The Tudor Witness

Henry hesitantly recited his alphabets. French. Latin. Spanish. French. Latin. Spanish.

“Oh Henry you marvelous student!” his tutor exclaimed.

The eight-year-old duke smiled from ear to ear.

“The skills you learn now will help you greatly when you enter the church’s calling,” the tutor said. “You will be the most scholarly man of the church yet!”

Henry’s smile lessened, but only for a moment. Sure, he had always known that his future was the church. A priest, a monk. Since he had noble status, maybe the Pope would elect him as a Cardinal.

This is what your future entailed if you were a royal child. The oldest son was heir to the father. The daughters all married princes or kings from realms far away. But what happens with the son?

He is kept in the church. It is respectful enough, isn’t it? Henry enjoyed going to church every morning, worshiping God. Yet, he wondered what life could be like if in fact he were the oldest son.

He shrugged off those feelings because it was blasphemous to think such things. He was born as God chose him to be born and he would not complain.

Henry left his studies for supper, suddenly yearning for some company. His brother resided in Wales and his sisters lived with their mother and father. He was alone at Windsor until Christmastide.

After he finished his silent supper, he walked around the gardens. He couldn’t wait for the day that Arthur would be married. He would join his brother in Wales then, and certainly he wouldn’t be bored.

He went to the stables and got his horse. Though he was merely eight years old, he was a fair rider. He didn’t want to say it out loud, but he was a much better rider than Arthur. He was much better than Arthur at many things...

Suddenly he became jealous. He didn’t like feeling this way, but jealousy is a part of life.

“I would be much better as King,” he muttered, and instantly regretted speaking those words.

He shook his head, trying to remove the evil thoughts from his mind.

“God above, if I say such things again, punish me. I deserve it,” he said as he looked to the sky.

He brought his horse back the stable and went to his room. He picked up his Bible and read till he felt better.

=+=

Winter

In the beginning of winter the court had decided to move to the new palace, Whitehall. It had been before called York Place, and it was where Wolsey had lived. Now that Wolsey was dead and the king had obtained it, he had decided to make it the official residence of court.

But in the end, it was decided that we would move to Westminster, as Whitehall was being renovated and added onto.

Anne had gone back to smaller apartments, she had even asked the king for them, and I had gone to living with Meg again in the queen’s apartments.

I had also started my lessons with the Brandon girls.

“You know nothing, Elizabeth!” Eleanor giggled when the French tutor came in and became speaking in full French.

Their mother was with us for that first time to help me get used to everything. She motioned the tutor towards her and I could hear the words she said.

“She has not learned any French, yet. Maybe you could just work with her for the day…”

“Oh, non, non, non!” the tutor cried. “Bring her back to me when she knows more.”

Their red-haired mother pulled me away. “Elizabeth, you will join them for history next, okay? For now you may go sew or read,” she explained.

I nodded and went to my corner, sighing. I had learned some basic French back at Ludlow with Mary, yet I barely remembered any of it.

I looked out the window of Eleanor and Frances’ room. The king was out hunting for a bit that morning while the weather was still fine.

I couldn’t believe that Mary would not be coming for Yuletide that year. The king just wanted to break away from his wife for good, it seemed.

I had talked to Anne as we rode to the new palace, and her spirits were downcast. She’d told me that maybe it wasn’t worth it all, making Henry change everything just for her love. She promised me that if the queen were sent away then she would break from him fully. I didn’t know how she could ever do that. No one could simply break away from the king like that.

“Are you okay?” I felt Lady Suffolk’s hand on my shoulder as she sat down next to me.

“I guess so,” I mumbled.

She rubbed my arm. “You will learn French easily.”

It was not that that I was worried about. “You’re on good terms with the king, aren’t you?”

She smiled, showing her perfectly white teeth. “He’s my brother, so of course.”

“How…how do you feel about Anne Boleyn?” I already knew the answer.

She frowned. “Now that is something I’m really not supposed to voice my opinion of with my brother.”

“But I love the queen, and I love Anne,” I explained.

