The Taming of the Queen

‘Don’t take it for granted.’ I can quote her at once. ‘Don’t let down your guard. Never forget your family.’ And, more than anything else: ‘How is your brother? How is William? Does William have glasses as fine as this? Can’t we get some for him?’ We both laugh.

‘She always thought that he would be the making of the family,’ Nan says, sipping her wine. ‘She didn’t disregard us, you know. It’s just that she put all her hopes on William. It’s natural to look to the son and heir.’

‘I know. I don’t blame her. She didn’t know that William’s wife would betray him and our name, cost us so much and then have to be set aside.’

‘She didn’t foresee that,’ Nan agrees. ‘Nor this.’

‘No.’ I shake my head with a smile. ‘Who’d have dreamed it?’

‘Your rise to greatness,’ Nan raises her glass in a toast. ‘But it comes with dangers.’

Nobody knows more about the dangers for a queen than Nan. She has served every one. She has given evidence on oath against three. Sometimes she has even told the truth.

‘Not for me,’ I say confidently. ‘I’m not like the others. I don’t have an enemy in the world. I’m famously room-handed, I’ve helped anyone who asked me. I have done nothing but good for the royal children. The king loves me, he made me Regent General and an editor for the English liturgy. He puts me at the heart of the court, of everything he cares about: his children, his country and his church.’

‘Stephen Gardiner is no friend of yours,’ she warns. ‘And neither are any of his affinity. They would throw you down from the throne and out of the royal rooms at the first moment they could.’

‘They wouldn’t. They might disagree with me; but this is a matter of debate, not enmity.’

‘Kateryn, every queen has enemies. You have to face it.’

‘The king himself supports the cause of reform!’ I exclaim irritably. ‘He listens to Thomas Cranmer more than to Stephen Gardiner.’

‘And they blame you for that! They planned for him to have a papist wife and they thought he had married one. They thought you were for the old church; they thought that you shared Latimer’s convictions. That’s why they welcomed you so warmly. They were never your friends! And now that they think you have turned against them, they won’t be your friends any longer.’

‘Nan, this is madness. They may disagree with me but they wouldn’t try to drag me down in the eyes of the king. They won’t falsely accuse me of God-knows-what because we don’t agree about the serving of the Mass. We differ; but they are not my enemies. Stephen Gardiner is an ordained bishop, called by God, a holy man. He is not going to seek my destruction because I differ from him on a point of theology.’

‘They went against Anne Boleyn because she was for the cause of reform.’

‘Wasn’t that Cromwell?’ I ask stubbornly.

‘It doesn’t matter which advisor it is, what matters is if the king is listening to him.’

‘The king loves me,’ I say finally. ‘He loves only me. He would not listen to a word against me.’

‘So you say.’ Nan puts out her foot and pushes a log further into the fire. A plume of sparks flies up, she looks awkward.

‘What is it?’

‘I have to tell you that they’re proposing another wife.’

I almost laugh. ‘This is ridiculous. Is this what you came to tell me? It’s nothing but gossip.’

‘No, it isn’t. They are proposing another wife more amenable to returning the church to Rome.’

‘Who?’ I scoff.

‘Catherine Brandon.’

‘Now I know that you are mistaken,’ I say. ‘She is more of a reformer than I am. She named her dog after Bishop Gardiner. She’s openly rude to him.’

‘They think she will join them if they offer her the throne. And they believe that the king likes her.’

I look at my sister. Her face is turned away from me, fixed on the embers of the fire. She fidgets, putting on dry wood.

‘Is this what you came in to tell me? Did you come so late tonight to warn me that the king is thinking of another wife? That I must defend myself?’

‘Yes,’ she says, still not meeting my eyes. ‘I am afraid so, yes.’

The fire crackles in the silence. ‘Catherine would never betray me. You’re wrong to say such a thing. She’s my friend. We study together, we think alike. It’s really vile, Nan, it’s black-babbling to say such a thing.’

‘It’s the crown of England. Most people would do anything for it.’

‘The king loves me. He doesn’t want another wife.’

‘All I am saying is that the king is sentimental over her, he’s always liked her, and now she is free to marry, and they will be pushing her forward.’

‘She would never take my place!’

‘She would have no choice,’ Nan says quietly. ‘Just as you had no choice. And anyway, some people say that he has been her lover for years. They say that Charles and he shared her. Charles never refused the king anything. Perhaps when he got a beautiful young wife, young enough to be his daughter, the king had her too.’