We all had to hide our red embarrassed faces behind our hands when foreign ambassadors came to visit the court to congratulate the King on the birth of his new baby, all the while barely hiding their amusement. That England should go through all this turmoil just so the King could have another girl on a Knight's daughter!
But the King held his head up high, unwilling to acknowledge that he had made a mistake, and that God had sent him another daughter as a mark of his displeasure. He showered the little girl, named Elizabeth for his mother, with more attention than he ever had any of his other children, even the Bastard boy from Bessie Blount. He praised her Tudor Red hair, her dark Boleyn eyes, her screaming fits of temper whenever she was hungry or uncomfortable. She was a very healthy baby, and the King had need of those. We could all see he hoped he would have a boy next.
* * * *
While the entire country was filled with embarrassment at the shame which the King had brought to us all, Anne Boleyn was quite without it. Quick as a snake, she ordered that the Princess Mary, now demoted to a mere "Lady Mary", be brought to her palace in order to serve her daughter the Princess Elizabeth. Queen Catherine's letters of protest were ignored; the King did not even look at them anymore, he simply cast them into the flames.
When she ran off to Hatfield Palace to ensure everything was perfect for the Princess Elizabeth, the King's eyes started to wander again. Anne had lost some of the glamour for him now that she had not borne him a son and heir as she had made him believe she would. He still loved her, but he was no longer under her spell. So his roaming eyes settled on me once again. And on Anne's whore of a cousin Margaret Shelton.
" Dance with me, Mistress Seymour," he said to me as the whole Court had just finished their dinner and were settling down for the night's entertainments. Eyes downcast, but aware of every eye on me, particularly Margaret Shelton and Mary Boleyn's, I rose meekly and took his hands. The King of England wanted me! Me, who they called Plain Jane, who had no suitors, who, at the age of twenty five was turning into a spinster in her Father's house; the King wanted me!
* * * *
My Father summoned me back home to Wulfhall as soon as the family received word that the King had taken an interest in me. I pled sickness to the King- I had no need to ask Queen Anne for permission as she was not at court and travelled in a carriage to stay out of the sun. I was soon fast asleep.
By the time I arrived in Wiltshire the sun was setting.
Anne Stanhope was waiting at the front door to receive me, her ladies in waiting all surrounding her. My Parents and brothers still did not see me as important enough to be received at the door despite the fact that I was their only source of information at Court and that the King had a newfound regard for me. Still groggy from my nap in the carriage I curtsied to her. "My Lady Sister."
She remained standing, regarding me coldly.
"I understand you don't often have suitors rushing at you," She said loudly by way of greeting, smiling contemptuously. "After all, you are not known for your beauty. Or your Learning. Or your grace. So that is why it came as quite a shock to us all that you had caught his Majesty's eye."
Her ladies in waiting giggled as though she had said something very funny. I kept my head down. "Now don't be a little slut and give yourself to him, alright?"
* * * *
Dearest Lady Seymour, the King wrote, You left Court so abruptly that I have been left at a loss for words. Has anyone wronged you? Is that person me? If so, please tell me so I may rectify it at once. I remain your ever loving King,
Henry of England.
I took the note to my Lord Father. Really, I didn't know what else to do, so I took it to him. And of course he showed it to Anne Stanhope, who was burning with resentment at my growing importance in the family.
"We should discourage her," she said. "Jane, I mean. We should discourage her from leading the King on."
We all look at her. "Are you quite mad, Anne? " Edward asked her. "We have a chance; finally, we have a chance!"
"Anne Boleyn is known throughout Europe as a usurping whore," she said quickly. "And her family are hated by the people for no better reason than they are known to be greedy and grasping."
"Everyone at Court is greedy and grasping," my Father remarked wryly.
Anne smiled. "Yes, that is true. And we can use that. Where Anne is loud, shameless and unabashed Jane shall be humble, obedient and homely. The people who hate Anne for her avarice shall love Jane for her modesty. And believe me, when the King tires of that Boleyn whore as he tires of all his women, he will look for her complete opposite." She turned her blue gaze on me. "And that shall be our Jane."
*****
I returned to Court with four new gowns, which my father had bought me to make my work of enticing the King easier. He also sent me along with a lady companion - one of Anne Stanhope's ladies in waiting - who was to advise me and report everything that happened back home.
Queen Anne was trying even more desperately to have a son. Everything hinged on that; her fate, the fate of her family, and the fate of England. A boy. A healthy Tudor boy. She ate asparagus, which was known to be good for creating boys, at every meal, finding that she had to try harder to recapture the King's extremely fleeting attention which had now settled on Margaret Shelton since I had been away. He no longer cowered at her temper tantrums, and she grew paler and paler as she saw that he was moving away from her to other women.
I was now gaining attention at court as a rising favourite. The King could not keep his eyes off me. I could feel his intense yearning stare at me as I danced in the evening entertainments. When I was lost in my own thoughts, reading my prayer book, or sewing, I would look up and there he would be, his blue eyes on me, pleadingly silent.
But I was not the only recipient of his attentions. Margaret Shelton, a Howard relation and a great beauty; the prettiest unmarried girl at court, was also gifted some new gowns by the King himself. She, with an uncharacteristic lack of ambition, cared for nothing more than her looks and was glad and warm towards the King's advances. That is, until Queen Anne threatened to claw her eyes out.
I was not so great a fool as to fall for the King's act. I had seen too many a girl go down that road and get nothing for it but a couple of new gowns and a ruined reputation. So I retreated. I begged to be excused from dancing with him. When he sent a dish to my table I barely touched it. When he offered to walk with me in the garden I accepted because of course one could not simply keep saying No to the King of England; I was no bold strumpet like Anne Boleyn, but I kept as silent as I could so he would see from my actions if not my words that I would not be his whore.
Of course the Boleyns noticed this.
"Mistress Seymour," Jane Parker once called to me loudly as we walked from Mass. " Have a walk with me."
It was not a request and I knew I could not refuse. It was not in my nature to argue and besides, Jane Parker- foolish, daft Jane Parker was Queen Anne Boleyn's Sister in law and not without power. I nodded to my lady companion to go ahead before me and went with Jane.
"It grieves me to notice that you, Mistress Seymour, have been noticed to entertain advances from married men. Queen Anne herself sent me to inform you that she will not have this sort of behavior among one of her maids."
I kept silent. She stopped walking and smiled at me. "It would distress us all greatly if something tragic were to happen to you." She shrugged. "An accident, perhaps. Or a mysterious illness. It really would, Mistress Seymour."
****
I did not doubt for a second that the Howards would carry through with the threat they delivered through Jane Parker. Killing me, the daughter of a mere Knight would not be very difficult for them. I was not going to risk my life for a throne. I would not die for the King.
I pled illness and spent the whole day in my room, my lady companion attending me. I was afraid to even touch food from the kitchens for fear of poison. Anne Boleyn had used it once on an ordained Bishop of the Church. What would she do to me?
Her Motto was "The Most Happy!" As indeed I discovered when I finally gained enough courage to leave my room and found that once again, the King had eyes for no one but her since she had announced that she was with child again.