She shook her head slowly, looking at me with eyes as blue as her brother’s. “Anne may be a nice girl but to the court who has not known her she is just trying to steal the crown. I see things, and I know things more than most even dare to gossip about, but I know not really what to think of Anne. Myself, I have practically grown up with the queen. She is like an older sister to me, and she has been ever since she came here to marry my other brother, Arthur. Surely you have heard of that.”

“Of course. ‘Tis the only argument the king can base off of that explains why his marriage to the queen is void. But I know it is not true. Arthur and Catherine’s marriage was nothing if it wasn’t ever consummated.”

Lady Suffolk sighed. “There is one thing I know. When I was Queen of France for that short time, Anne was at court. Back then she was a small innocent girl on the outside, but she was known around the court, as was her sister, for her stubbornness and attitude. Maybe that is why my brother is so attracted to her. So like him she is.”

“Why doesn’t anyone like her?” I asked. I’d been daring to ask someone that for a long while now.

She smiled. “Why do wars go on in this world? People cannot answer questions like that, for in the end it just ends up in opinions. There is never any fact put into it.”

“Is it because she is French?” I asked.

“You never really know. French fashions are highly accepted here in court now, though. Queen Catherine is Spanish, yet no one judged her because of who she was. People love her for it. It also does help that her parents are now called the ‘Catholic Monarchs.’ But it just may be that Anne herself was born English, and that she should be expected to act that way. She grew up in France, though, and you adapt the customs and the ways and the language of the place where you come from. People that really have no just cause to hate her are really just jealous of her.”

Jealous of Anne…who would want to be her, the eyes of the court upon her wherever she went and her every move watched?

Next came history. Our tutor, Sir George Dean, was an old, gray-haired man. He could barely walk, and had to be carried in on a cushioned chair.

“Welcome, little one,” he smiled at me when everything was settled and we were ready to begin. He handed me a large, ancient book. “Your name?”

“Elizabeth Rushford,” I replied, running my fingers over the edges of the book.
I was never too interested in history. So caught up in the events of recent things that I never took a care to what happened in the past.

“Elizabeth, you must know my philosophy then,” he smiled, and I could see he was missing a few teeth. “Eleanor, would you tell her?”

Eleanor smiled and said, “What happens in the past is easily repeated again and again.”

“Basically history repeats itself,” Sir Dean smiled again. “Now open up that book there, find a date, any date at all.”

I opened up the ancient book, a cloud of dust coming over me. “1348.”

“Ah, one of the most controversial years in English history,” he nodded. “The Black Death is sweeping across Europe, wiping out nearly all of the population. That is the year the plague comes to England, threatening everyone in its path. The Royal Family of the Plantagenet’s-the king then being Edward III-travel up towards Scotland to escape, but the newborn child of the king and queen succumbs to the disease. That first round of plague, with the Plantagenet rulers, killed nearly half of all people living in England. And now it is the Tudor dynasty. What is our plague?”

“Anne Boleyn,” Frances muttered with a snicker.

“Don’t,” I muttered, pleading with her.

She smiled and went back to looking at her big book.

The plague of the Tudors…could it be the sweats? It killed Arthur, nearly killed Catherine, Mary, and Anne. Maybe…

“The sweats?” I asked.

He nodded his head to the side. “Is that an answer, Miss Elizabeth, or a question?”

“Well I’m merely guessing,” I confessed.

“You need not guess. All answers are accepted. If they are wrong, then you will be smarter than when you first asked. If you are right then you are just the same as when you answer,” Sir Dean explained.

“Can we start our lesson on the Americas now?” Eleanor asked.

“My dear-that is recent events. The Americas are a new idea fresh in our minds. Hundreds of years from now people will look back on this as a critical time in history. But right now it is not history.”

“But didn’t you also say that things that happened even moments ago can be considered as history?” Frances asked.

“You must know the difference between recent history and the history of the past,” he replied. “In the blink of an eye all of us will be gone from this place anyway, and we will just be a part of past history.”

And maybe he was right. The five years I had spent at court had seemed to go back just like that. How soon would it be until I was gone from the Earth, when my time here was over?

