More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
Read between
July 21 - July 23, 2020
For if given the choice, people will believe the worst of you, not the best.”
I press my hands against the window. A flock of blackbirds lifts off the lawn. I wish I could break through the glass and fly away with them. “I can admit when I have been outplayed with my own hand.” I return my gaze to the women in the room. “Jane now unseats me in almost the identical manner in which I dethroned Katharine.”
POOR JANE SEYMOUR It’s a shame you’ve behaved so obscene. I have wisdom could pass us between. But I loathe you, will offer no keen Advantage to Henry’s next queen.
“You would do well to act as did the one who came before you. She knew how to be Queen!” Henry thundered, then ordered his guards, “Take her out of my sight!”
I could not breathe to speak. But before the King’s guards could drag me off, I stormed of my own will out of the room. I probably should have accepted Jane; that might have spared Elizabeth the pain of what befalls me now. But then, Katharine knew how to be Queen and she ended up poorly, separated from her daughter, the Lady Mary, and dying destitute and alone. But at least Katharine kept her head.
Jane is now the King’s tender rose petal, and I have become only that which stabs and causes him pain. But perhaps Henry forgets that a rose without thorns, a flower severed from the branch, smells sweet and looks pretty but withers fast. My dear King, pas d’amour existe sans douleur. No love exists without pain.
I inhale deeply. “Several times I offered to reconcile Mary with her father. In return, all I asked was that she recognize me as her Queen. But Mary refused to acknowledge me. I wanted to punish her. I deprived her of all comfort. I ordered Lady Shelton to lock Mary in her room and nail the windows shut when visitors came, so that no reports of her ill-treatment could be made.”
Lady Shelton glowers at me with absolute loathing. I use Mrs. Orchard as a crutch to help me rise. “I hate to remember all the vile things I did to a girl who chose to stand up for herself and her mother. I fear I have cursed Elizabeth to a similar fate. I pray that with the penance of my death, God will forgive me and spare my daughter.”
THE BALLAD OF ANNE BOLEYN My time had come. My judgement read, Condemned though innocent I pled. More than crown knocked from my head, So feared was I, they willed me dead. And to my fall, how was I led? No man but Henry shared Anne’s bed. I overstepped, and foes were bred. Too quick my tongue, and hence I bled. I prayed each day my sins to shed. And learned to face death without dread. Past Tower walls, saw light ahead To dwell with God, my soul be fed. Now that I’m gone, what shall be said Of Anne Boleyn without a head? Forget her fast, move on instead— The falcon died, the phoenix weds.
In the month of May, a few days before the beheading, I rode with Thomas Cromwell to see one of the great monasteries sacked. I pointed at its splendid sanctuary, and the roof came off. At my command, men heaved the lead roofing up in rolls. Now I was head of the English Church—no more foreign interference by the Pope—and it was entirely my right to dissolve the monasteries in my own kingdom and seize their property for the Crown. The Pope should never have defied my wishes, for now I took out my revenge on each and every shaved-headed English monk I kicked out and sent to pasture. My will
...more
There is blood. Blood everywhere. Blood on the sheets, blood between my legs. It is thick and red and sour. There is blood on my hands, too.
I whisper, “I cannot believe her brazenness. She truly knows no respect, has not a single care for the poor Queen. Anne is bound by oath to serve Queen Katharine, and yet she takes it upon herself to torment her daily.” I cannot keep the heated anger from my voice.
“Anne does not love Henry,” I say. “The Queen is so true in her love for him. How can he not see it? How does Anne have him so transfixed?”
I see that the people of England are not happy at this turn of events. They loved Katharine; they hate Anne. Even the King’s love for her seems, somehow, diminished. Tarnished. He looks tired. I wonder if he regrets this marriage. I wonder if he still loves her.
Once Henry has gone on his way, Anne comes towards me and grabs my wrist. Her fingernails dig into my skin, scratching and burrowing, as though she endeavours to tear my flesh from my bones. “Do you really believe, you little witch, that he will love you any differently from all the rest? Do you think you are so different from me? Do you think yourself better? Well, do not pretend. He will love you and tire of you just as he has done with the rest of us. Except, he made me his Queen. Do not presume to believe that he will treat a weak and ugly little milksop like you any better,” she hisses.
...more
“Plain girls can prosper. We can make our lives our own. We can go about our business without so many lewd words. Without so many slobberings and gropings and hands up our skirts.”
How can the moments of a life last forever, while the years go by in a heartbeat?
I nod. “Henry needed love like no one I have ever known. And his greatest romance was with himself. It survived heartbreak and betrayal. Outlasted injury, illness, treason, and death. It survived everything and everyone, Alice. Everyone but me.”
Oh, how I prefer the honest violence of men, who will bash in another man’s skull and be done, to the thousand shallow cuts of women’s malice.
“What is a king without illusion? The illusion of limitless wealth? Of absolute power? Illusion is all that keeps his people in check and his enemies at bay. Wives disappoint. Sons die. Allies become foes. Illusion is a king’s only true friend.”
“Memory is a high palace containing many rooms. Some of the doors we rush to open; others we lock forever,”
“By changing a life, just one life, you can change the world. It is the only way anyone ever has.”
Maybe one day, the world will change so radically that girls will not need freeing. Maybe.
She places the pillow on the bed and pulls its slip free of wrinkles. “What would become of me if I were to be turned out? It cannot happen. I must do all I can to ensure my place here. You, Your Grace, being so very young—you are my best chance. If I should serve you well, you will one day become Dowager Queen, and keep me in your household for the rest of my days.”
It is the hand of the Lord that can and will bring me out of the endless maze of death. —Kateryn Parr, The Lamentation of a Sinner, 1547
Now unto my lady Promise to her I make: From all other only To her I me betake. —from “Green Groweth the Holly” Song by King Henry VIII
O my heart! and O my heart, It is so sore! Since I must needs from my Love depart; And know no cause wherefore! —“O My Heart” Song by King Henry VIII
God…made me renounce entirely mine own will, and to follow His will most willingly… —Kateryn Parr to Thomas Seymour, 1547
A well-managed boldness is the virtue of monarchical courts… —William Parr, Lord Horton, Kateryn Parr’s uncle
They leap at me as it were so many dogs…The companies of the wicked bark at me. —Kateryn Parr
It [is] very unseemly and preposterous for the woman to take upon her the office of instructor and teacher to her Lord and husband. —Kateryn Parr to Henry VIII, quoted in John Foxe, The Acts and Monuments, 1583
