That was only one part of her. She loved me dearly. Even if my own father was a man not even worth spilling the blood of, she strove to make herself and me into proper royals, not simple mongrels.

...There were times when I was sick in bed and she would excuse herself from her duties to tend to me, or even just be there to sing me to sleep. A queen's life is a busy one, and I understood how she could not always be there -- or even there often -- but she was still my mother, and she still did everything for me that she could. She taught me how to act, how to speak, how to spot if I was being deceived...

Heh... for all she loved me, what she gave me was the ruthlessness a king sometimes needs.