Charlie Fenton’s Reviews > The Royal Road to Fotheringhay > Status Update

‘He no longer bothered to disguise his true nature. She had to agree with others that he was vain, dissolute and despicable. He would pick quarrels with those who dared not stand up to him; he brawled in the streets, accosting women, demanding that his companions did likewise; he boasted of his mastery over the Queen who, he asserted, was so madly in love with him that she would deny him nothing.’

‘She did not now want marriage with Spain; she did not care for dignity or pride, nor her rank as Queen. She cared for nothing but the immediate fulfilment of her love for Henry Darnley.’

‘She paced the room. She had no tears left. Since her first coming to the Court of France, François had been her friend and her devoted slave. Had she been at times a little too arrogant, a little too certain of his devotion? If she could only have him back now, how she would assure him of this love which she only knew went so deep since she had lost him.’

‘The Queen-Mother stood ip and walked to the window. She looked across the country towards the south and thought of the ageing monarch of England. He had demanded the marriage for his son, and that Mary would be brought up in the Court of England as a future Queen of England. A good enough prospect... if one were dealing with any but the King of England.’