Author's Note: This is just to thank everyone who is reading, reviewing and following this story. While I'm her I thought I'd answer some questions raised in the reviews and to answer a few criticisms raised regarding my handling of Anne B.

I'll just start by directing the Anne-stans folk back to the summary, seriously if you like Anne B that's fine, but don't be reading this fic. It will only make you angry, more so as it continues. There was a question by one reviewer as to why I'm making Jane a saint while Anne is the villain. I don't see Jane Seymour as a saint, though I freely admit my bias as seeing Anne B as Henry VIII's worst partner and I say partner as opposed to wife because in my opinion Anne B was never Henry's legal wife or queen.

Henry VIII 'married' Anne B a full 3 months, that's 90 days, before the newly established Church of England granted Henry's annulment from Catherine (In the eyes of the Roman Catholic Church Catherine remained Henry's only legal wife until death parted them). So in my opinion Anne was never a true queen. That's just my personal opinion.

Jane, who did exactly the same to Anne B as Anne B had done to Catherine, married Henry legally once Catherine and Anne B had both gone to their graves, so in my eyes Jane was legally queen, as were the wives who came after her.

I see Anne as a clever, manipulative, scheming woman who desired power at any cost, and who loved Henry only for his crown. Which brings me to another criticism namely that I blame Anne B for Henry's actions. I do not, I blame Anne for her own calculated actions as I blame Henry for his. There has been studies in recent times speculating that Henry's jousting accident and other physiological factors affected Henry's major personality change in the Anne Boleyn Era and beyond (see BLOOD WILL TELL by Kyra Cornelius Kramer). But physiological considerations aside, Henry was a spoiled, capricious man with no self-discipline and too much power. He became, in time, a ruthless tyrant, there's no denying that nor do I try to.

It irks me that so many fixates on Anne B without looking at the 21 years preceding her.

The fact is as far as royal marriages go, Catherine and Henry had a remarkably happy marriage for 21 years. They were, according to all contemporary sources, well matched in intelligence with a strong physical attraction for one another. Henry loved her and she loved him, but more than that Henry trusted her completely, so much so that he let her act as his Ambassador for the major part of his reign.

The couple's public relationship in the early part of Henry's reign displayed an easy co-operation which allowed them to exchange public roles freely during civil ceremonies. One role which Henry VIII was apparently comfortable relinquishing was that of host during a number of special banquets.

Consequently when Henry VIII allowed Katherine to hold the chair of estate for him while he danced, he understood that he was sharing his power with her. Her presence there sustained his authority in the hall.

By rights Anne B should be the footnote, the afterthought, she wasn't half the woman or consort Catherine of Aragon was.