That night after lessons were over and the queen and I had returned from the chapel, Anne came to the queen’s rooms. Her face was pale and worry-filled as she curtsied to the queen.

“Your Majesty, may I speak to you…alone?” Anne asked, her voice weak.

The queen turned from her window and was not too surprised to see Anne at her door. Queen Catherine nodded and led Anne to a separate chamber.

“Go listen to what they say,” Elizabeth Seymour elbowed me.

“I…I don’t think that such a good…”

All the other maids were looking at me with pleading eyes.

“Fine…” I sighed and walked over to the closed door, placing my ear against it to hear what was said.

“What’s being said?” Meg asked curiously.

I could hear the queen’s soft but commanding voice say, “Anne Boleyn…how the tables have changed.”

I could almost see Anne standing at the window, looking over London longingly. “I never meant to hurt Your Majesty.”

“Oh, of course you did not Anne,” the queen laughed sarcastically. “You take my husband and expect me to fair lightly with it, with him divorcing his loyal and ever-loving wife?”

“Your Majesty…please…”

“No, Anne! I no longer have favorites because of what they have done to me. I’ve come to learn that I cannot trust you Boleyn’s, with your men plotting for power and your women whores!”

“Please madam, just know that I never meant to hurt you. Not now and not ever. I’d rather live without love for the rest of my life if it meant the king would go back to you!” Anne cried.

“Crafty liars as well you Boleyn’s are. I can’t believe how your family has raised you. Taught to look so innocent and to lash out when least expected.”

I could tell Anne was crying now. “Your Majesty, I love you. I don’t want to be queen but I want to be the one to give the king a son, a living male heir, and you as well as I know that you cannot have children any longer.”

“That may be true, Anne, but the king can be very easily replaced by Mary.”

“Oh, Good Lord, when will you stop believing that your daughter will be the sole ruler of England?”

“I still have hope,” the queen sighed. “But there is still that bastard Henry FitzRoy that may become the heir.”

“No one will accept a bastard as their king!”

“The only reason the Tudors were able to rule was because of a bastard blood tie to the Plantagenet rulers on Henry VII’s mother’s side!”

“And people still think that Henry is not the true ruler because of that! Do you want another war that puts the realm in debt? He needs a living, legitimate son in order for his family to keep the throne.”

“And you can give it to him then?”

“If I do then you will be back at court as queen again. I will not give up my virtue if I am not married.”

“Sometimes I think you have,” the queen spat. “What of that Henry Percy boy?”

“Do not speak his name to me.”

“You consummated your union with him!” the queen exclaimed.

“No!” Anne yelled. “I loved him so much but our union was broken by Wolsey so the king could have me for himself!”

The queen started to laugh. “My dear, Wolsey broke you up because you did not ask the king to be married when Henry Percy himself was already engaged.”

“It does not matter, we did nothing.”

“Anne, I’m the only one that can see through your lies. I’ve had to see through all lies in order to survive in this place.”

It was silent for awhile, and then Anne said calmly, “Your Majesty, I lie no more than any other person in this court. You don’t have to believe a word I’m saying or a word I’ve said in my whole life, but if there is one thing you must believe, believe that I never meant to tear you apart from your husband and your child.”

Moments later the door opened and Anne walked out, holding her head high. She looked as if she was holding back tears, and did not turn to me as I stood there behind the door, just walked out of the room.

That day was November 30. Anne ran to my at dinner time, when the king was supposed to be dining with her. Her face was a mess of tears.

“The king is dining with the queen!” she gasped out.

“Anne, it’s no wonder the king has put you aside for a bit. With all your complaints he just wants some peace,” Meg explained.

“They aren’t complaints, Meg! I keep telling him that I can deliver him the son he needs. I must tell him that to keep him coming back. Otherwise, he would move on. I must do this, yet he still has his queen and I shall not give up my virtue. I tell him time and time again that if I will be his queen, he will have my child!” Anne cried.

“Anne, ‘tis not exactly easy to marry a woman when you are still married,” I declared.

“Her marriage with his brother was consummated, therefore a marriage to Henry is not, and never was valid!” she yelled.

