The Third Tudor Princess

In My Daughter's Eyes

October 1536

"No! No! No!"

Were anyone to walk by the door at this moment, they might assume that something horrible had befallen the lady inside. 

In reality, Jane Seymour had merely gotten her courses, for the fifth time since her marriage to the King. 

Nearly every night since the wedding, His Majesty and herself had attempted to sire a Prince of Wales, but she had not shown even the smallest sign of pregnancy in the five months that she had been married.

The King still told her he loved her, still visited her bed at night, but she could tell he was beginning to wonder whether she could even have a child.

In her darkest moments, she wondered whether he was thinking of the Boleyn witch, who was about 5 months along in her own pregnancy, and asking himself if he had made a mistake to cast her aside.

Jane had a duty, to her family, to the church, and to England, to give the King an heir, to make sure that he never had cause to entertain the idea of putting Anne Boleyn back on the throne or making her children his heir.

She was forced to stop dwelling on this when her lady-in-waiting announced the arrival of her brother, who entered and waved away her attendants.

"Well?" He snapped, not even greeting her with the deference she was due as Queen.

"Not yet. My courses arrived today."

The look on his face said it all. He feared for his position if she couldn't have a child. 

"I feared this would happen. From the minute he proposed." Edward growled, gripping the side of a chair. 

"And what do you suggest I do? He's visiting my bed every night, and I haven't conceived! Do you have a better idea?" Jane snapped at him, raising her voice to him for what was probably the first time in her life.

"As a matter of fact I do." the look on Edward's face changed completely, and the cold, calculating look in his eyes sent a cold chill down Jane's spine. Whatever his plan was, she had a feeling that she would not like it. 

Even so, Edward was the cunning member of the family, so his idea would likely be well thought out, and she was growing increasingly desperate, so she gestured for him to keep talking. 

"Every woman in our family has been fertile. Every woman in the late Queen's family was fertile. Even every woman in the whore's family was fertile."

"Yes," Jane said, "I know. But I'm not barren, my bleeding arrived today."

"I'm not suggesting you are. Just the opposite, in fact. What do you, Queen Katherine, and the Boleyn witch all have in common? None of you could give the King a healthy boy. Maybe you can have a child, just not with the King."

"But how does that help me? I'm married to His Majesty!"

"Exactly," Edward said with a smirk, "so, naturally, the court would assume that any child born of you was his."

"And they would be right," Jane was growing confused. She couldn't have a child with anyone but the King. She was his wife, that was high treason!

"Jane, in order to protect our position, you need to take risks. I have secured one trusted man, a friend of the family, to assist us here. It will just be a single time, the King will never know, and the country will have a prince."

"No! I can't do that! That makes me no better than the Boleyn woman!"

"And she conceived a child! Don't you see, Jane, this is our only way to secure our standing. If we do not, you'll be dethroned before the year is out, sent to a nunnery to make way for the next Queen."

Jane knew he was right.  But she also feared for her life if she was caught. 

But her brother knew this court better than she did, and he seemed confident that they could get away with this, and that she would escape with her head and throne in tact.

"Very well. Who is this man?"

"Mr. Chapuys, the Spanish ambassador. He is faithful to the true church, loyal to us, and the King would be reluctant to accuse him of any wrongdoing, lest he offend the Emperor."

At the mention of his name, Chapuys himself walked through the door. He bowed to her and then turned to her brother.

"Your Excellency, my sister has agreed."

It was at that moment that Jane realized what she had gotten herself into.

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Pembroke Castle

"Are you certain? Are you absolutely certain?"

"Yes, Your Grace. I believe that you carry multiple children." The doctor sent to examine her said.

Multiple! Anne couldn't believe it. After years of struggling to produce even one child, she now carried two!

She spared a brief thought for the Seymour woman. If court gossip was to be believed, she was yet to conceive even one child.

To think, Henry's greatest desire was an heir, and now the wife he had cast aside was pregnant with two.  She wondered what may happen if she had a son, while Seymour remained barren.

She found herself praying fervently that her children would be born girls. Henry's court was full of vipers, men and women who rejoiced in her downfall. If there was even a chance that the birth of a son would lead to her being forced to return there, rather than enjoying life in the country with her children, she did not want it. 

As much as she believed that her children, Elizabeth and the ones she carried, were their father's rightful heirs, as much as the idea of a half-Seymour bastard sitting on the throne when Henry was gone nauseated her, she knew in her heart that, in the world they lived in, her highest priority needed to be her children's safety, not wealth or titles or power. Her father had made that mistake, and he had paid for it dearly.

Her greatest hope was that Henry would not even visit his new children. If he got attached, he may decide he wanted to be a father to them.

She wanted her children to grow up with her, safe and loved, rather than with a father who had destroyed the reputation of their mother and murdered their uncle.

She would fight for them, because there was no one else in the world who would.

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Lady Mary Tudor felt lighter than she had in years. Her father had seen the error of his ways and cast aside the wicked Boleyn woman, and married a virtuous lady who was truly worthy of being her mother's successor. While she still did not have the title of Princess, which was hers by right, she knew that Queen Jane supported her right to succeed the throne, and would bring it up with her father when the time was right. 

She had decided to pay a visit to the Queen, with whom she had developed a warm friendship over the past months. Queen Jane was a devout Catholic, just as she was, and the two had discussed possibly convincing her father to return to the true faith.

As she approached the door, however, she heard a strange sound coming from inside.

She thought she recognized the sound, but she also knew her father was in a council meeting, so that couldn't be it.

Resolving to simply peek inside, she nearly threw up when she realized what she was looking at.

The Queen, her father's wife, with Ambassador Chapuys, representative of the emperor and her old friend.

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