In September the town of Boulogne falls to the English siege, and the king prepares to come home to a hero’s welcome. Indeed, he writes from France to command a hero’s welcome and it is my task to make sure that he has one. The king’s victory procession will march from Dover to London and the whole court will ride down to greet him at Leeds Castle, in Kent. I must commission the royal glazier to make special windows for the banqueting hall, bedrooms, and chapel at Leeds Castle, and Master Glazier Hone comes to my rooms and shows me his design of the doomed castle of Boulogne and the king and his army before it.

“The sun will stream through the glass and the walls of Boulogne will seem to glow with pride as they face the sunset for the last time before they fall into rubble,” Galyon Hone tells me. “The glass is with the painters and the cutters now.”

“It will be ready in time?”

“We are working all day and into the night, and we can get the banqueting hall windows made in time for the feast. The others will follow later.”

“You must get the chapel window finished too,” I say. “The king will want it ready. We are to have a celebration Mass; the windows must be there. I have to insist, Master Glazier.”

He nods. He is a busy little man, his hands as rough as old leather from a lifetime of cuts. “Very well, Your Majesty, you are a hard taskmaster. But look at the designs! See how I have shown the king and his nobles before the walls of Boulogne!” He shows me another drawing. “See, here is the Duke of Norfolk, the Duke of Suffolk Charles Brandon, Sir Thomas Seymour. See, Your Majesty, here is your noble brother.”

He has made quick clever sketches of the nobles of the court around the king; some are in armor, their standards flying. In the background, miniature horses wait loaded with armor, cannons recoil with little puffs of cloud above them.

My eyes rest on the clear profile of Thomas Seymour. “You have them to the life,” I say unsteadily. “May I have a copy of this?”

“It is a very good likeness of the king.” He is pleased. “Take it, take this one, Your Majesty. I have another made fair for the glass cutter. And here is the moment when the walls fall. It’s a great moment. Like Jericho for Joshua.”