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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

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Touchstone Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

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