Chapter 34

June 1552

It was the height of Midsummer- the hottest Midsummer in over a decade and I was suffering in the heat. I was especially suffering because of my pregnancy. I was in my fifth month by now and the extra weight of my child taxed my body and made me even hotter than I already was.

Small wonder, then, that I was irritable and unwilling to receive Ambassadors. The heavy gowns that protocol demanded I wear on such occasions only served to compound my misery, particularly in such an enclosed space as our Privy Chamber.

Edward's news , therefore, that an Ambassador was outside and requesting an urgent audience, was hardly very welcome.

"Edward, can't you see to them, please?" I groaned, "It's far too hot for me to be doing such a thing. I do not have the head for Matters of State; not today, not in this heat. You'll be far better at it."

Edward chuckled, coming up behind me to rub my shoulders, "I could see to him, Elizabeth, but it's the French envoy, Count Montgomery. I suspect you'll want to hear what he has to say for yourself."

Despite myself, I twisted abruptly in my seat, "Do you think?"

"It could be, couldn't it? We could know, once and for all, whether Anne is to be Queen in your sister's stead."

Edward was too tactful to add, "Whether you'll let Blanche come home," but we both knew he meant it. The words hung awkwardly in the air between us until I turned away and struggled to my feet.

"Well, come on, then. We won't find out by waiting around here."

Edward gallantly withdrew for a few minutes while my ladies helped me change into a more respectful gown than the cool silken wrap I had been wearing. After that, he returned, took me on his arm, and the two of us sailed out of my chambers to take our places in our Presence Chamber.

We had scarcely done so when Count Montgomery was bowing before us.

"Your Majesty. Your Highness."

"Count Montgomery," I smiled, extending my hand to him. He took it, brushed it with his lips and breathed, "Your Majesty grows ever more beautiful."

Before I could respond, he stepped back, allowing a careful degree of distance to come between us. Edward clenched his hand on the arm of his chair. He often did when he was hearing audiences at my side. Even after six years, he could never quite feel comfortable with having to listen to all the Ambassadors try to flatter me.

"Excellency," He cut Count Montgomery's flowery speech off before it had even begun, "You have your master's response to our proposal of a union between His Majesty and Her Majesty Queen Anne?"

The Ambassador looked somewhat startled at Edward's impatience, but recovered his composure quickly enough, "I do, Your Highness."

"And? What does His Majesty King Henri say?"

"My master first wishes me to convey his horror and deepest condolences over this entire delicate matter…"

"Yes, Yes!" I waved Count Montgomery's platitudes aside, biting down hard on a surge of impatience. Good God! Would he never cut to the chase?

"He also wishes to affirm that the terms of the contract will stay the same, even though it is the Queen Dowager that he will be marrying and not the Princess Blanche."

His Excellency's voice held the slightest note of question and Edward hastened to reassure him.

"It is true that we can no longer assure His Majesty of the revenues from the Irish ports. They are, after all, loyal to Lady Ormonde. However, the Pas-du-Calais will be handed over just as was originally planned and agreed and Her Majesty Queen Anne will be dowered with the ports of Deal, Southampton and Tilbury instead of Dublin and Cork."

The Ambassador nodded, "That all sounds most satisfactory, Your Grace. I will have to double-check, of course, but if the Lady herself is agreeable, then I see no reason why the union between our countries should not be hastened."

Edward didn't miss a beat. He half-turned his head and spoke to Lady Lucy, "Lucy. See if Her Majesty is within the Palace walls. Ask her if she would be so kind as to attend upon us in the Presence Chamber."

"As you wish, My Lord," Lucy replied, dropping down into a curtsy and then picking up her skirts in order to run from the room.

To my relief, Anne wasn't at her dower property at Richmond. She was within the Palace and, only a few minutes later, she answered Edward's summons, striding through the double doors with her skirts swishing and a train of ladies scurrying along in her wake.

"You asked to see me, Your Majesty? Your Highness?"

"Yes," I rose from my throne, descended the steps of the dais and clasped her hands, before turning her to face the French Ambassador, "His Excellency Count Montgomery has just brought us the news that, provided the final details of your dowry can be worked out, King Henri will be glad to take you as his second wife. Would you, in your turn, be willing to accept His Majesty as your husband?"

Anne knew, better than anyone, what response was expected of her. Pulling her hands from mine, she gave one to the French Ambassador. Keeping her eyes modestly lowered, she sank to the floor in a subservient curtsy, breathing, "I would be honoured."

It was a masterstroke. Count Montgomery could hardly keep his voice from trembling as he responded, "Madame," and grazed my cousin's knuckles with his lips.

Everything moved very quickly after that. King Henri accepted Anne's proposed dowry of 70,000 crowns and the revenues from the ports of Southampton, Deal and Tilbury. He sent his trusted courtier, the Duc de Guise, to act as his proxy at the wedding.

Anne kept her badge of the falcon, but changed the flowers from roses to golden fleur-de-lys and her motto from "The Most Happy" to "Veritas Semper Aurea Est": "Truth Is Always Golden".

I made sure all her gowns were either of deep Tudor Green, cloth of gold, cloth of silver, scarlet or royal blue, as well as being in all the latest French fashions. If she was going to go to France, then she was going to go as a true Howard-Tudor Queen.

And then the day itself came. Anne, glittering with grandeur in a gown of the deepest green satin with ropes of diamonds sparkling around her neck, laid her hand in that of the Duc de Guise and pledged her troth to King Henri of France, stating that "I, the Lady Anne Boleyn, by the Grace of God, Queen Dowager of England, Ireland and France and cousin to Her Majesty Elizabeth, by the Grace of God Queen of England, Ireland and Lady of Calais and His Highness Edward, Great Lord of the same, consciously and of my own free will, hereby take Henri, by the Grace of God King of France, to my lawfully wedded husband. I swear to be true, obedient and loyal to him and his interests and to faithfully renounce all other men for him until the day when death do us part. I also vow to love and to cherish the said Henri, King of France for better or for worse, in sickness and in health, for richer, for poorer and to be bonny and blithe and buxom both in bed and at board as long as we both shall live. Thereto, I give myself to Your Grace, the Duc de Guise, in your role as proxy and thus do I plight my troth."

Since the Duc de Guise, by virtue of his playing the King of France, had gone first, Anne's words marked the end of the ceremony. My own chaplain, Richard Huxley, pronounced Anne the wife of the King of France and the heralds blared a Royal salute as she stepped down off the dais.

It was done. My cousin, Her Majesty Anne Boleyn, Queen Dowager of England, had become Her Majesty Queen Anne of France.