A Turbulent Crown by Phillipa Vincent-Connolly

Author:Phillipa Vincent-Connolly [Vincent-Connolly, Phillipa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-01-09T00:00:00+00:00

By eight-thirty in the morning, we process through the streets, inside the city walls. The crowds have turned out in their thousands but are largely silent, and their welcome seems frosty. I watch, walking behind Anne and the rest of her entourage, as they wave to the people. Few caps are removed, and even less cry out “God save Your Grace!”

Jayne Fool walks beside me, looking worried, her gaze darting this way and that. Maybe she doesn’t like the noise of the horses or the clarions.

“My Lord Mayor!” she shouts without warning, making me flinch. “My Lord Mayor! Why do you not command the people to make the customary shouts?” Her face has reddened as she glares at the mayor.

“Jayne Fool, I cannot command people’s hearts,” he replies, turning to us and walking backwards. He holds both arms out. “Even the king could not make them do so!”

Anne looks back from her litter, attached to horses front and back, to see what all the fuss is about. “What goes on there?”

“It is nothing, Your Grace,” the mayor says, giving a sharp nod towards Jayne.

“Well, it ain’t nothing to me, Lord Mayor!” Jayne snaps, shaking her head at him. She looks out at the crowd and shouts at the top of her voice, “I think you have all scurvy heads and dare not uncover!”

Onlookers laugh at her remark. A bad example of ableism. It disappoints me to see how the crowd is treating Jayne, after being impressed previously at how Tudor society, and the royal court in particular, treat disabled people. Jayne is scowling as she walks along, her arms folded in front of her.

“Pay them no heed,” I say, smiling. “They are ignorant, and do not know Anne Boleyn as we do.”

She nods, then lifts her head high, probably in the realisation that she is a best friend to the queen of England.

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