“There received a dispensation from the Pope that said they could marry even if it was consummated,” I explained.

“But in the Bible it says a man who marries his brother shall die childless!” Anne screamed, her face red with anger. “And don’t even tell me that little bastard is his child. It means an heir!”

“What would you know Anne, you could care less about the Bible!” Meg cried, facing her.

“I care about my religion.”

“Not when people are calling you a witch and a sorceress!” I screamed.

“I’m not a witch and you know it!”

“Then end it with the king Anne, before everything goes too far,” Meg said calmly.

“No,” Anne spat. “I will birth his child, and I will be queen of this country when he marries me, his first wife.”

I stepped forward to face her with another remark, but Meg held me back.

“Let it go,” she whispered.

Anne’s temper was a mean one, and it often landed her in hard situations, like the one where she was in now. Yet moments later she was smiling and asking us to play cards. There was something so strange about her.

The next night after lessons the queen told me to go and see Meg, who had wanted to speak to me all day.

When I went to our room I saw her sitting by the fire, her hands shaking in her lap. Her face was pale and she looked almost sick.

“What’s wrong, Meg?” I asking, sitting down next to her and smiling, thinking about how wonderful lessons were that day. Boy, I loved history, and Latin as well. French and etiquette though had been unbearable.

“You have nothing to fear, do you? So young and innocent…” Meg sighed, looking at me right in the eyes. There were dark rings under her eyes. I had remembered the night before that Meg had had a terrible time sleeping.

“What happened to you Meg?” I asked.

She took a deep breath. “I have been suspecting for a long time now…I’m with child”

“Holy Mother,” I gasped and covered my face in my hands. I could not imagine how Meg herself felt.

“I’m only fourteen, Elizabeth! And I’m not married! I don’t know what to do!” she cried, tears rolling down her face.

“I think it’s time to tell Tom,” I declared.

“No!” she screamed. “I love him far too much to explain to him that I am carrying another man’s child. I cannot simply tell him it is his, either, for we’ve never done anything!”

“It is the only way Meg!” I had to be straight with her.

She shook her head, wailing. “My life is forever ruined. No one will want me, and when the child is born I cannot hide it from Tom. He is the best thing that happened to me.”

“Why didn’t you tell someone earlier? I thought you said you weren’t with child!”

“My mother never explained things to me, Elizabeth. I told her I never even danced with a man. Besides, I have not even seen my mother in months.”

“So what do we do?”

She shook her head. “When people find out I will be banished from court.”

“Meg…all I can believe that there is left to do is to go and tell Tom. He will understand, and if he marries you then you can pass of the child as his…”

“No! Anything but telling Tom!” she wailed.

“Please, Meg,” I pleaded with her. Even if she would not tell him I would.

She slowly looked up at me. “I feared that there was nothing else I could do…I have been looking up things…”

“What things?” I inquired, seeing the scared look on Meg’s face. A young girl such as her would ruin her life with this.

“I’ve looked in some medical books. I found ways that…that an abortion can be brought on.”

I wanted to slap her. “Margaret Taylor!” I cried. “A child is a gift from God, a sign of love given from one person to another. If you want to remember and cherish that French boy you bedded then the child is all you have. I shall not and will not let you. You will be condemning yourself to Hell!”

More tears poured down her eyes and she nodded. “I know…I know…”

“Ok, let’s go talk to Anne,” I helped her up.

Anne was playing cards with her brother in her room.

“What are the two of you doing here? Ah, George I’ll beat you this time…” Anne declared without looking up.

“We need to talk to you,” I replied. Meg was too upset to even speak.

Then Anne looked up and saw the distress upon Meg’s face.

“George, we shall continue our game later,” Anne nodded and George left the room.

“Now come and sit,” Anne motioned over to the chairs near the fire.

Once I had helped Meg to the chair and sat her down her guilt and sadness disappeared from her face a bit. “I…I’m with child.”

Anne let out a deep sigh. “I have actually expected you to say that.”

“You knew?” Meg looked to me.

“I can tell by the way you look so unsure of things and how much you have been eating these past few months,” Anne laughed. “I remember well my sister when she was with child.”

