In 864 CE, a wealthy East Anglian ealdorman named Lerion devised a plan to kill the Mercian king Burgred and install himself on the throne, joining the two kingdoms. It was a foolhardy plan from the start, a scheme complicated by the fact that Lerion was old, his wife was dead, and he had no male heirs. Were he to succeed in his violent plot, his dynasty would hardly endure a decade.
Lerion did, however, have three daughters – Regan, Goneril, and Cordelia – all as wise, as beautiful, and as cunning as their father. The ealdorman loved his daughters with a deep and abiding passion, and they loved him in return. So great was his affection that he wished to bequeath his future kingdom to them in equal portions.
In autumn of that year, with assurances from his allies, Lerion was poised to strike. But King Edmund of East Anglia discovered the plot before it had hatched. Lerion was arrested swiftly and executed for treason. His three daughters, fearing they would suffer their father's fate or worse, fled into the fens of East Anglia and disappeared.
When they reappeared some years later, well... they were miffed.