Disclaimer: If I did I would be Goddess Supreme.
First I do not know what to say ... Thanks to Mimi and Nat and John for their reviews, you guys have been the greatest and there are not enough words to say thank you.
Thanks to my professor and the class I am taking that helped me for this chapter, and the book Sister Queens of Julia Fox, which so far I am enjoying and promises to be a great biography of Katherine of Aragon and Juana of Castile.
On with the show ...
Chapter 56: No Middle Ground
"All you needed to do was climb those steps, and sit. Such a sad mistake"
"I have made more mistakes than you can possibly imagine" Ned said, "but that was not one of them."
"Oh, but it was, my lord," Cersei insisted. 'When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die. There is no middle ground"
~Game of Thrones (p.488)
1574, June 15th
England, London Borough
Hampton Court:
"I am sorry" Said Eustace, leaving the demented woman to her sorrow. He did not hear Mary's cries as she hugged herself and curled into a ball and pleaded for her grandson or her nails scratching on the door as she pleaded with the guards to be released. Eustace did not hear his wife curling in her own sheets when he came to greet her and dismissed Roxanna.
"I heard what you did to my sister. And I want you to know I do not approve" Said Elizabeth flaring up, her face turned purple.
Eustace let his gaze drop. Elizabeth advanced and raised his chin to meet her dark brown orbs, which darkened when he replied he was sorry.
"She is my sister and I will know how to deal with her, you had no right threatening her."
"She had no right to plot and if not my kindness to either of you I would have slammed her head against the pavement until it boiled like a soft apple"
She slapped him.
His fingers brushed on the spot she hit. "I will take this as honor and bestow it on your whore sister."
"Do that and I will swear I will grant you honors greater than this" Elizabeth hissed flinging her hands on him but Eustace regained his strength and dropped his canes, and caught them and pushed her back against his chest, wrapping his arms safely around her.
She dared not look at him, her eyes burning a fire brown, like the lioness of the great Tudor sigil. "Now she will go to her grandson and plan a greater offense and who will we have to thank for? You have plunged us all into war"
None of them wanted war, least of all her who had seen what her father's three marriages had done to their country, and her brother raising arms against France and the Empire.
Elizabeth released his hands and shied away from his touch. Eustace gave a frustrated sigh and turned his back on her. "She is being heavily guarded. She will be going nowhere."
Elizabeth gave a dry laugh "You do not know my sister as I do Eustace." She said "She will write to Albert and my nephew will have support from the German Lords and the Princes in the Netherlands tired with Hapsburg's rule and we will have a war in our hands."
Eustace walked to the window and sighed deeply. It seemed like a dry summer. The trees were bald and harvest were poor, and the skies were bleak.
"I did what was best for this family" He justified. "Mary would have brought hell on all of us."
"And now you have aided her even further." Elizabeth snapped "You have brought hell on all of us. Spain has always been at war with the Netherlands, it does not matter who wins whether the rebels of the late Prince of Orange or Philip. It is not our business but now with his grandmother under house arrest, Albert will have a complete excuse to unite all of Germany and the Netherlands against us." She walked to Eustace and put her hand on his shoulder, hissing -"Pray that France is not included for it will be our downfall"
She turned on her heel and grabbed her cloak and had all her belongings transferred to her daughter's room where she would stay from now on, leaving him there in the darkness of their chambers, her words weighing heavily on him.
Spain, Madrid
Royal Palace of Aranjuez:
Annie ordered her ladies to escort her to the former Princess of Asturias' chambers. Catalina stood with her back against the Queen, her arms crossed against her chest.
"The Queen My Lady" Her head lay in waiting announced.
Catalina refused to acknowledge her sister's presence. She knew as much as Annie about her mother's plot.
"Sister" Annie said "I have come here to inform you of our mother's arrest. I am sure you must know, her informants must have told you already."
Catalina whirled to her sister, a shocked expression on her face. "I assure you I knew nothing Annie. I never kept informants around me and even if I did, would I be so negligent of where my information was headed?"
Annie smirked, shaking her head lightly. "No sister of that I can believe you. Our mother always said our brother Henry was the devil but she birthed her true heir in you" She said. She sat down in one of the unoccupied chairs near the sofa and beckoned Catalina to come.
"I won't bite sister, I just swallow but you are not of my taste I assure you" Catalina dropped her arms and sat in the chair facing Annie.
"Will our mother be brought to trial sister? Will she at least be given the same benefit of the doubt as you were given?" Catalina asked, going straight to the point.
Annie ordered wine be brought, she drank from her cup. "No, I am afraid not. But rest assured, His Majesty is a most gracious King and he will ensure her safety."
"In the tower"
"No dear sister in her own state in Hudson" Catalina's eyes opened widely. Annie gave a dry laugh and grabbed one of the biscuits brought to them. "MMM... these are really good. You did not think my son would be so heartless as to condemn our own mother?"
Catalina kept her mouth shut.
Annie pushed the biscuit plates and hot chocolate cup to her sister.
Catalina looked down to her midsection to her eyes, "You are pregnant" She stated watching her expression darkened. "Why are you doing this to us? Me and Carlos had nothing to do with this plot, we've told you so"
"I am pregnant and for the sake of this child I carry I will be unforgiving to all of you. I want you and your husband away from Court permanently. Your children will be handed over to His Majesty and placed in separate households and given new servants."
