Wicked Delights & Unbreakable Alliances
Faith is a funny thing. I used to believe that there could be such a thing as a loving, merciful God but then one day, I woke up. It was the first time that I saw things as they really were. They say hate the sin, not the sinner. I hate both. But I am grateful to my enemies. Without them, I would have never taken the blindfold off.
I would have still been wilfully blind. A blissful ignorant leading more lambs to the religious slaughterhouse.
Now I see. My heightened vision will aid me in my goal to lead me. It has already turned me into a better man, the shepherd I was always meant to be.
"Listen to me and listen to me well." Arthur told his daughter. "The Duchy of Bavaria holds no significance to us whatsoever but its ruler has a nephew who is a hero to Christendom. It will be up to you to curb his violent nature and turn him to our side. Do you understand?"
"Yes, father." Mary said, her eyes downcast.
"Can I count on you Mary to be my ambassador? Your mother was your grandfather's unofficial ambassador. I need you to be mine. You are the only one of your sisters who inherited both her both our Plantagenets' brains and charm." Arthur said. "Use this," he put one finger to her head then slid it down to her chest, "to rule over this. Don't let the Duke's nephew good looks cloud your judgment, use your brains to shield you from his swagger and tricks; Princes promises much but deliver nothing."
"Yes, father." Mary repeated, keeping her eyes lowered.
"Look at me."
Mary made eye contact with him. Dark grey orbs met violent blue ones. "Your mother's motto is "Not for my Crown." When we married she changed her name from Catalina to the English version of Catherine. She swore that she'd leave her Spain behind to give all of herself to her new land. Don't make her mistake. Be a Tudor first, a wife second. Be beholden to no one but your House."
"I shall, father. I swear I will make you proud. The future Duke will be our ally and his duchy will be our shield against your enemies."
"I have faith in you but …" he briefly paused. Turning away to face his greyhound, a gift from his treacherous brother and his best friend Charles Brandon as a meager attempt to win back his favor, he thought about when she had been born. It was a joyous occasion for his wife. A child of my own –she had written to him. She will be my joy and the pearl of your kingdom.
It didn't take Arthur more than two seconds to figure out the true meaning behind her words. After he visited her, he snatched her from her nurse's arms following her baptism, and handed it to his sister Margaret who was staying with them at the time.
Catherine never forgave him and for the first time in the marriage, he didn't care how she felt. It was then and there that he knew their marriage was over.
Nature however proved to be stronger than nurture. Mary grew up to be a rabble-rouser, throwing the rule book out the window every time her nannies reminded her how, as the King's daughter and one of the most sought-for Princesses in Christendom, she had to act.
"My father is the King and the Tudors got to where they are by showing what they are made of. That is why God favored them. He favors the bold, not the indolent." –Had been her response to Master Vives, the last Humanist Arthur had hired as her tutor. Arthur's laughter made the Humanist more nervous. Poor Master Vives trembled before his sight. He apologized on behalf of his daughter but Arthur stopped him before he uttered more nonsense.
"Spoken like a Queen. My mother said the same thing to me when he caught me talking back to Father Bernard Andre." –Arthur told the man before he dismissed him for good. He congratulated his daughter on scaring off another one of those uptight learned college men. "Empires will tremble before you my little warrior." Hearing her father's praise lifted her spirits. Mary wasn't afraid to talk back on her elders.
She was, as far as she was concerned, born of a great lineage and meant for a great destiny. No obstacle was too impossible for her to overcome.
Marriage however was something she was wholly unprepared for. She knew that it was the duty of princesses to marry princes to forge alliances with far away kingdoms to strengthen their father's realm. But she had put it off as something that might never come. She was after all the runt of the litter, the chick who had hatched the last. Her brothers had married English women. If they could, surely she could too and if not, there was the option of joining a convent where she could spend the rest of her days studying and translating documents, using her knowledge to impress her elders who, seeing her true potential, would exploit her gifts and use her on a crusade or a figurehead like many of her favorite female fighting saints.
Alas! Her dreams had turned to ash before she could set them in motion by her own father who, eager to place Spain and his puppet pope in checkmate, made an unholy alliance with the German league.
