Tudor Princess, The (5 page)

‘Great God in heaven, are We not the Queen of Scots! Has not one sovereign the right to see another? You will obey Us,’ I ordered, squaring my shoulders. ‘Or face the displeasure of Our country! We doubt you want to be responsible for a national incident!’

Startled, the men exchanged glances, then after a moment’s more hesitation stood aside to permit me entrance. The instant I strode into my father’s chambers I lost all confidence. My strong, measured steps became tiny and soft. I approached my father, who sat at his writing table, his head buried in his hands. I had never seen him thus; this was a man who never allowed for vulnerability. There was no time for it. He had a throne to secure, a treasury to fill, a country’s confidence to win. There was no time to be faint of heart.

Now he sat before me broken, his long face drawn. He had been crying; tears stained his weathered cheeks. At once my breath caught. I had never seen him cry before.

‘Your Grace …’ I said, bowing my head and curtsying. ‘I am sorry … I did not mean to burst in.’

‘I must say it was well done,’ he commented, offering a sad half smile.

We gazed at each other a moment, immobilised by sorrow. I could not lament to him as I did to Mother; there was no railing against the fates or questioning God. We faced each other, two monarchs, and would address our grief with dignity, not drama.

‘I came to comfort you,’ I said in soft tones.

‘My comfort will be in this alliance,’ he told me, extending his hand. I took it. It was so large that mine was made invisible when enfolded within it. ‘Be a good queen, Margaret, as your mother was. Beget many sons. And remember: You are a daughter of England before you are a wife to Scotland. Do whatever it takes to ensure peace between our kingdoms.’

‘I shall,’ I promised, forcing strength into my voice as I swallowed my tears. I was determined to face him with stateliness. ‘I shall honour my mother’s memory and do you proud.’

Father rose. He rested his hands on my shoulders. ‘You have.’ He leaned forward and very gently kissed my forehead. I closed my eyes, revelling in the newfound bond between monarchs, vowing to be every inch the queen my mother was while encompassing the strength of my father, the founder of this Tudor dynasty.

3

F
ather whiled away his hours in the White Tower, absorbed in the decorating of the new chapel off Westminster Abbey in which Mother was entombed. It was a magnificent structure, its spires stretching toward heaven, its elaborate stained-glass windows depicting scenes of Christ’s life in vivid detail. Despite its splendour, never was the thought far from my mind that it was a tomb. This was where my father planned to lay himself down, and as he worked, so diligent in his attention to every facet of the imposing building, I feared he planned to yield to his eternal rest sooner than later. Mother’s death had aged him; every act of state became an effort. It was enough for him to get through the daily task of living.

Henry was given his own household resplendent with every luxury. He had companions by the score, the best tutors and priests. Father would prepare him the way of a king. But Father did not offer his own hand that he might lead him. Henry, who was ever a candle to Arthur’s flaming torch, remained as alienated from Father as before. Father could not seem to give of himself any more. He was not cold; he was not cruel. He was silent, isolated, and immobile, save for what must get done. He would keep England as peaceful and powerful as possible while remaining true to his cautious and frugal nature by filling the treasury in the hopes that his son and his country would never be left wanting.

One way of maintaining peace was through the Anglo-Scots alliance. Father determined it was then prudent for me to be sent to my husband in the north.

I panicked. I was not yet fourteen; the treaty expressly stated that I was not to leave England until I was fourteen! But travelling to Scotland after November was a fool’s journey. No one wanted to battle the cold and it was this point that convinced me of the necessity of an earlier arrival. As it was I would reach Edinburgh by August.

Everything was arranged. I would be accompanied by a glittering entourage of liveried guards, attendants, courtiers, and servants. Carts of gowns and plate completed the baggage train and I smiled through my rising sense of despair.

‘You leave England a princess to enter Scotland a queen,’ said my little sister, Mary, squeezing my hands as I bid farewell at Richmond.

I blinked back tears as I took the little girl in my arms, wondering when I would see her again. I drew back, stroking her golden hair from her face. What was her fate, then? What kingdom would she be sent to? Would any of us who shared the nursery together see each other again?

I left her with a kiss, that I might promenade in the gardens alone with Henry arm in arm in an effort to extend my farewell as long as I could.

‘Are you afraid, Henry?’ I asked him in soft tones.

Henry laughed. ‘Afraid of what, Sister?’

‘Of being king,’ I finished with a sigh.

He stopped walking. ‘I suppose I am.’ ‘I want people to respect me and fear me,’ he said, then in softer tones added, ‘but I want them to like me, too. Are you afraid, Margaret?’

I nodded. ‘I know it isn’t the same as it is for you; I am the consort and not the ruler of the people. But I will be so far away from you and from everyone I love. I will feel so left out. Mayhap I will not get to attend your wedding or Mary’s … Sometimes letters do not seem as though they will be enough.’

‘They will have to be,’ Henry told me. He turned toward me, taking my hands in his. He was truly a promising lad, I realised then, putting aside previous rivalry and prejudices. Perhaps he hadn’t been as cold as I’d thought. His blue eyes shone with nothing but sincerity now.

‘Just remember I am your brother,’ he told me. ‘I will always protect you. And when you are afraid, remember this moment. Come to this very spot in your mind and I will be here to hold your hands. Kings never rest, nor do their queens, yet even God had a seventh day.’ He laughed, squeezing my hands in his. ‘So let this be our seventh day,’ he said. ‘Whenever you are afraid or it is all too much to bear, take your seventh day in your mind, and we will all be together again. It will give you strength.’

