The Tudor Witness

Onward they traveled to London, Catalina shaking from the cold and because of nerves, inside her carriage. The streets were cobbled and it bounced Catalina around the carriage, which, along with her nerves, made her want to throw up.

Catalina looked out the window, seeing people of either sides of her carriage, looking at the woman that would produce the heir to their throne. Catalina was afraid that all the pictures were wrong and that Arthur could be some kind of monster.

She knew the people were shouting things at her, yet they talked in English. Oh, stupid parents, thinking she could catch onto it when she really needed it now. How would she ever survive if she could to no one?

The clothes they wore were different too. There wore thick layers, many layers, and large headdresses upon their heads. They wore all different types of colors, all of them much lighter than the dark reds and blues that Catalina was used to wear.

The English entourage that had come to take her to London from the court of Plymouth had been sure to rid of most of Catalina’s seemingly meaningless possessions and the clothes that would never work in such a country as England. The maids had simply gone through her private things and chucked whatever they thought did not go.

Then they told her, through a translator, that she was English, no longer Spanish, and to leave Spain behind forever.

Even now Catalina only had one Spanish maid in her carriage, the two others were English. She could hear the two chattered away loudly and laughing, probably something about Catalina herself. Her mother had told her to be careful of nasty rumors.

She tried to talk to her maid, but with the constant shouting of her name-Catherine-she could not even get her thoughts together.

So here it was, November 4, 1501, in Dogmersfield in Hampshire, that the shouts became so loud that even the English girls stopped talking. She heard shouts of a name she remembered-Henry. They were either calling for Arthur’s brother or the king himself.

A guard came up to the window soon and shouted to a bewildered Catalina in Spanish that the prince had come to meet her, not being able to wait to see his bride any longer!

Catalina’s maid let out a scream. All four of the girls were going to change into their best gowns before they met the king and the prince at Lambeth, but now here the prince was, already waiting to see Catalina.

She had not even brushed her hair since she had been on the ship. The English girls quickly closed the curtains and dug in the back of the carriage, pulling out one of Catalina’s dresses.

The one girl handed it to her and said, “Wear this, hurry…uh…” The English girls stared at each other, wondered how to translate.

Catalina seemed to get the gist and as she took off her dress and tried to get the new one on, the girls readily fixed her hair. Such dependable and helpful girls, Catalina thought, they don’t even know me.

After about five minutes the dress was on and the English girls were placing a headdress upon Catalina’s head.

God give me strength, Catalina kept mouthing as the door to the carriage opened.

Catalina’s eyes fell upon one person and only one as she stepped down in her new sandals upon the soft English ground.

He was a spitting image of the boy in the paintings, of the boy on the miniature tucked safely in her pocket.

The two entourages slowly walked to each other and when Catalina was close enough, she looked around at the English people surrounding her husband. She spotted a boy who looked like Arthur, and who was standing next to him, and realized that it was his brother Henry.

And then her eyes locked with Arthur’s and they would not move elsewhere.

Thank you God for this one love, Catalina thought with a smile as she dipped to the ground, her legs wobbly and still adjusting to the still ground.

Arthur then took her shaking hand in his shaking hand and smiled and kissed it gently.

Catalina could feel her mouth curve up in a large smile. The winds stopped just long enough to hold the moment.

=+=

Winter

I woke up early that December morning, feeling quite different. I felt older now. Now I was nine. It seemed so very strange, thinking of what had happened since I came to court. I had been there more than a year.

I woke Hannah up early and we eagerly went to the queen’s chambers to look out the window. That day was the day Mary would come.

“Must I act like I do towards the queen?” Hannah asked as we pressed our faces to the cool glass, hoping that soon we would spot the princess’ retinue.

“Of course not! Mary will be your friend, as I am your friend,” I explained. “You will know she is a princess when you see her, but around us she will act as a friend.”

At that moment I saw the red livery rattle down the street, six carriages in all.

There were several guards that approached the first carriage, and they helped the princess step out.

“She is very beautiful,” Hannah gasped.

I nodded. “Mary looks much like her father.”

“How many times must I curtsy to her?”

“Only once,” I smiled. I was like an Anne to Hannah.

“What are you doing?” Anne whispered, suddenly behind us.

“Waiting for Princess Mary,” I answered.

Anne’s face was inches from mine. “You do know that when I marry the king, Mary will be nothing but a little bastard,” she whispered with a hint of laughter at the end.

My body stiffened and I felt tears brim in my eyes.

