I am too old, too weak for more childbearing, she thought. But she said nothing. What use would it have been to complain to him—to say: I have given you six children, four of whom are living. Do they not suffice?
His answer would be cool and to the point. A Queen must go on bearing children as long as possible. It is her duty.
Did he, she wondered, ever give a thought to Katherine Lee, her own maid of honor? If he did, not even Katherine would know it. She doubted whether Henry was ever unfaithful to herself even in thought.
She had married a strange man, a cold man; but at least she had a faithful husband. Henry would indulge in a sexual relationship for only one purpose: the procreation of children; and to procreate children with any other partner than his wife would in his opinion be an unnecessary act.
There were times when the Queen of England wanted to cast aside her dignity and laugh aloud; but that would be hysterical laughter and the Queen was no more given to hysterical outbursts than her husband was.
So she bowed her head and told herself that she must inform her women that this would be one of the nights in which the King would spend in her bed.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
JEAN PLAIDY is the pen name of the prolific English author Eleanor Hibbert, also known as Victoria Holt. More than fourteen million copies of her books have been sold worldwide. Visit www.CrownHistorical.com to learn of other Jean Plaidy titles available from Three Rivers Press.
Read all of the Tudor novels
in historical order
published by Three Rivers Press
To Hold the Crown
The Story of King Henry VII
and Elizabeth of York
previously published as
Uneasy Lies the Head
FROM THREE RIVERS PRESS
Katharine of Aragon
The Story of a Spanish Princess
and an English Queen
AVAILABLE NOW FROM
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Murder Most Royal
The Story of Anne Boleyn
and Catherine Howard
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The King’s Confidante
The Story of the Daughter
of Sir Thomas More
previously published as
St. Thomas’s Eve
AVAILABLE SPRING 2009 FROM
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The Sixth Wife
The Story of Katherine Parr
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The Thistle and the Rose
The Story of Margaret, Princess
of England, Queen of Scotland
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Mary, Queen of France
The Story of the Youngest Sister
of Henry VIII
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For a Queen’s Love
The Story of the Royal Wives
of Philip II
previously published as
The Spanish Bridegroom
AVAILABLE SPRING 2010 FROM
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A Favorite of the Queen
The Story of Lord Robert Dudley and
Elizabeth I
previously published as
Gay Lord Robert
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
Copyright © 1982 by Jean Plaidy
Reader’s Group Guide copyright © 2008 by Three Rivers Press, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc.
Excerpt from Katharine of Aragon, published in 1968 by Robert Hale Limited, London, and in 2005 by Three Rivers Press, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Three Rivers Press, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
www.crownpublishing.com
Three Rivers Press and the Tugboat design are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Crown Reads colophon is a trademark of Random House, Inc.
Originally published as Uneasy Lies the Head in hardcover in Great Britain by Robert Hale Limited, London, in 1982 and subsequently published in slightly different form by G. P. Putnam’s Sons, New York, in 1984.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Plaidy, Jean, 1906–1993.
[Uneasy lies the head]
To hold the crown : the story of King Henry VII and Elizabeth of York / Jean Plaidy. —1st Three Rivers Press ed.
1. Henry VII, King of England, 1457–1509—Fiction. 2. Great Britain—Kings and rulers—Fiction. I. Title.
PR6015.I3U5 2008
823’.914—dc22 2008011068
eISBN: 978-0-307-45017-3
v3.0