Many hundreds of years ago, before King Arthur's reign had passed from living memory, and in a land so distant that the name of that country is no longer remembered in this part of the world, it so happened that the king was in search of a princess to be his wife.
The king traveled to the palaces of many friendly princes, lords, and earls, and brought with him a train of caravans filled with gifts for each ruler he visited. He courted their daughters with the manners of a gentleman. He presented flowers and poetry by morning, music boxes and baubles in the afternoon, and rings and necklaces at night. The princesses were charmed by him despite the gray in his beard, and the king was on each new acquaintance hopeful he had found his bride.
The king had been married once before to a peerless beauty, and indeed was married still. It was the king and his wife's great misfortune that as they consummated their wedding night, they discovered an irreconcilable incompatibility: the king didn't fit.
However, the king needed an heir, and so, with the blessing of his wife and the law of his country, he sought a second bride. Wherever he traveled, he brought riches for the families of the princesses, for the king had an unorthodox request: after three days of courting, the princess must either refuse him or submit to be fucked by him. If they were compatible, he would marry her at twice the usual dowry, to make up for the indignity.
The princes, lords, and earls were greedy for the king's riches, and so each and every one in the region had issued an invitation to the king. They instructed their daughters not to refuse the king after the third day of courting, assuring their girls that it was no betrayal of their virginity as long as they married the king shortly after.