I reached out, stroking his cheek. It was a lovely thought to hold on to. ‘I am sorry if I was ever mean to you, Henry,’ I was compelled to say.

Henry laughed. ‘I can take it,’ he said. ‘What kind of prince would I be were I not able to handle the women in my life!’

I laughed in turn as he took me in his arms before we made our way back to the rest of the party.

‘Farewell, Sister,’ Henry said when we reached the assemblage. ‘Hold your own against those barbarians!’

Princess Catherine of Aragon laughed at this. ‘Now, Your Highness, you must not scare her,’ she admonished in her gentle tone as we embraced. ‘May God bless and keep Your Grace.’

I was still unused to the title almost two years later and it caused me to start. I offered a swift smile, turning quickly so the ensemble did not see my tears as I was assisted into my splendid litter, trying to focus on the pageantry of the affair rather than the poignancy.

Farewell, dear siblings …

My ladies surrounded me once in the litter, a gaggle of laughing, gossiping girls, and I was rejuvenated at the prospect of making such a grand progress throughout the country.

‘We are all with you, Your Grace,’ said my aunty Anne Howard. Her whimsical nature was so reminiscent of her sister – my mother – that my heart surged with tenderness for the soft-spoken gentlewoman. ‘We will carry you all the way to Scotland; our love will carry you further still.’

I pressed her hand. ‘Thank you, my lady,’ I told her. I pursed my lips, swallowing the painful lump in my throat. ‘Oh, Aunty,’ I added, breaking protocol. ‘Do you think that love is as the poets say?’

‘In what regard?’ asked Aunty Anne.

‘In that it can overcome anything, distance, anger … death,’ I added in soft tones.

Aunty Anne wrapped her arm about my shoulders, drawing me near. ‘I believe it can, Your Grace. All my life I have lost – from my dear little brothers in the tower to my own child, my baby Henry …’ She blinked several times.

‘Oh, Aunty, are we all fated to lose?’ I asked, desperation seizing me as I gripped my empty womb, terrified that its crop would yield as tragic as that of those around me. ‘Sometimes I fear we are all stalked by death, as if it were some ravenous hawk, swooping down on us from above, and we never see it coming …’
Like with Arthur
, I thought to myself, sweet, scholarly Arthur who should have been … should have been … I shook the should-have-beens away, trying to draw myself from what might have been to the present dilemma.

Aunty Anne’s nod was grave. ‘Yes. We are human beings and our lot is to lose. The sooner we accept what cannot be changed or controlled the happier we will be. And as compensation for our losses God gives us in turn the ability to love and be loved. It is that which sustains us. It is that which sustains me.’ She offered a gentle smile filled with triumph. ‘And it will sustain you, too.’

‘You speak as my mother would,’ I observed in tremulous tones. For her words she was forever endeared to me. I favoured her with a bright smile, determined to lighten the mood. I turned to seek out her husband, Lord Thomas Howard, who sat his charger looking altogether dark and terrifying. ‘Why, he’s so fierce!’ I cried to my aunt.

She laughed. ‘My fierce knight,’ she said. ‘And yet when we are alone you should see him … there is none gentler.’ She lowered her eyes. ‘I loved him from the first time I saw him. I was but a girl just your age.’ She yielded to another of her whimsical smiles. ‘I pray it is so with you and His Grace, King James.’

I lay back among the plush velvet cushions and tried to envision the King of Scots, thirty years old to my thirteen. He was said to be a lover of women … oh, I was terrified! What if he thought my form too childish? Surely he had loved many a beautiful, buxom maid … but I was no mere maid. I was a queen and his rightful wife. He would love me as he loved no other.

And so with those thoughts to keep my restless mind active, I departed for my new home, filled with eagerness, excitement, and something like hope.

The first four days of the progress were not unlike any other progress we had made in years past. The distinct difference was that this was a constant celebration and all in my honour. The country and its people were vibrant, rosy, and infused with summer as they rushed out of their homes to greet my entourage. Children sang my praises, pageants were performed, and I was showered with gifts of fruit, sweet wine and beer, little cakes, and trinkets from children, which I cherished most of all.

It all changed at my grandmother’s home of Collyweston, however. Father’s journey would end there; he was as far from his royal residence as he could go and the rest of the progress would be spent in the keeping of Aunty Anne’s father-in-law, the Earl of Surrey.

‘Can’t he go a little further?’ I asked my grandmother as we prayed in her apartments the evening before I was to leave Collyweston.

Grandmother shook her head. ‘He has his obligations, Your Grace, just as you have yours.’ Despite the sombre words, I found myself revelling in the fact that she must defer to me as ‘Your Grace’ and no longer as ‘that impetuous girl.’

I was certain to make the most of it whenever in her company. But looking at her at that moment I was struck with the same fancy as when beholding my sister and brother at Richmond: When would I see her again? For all her sternness and strict religious observance she was the grandmother who oversaw my upbringing with tireless devotion. I was overcome with a wave of tenderness for her and reached out to take her thin hand in mine.

For the first time in memory, Grandmother softened, stroking my thumb a moment with her cool finger before extracting the hand. ‘Come now, I shall see Your Grace to bed,’ she said, her low voice gentle as she brushed through my coppery hair, then helped me dress. I slid into the large canopied bed, drawing the blankets to my neck despite the warm summer breeze that came in through the window.