"How dare you?" Catalina shot from her seat, rising in one jump.
"You think you did not have nothing to do with our mother's plot but you did. Your names were on her informant's lips. To place you and your husband as Queen and King and usurp Ligo's position with your second eldest, Fenrique. You are as guilty as her."
"You cannot do this! You have no right!"
Annie's eyes pierced her sister's. "I do have a right, what our mother did, did in your benefit and our nephew in Bavaria. For that reason alone I could lock you up in a convent and order the execution of your husband but the love I bear for your son prevents me from doing so. Consider yourself lucky Kitty that I will allow monthly visits from your youngest children."
"And Ligo? Catalina? Fenrique? They are much my children as the rest. Have a heart Annie!"
"I have a heart and it goes out to those poor children you have manipulated and bullied into hating us. Ligo is the result of good parenting from me and His Majesty. I shall not risk Catalina and Fenrique to more of your poison. You are dismissed, pack your bags, there is a coach waiting for you and Don Carlos outside." Annie said wiping the stains of red the sweet cherries left on her cheeks with her napkin and left.
Catalina flung her hands in the air when she was gone, frustrated with herself for not taking on the Queen of Spain and England as she should have!
"You will pay for this Annie!" She screamed in her mind. Both women were persuasive and trained in men's arts of politics, but the one thing they had no control of was their children and in a country as small as Spain there was room for only one woman.
She had ousted Catalina for the last time. If this was a war Annie wanted, a war she shall get.
1543, June 30th
Germany, Lower Palatinate:
"I trust that the Lady Mary and Dowager Duchess of Bavaria is being taken care of as befits her station" said Gertrude greeting the men.
"His Majesty has placed her under house arrest and allowed her to keep a few of her servants, among the Lady Susannah of Clarencius whom we owe her deeply for her hospitality."
"Continue gentlemen." Albert said imperiously feeling the airs majestically flutter around him, he could almost taste the glory in his mouth as his lips curved into a smile.
"The Lord Protector and his son, His Grace, the Duke of Sicily, confiscated all her other properties and the Queen of Spain holds her sister accountable and has taken measures against her and her family."
"Unbelievable, what has the world come to that the bastards hold all the power while true royalty is forced to be their servants? This is intolerable" Barked Gertrude.
"What news of my Aunt, and her twit husband? How did they responded to this mistreatment?" Albert inquired.
"Her Majesty has placed her and the former Prince of Asturias under house arrest and severely reduced her household Your Grace, the Princes had to stand as their parents were humiliated and placed separately" One of the men replied feeling great disgust as he did.
"And what does my uncle have to say for Their Majesties taking the Princes away?" Albert asked.
"The former Prince of Asturias latched on to his youngest sons. His Majesty had to send guards to retrieve them. They were-" some of the men spared a laugh, "like bitches in heat holding on to their father. One of the guards had to give His Highness' one swift kick at his stomach to let them go."
"And then what happened Captain?" Gertrude asked.
"The Princes cried on their way to the Royal Palaces."
"Typical what more could be expected from that hunchback's offspring?" She turned to Albert, "I was right my son that we should not have put our trust in any of that man's offspring, much as you love your Aunt, they have too much of their father."
"Hold on to that thought mother." Albert said. "We still do not know the whole story. What about his second eldest son, my cousin Fenrique and Dona Maria? What do they have to show for all of this?"
A smile appeared on their head informant. "Dona Maria behaved with the grace and seriousness as any well-bred Princess. Unlike her counterparts and the Queen's children who squealed like cats and clung unto their mother like bitches in heat when she was told of her arrest. The eldest Diana, we were told by our informant in your Aunt's household, was told she flung herself at the Grand Inquisitor and spat at the Duke of Alba."
Albert gave a dry laugh. "It is to be expected" He said.
His father wrote to his mother a year before he died reporting all about the Princess behavior and her brashness.
"But what of my cousin, Captain? How is he taking this?"
"His Highness, Don Fernando Enrique, took the news better than his brothers as his younger sister, Dona Maria, he went willingly and showed deep respect to his new guardians."
Albert turned to his mother and looked her directly in the eye. "The Prince is the true legitimate heir to the Crown of Spain like his sister Dona Maria. Both have behaved with true conviction and kept their emotions controlled."
Gertrude nodded. "What of the children Captain when they arrived to the Royal Palace? Are they being treated as befits their stations?"
"No Madame, the bastard Queen keeps her nieces, Dona Maria and Dona Catalina captive and as if that is not enough to satiate her thirst for blood, she has the Princes attend their eldest brother who as his grandfather's sevice"
"This is outrageous" Gertrude exclaimed "How did we ever get like this? Are they no morals left?"
Albert smirked. "What more can you expect mother? The Spaniards are descendant from the bastard line of the Tratasmara mother. They have not got a good King since Peter of Castile. Their whole blood is tainted" He spat.
Their own Kings of Aragon had the taint of Castilian blood being descended from the Antequera line that was just another sub-branch of the bastard Tratasmara line.
"We have to put a stop to this"
"And we shall" Albert replied not waiting for the men to finish their tale. He dismissed them and leaving the Duke of Bavaria and Neuburg-Palatine along with his mother, they got on their next mission to train the Duke's army and prepare to meet the German, Austrian and Netherlands ambassadors that were all too eager to break free of the Hapsburgs.