Read Philippa Gregory 3-Book Tudor Collection 1 Online
Authors: Philippa Gregory
Catherine slept for all that day and all that night, and when she awoke, William had the horses ready and she was on her horse before she could protest. We rode to the river and took a ship downriver to Leigh. She ate while we were on board. Henry beside her. I had my baby on my hip, watching my two older children, thanking God that we were out of the city and that, if we were lucky and kept our wits about us, we might escape notice in the new reign.
Jane Seymour had chosen her wedding clothes on the day that they executed my sister. I did not even blame her for that. Anne or I, would have done the same thing. When Henry changed his mind he always changed it fast, and it was a wise woman who went with him and did not oppose him. Even more so now that he had divorced one faultless wife and beheaded another. Now he knew his power.
Jane would be the new queen and her children, when she had them, would be the next princes or princesses. Or she might wait, as the other queens had waited, every month, desperate to know that she had conceived, knowing each month that it did not happen that Henry's love wore a little thinner, that his patience grew a little shorter. Or Anne's curse of death in childbed, and death to her son, might come true. I did not envy Jane Seymour. I had seen two queens married to King Henry and neither of them had much joy of it.
And as for us Boleyns, my father was right, all we could do now was survive. My uncle had lost a good hand with the death of Anne. He had thrown her onto the gaming table just as he had thrown me or Madge. Whether a girl was fit for seduction or a sop for the king's rage, or even to aim at the highest place in the land, he would always have another Howard girl at the ready. He would play again. But we Boleyns were destroyed. We had lost our most famous girl, Queen Anne, and we had
lost George, our heir. And Anne's daughter Elizabeth was a nobody, worth even less than the despised Princess Mary. She would never be called princess again. She would never sit on the throne.
âI'm glad of it,' I said simply to William as the children slept, rocked by the movement of the boat on the ebbing tide. âI want to live in the country with you. I want to bring up our children to love each other and fear God. I want to find some peace now, I have had enough of playing the great game at court. I have seen the price that has to be paid and it is too high. I just want you. I just want to live at Rochford and love you.'
He put his arm around me and held me close to him against the cold wind that blew steadily off the sea. âIt's agreed,' he said. âYour part in this is done, please God.' He looked forward to where my two children were in the prow of the boat, looking downriver to the sea, swaying with the rhythmic beat of the oars. âBut those two? They'll be sailing upriver again, back to court and power, sometime in their lives.'
I shook my head in protest.
âThey're half Boleyn and half Tudor,' he said. âMy God, what a combination. And their cousin Elizabeth the same. Nobody can say what they will do.'
Mary and William Stafford lived happily together at Rochford. When her parents died (in 1538 and 1539), Mary inherited the whole of the Boleyn family holdings in Essex, and she and William became wealthy landowners.
She died in 1543 and her son, Henry Carey, rose to become a major advisor and courtier at the court of his cousin, Queen Elizabeth I, the greatest queen England ever had. She made him Viscount Hunsdon. Mary's daughter Catherine married Sir Francis Knollys and founded a great Elizabethan dynasty.
I am indebted to Retha M. Warnicke, whose book
The Rise and Fall of Anne Boleyn
has been a most helpful source for this story. I have followed Warnicke's original and provocative thesis that the homosexual ring around Anne, including her brother George, and her last miscarriage created a climate in which the king could accuse her of witchcraft and perverse sexual practices.
I am very grateful to the following authors, whose books helped me to trace the otherwise untold story of Mary Boleyn, or provided background for the period:
Bindoff, S. T.,
Pelican History of England: Tudor England
, Penguin, 1993
Bruce, Marie Louise,
Anne Boleyn
, Collins, 1972
Cressy, David,
Birth, Marriage and Death, ritual religions and the life-cycle in Tudor and Stuart England
, OUP, 1977
Darby, H. C.,
A new historical geography of England before 1600
, CUP, 1976
Elton, G. R.,
England under the Tudors
, Methuen, 1955
Fletcher, Anthony,
Tudor Rebellions
, Longman, 1968
Guy, John,
Tudor England
, OUP, 1988
Haynes, Alan,
Sex in Elizabethan England
, Sutton, 1997
Loades, David,
The Tudor Court
, Batsford, 1986
Loades, David,
Henry VIII and his Queens
, Sutton, 2000
Mackie, J. D.,
Oxford History of England, The Earlier Tudors
, OUP, 1952
Plowden, Alison,
Tudor Women, Queens and Commoners
, Sutton, 1998
Randell, Keith,
