*unedited*
Cromwell entered the throne room, calm and collected, and much unaware of the arrival of the Lord and Lady Seymour and their sons, Carlisle and Elias.
Henry was seething; it was clear from the way his hands clutched onto his throne, knuckles white, rings glinting as he squeezed. His composure faltered and he bowed to the King.
"Your Royal Highness. You have requested my services. What may I do for you?" He presented, straightening himself and fixing his posture.
"You would not lie to me?" Henry quizzed.
"No, My King."
"You would not trick me?"
"No, My King."
"You would not DECEIVE me?!"
"Never, My King."
"Yet you LIE! LIE TO MY FACE! LIE TO ME! Right this very moment you attempt to dupe me! Am I a fool to you?!" Henry was screaming now.
"My King! I have been loyal to you! I would not take you for a fool!" Cromwell replied, visibly distressed. Servants cowered at the sides of the room, watching as the King berated his right hand man. This had never happened before, at least not with Cromwell. Some years ago had it been when Wolsey had fallen in this same way.
Henry wiped one hand over his mouth, expelling any stray flecks of saliva from the sides and on his lips. He took a deep breath and nodded. "You are right. You would not take me for a fool. Chances were that you were simply mistaken? The competent physician has told you nought but a lie. Mayhaps it be a mistake...but it cannot be, for he was the best in all of Great England." Henry was talking to himself, letting out his thoughts previously kept quiet.
Cromwell paled, falling to his knees!
The great Thomas Cromwell, advisor to the King of England, was on his knees, at his wits end, before the man he had served for many years. Just like the greats had been before him. Wolsey. Anne Boleyn. The physician. The Boleyn Court faction. "Y-your Majesty," he stammered, "forgive me for such an error! I should have called for a French physician! I- I know of an excellent medicine man, he can -"
"Silence, Cromwell. What is done is done. You have neglected to get a second opinion. Anne...as you knew, was with child. Not too long passed, she gave birth. Strong baby boys. Good tempered baby boys. Healthy baby boys. It shocked me, at first, when the news was relayed to me. A woman deemed to have a weak womb with child? I thought nought of it, assuming the child would miscarry. Trusting the medical advice relayed to you from the physician. Trusting that Anne's child bearing years were gone with. This is a curse! A curse from God! A curse for my wanting to do with the head of an innocent woman! A virtuous woman! My Queen has taken sick! Riddled with a fever and bed ridden! My son, my sole heir to the throne has fallen weak! He is ill! Tell me, is it not a curse!" Henry's voice was escalating yet again.
This was it.
The end for Cromwell's reign.
"Mayhaps you were aware of the mistake made and...you've taken advantage of it! Of me! Of my trust! MY TRUST! Your case against my Darling Anne, all of it! A ruse! An evil, hellish, devilish scheme! Tell me...I will ask once more. You would not lie to me? You would not trick me? You would not deceive me?" Henry was firm.
The King's man was defeated.
"By Jove, I will confess to my sins. My sins against you and the Great God above. It was a scheme! A plot! All of it! I shall confess to my crimes against the crown." Cromwell sobbed, prostrating before Henry in tears, not of remorse but of his own demise.
There he relayed the tale.
Anne has birthed a babe, young Elizabeth, and not too long after, Cromwell had noticed her influence upon the King. Feeling threatened, he planned her demise. At the news of her second pregnancy, he had forced a maid to lace Queen's the chalice with an erb, a poisonous one, intending not to harm the mother but rather the child within her.
The plan had come into motion when Anne had woken up screaming, horror stricken and bleeding out into her sheets.
The child had been lost.
And with that, Cromwell's cunning mind had met up with another conspirator, the Duke of Norfolk, the uncle of Jane Seymour, a Lady in Waiting that was becoming favourable to the King. They crafted a plan to get Jane wed and remove Anne from position of Queen Mother.
It was fool proof.
And yet...Anne had prevailed.
She had lived to prove the tale was just that, a tale and not the truth.
"I have done great things for you, My King, all the time that I have been at your service. I merely saw an opportunity and took it; I shall lose my head. I am well aware. But it is done, now. You have had the Lady Anne Seymour married off to the brother of your wife. My head shall not act as a currency in exchange for what has passed. Shall you not love her anymore?" The court advisor spoke, laying helplessly at the foot of Henry's throne.
Henry looked at the pathetic mess no longer. "Fetch me the Duke of Norfolk." He commanded. A small maid girl ran out the room, off to fetch the requested.
"And OFF WITH HIS HEAD!" he pointed to Cromwell.
And those who once respected him roughly picked up the man and led him off to his demise.
