“The Princess Mary is healthy and very clever.”
“A girl, Anne. I want a son.”
“There is no Salic Law in England.”
He hit his knee with his fist. “This country wants a king. I have to give England a male heir. And how can I do that while God frowns on my union with the one who, in His eyes, is not my wife? Anne, once I am free… and by God and all His saints, I soon shall be…you and I will come together. Now this revelation has come to me. The French ambassador has shown me the way. I have marveled that I… full of health and vigor as I am…can get no sons…from her. With others…You know that at one time I thought myself in love with Elizabeth Blount. She was a handsome girl… she danced and sang well…I thought excellently, but remember I had not seen you… nor heard you then. From now on there could be no other. I was young… and affectionate, as is my nature. I had begun to feel a reluctance to share Katharine's bed. You must understand these matters, Anne. And I had a son by Elizabeth Blount. It is only from Katharine that I cannot get boys, because God has turned His face away from our union. For a long time He has been telling me that it must end… and only now have I seen it.”
I thought how naïve he was, but perhaps that was why he could deceive himself.
“What does Your Grace propose to do?”
“I have spoken to Wolsey.”
I caught my breath.
“He will help in this?” I asked.
“Sweetheart, he is my servant. He will do as I wish. He sees the need for heirs. He is a clever fellow and will devise a plan. We shall be together ere long, Anne. You will be my Queen. I'll swear there will never have been a more beautiful one… and one more worthy to wear a crown. You do not speak.”
“I am overwhelmed.”
He laughed, well pleased. “As well you might be. But it shall come to pass. I am determined on that. Ere long you and I shall be together, and we'll have boys, Anne…you and I. And what boys they will be! We'll have a brood of princes. What say you?”
“I think there would be difficulties.”
“This is my will.”
“But the Queen is the Emperor's aunt.”
“The Emperor is too busy governing his vast empire to think much of that. Moreover, Wolsey is getting to work on it.”
“Does he know your plans for me?”
There was a brief hesitation. “I have not told him yet. He knows, of course, of my feelings for you.”
“But he thinks I should be your mistress while some foreign princess shall be your Queen. What was it…? ‘Princes have the power to mollify steel…’”
“Wolsey has his devious ideas. He is…at the moment… all for stronger ties with France. When I talked of remarriage, he did mention the Princess Renée of France. I did not think it necessary to be more explicit as yet.”
“It would not occur to him that one as unworthy as I could aspire so high. Yet he himself has climbed far. Was he not a butcher's son?”
“I care not for these matters, sweetheart … whether a man be a cook's son or a duke's son…it matters not to me. I am a king and a king's son, and it is only those of lesser ranks who concern themselves with such things. If I love a person… that is enough for me. Thomas Wolsey is my good friend and has been for years. I love the man. He is the best of servants to me…as he was to my father before me.”
“Yet I believe he sought election for the Papacy. That would have taken him from Your Grace's service… and set him on equal terms with you.”
“He would have worked for me in Rome. Although I should be sad to lose him, it would have pleased me to have someone there working for England. But enough of this. Here I tell you of our great matter and you prate of Wolsey.”
“I think he may well play a big part in it.”
He slapped his thigh. “This he will, but Anne, what of your part and mine? I would it were done with. I would we were now joined together in holy union, as one day we shall surely be. What do you say?”
I did not know what to say. My first thought was that it would never happen. There would be too many to work against it. Henry was all-powerful in England, and if the Queen had been anyone but the aunt of the Emperor Charles, it could have been a possibility. The Emperor might be busy with his Empire but he would never allow a member of his house to be degraded. And that was what the King proposed for Katharine.
I thought of her, with her Spanish pride and her piety, her great dignity, her upbringing. What would her reaction be if she were told: You have been living in sin all these years. This is now revealed. So you are no longer Queen of England.
I could not believe what the King was suggesting would ever take place. But the fact that the King could suggest it showed the intensity of his passion for me—for I knew that his conscience had conveniently reared its head at this time, not because of his desire to live in accordance with the rules of the Bible but because he wished to live in passion with me.
He was beaming at the pond in the middle of the garden; he was so pleased with himself because he had thought up this scheme, and I believed, at that moment, he thought I should be so dazzled at the thought of sharing his throne that I would immediately throw aside the principles I had so forcefully expressed, fall into his arms and become his mistress on the spot.
I was wary. Of course, there was a possibility that it could come to pass.
His hand was on my knee. I could feel its heat through the stuff of my gown.
“It will soon be,” he said. “We can trust Wolsey. He will get this in motion. I am sending him to the Pope. Then, my sweetheart, we shall be together.”
He put his arm around me and crushed me against him. His lips were on my ear. “What say you, Anne? What say you?”
“What can I say?” I replied. “You are not yet free.”
“But soon will be.”
“I am unsure.”
“Do you love me?”
“I am unsure,” I repeated.
“Unsure! I ride out here to see you. I offer you a crown… and you are unsure!”
“I do not look for a crown from my husband… only fidelity and love.”
“But you shall have all three. I swear I'll not look at another. You shall have no rival. Say that you love me.”
“I must think on this.”
“You do not love some other?”
“No longer. I loved Henry Percy, but he was taken from me. When one has suffered in that way once, one is chary of doing so again.”
“You loved that spindle-legged, spineless creature?”
“Yes. I loved him and I lost him; and now he is most unhappy.”
“He would never be anything else. Shrewsbury's girl despises him as any woman of spirit would.”
“But I loved him.”
“Oh come… come…It would not have done.” He was suspicious suddenly. “Was he your lover?”
“My principles have always been the same. I never was and never will be any man's mistress.”
“Soon you will be Queen.”
“I do not know.”
He was bewildered. He was offering me himself, the greatest catch in the kingdom and a crown to go with it… and I was hesitating.
He took my hand. “We will plight our troth. Give me that ring.” It was one which I wore on my middle finger. It had been in the family for a number of years. “And I shall give you a ring. It will be a sign. Come, Anne, give me the ring.”
I shook my head. “Your Grace must understand that all this has happened so suddenly. I am bewildered. Please understand.”
He was all softness. His moods changed quickly. “I know. This has dazzled you. You were not expecting such a prospect. Let me be with you tonight and I will show you how it is between us two.”