"The Castle of Melvales" by John D. Batten
How Jack Sought the Golden Apples, better known as The King of England and His Three Sons, is an English Fairy Tale collected by Joseph Jacobs in More English Fairy Tales.
When the king of England falls sick, the doctors say that only golden apples from a far land can cure him. The three princes set off in pursuit of the cure. The way to the golden apples is long and fraught with danger, and the youngest prince has more than monsters to fear. Will he succeed in saving his father and earning his happily ever after?
The tale is in the public doman and can be read here
, here and here.
This story includes examples of the following tropes:
- Beauty Equals Goodness:
- Played with. Jack's helpers are three brothers who have long overgrown teeth and nails and are generally ugly. However, they're much friendlier and more helpful than the prince's brothers. However, it turns out that they actually are handsome, wealthy men who were cursed to look this way for no apparent reason.
- The Princess of Melvales is a great beauty who is also spirited and compassionate enough to approach the king about his having his youngest son unfairly executed.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: By the time the youngest prince gets his happily ever after, he's had to deal with two nights of snakes and frogs crawling on him, the threat of being turned to stone if he moves, a castle full of monsters, and his brothers lying and almost getting him executed.
- Evil Is Petty: The older brothers swap Jack's golden apples for their own gilded apples and present them to the king as their own. When Jack arrives, he's happy to see his father well, but wants to show that he also tried to cure him. Unable to bear Jack even getting a little affection, the brothers accuse him of trying to poison the king.
- The Girl Who Fits This Slipper: Gender Flipped. After falling in love with the princess, Jack swaps her watch and handkerchief for his own. Upon waking, she finds out from the watch's inscription that the handsome youth she vaguely remembers was one of the English princes. She sets off to the castle and asks the princes to walk over the handkerchief. The rotten elder sons try it and break their legs, but Jack can walk and even dance on it.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: The two older princes originally manage to convince their father that they cured him and Jack tried to poison him. After the princess arrives, the truth comes out. Their father imprisons them.
- Love at First Sight: When one of his helpers warns him not to stay with the princess too long, Jack (who's never fallen in love before) scoffs at the idea that any woman could keep him in such a dangerous castle for long. Upon seeing her, he falls in love and almost misses his window of escape.
- My God, What Have I Done?: The king orders Jack executed for apparently trying to poison him with rotting gilded apples. However, afterwards he felt sorry for it. He is overjoyed when the executioner tells him he didn't actually carry out the order and sends to fetch him so that the princess can give him the test.
- Off with His Head!: When the two older princes convince him that Jack tried to poison him, the king tells the executioner to cut off his head. However, the executioner feels too sorry for Jack to obey and lets him go.
- Shipper on Deck: The king is quite happy to see Jack and the Princess of Melvales get together.
- Virtue Is Weakness: The two older princes scoff at Jack for wanting to find the cure to save their father, claiming that he'll never get anywhere with that attitude. It comes back to bite them in the end.
- Youngest Child Wins: Only the youngest prince actually wants to cure his father, and he is the only one who gets the actual golden apples. Though the older brothers resort to trickery to defame him to their father, he ultimately winds up winning the princess' affections and the throne in the end.