Interesting curiosities about Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon:
1. While Henry VIII claimed that he married Catherine to fulfilled a "long lost promise" to his dad because he was such a good son, the truth is that nobody bought it and as I suspect, some of you might not either. The truth is that people expected that Henry VIII, unlike his maternal grandfather, Edward IV, would listen to his councilors and marry whomever they'd tell him to aka someone who brought more to the marriage instead of a former widow but like his grandfather, he showed them that he was going to be his own man, subject to no one but his desires.
2. After Richard III and Anne Neville's joint coronation, Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon were the other glorious coronation that symbolized the coming of something new and hopeful.
3. Catherine of Aragon was the FIRST and only one of two Tudor Consorts to be appointed Regent while her husband was away fighting the French. In spite of Henry VIII's meager victory which he called one of the greatest that had ever been achieved, it was Catherine who won a bigger one and secured his throne from any future threats from his Northern neighbor, Scotland. By defeating James IV, King of Scots, Catherine's leadership, left a power vacuum in Scotland which had terrible repercussions for the Stuarts that lasted until Mary, Queen of Scots and sowed the seed for her terrible fate.
4. The similarities between Henry VIII and his maternal grandfather, Edward IV have long been established, but it is not so often that his relationship with Catherine is also paralleled with that of Edward and Elizabeth Woodville. Just like Elizabeth was a widow and five years and a half older than Edward, so was Catherine, five years and a half older to Henry VIII. History does repeat itself sometimes doesn't it? ;) It's a shame that Catherine and her beloved daughter didn't have a happier ending.
5. In her biography on Isabella I of Castile, Kirstin Downey says that out of all her daughters, Catherine of Aragon was the one who inherited her countenance. And while I am no fan of Feminist Karen Lindsey's short biography on the six wives, she is right when she wrote that had Catherine had been born a boy, Spain would have had one of its greatest Kings.
6. Catherine of Aragon was the first Female Royal Ambassador in Western Europe!
While Catherine and her mother were very similar, she could also be as conniving and deceptive as her father. In fact, knowing that there was no other best person he could trust than his youngest daughter at a time when her future seemed uncertain and war was once again brewing in Spain over who'd control Castile, Ferdinand II of Aragon appointed her his Ambassador.
7. She set the stage for other learned women, including Queen Catherine Parr!
Like Margaret Beaufort and Elizabeth Woodville's family who sponsored many renowned religious scholars, Catherine sponsored artists and humanists as well but she took a step further, inspiring other women to get an education for themselves and their daughters, one of those women was Maud Parr whose daughter was possibly named in her honor. She became Henry VIII's last wife and the second and last Tudor consort to also be named his regent, once again when he was away fighting the French. In his book on the education of Christian princes and women's intelligence, Juan Luis Vives, dedicated his texts to her, calling her a role model for all women.
8. Defendress of the Faith: As previously stated, besides Henry VIII writing an incendiary tract against Luther in support of the Catholic faith; Catherine also wrote her own defense which earned her the unofficial title of defendress of the faith.
9. Gentle, sweet but strong as her lady mother and pragmatic as her father: Appearances can be VERY deceiving. This is certainly true when it comes to Catherine of Aragon. She appeared sweet and meek on the outside but get into a verbal row with her, you were sure to end up being devoured! Not only that, this was a woman who had been witnessed to her parents' conquest. She was a child when she saw the way her mother inspected her troops and how her father played coy with the politicians, saying one thing but doing another behind their backs. During her regency, after she had received news of King James IV of Scots' demise, she coldly inquired as to why she was not being shown his body. They told her that it would be too much to send his body to His Majesty; something she didn't look too kindly upon. So she had no choice but to settle for his bloody cape, sending it to her husband as "proof" of her victory which she attributed to him. This just shows you that besides being a good politician, she was like her father, tough as nails. And like him, she was subtle but deadly in her letters. When she found out that the pope had not yet reached a decision about her marriage, she told Charles about it and told him to hurry up and exert more pressure on the pope. When -in her view- Charles wasn't doing enough to help her cause, she put pressure on Chapuys and finally on the pope himself, daring to questioning his commitment to the Catholic faith. Talk about audacity!
10. A Woman for all Seasons: Besides being praised by her allies, she was also praised by her religious enemies, including Luther who greatly admired her and like Juan Luis Vives and Thomas More, considered her a good role model for women and was deeply saddened by her death.
11. The longest Tudor marriage: Out of all the Tudor unions, including Henry VIII's parents, it was Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon's union that lasted the longest. Twenty four years! (More if you don't count parliament's ruling)

I take inspiration from THE SPANISH PRINCESS in so far as my Catherine and Henry look like they do in this (Spanish Princess)series, but I side with the majority of historians who believe that Catherine was a virgin when she came to her and Henry VIII's marriage bed and this fan fic reflects the view that Catherine's prior marriage to Arthur Tudor was never consummated.

A quick note about the Otherwold my characters inhabit, to them it looks and feels as solid as our world feels to us, but if a living person were to stumble across it, it would seem to them flimsy with apparitions walking through walls and such, because in the ghost's world these are no wall there, for instance.