Author: Estrada, Rafael

Title: El rey Solito

Genre: short story

Age: Contemporary Age

Description: Children’s tale published in the Serie Blanca of the publishing house Barco de Vapor in 1994 (aimed to six, seven and eight-year-old children) and republished in 2016 by Libros de las Malas Compañías, with illustrations drawn by Jesús Gabán. Inspired by the legend of Enrique III’s mantle, the author takes the motif of the monarch’s poverty as a starting point to create a story in a playful tone, absolutely different from the original anecdote. The ruin of the kingdom causes the migration of its inhabitants to the contiguous one, so the young king Solito remains completely alone in his properties. In order to alleviate this situation, the monarch amuses himself by imagining that he lives with someone else in his palace, until he realizes that a shepherdess, called Florinda, usually takes her sheep to his fields to graze. Solito gives her and the people from her kingdom permission to settle in his lands. Florinda and the king become friends and, finally, they fall in love and get married.

Key characters: King Solito. Florinda the shepherdess.

Resources:

• • • • • Study:
          • Gómez Alonso, Alejandra Fátima (2021), “Del gabán del rey al rey solito. Enrique III el Doliente al servicio de la infancia”.
        • Additional bibliography.
        • Media:
          • Gómez Alonso, Alejandra Fátima. Pedagogical rewritings of the legend of Henry III, 20th and 21st centuries.
        • Links:
          • Real Academia de la Historia. Enrique III.
          • RTVE. Memoria de España. La época de las tragedias (1348-1485).

• Alejandra Fátima Gómez Alonso. Citation.