The Ugly Prince

Once upon a time, a King, called King Humboldt, told his daughter Katarina that she must marry a very unattractive prince.

“Yukk”, said the princess, looking at a signed photograph of the prince that he had sent to her, “He’s so ugly, I could never marry such an ugly person”.

The king sighed, “Ugly, he may be but his father is very, very rich and rules over an enormous kingdom and if you marry him you will inherit it all, far more than I can give you”.

And, after a lot of nagging and threats and bribery with expensive gifts, the princess agreed that she would go out with the prince on one date but that was all.

Overjoyed, the king had his royal secretary arrange the date and, a week later, Katarina and the ugly prince went out together to a fancy restaurant that only admitted very important, very rich and very posh people.

But though the prince was dressed in his best and most regal outfit, the princess still couldn’t bear to look at him because he was so ugly; fat and spotty with big, buck teeth; an enormous crooked nose and black, thick rimmed glasses and when they both started to eat, yukk, he had the most disgusting table manners; eating like a pig; slurping up his soup and making a big, loud burping noise when he was finished.

But then a chamber orchestra started to play music and, rising clumsily to his feet, the ugly prince asked the Princess if she would like to dance and, reluctantly, the Princess, taking hold of his sleeves rather than holding hands with him accepted his offer.

But the Prince was just as inept at dancing as he was ugly; stumbling and tripping, bumping into the furniture and even accidentally stepping on the princesses golden slippered feet and then, as he was attempting to twirl the princess round, he accidentally sent her crashing into a large vase of flowers that was sitting nearby and she ended up covered in water and tulips.

Of course, all this was too much for the Princess, who immediately stormed out of the restaurant shouting, angrily, “Never! Never! Never! Not even if my father stops my allowance or disowns me; I’ll never marry such an ugly oafish prince”.

But then, after the Princess had left the restaurant the ugly prince gave out a quiet chuckle and, taking off his thick glasses and false nose; pulling out his false buck teeth; wiping off his fake stick on spots and removing the padding that made his face look fat, he revealed himself to be not ugly at all but a very handsome prince.

“Phew!”, he sighed with relief, “Thank goodness my plan worked. I would have hated to have married that princess. She’s so stuck-up and shallow”.