Young and Damned and Fair by Gareth Russell

Author:Gareth Russell
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Catherine had spent most of her married life on the move, and she was already familiar with the upheaval that came with each relocation, but the progress to the north in 1541 was a new experience not just for the Queen but for everyone around her. Most of the royal family’s residences were in the Thames valley and accessible by water, the court’s preferred mode of transport, and those that were not tended to be smaller and within riding distance. The tour of 1541 took them to houses that most of the court had never visited, in parts of the country that the King had never seen. Everything would have to be moved by land, making their journey more dependent on the weather than if they had been traveling on the Thames.

Each department of the royal household had carts, chariots, and horses, as nearly everything that belonged to it moved with it from place to place—clothes, jewels, books, carpets, linens, furniture, even the irons for the King and Queen’s fires were transported. Catherine’s officers and councillors went north with her, as most of the Privy Council did for the King, since government was located with the King’s person. A rump council was left behind in London as caretakers of the capital. Some officers rode ahead to liaise with local suppliers to ensure the court had everything it needed by the time it arrived. The surveyor of the King’s works went with a team to inspect the next stop and repair anything that had fallen apart since the last time the house was visited, and Henry’s personal locksmith, Henry Romains, traveled with his assistants to check the locks, before handing over a set of keys to the King and Queen, whose chosen privy attendants would have copies made for the duration of their stay. The Queen’s servants unpacked her furniture, and the maids and women pointed out where it needed to be put; fires were made, beds dressed, and clothes unpacked.31

The size of the royal party as it moved north from Westminster on June 30 was also unusual. With about four to five thousand horses, compared to the usual thousand, two hundred tents, and artillery sent from London by sea to the northeast, it looked more like a military operation than a royal progress, and it intensified speculation that Henry was rediscovering his aspirations for battle.32 As de Marillac watched the preparations, including the renewed interest in the southern and northern defenses, and restrictions placed on the movements of foreigners living in London, he told his government, “whether for offence or defence, the English are thinking of war.”33

It had always been in France that English armies had won their most memorable victories. As well as this legacy, Henry VIII was also heir to an antique claim that had been repeated at his coronation in 1509, when he had been crowned Henry, by the Grace of God, King of England, France, and Lord of Ireland. The roots of this claim went back

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