Ok so right now as we speak I am working on adding the White Princess into the story line so yes, I am working on a Part Two. Hope you're all ready for that! It is called Royal Dynasty for a reason!
Chapter Seventeen~
July 6th 1483, Westminster Abbey, City of Westminster
I find myself being helped into the coronation gown by Lady Margaret who has continued to be helpful ever since that day in the chapel. She has done everything I have asked of her without question and has even been willing to go to chapel with me for mass. She is the closest thing I have to a friend at this point though I still do not trust her husband. Once she is finished assembling the coronation cloak with my necklace, the only thing tying me to my past, she gives me a small smile and turns to help hold the train of the long cloak itself. Finding Richard next to me, I take his out stretch hand and hold it as we slowly enter the long hallway of the Abbey towards the thrones were I once recall my sister being crowned Queen. Now however it is my turn. Once seated on the thrones, Lady Margaret stands with her husband and I see Duchess Cecily looking rather smug with herself. I am handed the scepter with white dove on top, the ring is placed upon my finger, and the crown upon my head. In an instant a rush of power floods my veins and I know that Elizabeth must feel it too. The celebration in brief and once finished I have word for my children to be sent to me as quick as possible. Three days after my coronation and being crowned Queen my children Kate and Eddie enter the courtyard.
"Mother is it true? Are you the Queen?" Eddie asked me making me smile and tell him,
"Yes, that means you are to be the Prince of Wales. And Kate you are a Princess." Kissing her head, I take them both into the castle followed by their governess mostly ignoring the people bowing to me. I show them to their chambers telling them that they are close to me and their father. In Eddie's chambers I show him how he might escape if need to in emergencies and how he can always come get me or his father, for anything. In Kate's chambers I show her how her ladies will always be a door away to help tend to her. While in her chambers she asks me suddenly,
"How is Aunt Elizabeth?"
"Why do you ask my rose?" I ask her as she says,
"Everyone is saying her children are bastards and that that is why you and Father are King and Queen now." Exhaling deeply, I take a seat next to her on the bed and take a hand of hers into mine.
"Your Uncle King Edward did something that Parliament thought was wrong. That he should not have done before meeting your Aunt."
"Like what?" Kate asked me so that I bit my lip and said plainly,
"He was supposedly married to another woman before he met your Aunt. And that is grounds enough to make the marriage to your Aunt illegitimate. Which means,"
"That her children are bastards and can't be Kings or Queens." Kate replied making me nod sadly and taking her head under my chin I told her,
"I never knew about any of that though, and your Father swears that he never knew a name and only rumors. But enough other people knew that it passed, and my heart breaks knowing that." I felt her nod as we sat quietly for a moment before she told me,
"Are we going to be safe?" Pulling back from her, I took her face tenderly into my hands and told her,
"Of course we are, why would we not?"
"I keep dreaming of a war and of burning white roses." She says softly before someone knocks on the door and a servant enters saying to us,
"The King wishes to see you." Nodding, I tell her,
"If you have any more dreams, any dreams whatsoever, come to me with them alright?" She nods as I smile and kissing her forehead I take her hand and led her to the Great Hall. Richard and Eddie are already there and Richard is letting Eddie sit on the throne.
"What is the view up there like my boy?" Richard asks making him smile and say,
"I see nothing but you Father." Making my heart swell with pride as I hear a door opening and moving for Kate to take her seat next to me and Eddie to move to sit next to Richard, Richard and I sit on our thrones as Brackenbury, Buckingham and Stanley appear to bow and kneel before us. Sir Brackenbury was named Constable of the Tower, the Duke of Buckingham was named Lord Chamberlain of England and Lord Stanley was named Lord High Constable of England and bitterly in place of my brother Anthony, Order of the Garter. Once they had sworn their oath, I send our children to their governess as I walk with my husband through the palace. With Lady Margaret a few paces behind as always and Anne whose husband had been named Head of the Treasury.
"You are the King now my love, and England will grow to love you." I tell him as we walk arm in arm though Richard says,
"London is against me still."
"They will come around, my sister is still here with her supporters remember? The North is loyal and soon the South will follow. And when the time is right, we will invest our boy Eddie as Prince of Wales. Then England will blossom in your York sun again." With a smile, Richard thanks me and kisses the back of my hand gently. As he walks off I cannot help but sigh as Lady Margaret comes over saying gently,
"Your Grace, no one ever mentions the boys in the Tower, or their Mother." Raising an eyebrow, it is Anne who says,
"They may not mention them, but they are not forgotten. How can anyone forget?"
"The problem lies not with the boys or their Mother, the problems lies in the fact Richard and I must gain the support with the people. Once my son is named Prince of Wales and I can have faith in the boys titles removed I can have them relocated." I tell them making Anne say,
"To where? Nowhere is safe with those boys alive!"
