Chapter 54: Forces of Destiny

"Before the day is done I will hurt you for this. You can run, you can even hide but no place is large enough to keep yourself same.
I am coming for what is mine, I am coming for retribution and I will lay waste to every city, every town ... No one will be safe, taste my wrath and look at yourself and enjoy the precious jewels while you can because I am coming"

Revenge by Anonymous

1574, June 10th

Palatinate-Neuburg

But he was cautious with everyone. He was still far from becoming the tyrant he would be in later life, but he liked his own way and was accustomed to getting it. And his grandmother's decision mattered. The own pope had his suspicions about her first daughter's legitimacy. But it was unexplored territory and potentially dangerous. If his Aunt was found the product of rape or illegitimate that could undermine his own claim.

It was founded entirely on the belief that his grandmother's chastity had been beyond reproach when she married his grandfather.

His mother reclined in the large throne made just for her next to her son's, and looked at him with a pointed gaze. "What will be your next move?" She asked a smile across her features as she read her mother in law's letter she snatched from Albert's hand.

"She seeks an accusation of rape. There is stupidity in that. The Duchess Dowager would be putting the rest of Europe against us. Not only your bastard Aunt would suffer but so will we, for where her reputation is stained so we carry it to our children. That is our curse."

"There is benefit in this if we proceed outside papal authority" Albert mentioned taking the letter and throwing it into the fire.

The Great Hall his father had ordered built when he was yet in his mother's womb, from England, had been nothing short of spectacular. It emulated the old Romanesque arts of the medieval era with some new elements thrown into it. "England is well worth a conquest as any other in Europe. Oh my son think on this well" Gertrude put her hand on her son's cheek "This will not bode well if you choose your grandmother's path." Remember your father, remember how well he listened to her advice. "Remember how your father ended."

She would not loose him to that bastard Queen. She never met the Queen but she hated her already, it was the product of years and years of the making after they brought her news of her husband's "accident". How his neck broke when he fell from his horse, dying instantaneously however she never made it believed it. And there was Mary during her time of grief taking over her business and her late father in law constantly visiting Albert and inquiring over his health.

He would have a promising future and because of that bastard Queen, Anne, he would not be here to see when his son took on the throne of England.

Albert withdrew his eyes from his mother and focused on the flames. Would these be the price Albert had to pay, the fires of the Inquistion, for his claim over that bastard?

He looked back to his mother and brought his lips to her hands, "I will kill the bastard mother, I promise you."

"Make sure she suffers as we have suffered. Make sure her son lies on a bed of weeds with a man on top of him to rip his throat out if he dares to scream in displeasure." And kill the bastard Queen and put a knife through the life nesting inside her, it was left unsaid but Albert understood all too well.

"What will we do with her sisters though? Infanta Diana will be the legitimate heir in anyone's eyes. Philip of Spain may try to use her as a puppet and if she weds Henry of Navarre, he will try to annex England to France. It is only a matter of time before the French King croaks like his predecessors." Albert said fiddling with the subject.

Gertrude gave small laughter. She shook her head, "The French King would not risk over a huge portion of land. He has the memory of Henry VI, that twit who could not rule over two kingdoms and there is enough resentment over those two already. No my son. We should think outside the box."

"That only leaves one sister."

"She is the perfect candidate" Her mother said taking the miniature portrait their spies had brought them from through Mary's informants in her sister's household, of the Princess Margaret. She was amazed at her mother in law, how she was able to maintain her position and pass unsuspected through her former lover's scrutiny. "She is beautiful and she has wide hips. She is volatile but you will solve that once you have her in your arms. You will be like your father's namesake taking Elizabeth of York."

"She will be made a bastard first."

Gertrude could not agree more. It was the wisest move Henry VII had ever planned when he married his opponent's daughter. Margaret Beaufort made plans for her son's ascension ever since her marriage to Edmund Tudor. She thrust her Lancaster claim unto her son and became the matriarch of the most powerful dynasty. There question remained now amidst all their plotting who of them would become the next Margaret Beaufort?