Coming from his thoughts, Arthur broke the silence at last. "Your grandparents placed strong conditions on my father in order to agree to my betrothal with your mother. Kill the pretender and my uncle or else, the wedding was off. My father knew what had to be done and he did it. My mother did not decry his decision; she loved him more for it. 'Now you are a King.' She turned to me and said 'that right there is your father, a King just like my father before him. If you want to keep your seat of power, you will do the same.'"
"It is easy for you to say, father. You are a man, I am a woman who will never rule. I will never get to have a castle of my own without owing it to my husband. I will simply be known as the future wife of His Grace of Bavaria."
Arthur chuckled at his youngest Princess' bravado. "You have still much to learn but you will learn. In time, when you're older and have given him more than one child, everything will come naturally to you."
Mary did not dare question him. Her father always knew what was best for them. He talked to her like he talked to no other members of their family, not even Matilda whose ego was the size of Cardinal Wolsey's premier homestead. Yet, she didn't trust him fully. Mary doubted that he did this solely out of love for her. My mother's betrayal has turned his heart into stone. Had her mother not acted the way she did, or been discovered, perhaps her dreams would have come true.
A warrior nun or a holy warrior like Joan of Arc.
"You can still go down in history as a fighting princess." Meg Douglas told her cousin when Mary returned to her chambers. Meg was there with their other friend, Ursula Pole. "Eleanor of Aquitaine accompanied her first husband to the crusades and so did that other Eleanor, wife of the First Edward."
"Neither of them did anything other than cheer for their husbands." Mary told them. She sank in her wooden arm chair. "I wanted to be known as the sword of God, like the angel Gabriel. Why doesn't this world let women defend the faithful? Women are also called to defend the faithful against the heathens. Why can't we answer that call like men do?"
"Because we are women and it also happens that if we die, the future of Christendom dies with us. Who will be left to give birth to future warriors or prepare them for the wars ahead? Let men fight with their shields and their swords, God has given us other weapons. Not all wars are fought in the battlefield." Meg said.
"Besides, shouldn't you be happy that you will get to lead alongside a warrior?" Meg added. "Who knows? You might get to see some action."
Mary hoped. Ursula said nothing that contributed to their conversation. She just kept nodding her head and said words of agreement every time Meg spoke.
Catherine poured herself another drink. Except for a few, she had dismissed all of her maids. She had grown tired of lesser women doing things for her.
"What will you do now?" Maria asked her.
"What can I do? Arthur will have his way. Every Tudor does. I pity, I truly do, the poor girl who is tied to Harry." Knowing Harry, he will probably scream from the top of his lungs how much he dislikes her, and if that doesn't work (which obviously won't) find other ways to make his displeasure evident.
"Your daughter is also being forced to tie the royal knot. Doesn't that anger you? Where is your sense of pride?"
"Do you really want to know? It died when Arthur turned me away for his greatest love: power. And my darling daughter-in-love," she smirked, "well, I can't blame her when I would have done the same. In that, she is right. When the King's time comes, may God bless him and grant him more years, she will make an excellent queen."
"She is a snake. A wolf in sheep's clothing."
"No, my loyal friend. She is a lioness. I rather I did not hate her for what she's done but I can't help myself. I do. But I prefer this hatred over one born of frustration, the kind that an acute mind such as myself feels over someone who's a crying ninny like that Fawcett girl my youngest son fawned over." Catherine said. "Queens need to have a grand appetite. As much as this hatred is destroying me, I also welcome it."
"You never cease to surprise me. Just when I think you have run out of things to shock me, you always come up with something new. There is a little flaw in your reasoning."
"Really? What is that?"
"Anne has had many pregnancies, none of them healthy boys, only daughters."
"My friend, if I didn't know how the cogs of your mind worked, I'd say you were egging me to nudge the ambitious bone of my younger son and his dutiful wife."
"Lord Parr's daughter is devoted to you as her mother, God keep her soul, was but she is more loyal to her principles. She'll never opt to serve two masters as you and Anne do, but your son on the other hand ..." Maria didn't finish her sentence. She had done her job, planting the seed of discord in her mistress' heart.
But Catherine disappointed her, quickly plucking that seed before it took root. "If I plunge this country into another civil war, I'll never forgive myself for it. Too much blood has been shed already for the whims of family." She told her friend.