"I can send them to Grafton Manor. Or have them live with us for their own protection. But my son must be named Prince of Wales first and foremost before that can happen." Giving them both sharp looks, I turn to find my own children hearing only one set of feet follow behind me. My feet take me to where Eddie has his archery lessons, him and his sister laughing and trying to make each other miss the target laid out for one another. I try to envision them at home, back in Grafton Manor and not as Prince or Princess. Being able to see their Grandfather and Grandmother, my brothers and my sister, their cousins. Instead my family is torn apart all for crowns and thrones and England.
"Are you alright your Grace?" I hear Lady Margaret ask before I realize I am crying as I tell her,
"I'm just imagining life if I was not Queen, if my children could be able to grow up in Grafton Manor knowing their Uncles and my sister, their cousins. If we could merely have peace, that is all I want. Yet my sister is just so bitter towards my husband, blaming everything on him and ignoring my very existence." Turning to look at her, I smile and say,
"Everyone blames Richard for crimes he has not committed. He is an easy escape goat for people to use. He's the King, blame him! Further your own ambition, your own greed, plan your own treason against the oath you took in front of his face."
"And why do you say that Your Grace?" Lady Margaret asked making me turn to her as I tell her,
"Edward had old King Henry to fight against, Lord Warwick and his own brother George trying to take the throne from him. At every turn he was fighting to keep his crown and now my husband will have to do the same. Only now people believes he stole it from a child when it was Parliament who declared my sister's marriage to Edward invalid! The people do not blame Parliament, they blame Richard! Even now I know people are slipping notes behind our backs, either for my sister or in favor of some nameless other. My children are at risk always, my husband is being seen as a threat, there are two boys in jail and I have to be the peacekeeper!" Throwing my hands up into the air, I take a seat on a stone bench and put my head into my hands wanting to curl into myself. For a moment I think the woman has gone but I feel her sit down next to me as she says as if measuring her words carefully,
"I have heard some—rumors—about someone visiting the boys in the Tower." Startled and looking up to see her, she raises a hand to calm me and motions that we find some place to talk in private. After a long walk to a more secluded area, she says,
"I overheard some servants saying that Lady Anne went to see the boys herself."
"Lady Anne? Why would Anne go to see the boys?" She only shrugged making me frown and thanking her, I go off in search of the woman in question. It's not until the following day that I find Anne with her own son Richard with me asking her,
"Is it alight that we speak?" Frowning, she hands her son to an attendant before walking a bit behind me.
"I understand you went to see the boys in the Tower. Is that correct?" Stopping mid-step, Anne looks shocked and upset as I turn to see her making me grow angry as she tries to think of something to say. Taking a step towards her, I demand,
"Why would you feel compelled to see my nephews in the Tower Anne?"
"Because they are a threat to Richard! As long as they are alive Richard will never be King for long!" Rendered silent by what she had said, I look at the woman who had changed so much over the years I had known her as she continues,
"As long as those two are alive, their Witch of a mother can continue to cast her spells on everyone. Curse us all!"
"That is my sister you are talking about! My nephews who are innocent!"
"Your sister was a witch who cursed my family! Killed my father, sister and her unborn child, my sister's husband who was brother of the King Edward mind you! Her evil knows no bounds and she will continue cursing and plotting and killing until the day she dies!" Anne ranting until I step into Anne's personal space and tell her softly,
"If you speak, of my sister Queen Elizabeth Woodville like that again to my face, I will have you punished. Is that understood?" Anne only nodded and bowing as low as she could, took off in a run from me as I straightened as high as I could only at that moment the crown had never felt so heavy. For the next several days I did not see Anne. Apparently she and her son returned to Warwick Castle leaving her husband at the Palace after a huge fight. Francis was on the side of Richard and after hearing of Anne going to see the boys in the Tower and her ranting of my sister 'the witch' he refused to go with her. After that I could not stop the sense that something was wrong. How the air felt tense, as if an invisible cord was about to snap at any moment. Kate, my little rose always so attune to the mystic, I knew she could feel it too. Even Eddie was feeling uncomfortable these days. My gut had me watching Lord Stanley, I had never liked him from day one and yet now with how he hung back during council meetings and talks with others made the hairs on my arms stand on end. It got to the point where I wanted to try and go and seek my sister yet I was always so busy myself with trying to establish Eddie as Prince of Wales in his own right. I had known how hard Elizabeth worked as Queen but now with so much unrest in the Kingdom, especially in London, that work was twofold. Soon Richard, myself and our children are in the North making our appearance as King and Queen. As we are entertaining those wishing to show loyalty, a man comes and hands Richard a note.
"What is it?" I ask as Richard says frustrated,
"The Rivers have attacked the Tower, when we're in the North and miles away! Sir Robert Brackenbury has written to me."
"She did not get my nephews out?" I ask making him nod and exhale deeply. As Lord Strange comes over Richard tells him,
"Your son, Lord Strange, has found out and sent a warning. It came too late but I am grateful to him. The boys are safe under lock and key."
"But how does my sister still have men she can command?" I ask mostly to myself only Richard answers me with,
"The boys command them by their very living." Shaking my head, I take Richard's arm and tell him,
"Then we must have our son invested as Prince of Wales. We'll do it here in York where there can be no question who is next in line for the throne."
