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Chapters (43)
  1. Cover
  2. The Taming of the Queen
  3. Family Trees
  4. Maps
  5. HAMPTON COURT PALACE,
  6. HAMPTON COURT PALACE,
  7. OATLANDS PALACE, SURREY,
  8. MANOR OF THE MORE, HERTFORDSHIRE,
  9. AMPTHILL CASTLE, BEDFORDSHIRE,
  10. HAMPTON COURT PALACE,
  11. WHITEHALL PALACE, LONDON,
  12. WHITEHALL PALACE, LONDON,
  13. SAINT JAMES’S PALACE, LONDON,
  14. WHITEHALL PALACE, LONDON,
  15. WHITEHALL PALACE, LONDON,
  16. WHITEHALL PALACE, LONDON,
  17. HAMPTON COURT PALACE,
  18. LEEDS CASTLE, KENT,
  19. WHITEHALL PALACE, LONDON,
  20. WHITEHALL PALACE, LONDON,
  21. WHITEHALL PALACE, LONDON,
  22. WHITEHALL PALACE, LONDON,
  23. NONSUCH PALACE, SURREY,
  24. SOUTHSEA CASTLE, PORTSMOUTH HARBOR,
  25. COWDRAY HOUSE, MIDHURST, SUSSEX,
  26. GREENWICH PALACE,
  27. WHITEHALL PALACE, LONDON,
  28. WHITEHALL PALACE, LONDON,
  29. HAMPTON COURT PALACE,
  30. HAMPTON COURT PALACE,
  31. GREENWICH PALACE,
  32. WHITEHALL PALACE, LONDON,
  33. GREENWICH PALACE,
  34. WHITEHALL PALACE, LONDON,
  35. HAMPTON COURT PALACE,
  36. HAMPTON COURT PALACE,
  37. WINDSOR CASTLE,
  38. WHITEHALL PALACE, LONDON,
  39. OATLANDS PALACE, SURREY,
  40. GREENWICH PALACE,
  41. HAMPTON COURT PALACE,
  42. AUTHOR’S NOTE
  43. BIBLIOGRAPHY

“Kick him,” Henry advises me, and the court laughs when I pretend to swing a foot and Will bounds out, howling like a dog and holding his buttocks.

“The queen was destined to marry for love,” Kratzer says as Will limps to the side of the room. “In spirit, and in person, she is formed and destined to love deeply and well.” He looks solemn. “And alas, I think she will pay a great price for her love.”

“You mean that she has had to take great office, she has to undertake great duties for her love?” the king asks gently.

The astronomer frowns slightly. “I am afraid that love may lead her into grave danger.”

“She is Queen of England for love of her husband,” Henry says. “That is the greatest and the most dangerous place for any woman in the country. Everyone envies her, and our enemies would see her humbled. But my love for her, and my power, will defend her.”

There is a silence as many people are genuinely moved by the king’s words of devotion. He takes my hand to his mouth and kisses it, and I too am deeply touched that he should love me, and declare it so publicly. Then some sycophantic courtier exclaims, “Hurrah!” and the moment is broken. The king opens his arms to me and I step into his warm embrace, and as his big fat head comes down I press my lips to his damp cheek. He lets me go and I turn away from the table and the astronomer. Nan is at my side.

“Ask the king’s astronomer to draw my chart and bring it when I send for him,” I say to her. “Tell him to keep it private and discuss it with no one but me.”

“Are you interested in the love or the danger?” she asks sharply.

I look at her blandly. “Oh, in both, I suppose.”

WHITEHALL PALACE, LONDON,

SUMMER 1544

The astronomer’s predictions convince the king that he should start for France while Mars is high in his chart. The physicians strap up his wound and give him drugs that ease the pain and keep him as elated as a young man drunk at his first joust. The Privy Council surrenders to the king’s enthusiasm and comes to Whitehall Palace to see him set sail in the royal barge to go downriver to Gravesend, and from there to ride to Dover. He will cross the Narrow Seas to meet the Spanish emperor and decide on the pincer attack of their two armies on Paris.