The memory of the wars of the roses, that dreaded dynastic civil war between cousins that had raged for over three decades, was still fresh on everyone's minds. Catherine did not want to see history repeat itself. "Anne will be Queen and if God does not see fit to give England a male heir, then the Tudor Dynasty will have to settle for a Queen." Catherine said. Her tone of finality put an end to the discussion.
Maria pitied her friend. She had so much potential. Her lineage was more Lancastrian than her husband which, if she only had the will to do it, she could use to her advantage to rule in his stead. If it weren't for that big heart of yours, you'd be another Isabella or Ferdinand. An unstoppable Queen whose power would be so great, everyone will fear, love and respect you in that order.
Matilda found enjoinment in her new task. Watching her uncle squirm when he was told whom he'd marry brought her a joy unparalleled by the rebels her father had punished before a big audience at the beginning of summer.
She craved for vengeance as much as he. The thought that her baby sister would get married before her rankled her. She was the oldest. The privilege of marrying to another great House should be hers first! Life was so unfair. She had to settle with helping her father ruin his younger brother's life.
"She looks handsome." Matilda told her uncle, handing him back the miniature Master Holbein the Younger had painted of his German bride.
"I like her not." Henry spat, throwing the miniature to the fire.
"The feeling is mutual as far as her father is concerned. The King had to move mountains to get this alliance. Secretary Cromwell was all for it."
"Wolsey's worst mistake was allowing for that snivelling toad to infiltrate our midst. Who does your father think he is violating canon law?"
"Violating? Uncle, I must remind you that walls have ears. We should all be grateful. Other Kings would put their self interest about their country and family. As it happens, we are the best of the royal lot."
Henry scowled. "That rose petal doesn't deserve his crown. Sending his daughter to do his dirty laundry. If I were King ..." He stopped himself. What use was it to dwell on fantasies? His world was over. You are going to get married to that ugly mare and that's the end of it.
God damn his brother and his heretic councilors.
Matilda suppressed a smile. Her ladies were having a harder time containing themselves. After they were done spoiling the rest of the Duke of York's day and got back in the royal carriage, they burst into laughter.
Matilda almost felt sorry for the Cleves girl. "She's in for a wild ride." One of her ladies said.
"If she can ride at all." Matilda said. A wicked smile that matched her churlish tone danced on her face.
"Do German girls even know what hides between a man's legs before their wedding nights?"
"I highly doubt they do. The way that man's wife has kept her daughters under a tight leash, I will be surprised if she even knows what consummation is."
Her ladies laughed harder.
"He should be happy," Matilda went on to add, "any other man in this sorry island would. A woman who will keep her peace and do what her husband commands of her. He can run free and plow as many women as he pleases while she remains in bed, waiting for that baby to pop out of her."
The naughtiest and more experienced of her ladies, said a crude joke.
Their carriage stopped. They reached their destination. Sheriff Hutton, a small but still imposing Northern castle in Yorkshire which had been used by many Yorkist kings to keep a close watch on their captives. Now it was a base of operations for the Tudors.
"My uncle will get over it. And if he doesn't the buxom women accompanying his wife will." Matilda said when they went inside.
"Not if the ladies wear those big over-sized gowns like their mistress." Mistress Fillol pointed out.
"Your outspoken curiosity is going to be the death of you one day, Cat."
"It has been spelling my doom for years and yet I am still here, serving the King's prized jewel." Catherine Fillol said.
Matilda didn't want to tell her what she really thought. She enjoyed Catherine's company but she was a realist. She couldn't keep in her company a woman who had twice fooled around, cheated on her husband, one of her prized soldiers and servants, with his father of all people!
"We should create a tune. You sing it and I play it on their wedding night." Cat said.
"I dare not place myself in controversy." Seeing Cat and the rest of her ladies crestfallen look, the Princess went on to explain, "Believe me I do, but the last thing my father wants is to give my uncle more reason to complain, and ammunition to our enemies."
"The king of France cajoles with every woman in his wife's retinue and the emperor hides behinds his wife's skirts." Kitty Howard, the youngest of her ladies, said.
"This is England, not libertine France or virtue-signaling Spain. Our image must always be better. Our reputations, greater." Matilda pointed out.
"No fun." Kitty said.
"Worry not, ladies. When the wedding comes, we will have fun at their expense. And I promise you that the night after, we will thrill audiences, commons and nobles alike, that it will be whispered for centuries." Matilda said.