She stood up and then sat down again, defeated. “But I shall have no input over Edward, nor the realm. Indeed, unless there is a public function, I have to apply to the council to visit my son at all.”
“It was not what you expected,” Robert Tyrwhitt, her master of horse, said. “I know.”
“Then, when I asked to speak to the council members, I was denied. They put the door closed in my face after quickly bidding me good day.”
I felt her pain, and her shame, both of which were undeserved.
Thomas Seymour made his way within a day’s time to pay his respects … and to complain.
We dined at her long table in Chelsea. There were only twenty or so of us present, those closest to my lady, as her royal household had been dissolved. Whether Sir Thomas had decided that all were safe to unburden himself in front of or whether such consideration had never occurred to him I knew not, but he spoke overfreely.
“The very first thing the council did, in direct disobedience to His Majesty, was appoint my brother, my brother,” Sir Thomas said, “as lord protector of the realm and governor of the king’s person. And who do you suppose suggested this course of action? None other than Edward Seymour himself.” He gulped his wine and rapped it hard on the table to call for more.
“It was necessary ‘so ambassadors and the like have direction and know with whom to speak,’ he said, though he promised he would not act afore getting consensus from the others. If I had been nominated to the council”—his voice rose—“as was meet and right, I could have spoken freely from a lifetime of experience and shown them that my brother did not, does not, and will not gather consensus unless pressed. What he wants, he takes. What he has, he holds.”
“He has named you as Baron Sudeley; taken the lord high admiralty of England, Ireland, Wales, Boulogne, and Calais away from Lord Lisle and given it to you; and added greatly to your incomes,” the queen commented quietly.
“Yes, but he has made himself Duke of Somerset, a duke—the highest rank of nobility. And he has kept all power for himself. We are both the king’s uncles; we should divide that power between us.”
The conversation died down then, and to more somber matters as was expected so few days after the king’s death. Indeed, he still lay in his leaden coffin, surrounded by long burning tapers, in his privy chamber at court.
Later, as I talked quietly with the queen’s guests, I could hear Thomas raving about how the council had power over not only King Edward, but the king’s sisters too.
“Should Elizabeth marry without the council’s, meaning Edward’s, consent,” he said, “she will lose her place in the succession.”
“But not Mary?” Kate spoke up with surprise.
Thomas stopped, silent, for a moment. “Yes, yes, Mary too, I suppose.”
That night I helped ready the queen for bed, as her greater ladies who had served her whilst she was at court had mainly now retired to their own homes. The queen’s household still numbered nigh on one hundred, but her personal ladies and womanly attendants had been trimmed to but few.
We sat first together in her chamber whilst her lady servant fetched and warmed the washing water.
“Will your brother and mother repose here at Chelsea for the coronation festivities?” she asked me.
“I sent a swift messenger to Marlborough as soon as you extended the invitation. My mother sends her grateful regrets. My brother, Hugh, would like to stay a night or two here so he and I may spend some time in one another’s company.” I felt badly that my mother had refused the queen’s kind invitation and hoped she would soon turn the topic. Graciously, she did.
“Should you like to return home to Marlborough after the coronation? I have grown fond of you, as you know, and should miss your companionship. But you are a woman ready to be wed and bearing children.”
She put her feet upon the stool and passed a tray of sweetmeats to me.
“I do not wish to marry … yet,” I replied tentatively.
“Ah … I did not know that Sir Tristram was of a mind to marry Mistress Dorothy,” she said. “Or I would not have sent you to him in the gardens.”
“It was a surprise to me, too, Your Grace. But I wish them happiness.”
“They will be in London for the coronation,” she continued. “They will be staying with his aunt and uncle, of course.” She softened her voice. “Lady Dorothy is with child. They have asked me to stand as godmother when the babe is born.”
I was overcome with dark misery, like a sudden eclipse of the sun. Kate reached out and took my hand in hers, believing my longing was for Dorothy’s husband when it was, in fact, Jamie and our own child I wished for. When I looked in my lady’s face, I saw it was writ with sorrow too. She had been godmother to many babes but had borne none of her own.
“You may remain in my household as long as you desire, Juliana, as an especially beloved. But I wish more for you. When the time comes, I shall be glad to stand godmother for you as well.”
I squeezed her hand. “Thank you, Your Grace. I shall never be able to repay your kindness.” But I would endeavor to, if I could.
We held hands for another minute till her maid came back with the wash water. I left to her dressing chamber to fetch her bed gown. When I came back, the maid had finished her duties and we were alone again. “Kate, forgive me,” I said. “But it seems to me that, whilst ’tis a sorrowful thing for you to lose the ability to guide King Edward, you do now have the ability to marry whom you choose, make a family of your own, and live in merriment without the burdens of the court.”
She looked up at me abruptly. “That is what I had concluded, too, Juliana. At first. But Thomas has shown me that I have been badly handled and mistreated in this matter. I am a queen, and he convinces me that I must agitate for equitable treatment. He is certain that his brother will further move against me. On the morrow, I will request my jewelry be removed from the Tower, where it has been held for safekeeping, and returned to myself.”
She looked at my face, which must have conveyed my doubt, and continued. “Lord Thomas has, and has always had, my highest interests at heart.” Ah yes, Sir Thomas had now become Lord Thomas, because of his brother’s advancing him.
Lord Thomas had goaded her, then, to move along the direction he wanted to travel. It was not my place to say more, so for once, I did not.
Shortly thereafter, there came news that the queen’s brother, William Parr, had sided with Edward Seymour on the matter of the protectorship and had been rewarded by a strengthening of their friendship and “common concerns.” The lord protector ensured that Sir William was raised to Marquess of Northampton, a high status indeed.
Then the queen’s sister, Lady Herbert, shared news that her husband, Sir Herbert, had renewed his friendship with and support of Edward Seymour as well. In return was the tacit understanding that they would support him against all comers, including her sister, Kate, and his brother, Thomas.
On February 16, His Majesty was solemnly installed next to his most beloved wife, Jane Seymour, in St. George’s at Windsor Castle. Sixteen yeomen used sturdy linen sheets to lower the massive coffin containing the bloated sovereign into Jane’s grave.
The queen dowager, dressed in dark velvet and wearing the jet beads I had given her as well as a widow’s ring with a death’s head on it, watched as her third husband was buried. Few mourners likely knew that there was one man determined to see her marry a fourth as quickly as night overtakes eventide.
Whilst at Windsor Castle with Kate, for the funeral, I slipped away to seek the midwife who had tended to my wounds in this very place after the violence of John Temple. The ladies and mistresses all knew where to find her, as someone oft was either with child, was miscarrying a babe, or had a troublesome monthly flux.