“Meg wants to have an abortion,” I gasped out.

Anne nodded sadly, looking intently at Meg. “’Tis not my life. Meg gets to make the decision. I know of some women that will make a concoction for abortions out of tansy.”

Meg’s face went pale again.

“I…I was never faced with this, but I know how you must be feeling. I’d say the thing to do is tell that sweetheart of yours that you are carrying his child.”

Tears fell down Meg’s face.

I went to sit closer to Anne to explain some things. “The child is not Tom’s, it is a Frenchman’s. He is not in the country any more, and Meg does not wish to tell Tom for fear that he will leave her.”

Anne let out a deep breath. “Of that I was afraid as well.”

“So what do we do?” I asked.

“Meg,” Anne called to her. “By the end of tonight I would like an answer. I would like to tell you some things, some important things, and then after that I would like you to tell me.”

Soon Meg was wrapped in Anne’s arms, and Anne was telling her the story of how she met Henry Percy.

“I met him a long while back. He was a page, low in the court, yet he was the first person to ask me to dance here in this court. It was just after I had come to England from France, and I was your age. My sister was already with her group of friends, safe to say the whores of the court. His comely eyes and smile caught my eye instantly. So comely he was, and he danced so gracefully. It was natural that I came to love him, and that eventually he asked me to marry him.

“I said yes, for I loved him more than anything on the Earth. And then Wolsey stepped in, I learned he was already engaged, and things ended. I watched my sister rise and fall, be called the ‘Great Whore’ and now I’ve got the king myself. Seems I’ve gone a far way.

“Now, I must warn you that if you go through with this that some things may happen. I’ve heard of a few girls that have done the same, and one of them was harmed. She…she died from too much of the herb. The rest experienced much pain, for their child just came out like that, dead…”

I covered my ears, trying not to listen to any of it. It was terrible. Why would someone do that to themselves?

About and hour later, Anne got up and went to her dresser. She pulled out a bundle of papers from the back of the drawer.

“I want to read these to you,” Anne smiled.

“The letters?” I asked.

Anne nodded and sat down next to Meg on the chair again.

“My mistress and friend: I and my heart put ourselves in your hands, begging you to have them suitors for your good favor, and that your affection for them should not grow less through absence. For it would be a great pity to increase their sorrow since absence does it sufficiently, and more than ever I could have thought possible reminding us of a point in astronomy, which is, that the longer the days are the farther off is the sun, and yet the more fierce. So it is with our love, for by absence we are parted, yet nevertheless it keeps its fervor, at least on my side, and I hope on yours also: assuring you that on my side the ennui of absence is already too much for me: and when I think of the increase of what I must needs suffer it would be well nigh unbearable for me were it not for the firm hope I have and as I cannot be with you in person, I am sending you the nearest possible thing to that, namely, my picture set in a bracelet, with the whole device which you already know. Wishing myself in their place when it shall please you, this by the hand of your loyal servant and friend, H. Rex.”

Meg was smiling, surely thinking of Tom, when Anne had finished reading.

“I assure you that if your sweetheart loves you half as much as Henry loves me, he will take you as his wife and accept your child as his own,” Anne explained.

“Read another one,” Meg said, indifferent.

Anne took up another in her hand. She blushed and smiled, skimming the letter.

“Read it!” I exclaimed, wanting to know what she smiled about.

“Fine,” Anne giggled. “Mine own sweetheart, these shall be to advertise you of the great loneliness that I find here since your departing, for I ensure you methinketh the time longer since your departing now last than I was wont to do a whole fortnight: I think your kindness and my fervents of love causeth it, for otherwise I would not have thought it possible that for so little a while it should have grieved me, but now that I am coming toward you methinketh my pains been half released.... Wishing myself (specially an evening) in my sweetheart's arms, whose pretty dukkys I trust shortly to kiss.”

“Oh Anne, how romantic he is,” Meg giggled and then her hand flew to her stomach. She gasped.

“You…you felt the child?” Anne asked.

“Oh…no, of course not,” Meg muttered.

