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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2014 by Philippa Gregory
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First Touchstone hardcover edition September 2014
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Jacket art: King Henry VIII (oil on canvas), after Hans Holbein the Younger (1497/8–1543)/ © Belvoir Castle, Leicestershire, UK/ The Bridgeman Art Library; hand illustration by Marco Ventura
Endpapers: The graffito of Geoffrey Pole’s signature was found carved on a wall in the Tower of London, photographed by Johnny Ring. The plan of the Tower: “The Tower of London” from London, Volume II by Charles Knight, 1841.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Gregory, Philippa.
The king’s curse / Philippa Gregory.
pages cm
1. Salisbury, Margaret Pole, Countess of, 1473–1541—Fiction. 2. Ladies-in-waiting—England—History—16th century—Fiction. 3. Henry VIII, King of England, 1491–1547—Fiction. 4. Great Britain—History—Henry VIII, 1509–1547—Fiction. 5. Nobility—Great Britain—History—16th century—Fiction. I. Title.
PR6057.R386K57 2014
823'.914—dc23
2014009261
ISBN 978-1-4516-2611-7
ISBN 978-1-4516-2616-2 (ebook)
CONTENTS
The Tudor and Plantagenet Houses in November 1499
London 1499
Tudor England
Chapter 1: Westminster Palace, London, 29 November 1499
The House of Plantagenet on 29 November 1499
Chapter 2: Westminster Palace, London, Winter–Spring 1500
Chapter 3: England, 1509
Chapter 4: England, Summer 1514
Chapter 5: Bisham Manor, Berkshire, Summer 1518
Chapter 6: The Field of the Cloth of Gold, France, Summer 1520
Chapter 7: Bisham Manor, Berkshire, 1521
The House of Plantagenet on 17 May 1521
Chapter 8: Greenwich Palace, London, December 1530
Chapter 9: Warblington Castle, Hampshire, Spring 1534
Chapter 10: Bisham Manor, Berkshire, May 1536
Chapter 11: Bisham Manor, Berkshire, October 1536
Chapter 12: Bisham Manor, Berkshire, Spring 1537
The House of Plantagenet on 9 December 1538
Chapter 13: Cowdray House, Sussex, Spring 1539
Chapter 14: The Tower, London, Summer 1539
The Tudor and Plantagenet Houses on 27 May 1541
Author’s Note
Reading Group Guide
About Philippa Gregory
Bibliography
Gardens for the Gambia