Mary had played and lost when her son died but Gertrude still had his son. Albert was strong and this Princess, no -her mind racked- girl, was fertile, they could unite both the territories of the Lower Palatinate, Bavaria, and England and it would be the start of a greater dynasty.

Albert was a Tudor. Mary refused to add Wittelsbach to her children's last name when she married Philip, and her father had agreed in case one of his daughter's heirs inherited, there should be no doubt in everyone's mind that their children were Tudors and to keep the line going, he allowed the Tudor last name to come before the Wittelsbach. It had angered the Wittelsbachs but they were forced to accept it when there was a strong possibility one of their own could succeed to the throne of England.

The harshness of winter and summer in their area had made all their men as hard and unyielding. "You are no different than any of those men. Every men can be a King as long as he has what it takes." She told her son watching his gaze hardened. Like any mother proud of her son, she passed her hands through his cheeks and kissed each of them smelling the scent of Jazmin and Fresh roses. "You will give the English people what they deserve. Remember my son, you will be seen as your ancestor, Henry VII, at first, an usurper but once the people see you for the warrior you are and beget a son from that bastard's daughter's womb they will love you and accept you. What are our words?"

"Death to all traitors."

"My darling son" She hugged him. Albert smiled at his mother, she was the true backbone of this family but for their own sake's he let his grandmother believe she was. No one really wanted her anymore, surely a woman born in the harshest of winters should know that. But she was blinded by those around her and in her old age desperate, though she would never admit to it, for love.

"I will bring you the head of that bastard once I put my sword through her."

"No. Make her see first her son's body as you drag him through the mud and blood stained fields." Gertrude said picturing the bastard Queen wailing and holding on to her darling son as her mother had once held to hers. "Then when all her joy is turned to ashes you have my permission to kill her."

Albert smirked rising from his chair. He knelt and kissed the hem of his mother's scarlet gown. "Once the King of Spain sees the betrayal of his stepson he will support you and you will convert as a royal puppet of the Hapsburgs, then when you are finally secured you will invite him to Court and when he arrives you will smite him and his wife and your Aunt Katherine and her husband shall take the throne of Spain and our family shall be secured at last."

Albert shared his mother's sardonic laughter.

They had been under the Hapsburg domains for too long. The King of Spain would their dirty work. He would intercept letters, it would seem as if they were almost by accident and then he would question his wife's attendants and their spies would confess that the Queen had put them up to it and aided her in ther enterprise concealing information that revealed William had stolen all the gold and silver that came on Spanish ships from the Americas and aided the Huguenot rebels in France and in the Netherlands.

The bastard Queen did not know what was coming to her. She hoped for her sake that she was enjoying her luxury and her splendor because they would not last, once her son takes the throne Gertrude would make sure that every remnant of the Chapuys-Tudor branch were smoked out and put to death.

Spain, Madrid

Royal Palace of Aranjuez:

"Make sure it gets safely delivered to the English Ambassador." She said firmly pushing her royal seal on the red wax.

"Yes Your Majesty" Her servant said and carried out the letter concealing it under her coat, ripping it to shreds as she got to her apartments and replacing for another, a perfect forgery. Seemingly appearing all normal until she reached the apartments of the Duke of Alva and delivered the letter forward.

The Duke looked curiously at her but as soon as he began to read the contents his eyes nearly bugled and he said to the girl "Nobody will hear of this, go with God child and tell the Queen the letter was safely delivered."

"Yes Your Grace" The girl said extending her hand, expecting payment. At once the Duke offered her a pouch filled with ducats and silver coinage. The girl bowed and left his presence.

Once alone the Duke pondered on the information if this was genuine, it could mean a lot for the Anglo-Spanish alliance they were enjoying thanks to the Queen's marriage and her stepson.

He rose and paced back and forward in his office thinking on what his next move could be. He did not lack the courage to tell His Majesty ... on the other hand there was the relationship with the Queen to be concerned. The King worshipped her and she had done her duty for Spain and had no intention of her sons usurping the King's firstborn son's claim to the crown.

He scanned the contents of the letter and went through them all day, it appeared to be the Queen's letter alright and that was her signature at the bottom. He sighed. He had a duty to do no matter how much it would disappoint His Majesty.