The Taming of the Queen

‘When we finally won, it was a massacre. Two thousand townsmen and women and their children trailed out of the town past him as he sat high on his horse, in his Italian armour. They went out in the wind and rain with nothing, not even a bag of food. He swore that they must walk all the way to the French lines at Abbeville; but they lay down and died on the road as his troops looted their homes. He is a killer, Kateryn, he is a merciless killer.

‘And now it is over he calls it a great victory; has no idea that it was a mess. Howard’s army was on the brink of mutiny. Boulogne will never be held. It is all vanity, a vain conquest. He has no idea that it isn’t a great victory. He knows only what he wants to know. He believes only what he wants to think. He hears only what he orders. Nobody tells him the truth and he would not know it if it were spelled out for him in the blood of his victims.’

‘He’s king,’ I say simply. ‘Isn’t it always like this for kings?’

‘No!’ Thomas exclaims. ‘I’ve been at the court of the King of Hungary, I have spoken with the emperor himself. They are great men who are obeyed without question but they can question themselves! They have doubts! They ask for true reports. They take advice. This is not the same. This king is blind to his own failings, deaf to counsel.’

‘Hush, hush,’ I say anxiously, glancing at the closed door.

‘Every year it gets worse,’ he insists. ‘All his honest advisors are dead or disgraced, he has killed all the friends of his childhood. Nobody around him dares to tell him the truth. His temper is completely out of control.’

‘You shouldn’t say . . .’

‘I should say! I must say – because I am warning you.’

‘Warning me of what?’

He comes a step closer; but he puts out his hands to prevent me reaching for him. ‘Don’t. I cannot be near you. I came only to tell you: he is dangerous. You have to be careful.’

‘I am unendingly careful!’ I exclaim. ‘I dream of you but I never speak of you. I never write to you, we never meet! I have given you up; I have completely given you up for him. I have broken my heart to do my duty.’

‘He will tire of you,’ he says bitterly, ‘and if you give him no cause to divorce you, he will kill you to be rid of you.’

It is such a deadly prediction that I am stunned into silence for a moment. ‘No, Thomas, you are wrong. He loves me. He made me regent. He trusts me like no other. I have brought his children to court. I am their mother. I am an exception. He has never loved a wife as he loves me.’

‘It is you that are wrong, you little fool. He made Katherine of Aragon regent. He ordered a nationwide service of thanksgiving for Katherine Howard. He can turn in a moment and kill within the week.’

‘Not so! Not so!’ I am shaking my head like one of the little figures on my clocks. ‘I swear to you that he loves me.’

‘He threw Queen Katherine into a cold damp castle and she died of neglect, if not poison,’ he lists. ‘Anne, he beheaded on false evidence. My sister would have been abandoned within the year if she had not got a child, and even then he left her to die alone. He would have executed Anne of Cleves for treason if she hadn’t agreed to a divorce. His marriage to Katherine Howard was invalid because she was married already, so he could have abandoned her to her shame, but he chose to execute her. He wanted her dead. When he is tired of you he will kill you. He kills his family, his friends, and his wives.’

‘Traitors must be executed,’ I whisper.

‘Thomas More was no traitor. Margaret Pole, the king’s cousin, was no traitor, she was an old lady of sixty-seven! Bishop John Fisher was a saint, Thomas Cromwell was a loyal servant, Robert Aske and all the Pilgrims of Grace held a royal pardon. Katherine Howard was a child, Jane Rochford was mad: he changed the law so he could behead a madwoman.’

I am trembling as if I have an ague. I clamp my jaw to stop my teeth chattering. ‘What are you saying? Thomas, what are you saying to me?’

‘I am saying what you know already, what we all know but none of us dares to say. He is a madman. Kateryn, he has been mad for years. We have sworn loyalty to a madman. And every year he is blinder and more dangerous. None of us is safe from his whims. I saw it. I finally saw it in France, for I have been blind too. He is a murderer without cause. And you will be his next victim.’

‘I’ve done nothing wrong.’

‘That is why he will kill you. He cannot bear excellence.’

I lean back against the cold stone wall. ‘Thomas, oh, Thomas, this is a terrible thing to say to me!’

‘I know. This is the man who let my sister die.’

He crosses the little hall in two swift strides and he wraps his arm around me and kisses me savagely, as if he would bite me, as if he would devour me. ‘You are the only person I would say this to!’ he says urgently in my ear. ‘You have to keep yourself safe from him. I won’t speak to you again. I may not be seen with you, for both of our sakes. Guard yourself, Kateryn! God keep you. Goodbye.’