“Surely you won’t let her become that. She is still the king’s daughter!” I whispered back, almost too loudly.

“Oh, but her mother is not really married to the king. She is merely his mistress. For all Henry says, he was never married,” she walked from the window as the tears spilled from my eyes.

I saw Mary with her bright smiling face and her long, wavy red hair, flowing around her shoulders. She would not be the Princess after this was all done and over...

“Elizabeth!” Mary flung her arms around me as soon as she made it into her mother’s chamber.

“I am so glad that you have come!” I cried.

“I will always come, Elizabeth, always,” she assured me. But I wasn’t too sure of anything anymore.

I pulled away from her and motioned to Hannah to come forward. “Mary, I would like you to meet Hannah. She is Tom’s sister.”

“’Tis a pleasure to meet you!” she declared and then whispered to me, “Tom and his family are at court?”

“Yes, his father became an Earl,” I explained.

“’Tis a joy to meet the Princess Mary,” Hannah curtsied low.

“You can call me Mary.”

Mary then ran over to embrace her mother, and then turned back to us.

“I should like to fly my hawk now, to get some air after being stuffed in a carriage all day,” she explained and we followed her out the door. “We can pick up your brothers on the way.”

“Oh!” Hannah exclaimed. “I have never been hawking!”

“I have, only once, yet I do not have a hawk of my own,” I explained.

Mary was walking far ahead of us. She knew the hallways more than I did, yet she had never even been at Hampton Court.

“She is much like us,” Hannah whispered out of Mary’s earshot. “Yet I could tell she was a princess from a mile away.”

“Well, she does like to wear ermine, which does give her away,” I laughed a bit. Only royalty could really afford to wear ermine. And Anne.

“No, but look at the way she holds herself. The way she holds her posture even when walking. I wish I could walk as gracefully as her,” Hannah sighed.

“She is like her mother, always graceful,” I nodded.

Mary cut into our conversation. “So what have I missed at court these past months. I am hoping my father has gotten over that whore…”

And at that moment Anne popped out from the corridor to the right of us.

“Excuse me, Mary,” Anne mumbled, her cheeks red and a smile set on her face, and ran off.

“What did she call me?!” Mary yelled.

I shook my head, knowing full well what she had called Mary.

“I…I think she called you Mary,” Hannah whispered.

“Well I guess she is still my father’s mistress then,” Mary smirked and turned on her heal.

The five hawks glided gently above our heads.

“They look so peaceful,” Hannah sighed.

The five of us were lying down upon the grass, watching the hawks glide in the sky, searching for prey.

“They do until they find their prey!” Mary explained.

We were silent for awhile, and watched as my brother’s hawk suddenly flew to the ground, running after his dinner.

William stood up and held out his hand for the bird to come and perch on.

“You know he will have a dead animal in his beak. If you don’t want snake or rat guts all over yourself then I suggest you let him land next to you, on the ground,” Mary explained.

Tom and William started to laugh. “But that’s the best part!”

“Ew!” Hannah cried.

He still held out his arm and sure enough the hawk landed there, a bloody rabbit in its mouth.

Mary, Hannah, and I jumped back away from the animal, but Tom moved in closer.

“The two of you are disgusting!” I cried.

Tom turned around and exclaimed, “Not as disgusting as this!” And he waved the rabbit, with its guts pouring out, right in front of our eyes.

We screamed and started running, knowing that he was chasing us with the dead rabbit.

“Tom stop it!” Hannah screamed.

I heard William collapse in a heap of laughter.

“It’s not funny!” I yelled at him, yet I couldn’t help but smile.

We made it to the edge of the grand maze in the gardens.

We fell into a laughing pile at the foot of the maze, where a grand fountain stood.

Tom caught up with us. “Don’t worry, I threw it into the pond awhile before.”

William came up then. “Let’s get back into the palace, it looks close to raining.”

The three of us stood up and shook out our dirty gowns.

Just then there was a thunderous sound from above and the rain began to pour down upon us.

We ran as fast as our feet would run, trying hard not to slip as the rain collected into muddy puddles. By the time we made it to the side door of the palace, our gowns were soaked and covered in mud and our hair had fallen out of the neat buns and tumbled down into wet tangles.

“Oh good Lord, what is my mother going to say?” Mary whispered as the five of us climbed quietly up the servants’ staircase, careful not to draw too much attention.

“Are you kidding me, my mother will just laugh when she sees me!” Hannah whispered.

