The Autobiography of Henry VIII_ With Notes by His Fool, Will Somers - Margaret George [117]
But not from the rude stares and sullen silence of the crowd-nothing could shield her from that, except she bury herself in walls of stone two feet thick.
Her head was held high, the chin lifted insolently, like a swan’s. Around her thin curved neck, like a great collar, was a circlet of unnaturally huge pearls. All in white, dazzling—with that long black hair hanging loose down her back. Pregnant, she was dressed as a virgin, all in white with unbound hair. Scorned, she held her head as proud as Alexander the Great.
My will seemed to me a living thing, as I pitied her and willed the onlookers to welcome her, give her some sign of affection. If desire could have moved them, every person would have cheered.
Anne’s fool, scampering along behind her, attempted to move them to shame and goodwill. “I fear you all have scurvy, and dare not uncover your heads!” he shouted, snatching off his own cap by way of example—an example they did not follow.
As Anne passed on, followed by all her royal household-her Chamberlain, Master of the Horse, ladies in velvet, chariots of peeresses, the gentle-women, and finally the King’s Guard—the people spontaneously began to cheer. The insult could not have been greater.
Beside me, I saw Cromwell’s expressionless eyes upon me. “Pity,” he said, and I saw that to him it was but another political fact, to be used as suited our purposes best. “More sherbet?”
Anne was shaking with anger when I came to her at Westminster Palace that evening. “The crowds were silent! The common people all but spat on me, and the German merchants of the Hanseatic League-oh, they think the Emperor will protect them, just as Katherine I want wit and music and poetry about me. You give me that. Mmade expressly for our child? You can cover it with pearls. It will become a treasure, to be admired for generations. Instead you covet something old that belongs to another woman.”
Like myself? As Katherine’s husband, I had had value. As her own, was I diminished?
“I want the gown,” she insisted. “And I will have it.”
A few days later a furious letter came from Katherine, refusing to give up the gown with all the moral righteousness at her command.
Anne was irate over her rival’s stubbornness and hauteur. “Make her surrender the gown!” she shrieked at me, snapping the letter up and down and beating the air with it.
“I cannot,” I replied. “The gown is not Crown property, as were the royal jewels. Katherine is within her rights to keep it.” The fact that Katherine treasured it pleased me.
“Her rights? What rights does she have?”
I was shocked. “The same rights as any English subject. Amongst them, the right to own personal property.”
“She deserves no rights! She refuses to acknowledge me as Queen! That makes her a traitor!”
“There is no law saying all citizens must formally acknowledge you as Queen. At this time we rely on the old precedent that ‘silence gives consent.’ ”
“You will have to change that law soon enough,” she taunted. “There are many different kinds of silences, and soon—very soon!-it will be important to differentiate between them. You will be forced to do so, for your son’s sake. Then the executions will begin!” Her eyes narrowed. “Executions. All traitors will be executed, Harry-Katherine and Mary, and that stupid Thomas More. You will have no choice!” Her voice rose to a crescendo.
“Anne!” I grabbed her shoulders and shook her, hard. It was like breaking a demoniac spell. She changed before my eyes, melting from a vituperative fiend to a confused, honest creature.
“You excite yourself,” I said lightly. “It is not good for the child. Come, I shall show you the great bed of which I spoke. It has, as I remember, the most delicate carvings....” I spoke soothingly, thus calming her.
Alone in my bed that night (as the physicians had forbidden Anne and me to come together again as husband and wife until after the child’s birth), I was thankful that I had been able to quell her rising hysteria so quickly. Time enough later to reflect on her accusations about Katherine and Mary and her predictions