Three Maids for a Crown by Ella March Chase

Author:Ella March Chase
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Adult, Historical
ISBN: 9780307588982
Publisher: Broadway
Published: 2010-12-31T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nineteen

KAT

WINCHESTER PALACE

DECEMBER 1553

mbassadors from France and the Holy Roman Empire paraded through our days, using every opportunity to put forth the matches for Queen Mary that would benefit their own countries most.

Bishop Gardiner and the Frenchman de Noailles nattered on about the importance of wedding an Englishman. The man they most favored was Edward Courtenay. Even after fifteen years imprisoned in the Tower he looked the romantic hero—young and pretty, with royal blood flowing in his veins. To link the houses of Lancaster and Tudor could only strengthen England—or so Courtenay’s most devoted patron, Bishop Gardiner, claimed.

The union might have been perfect were it not for the tales that the Spanish ambassador carried of Courtenay’s revelry in Southwark’s brothels. Such stories repelled Queen Mary, and I could not blame her, though at times I wondered what such women did that men found so fascinating—and whether Henry had ever sampled such pleasures.

Renard, ambassador for the Holy Roman Empire, spent every moment in the queen’s company maligning Courtenay for weakness and vice while extolling the virtues of Prince Philip of Spain, a widower of sober temperament and proven responsibility. He was even the son of the queen’s cousin, Charles V, who had threatened Northumberland with war should the princess be harmed. But to wed a foreigner was to give another empire a foothold on English shores—a prospect that terrified any right-thinking Englishman.

Queen Mary shifted from one inclination to the next. I could scarce blame her. The kingdom seemed caught in some strange twilight between the old world and the new: the Catholic faith, which was still outlawed, pitted against reformers, whom the queen had forbidden to preach; her life as neglected spinster changing to that of a woman sought after as wife.

Even as distressed as I was over my own concerns, I felt ire at the injustice dealt her. It did not seem fair that she was unable to enjoy the attention men now paid her. The warmer the queen became toward Prince Philip’s suit, the louder the rumbles of discontent grew, until Spanish emissaries were pelted with snowballs by angry apprentices. The queen’s fury at the insult only increased the unrest.

Gossip caught fire, people fearing that England would become a mere vassal of Spain and that the Inquisition would be carried to English shores along with Philip’s nuptial ring.

The threat of Catholic retribution was no small matter since the queen’s patience with reformers was running out. Many claimed it was only a matter of time until the fires of Smithfield consumed the flesh of heretics once more. I tried to quell my terror that, in spite of Queen Mary’s promise, Jane might be one of the first to die. If not for accepting the crown, then for championing beliefs the queen deplored.

My little sister insisted the queen would not sign Jane’s death warrant. I wanted to believe her. The queen loved us, after all, at least little Mary and me. As for Jane … Jane had spent her time writing

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