“Hannah, if you haven’t noticed, you are quite a respectable girl now, and I really don’t think mother would approve…” Tom explained.

“Well you can talk! You look perfectly fine. No mud, you are only wet. By the time we get up there, you will already be dry!” Hannah cried.

“Will the queen really yell at us?” I whispered to Mary in a worried voice.

“Well I am the princess; I can do as I want. I’ll say it was my idea so you’ll not get into trouble either,” she explained.

We said goodbye to my brother, Tom, and Hannah as they all retreated to their rooms, and continued up the stairs until we made it to a back door of the queen’s apartments.

“We can follow this room to my closet and change before she ever knows a thing,” Mary whispered as she opened the door.

But as we looked up, we say her mother staring down at us, a frown upon her face.

“What won’t I know, Mary?” the queen asked, raising her eyebrows.

“Um…”

“Get in here, the both of you!” the queen yelled and we went to sit at the window seat against the small, cold window in the corner of the room.

Queen Catherine paced the floor of the room many times. Mary looked at me with a confused look in her eyes.

“I cannot allow either of you outside on the grounds any longer,” the queen finally said, still pacing.

Mary shot up. “Why mother?!”

“I am afraid for you Mary,” the queen sighed. “The both of you.”

“But why?” Mary exclaimed.

“Mary, things are changing at court. If you ever go out unattended, I am not even sure what might happen to you,” the queen turned away from us. “Someone could kidnap you, or even kill you, or do anything. It would be much easier that way…”

“Much easier for what?” Mary’s voice was uneasy.

I looked away fast before she had the chance to look at me for I was afraid I would give it away if she saw the worry in my eyes.

The queen still had her back to us. “I thought by now that your friend here would have told you. But I know she is afraid, and I am glad she told no one. Best to keep quiet for now.”

I turned for a second to look at Mary. The confused look in her eyes made me want to cry.

“I have known, as you have, for a long while now that I will never have children again. Your father knows it as well. Your father…he wants…he needs an heir…”

Mary started to laugh. “I’ve told you many times before, mother. I am his heir. When he dies I will become Queen of all England.”

“As much as I would love to see that come true, it is not possible. A woman cannot rule a country on her own. Women are only there to provide the heir, not to govern. They cannot rule.”

“Yes they can mother! I can be the exception! I can show them all!”

“You won’t be able to!” I yelled, and I felt the stares of the queen and the princess upon me.

Mary stood up suddenly. “I don’t know what you people are trying to tell me,” she shook her head sadly and headed for the door.

The queen could not tell her, she could not tell Mary that soon she would not even be princess.

“Your father is intent on marrying another woman,” I finally choked out as Mary’s hand rested upon the doorknob.

She turned back to me, tears rolling down her cheeks. “He cannot, and he will not. He loves my mother and would not go against her. He cannot even if he wished to. Mother, tell her she speaks lies.”

“Mary,” the queen said softly, and then paused for a few moments. “What Elizabeth speaks is the truth. Your father is finding a way to divorce me so that he can marry…”

“Anne Boleyn…” Mary breathed, her eyes going wide, suddenly understanding everything. “And if you are not his wife, then I am not his…his real daughter. I…I will no longer be the princess.”

“Mary,” I rested my hand against her arm.

Her eyes were wide and she did not move for a few seconds. I thought she was about to collapse, but then she muttered something so softly I could not hear.

“What?” I whispered, grasping her suddenly-cold arm tighter, for fear that she would fall.

“I will kill her!” she screamed.

Her scream ran through my ears and I was very certain that the whole court heard it. Better that way, they deserved to know that everyone was now against Anne Boleyn.

“Mary knows,” Tom pointed out as I danced with him that night.

Mary was sitting off next to her mother. She was looking out the window, and she did not turn once to look at the court. “I am quite sure the whole court will know soon.”

“About what?” Hannah asked as she danced by, held by my brother.

“Well…ow!” I cried. “You stepped on my foot.”

“Maybe I did,” Tom whispered and winked.

I nodded. “Tell no more than already knows,” I mumbled.”

“For it will come out soon. How long can you hide that you are betrothed to a person?” I asked. “Ow! What was that one for?!”

Tom started to laugh. “I just felt like it.”

“You know I could slap you now,” I sighed as we turned and he lifted me high into the air, as the dance called for.

“But I know you won’t,” he smiled.

My eye caught sight of Anne off talking to the king in a private secluded corner. I saw him place a huge ruby ring into her palm and she instantly slipped it on.

