Windsor Castle, Winter 1539
Windsor Castle, Winter
THE KING, WHO will never marry again, sends the court painter Hans Holbein all around Europe to take the portraits of young women.
There is Mary of Guise, the favourite, who chooses to marry the King of Scotland, which gives much offence; but she has two sisters, Louise and Renée.
There are two daughters of the Duke of Cleves; there is Christina Duchess of Milan, or Anna of Lorraine, and the French king’s sister, Marguerite.
Thomas Cromwell does not want England allied by marriage to either France or Spain, but to be an independent power, playing one side off against the other, so he chooses a bride free from the power of the pope: Anne of Cleves, a princess raised as a Lutheran – the most anti-papal of all the religions.
Her dowry – her only dowry – is an alliance with the Lutheran princes of Germany.
The king announces that he has made his choice and orders her bridal journey by sea in winter so that she can admire the power and strength of the king’s naval escort. Thomas Cromwell takes pity on her and sends her the safer and easier route overland.
In early December, Arthur, Lord Lisle, rides out from his fortress town of Calais and brings the new queen into his domain.
He has survived the scourging of his family and remains our trusted commander of Calais.
William Fitzwilliam the Earl of Southampton, high in favour after bullying Lady Margaret Pole, escorts the new queen into her fortress, and finally, after a noisy merry Christmas – with much flirtatious teasing of the most handsome bridegroom in Christendom – the returning ladies of the queen’s rooms go to meet their new mistress at Rochester and welcome her to her new country, where we tell her that we hope she will be happy and never admit that it is almost certain that she will not.