Henry VIII and the Reformation in England
, Hodder, 1993
Scarisbrick, J. J.,
Yale English Monarchs: Henry VIII
, YUP, 1997
Smith, Baldwin Lacey,
A Tudor Tragedy, the life and times of Catherine Howard
, Cape, 1961
Starkey, David,
The Reign of Henry VIII, Personalities and Politics
, G. Philip, 1985
Starkey, David,
Henry VIII: A European Court in England
, Collins and Brown, 1991
Tillyard, E. M. W.,
The Elizabethan World Picture
, Pimlico, 1943
Turner, Robert,
Elizabethan Magic
, Element, 1989
Warnicke, Retha M.,
The Rise and Fall of Anne Boleyn
, CUP, 1991
Weir, Alison,
The Six Wives of Henry VIII
, Pimlico, 1997
Young, Joyce,
Penguin Social History of Britain
, Penguin
For Anthony
Jane Boleyn, Blickling Hall, Norfolk, July 1539
Anne, Duchess of Cleves, Duren, Cleves, July 1539
Katherine, Norfolk House, Lambeth, July 1539
Jane Boleyn, Blickling Hall, Norfolk, November 1539
Anne, Cleves Town, November 1539
Katherine, Norfolk House, Lambeth, November 1539
Jane Boleyn, Greenwich Palace, December 1539
Katherine, Norfolk House, Lambeth, December 1539
Jane Boleyn, Calais, December 1539
Katherine, Norfolk House, Lambeth, December 1539
Jane Boleyn, Rochester, December 1539
Katherine, Rochester, New Year's Eve 1539
Jane Boleyn, Rochester, New Year's Eve 1539
Katherine, Rochester, New Year's Eve 1539
Jane Boleyn, Rochester, New Year's Eve 1539
Anne, New Year's Day, on the road to Dartford, 1540
Katherine, Dartford, 2 January 1540
Anne, Blackheath, 3 January 1540
Katherine, Greenwich Palace, 3 January 1540
Jane Boleyn, Greenwich Palace, 3 January 1540
Anne, Greenwich Palace, 3 January 1540
Katherine, Greenwich Palace, 6 January 1540
Anne, Greenwich Palace, 6 January 1540
Jane Boleyn, Greenwich Palace, 6 January 1540
Anne, Greenwich Palace, 6 January 1540
Katherine, Greenwich Palace, 7 January 1540
Jane Boleyn, Whitehall Palace, January 1540
Anne, Whitehall Palace, January 1540
Katherine, Whitehall Palace, January 1540
Anne, Whitehall Palace, 11 January 1540
Jane Boleyn, Whitehall Palace, February 1540
Katherine, Whitehall Palace, February 1540
Anne, Hampton Court, March 1540
Jane Boleyn, Hampton Court, March 1540
Katherine, Hampton Court, March 1540
Anne, Hampton Court, March 1540
Jane Boleyn, Hampton Court, March 1540
Katherine, Hampton Court, March 1540
Anne, Hampton Court, March 1540
Katherine, Hampton Court, March 1540
Jane Boleyn, Hampton Court, March 1540
Katherine, Westminster Palace, April 1540
Anne, Westminster Palace, April 1540
Jane Boleyn, Westminster Palace, May 1540
Anne, Westminster Palace, June 1540
Jane Boleyn, Westminster Palace, June 1540
Katherine, Norfolk House, Lambeth, June 1540
Anne, Westminster Palace, 10 June 1540
Jane Boleyn, Westminster Palace, 24 June, 1540
Anne, Richmond Palace, July 1540
Jane Boleyn, Westminster Palace, 7 July 1540
Anne, Richmond Palace, 8 July 1540
Jane Boleyn, Richmond Palace, 8 July 1540
Katherine, Norfolk House, Lambeth, 9 July 1540
Anne, Richmond Palace, 12 July 1540
Katherine, Norfolk House, Lambeth, 12 July 1540
Anne, Richmond Palace, 13 July 1540
Queen Katherine, Oatlands Palace, 28 July 1540
Jane Boleyn, Oatlands Palace, 30 July 1540
Anne, Richmond Palace, 6 August 1540
Katherine, Hampton Court, August 1540
Jane Boleyn, Windsor Palace, October 1540
Katherine, Hampton Court, October 1540
Anne, Richmond Palace, October 1540
Jane Boleyn, Hampton Court, October 1540
Katherine, Hampton Court, October 1540
Jane Boleyn, Hampton Court, October 1540
Anne, Richmond Palace, November 1540
Jane Boleyn, Hampton Court, Christmas 1540
Katherine, Hampton Court, Christmas 1540
Jane Boleyn, Hampton Court, Christmas 1540
Anne, Hampton Court, Christmas 1540
Jane Boleyn, Hampton Court, New Year 1541
Anne, Richmond Palace, February 1541
Katherine, Hampton Court, March 1541
Jane Boleyn, Hampton Court, March 1541
Katherine, Hampton Court, March 1541
Anne, Richmond Palace, March 1541
Jane Boleyn, Hampton Court, April 1541
Katherine, Hampton Court, April 1541
Jane Boleyn, Hampton Court, April 1541
Anne, Richmond Palace, April 1541
Jane Boleyn, Hampton Court, April 1541
Katherine, Hampton Court, April 1541
Anne, Richmond Palace, May 1541
Jane Boleyn, Hampton Court, June 1541
Anne, Richmond Palace, June 1541
Jane Boleyn, Hampton Court, July 1541
Katherine, Lincoln Castle, August 1541
Jane Boleyn, Pontefract Castle, August 1541
Anne, Richmond Palace, September 1541
Katherine, King's Manor, York, September 1541
Jane Boleyn, Ampthill, October 1541
Anne, Richmond Palace, November 1541
Katherine, Hampton Court, November 1541
Jane Boleyn, Hampton Court, November 1541
Anne, Richmond Palace, November 1541
Katherine, Syon Abbey, November 1541
Jane Boleyn, the Tower of London, November 1541
Anne, Richmond Palace, December 1541
Katherine, Syon Abbey, Christmas 1541
Jane Boleyn, the Tower of London, January 1542
Anne, Richmond Palace, February 1542
Jane Boleyn, the Tower of London, February 1542
Katherine, Syon Abbey, February 1542
Jane Boleyn, the Tower of London, 13 February 1542