I sighed as Tom brought me back to the floor.

“What?” he asked.

“Oh, nothing,” I frowned.

“Elizabeth, you are going to take a bath and you are going to like it!” Anne cried, practically pushing me into the bathtub.

“But I don’t like taking baths!” I cried. “I never did at my home!”

“And that is why all of you sickened so easily. You won’t get sick as easily if you are clean,” Anne explained.

With one final push I splashed into the nearly-boiling water. It felt good though, in the cold wintry palace.

“Now scrub!” Anne tossed a thick cloth into the water. It smelled of lavender.

“Anne?” I asked as I scrubbed my grimy arms.

“Yes?” she turned from her mirror, where she was applying red powder to her cheeks.

“When you…if you do become queen what will happen to Queen Catherine and Mary?” I asked. The question had been worrying me for awhile.

“I’m not sure. It all depends on what Henry wants. I want them to stay at court of course, for Mary will always be by right a princess. I would never ever think to take that away from her!” Anne cried.

“Oh, that’s a relief! I thought they were going to be sent away!” I cried.

“Of course not, my dear. I guess Catherine will be regarded as Arthur’s widow for awhile, and when I die in childbirth after I birth the king’s son she will be queen again. I only wanted that, and I wouldn’t have ever been Henry’s wife if I ever thought it wouldn’t be that way,” she explained as she ran the water through my long hair.

I felt much better now, knowing that Mary and Catherine would have their titles back soon after Anne birthed the heir. I let the steaming water run through my thick locks, hoping that this would all be over soon.

“Don’t worry, Elizabeth, all will be fine,” Anne added. And she meant it. “Okay, you are done. Now that felt good, didn’t it?” she smiled.

I nodded and wrapped myself up in cloths to dry myself.

Anne combed out my hair. I spotted the ruby ring upon her finger. “It will all work out in the end.”

I nodded and took a deep breath, thankful that soon I would not have to worry about any of it.

Yuletide was always my favorite time of year.

At the end of December all the servants and maids put up the decorations and the ladies-in-waiting to the queen and the king’s sister once again prepared a dance for the court. It had already been a year since Anne had first won over the king.

“I do congratulate you for keeping the king’s interest so very long!” I exclaimed as we made our way into the Great Hall to practice our dance. I felt close to Anne once again, now that I knew of her plan.

“Well what to you expect!” she giggled. “He hasn’t had me yet and that’s all he really wants. And he won’t rid of me until he’s had me.”

“Anne, you speak so vulgar!”

“I believe half the girls your age don’t even understand what I had just told you,” she laughed.

“Well I am a very different girl, Anne,” I replied.

“That you are.”

Jane Seymour came up behind me. “Is it true?” she whispered.

“What?” I whispered back, out of Anne’s earshot.

“I hear Anne is with child, the king’s child,” she snickered.

I gasped. “I…I’m not sure.”

“About what?” Anne called back to me.

“Nothing…” I called to her and she turned back around, talking to Jane Boleyn.

“There is that rumor going around,” she whispered. “Spread it and Anne will soon be ruined.”

“Why would I want to do that?” I asked.

“We all have our reasons to despise her,” she sneered.

I could not help but smile, no matter how much I loved Anne. There were times when I couldn’t even stand her.

“Elizabeth! Wake up!” I heard William cry.

I opened my eyes and found that William and Hannah were at my bed. Anne had left already.

“It’s Christmas!” Hannah screamed and fell, laughing, against my bed.

“Where is Mary?” I sat up and rubbed my sleepy eyes.

“She is still not feeling quite right,” William sighed.

I wished that Mary had never been told. She just hadn’t been the same since we had told her, and I knew she would not go back to her normal self for a long time. Maybe during the summer progress she would be better.

“I don’t think she will ever be the same,” Hannah sighed. By now Hannah even knew of the king’s intentions to divorce Mary. Tom had told her, with my permission of course.

“She will come to the celebrations though,” William assured me.

I got out of my bed and open the dark curtains to all four of the windows in our room. I looked out and saw that a light covering of snow had fallen and that more was floating down.

“It’s been snowing since three in the morning,” a tried Mary appeared at my door.

“You’ve gotten no sleep, then?” Hannah asked.

Mary shook her head and plopped down on my bed. “Must you really stay with her?”

“That’s how I get information,” I explained, slipping a dark red velvet hood onto my head.

