardwick, who, through four advantageous marriages,

had become the wealthiest woman in England, second only to Queen Elizabeth herself.

Queen Elizabeth I was famously cagey about who would be her successor.

She hadn't named in air.

Her Bella Stewart was a great granddaughter of Margaret Tudor, an insurious contention.

And so, our Bella's grandmother, Bess of Hardwick,

kept our Bella like a prized jewel, secure and locked away.

Our Bella was incredibly well educated and well read, taught and mannered,

raised to believe that one day she could be a queen.

But air Bella didn't want to be a queen, not really.

She wanted what all the princesses who are locked away in fairy tales want,

a man to come and sweep her away.

...