But this new young queen is no fool. We were afraid, all three of us; but we did not know how very afraid we should have been. But Anne of Cleves knows. She has spoken with her ambassador and she knows there is to be no coronation. She has spoken with the Princess Mary and knows that the king can destroy a blameless wife by sending her far away from court, to a castle where the cold and damp will kill her if the poison does not. She has even spoken to little Katherine Howard and now she knows that the king is in love. She knows that ahead of her there must be shame and divorce at the least, execution at the worst.

Yet here she sits, in the royal box, with her head held high, dropping her handkerchief to signify the start of a charge, smiling with her usual politeness on the victor, leaning forwards to put the circlet of bay leaves on his helmet, to give him a purse of gold as his prize. Pale under her modest, ugly hood, doing her duty as Queen of the Joust as she has done her duty every day since she set foot in this country. She must be sick to her belly with terror but her hands on the front of the box are gently clasped and do not even tremble. When the king salutes her she rises up from her chair and curtseys respectfully to him, when the crowd calls her name she turns and smiles and raises her hand when a lesser woman would scream for rescue. She is utterly composed.

‘She knows?’ asks a quiet voice in my ear, and I turn to the Duke of Norfolk. ‘Can she possibly know?’

‘She knows everything but what is going to become of her,’ I say.

He looks at her. ‘She cannot know. She cannot have understood. She must be too stupid to understand what is going to happen to her.’

‘She isn’t stupid,’ I say. ‘She is incredibly courageous. She knows everything. She has more courage than we know.’

‘She’ll need it,’ he says unsympathetically. ‘I am taking Katherine away from court.’

‘Taking her away from the king?’

‘Yes.’

‘Is that not a risk? Will you deprive the king of the girl of his choice?’

The duke shakes his head. He cannot hide his triumph. ‘The king himself has told me to take her from court. He will marry Katherine as soon as he is rid of Anne. It is he who wants Katherine taken away. He wants her away from court so that she is not exposed to gossip while this false queen is ended.’ He bites down on a smile, he is almost laughing. ‘He wants no shadow of gossip attached to Katherine’s unsullied name.’

‘The false queen?’ I pick out the strange new title.

‘She was not free to marry. The marriage was never valid, it has not been consummated. God guided his conscience and he did not fulfil his vows. God prevented him from consummating the marriage. The marriage is false. The queen is false. It is probably treason to make a false declaration to the king.’