Mary didn’t say anything for a long while. “It doesn’t seem like Christmas. My mother is worrying herself to death, yet she won’t admit as much to me. My father does not even seem to remember that I am his daughter.”

“Mary, I have talked to Anne. She does not want to hurt you or your mother…”

Mary shot up and yelled, “Don’t even speak of her name. I don’t care what you have to tell me, for I will never give a damn about that woman!” She ran from the room.

Hannah looked intent on running after her.

“Don’t even try,” William whispered. “She just wants to be alone.”

“Maybe it would be better if she does not make it,” I suggested. “Maybe her father will finally worry about her.”

But as we danced in our masks last night, once again before the whole court, the king did not seem at all concerned that his daughter had not made it to the Christmas celebration. His eyes were fixed upon Anne as she danced, higher and stronger than any of us combined.

The queen was still holding herself well, yet I knew she was more concerned about Mary than anything else. When she had told the king that Mary was not up to the celebrations, he cared for only a second, and then it seemed like he didn’t even have a daughter to miss.

As we sat down to eat the wondrous Christmas feast, I saw that Anne was at the head of the table, directly across from Cardinal Wolsey. I saw that every time he looked away, Anne glared at him with those powerful eyes of hers. She hated him with a passion.

The king had his eyes on Anne at all times, and he looked at her with a burning desire. Queen Catherine continued to smile upon her vast court of subjects, trying to seem oblivious to the rumors circulating around her.

“Tom, I cannot take it anymore,” I whispered to him as he shoveled in the wonderful-looking Christmas ham into his mouth.

“Take what?” he asked, his mouth full of food.

I looked next to him and saw his mother and father and Hannah, now fully adjusted to the court life. The younger of his two sisters were still too young to be in court.

“All of this about Anne and the king!” I exclaimed.

“Shh!” he whispered and went back to his food, pretending I hadn’t said anything.

“I mean, I don’t know how I will be able to contain it anymore. I feel so terrible and so angry!”

“If it would make you feel better then we can leave after dinner and go and stay with Mary,” he suggested.

I nodded. “That would be nice.”

An hour or two later we were in Mary’s bedroom, looking out at the falling snow.

Mary was sulking and crying on her bed and Tom and I were by the hearth, talking and whispered. It was cold in Mary’s room, and the fireside was the only warm place we could sit.

“I wonder how long Mary is going to be depressed,” Tom whispered so Mary could not hear what we spoke of.

“I don’t think she will ever stop. She will always be haunted with the thought of knowing her mother, and herself even, are being replaced. She will probably be worse when that time does come,” I explained.

Tom turned his head to look back at her. She had nearly cried herself to sleep by then.

“I cannot imagine her not a princess,” he sighed and turned back to me.

I was crying then.

“Oh, Elizabeth, don’t cry,” he whispered sweetly and wrapped his arms around me.

“But how can I not?! Anne is my friend, yet I love Mary and her mother as well. Who am I supposed to chose, for it seems that I must only like one over the other?” I sobbed.

“You do not have to chose,” he said finally, letting me go. “Being friend to both is an advantage, Elizabeth. You will understand soon.”

I nodded and he wiped away the tear that fell down my cheek.

“I think it best that you stay with Mary tonight,” he whispered, making to stand up and leave.

“I was planning on that,” I agreed and he left the room to go back to the festivities as I sat alone by the fire in Mary’s bedroom.

There was a terrible silence in her room for the longest time, yet I knew not what to say.

She finally spoke, muttering in a sad voice, “I think…I…I know I will not be princess for long. Maybe I might be able to convince my father to marry me off to some foreign prince before he divorces my mother. That way he won’t have to deal with me and I will still have my dignity.”

“Mary, I know this is killing you, but…but she did promise me that all she was to do was birth a son. Mary, she hopes to die in childbirth after the son is born so that you and your mother can have your positions back as soon as possible. It will be like nothing happened, except that you will then have a little brother. Everything will go back to normal then.”

“Elizabeth, you don’t understand a thing!” she screamed, jumping out of her bed. “Have you ever considered what is going to happen to me and my mother, to me personally?”

“Nothing will…”

“No! No one will ever regard us ever again as the Princess and the Queen of England. No one will want to marry a cursed girl who was illegitimate for only a few years and then restored to power! What does that say about anything?! It says that your father would rather cast you aside for a few years just to have a son then respect you as his rightful daughter and his rightful wife!” she yelled and stormed out of the room.

I ran onto her soft bed and buried my face into the velvety covers.