Anne called for some sweetmeats then and we talked and laughed nearly all night long. At around two o’clock Meg seemed too tired to even keep her eyes open.

“I’ve made a decision,” she said suddenly.

I tried hard to keep awake to hear what she said.

“I will keep the child and tell Tom tomorrow,” she sighed, smiling slightly.

Anne threw her arms around her. “A good decision you have made.”

The next day I was sitting in lessons, wondering if Tom and Meg were out riding yet. Meg had told me she would tell Tom then. She was so nervous, but I hoped that Tom would understand. Meg just really needed a home for herself and her child, and if Tom did not marry her, she would be gone from court.

I listened as Sir Bradley explained the Pyrenees which separated France and Spain, wishing only to leave and go to supper.

“Eleanor, what is the highest mountain in the Pyrenees?” he suddenly asked.

Eleanor was almost asleep by now-geography was her least favorite subject.

“Uh…um…”

“Pico del Aneto,” I muttered to her.

“Pico del Aneto,” she answered the tutor with a smile.

“Very good, Eleanor. You were paying attention then.”

Eleanor turned and gave me a smile. “Thank you,” she mouthed.

Just then the door burst open and Elizabeth Seymour ran through, her face red and the breath taken out of her. She bobbed a curtsy.

“Excuse me sir, I must see Elizabeth,” she gasped out, trying to breath.

Sir Bradley waved me away.

Elizabeth took my hand, dragged me out into the hall, and began to run.

“Oh, must we run?” I whined as I followed her down the halls. “Where are we going anyway?”

“Meg, she is hurt…”

Right then my feet picked up and I ran ahead of her, knowing exactly where she was. As I went outside, I saw a crowd of people over near the Banqueting Hall, where Meg liked to ride.

I ran as fast as my feet could take me and pushed my way through the crowd. Instantly, Tom threw his arms around me and pulled me to him.

I reluctantly looked down to the ground where Meg laid, her riding habit bloody. Her eyes were barely open and she was not speaking. She didn’t seem to notice anyone was there.

“A snake scurried by the horse got spooked, and Meg fell to the ground,” Tom wailed, and I could see real tears falling down his face. I wondered if before this had happened she had told him.

“I think Meg did it on purpose,” Anne whispered to me as we lied in bed.

“What do you mean?!” I cried. “Don’t you see how much pain she is in?”

“You can fake pain,” she declared.

“Oh, you wouldn’t really say she wanted to have a miscarriage!” I exclaimed.

“Her plan was crafty. Having Tom feel terribly for her for being in pain, not having to tell him about the child, and just having a bit of pain in it, not risking her life.”

I buried my face in the pillows and thought about it. Why would Meg want to rid of her baby? Hadn’t she been intent on keeping the child, raising it as Tom’s baby?

“Oh, and by the way, I’m getting the king to send Catherine away.”

“What?!” I cried, tears already welling in my eyes. I seemed that Anne could get the king to do anything.

In the first week of December, Catherine was sent away from Greenwich, where the court had moved, to Richmond.

I remembered how that morning the king had come to the queen’s rooms and took her to a private room.

Moments later, the king walked out with a half-smile on his lips. The queen did not walk out for moments longer, and when she did, she was carrying a bundle of her things.

She pointed to the Seymour girls. “Come, girls, pack and be ready to leave for Richmond by dinner.”

The queen did not look afraid; she looked as she always did as she left the room, leaving our mouths hanging open. She held herself as well as any queen would do, and kept her dignity even in the toughest of times.

Princess Mary,

Much has happened since I last wrote to you and I wonder how long this letter shall be, for there is much to tell you!

Just before the nobles began to arrive for Yuletide, Meg confided in me that she was with child. I wonder who will read this and find out her secret, but other than you, Meg only told me and Anne. I told her then that she should tell Tom and he would marry her, give her child a home. Meg is stubborn, though, as you know, and would not give in to tell him. We went to talk to Anne then, see what Meg could do. Meg was fair convinced that all she could do was abort the child. Luckily, Anne and I convinced her that she would regret the decision for the rest of her life, for the child was a sign of love and all she had left of her French boy. She knew it was a sin, and that she might die, and if not then forever be shunned. In the end she decided not to. She promised to tell Tom the next day, yet as she was out riding with him, she was supposedly flung from her horse. I fell sad to tell you that she suffered a miscarriage. Even though she cried relentlessly for days, she did not tell Tom, and Anne thinks that she did it on purpose. She was hurt, yes, but no one besides us knows. I know not what to believe.

Much of Yuletide was spent with Anne by Meg’s beside, I must confess. She is still in low spirits and her legs still hurt her from the fall. I could tell that Anne’s mood was quite melancholy, as was the king’s, and that’s all I will say.

I’ve started up lessons with the Brandon girls-French, history, geography, Latin, etiquette, and sciences. I find French to be much harder than the simple things I learned with you, and history quite interesting. Who would have thought you could learn things about the future from things that happened in the past? Sir Dean is a very wonderful teacher, very wise in his years. He must be at least sixty years. Latin is very interesting, indeed. I find that come more naturally than French, maybe because the girls and I are on the same level for that. Geography and etiquette are just boring. I know already how to act in court and how to dance. But occasionally they will let Eleanor, Frances, and I dance and sing in etiquette class.

Eleanor likes to sing Greensleeves, and I find she reminds me very much of Hannah, so small and carefree. Frances seems much older than just twelve, older than me, who is twelve now as well. She is a wise and intelligent girl, and is very interested in sciences. With that I am completely lost. Our teacher, Monsieur Gerard, is half deaf I believe so Eleanor and I talk nonstop the whole time. They both remind me of you, carefree and loving, yet wise and intelligent at the same time. And they’ve got that Tudor red hair as well.

After lessons I go to the chapel and pray with your mother, for even though I sometimes miss church in the mornings with lessons, I never forget the faith my parents brought me up in. I’ve found I like reading from the Bible at night when I feel terribly for missing church. It eases the stress of the day.

Your mother is okay, yet she has been better I must say. Recently Anne dismissed all her maids, and the Seymour’s finally came back to the queen. There they want to stay, we all want to stay with the queen. I feel sorry to say that the king sent away your mother in early December, forcing her to go to Richmond. The Seymour’s went with her. Jane wrote to me, telling me of what the king had said to Catherine. He told her that even if the Pope declared their marriage true, he would still have his divorce. I fear terrible things are coming, and I wish to come see you at Ludlow. He says that the Church of Canterbury, whatever that may be, was more important than our Pope, the one that had declared your father ‘Defender of the Faith.’ I fear that if he continues this, your father may be excommunicated. He does not seem to care though, saying that he would rather call the Pope a heretic and marry whom he chose then stay married to your mother.

Luckily, the court had a say in this, and nearly everyone protested for the queen to come back. She was brought back on the Eve of Christmas, and it looked as if she had not eaten or slept since she last left court. She told us that we must all go with Anne when she is sent away from the court, which was what happened after Yuletide. I was forced to say goodbye to her. Not even the Seymour’s were allowed to go back with her. I wanted to go oh so badly with your mother, but the king would not approve.

Anne, with sudden power in court once more, seems more greedy with her power every day. She is still the old Anne, yet her temper has increased and with your mother gone, she spends every moment with the king. I know not what to think of it all, yet I cannot express how much I disprove of your mother being sent from court.

The king, after Wolsey died, appointed a new advisor and Lord Chancellor, as I’m sure you know-Thomas More. He is a strongly opposed the king’s relationship with Anne and maybe he can convince the king to finally end it. I hope he can, for the man does not like court much and is practically hidden from the rest of us. He has already expressed his remorse about your mother gone from her position at court, but even he can not do much. He is not as powerful as Wolsey ever was. Now we just have to wait and see what happens next.

I am contemplating whether to tell Tom of what Meg has done, but ‘tis not my duty to do so. If anyone should tell him ‘tis Meg, but she will not give in. Maybe only then will she be pardoned of her great sin, if she ever does tell him. I’ll just have to wait and see.

Your Loyal Servant Forever,
Elizabeth Rushford