A Queen Twice Over: Mary Tudor the Elder Marries Francis I of France

She is! But she's not saying anything, because she's too proud for that. She'd better get used to it though. Given she and Francis can't keep their hands off each other, she's going to find herself in this position more than once over the next decade or so!
Only in the next decade? I would say in the next two decades...
I already adore little Marguerite, and also Mary and Francis’ relationship is fantastic. Plus Marie and Marguerite together are really wonderful and good for Mary to have choose to use the French version of her name all the time... She is French, not English now.
I had hoped for a little François but I guess who he and an Elisabeth will arrive soon in the next years so...
 
Congratulations to the Royal couple. Long life to Marguerite, I am sure it will not be long before the Royal Courts come a knockin' with proposals.

Queen Mary staying healthy and fertile is a good sign for France. I am sure other children will be coming.
Oh, I've already chosen her husband. I just haven't written that far yet!
 
Only in the next decade? I would say in the next two decades...
I already adore little Marguerite, and also Mary and Francis’ relationship is fantastic. Plus Marie and Marguerite together are really wonderful and good for Mary to have choose to use the French version of her name all the time... She is French, not English now.
I had hoped for a little François but I guess who he and an Elisabeth will arrive soon in the next years so...
You might be right. I haven't yet chosen the birth years for Francis and Marie's youngest children...

As for the Marie thing, after years of using it in Queen Is Dead, I kept writing the wrong one so I have had this Mary use Marie too to simplify matters!
 
Only in the next decade? I would say in the next two decades...
IIRC, Mary and Brandon seem to have had four children in seven years (1516-1523), and then not had any more after that, despite Mary only being 37 when she died in 1533.

I'm not saying you're wrong with thinking Marie and Francis will have kids right up to the mid 1530s, - I haven't chosen the dates of birth of their youngest yet - but I wouldn't necessarily count on it...

I know that feeling...I keep accidentally writing Richard instead of Henry!
Oh, I am glad it's not just me!
 
To be fair, Mary was only Queen of France for about 3 months OTL, and married to a man who could displace Marguerite's beloved brother as heir if he fathered a son. I don't really think they will have had much of a relationship. But they're sisters ITTL, and Marie, as she is now, has been in France nearly two years. It's a very different dynamic...
Oh sorry, should have been more clear, the relationship between Mary and Margaret Tudor seems rarely touched on; Mary and Marguerite not being touched on much OTL is understandable.
 
Oh sorry, should have been more clear, the relationship between Mary and Margaret Tudor seems rarely touched on; Mary and Marguerite not being touched on much OTL is understandable.
Well, again, I don't know how much of a relationship they actually had. Mary was seven when Margaret left for Scotland, and won't have seen her sister again until she was in her twenties, during Margaret's exile in England in 1515/1516. That's 12 very formative years for them to have missed of each other's lives. But I shall see what I can do about their relationship ITTL, if you like?
 
Quick update: I have been writing like a fiend this week. The story is now in 1517, and Marie has acquired a new ally at the French Court. I suspect I should be able to wrap the first stage of the story, Marie's early years in France, up within five or six more chapters, writing wise, and then we can jump forward to 1525 - which means Pavia and all that comes with it!
 
I would love to see Marie interacting with Renée, if you haven't already planned on it...I can imagine that she must feel sorry for the poor girl and can relate, having also lost both of her parents when she was relatively young.
 
I would love to see Marie interacting with Renée, if you haven't already planned on it...I can imagine that she must feel sorry for the poor girl and can relate, having also lost both of her parents when she was relatively young.
Renee is definitely making an appearance, for her betrothal to the Dauphin Francois, if nothing else. I shall see what I can do for you!
 
Charles...maybe Louis, out of respect for Francis's predecessor (and after his mom). Marie would probably like to name her eldest son Henri but Francis isn't going to let THAT happen, at least not for the Dauphin.
But he was François in OTL and his father has no reason for calling him with another name ATL
 
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But he was François in OTL and his father has no reason for calling him with another name ATL
Also I would add who Francis NEVER used the name Louis for his sons in OTL and he had married Louis XII‘s daughter (not his former wife as ATL, who alone would be a very good reason for discarding the name Louis for any of his sons)
 
Section XII - April 1516
Greenwich, April 1516

Margaret Bryan is a loyal servant of King Henry. No one can dispute that. And no one could have been prouder to have been named Princess Mary’s governess when the infant was given a household of her own following Queen Katherine’s churching. Truly.

But even Margaret’s fierce loyalty to her sovereign lord doesn’t mean she’s not sometimes infuriated by His Majesty’s utter ignorance in all matters of childrearing.

The young Princess’s household is settled at Greenwich, while her parents move to Richmond, an easy boat ride away. No sooner are the rooms in order than the news comes that the King, overriding Queen Katherine’s protests that the children are too young to share a household, has agreed to let his baby niece, Lady Margaret Douglas, be raised with her royal cousin.

A day later comes the news that the royal cousins will also be joined by eight-month-old Eleanor Boleyn, youngest daughter to King Henry’s trusted courtier, Sir Thomas Boleyn. Orphaned within a week of her birth, Mistress Eleanor has so far been raised by her eldest sister, Mistress Mary, with the help of an elderly nurse, Simonette.

But Mary Boleyn is sixteen now, and her father has arranged for her to marry Sir William Carey of Aldenham, one of the King’s Gentlemen of the Privy Chamber, at Easter. Mary can hardly be expected to take her baby sister with her when she marries, and besides, Sir Thomas is ambitious and high-reaching. He longs for the prestige that having a daughter raised in the royal nursery will bring him. As such, he has begged for the boon off the King, and the King, generous as ever, has signed it off, reasoning that babies are babies and Lady Bryan and her maids will of course be capable of caring for all three infants. As if there are no differences between the needs of a six-week-old, the needs of a six-month-old and those of an eight-month-old.

Margaret would never dare speak against her King, of course, but sometimes, just sometimes, on a particularly bad day, she does just wish His Majesty had at least asked her first.

Oh, Princess Mary is no trouble, not really, but she does have a voracious appetite, meaning she is wailing for her wet nurse more often than not. Isabel is happy to do her bit to safeguard England’s future, of course, but she does so often look waxen, as though Her Highness has drained her dry.

Lady Margaret, meanwhile, is teething. This in itself wouldn’t be too bad, as the teeth aren’t causing her much pain, but unfortunately, they are making her bowels run. Often, it feels as though Margaret has no sooner directed one of the maids to change Lady Margaret’s smallclothes than she has dirtied them again. The poor lass is hardly ever off someone’s knee, being sponged down – and shouting her displeasure at the cold.

Mistress Eleanor is never out of someone’s arms either, but again, it is hard to blame the child. At eight months old, she is precisely the wrong age to have changed homes. She is old enough, alert enough, to be scared by her new surroundings and caretakers. However, she isn’t old enough to have the reasons behind her sudden displacement explained to her, or to express her fears properly. Therefore, all she can do to show her unhappiness at all the changes is cry, and this she does, almost constantly. The only thing that soothes her is being rocked in the arms of someone with blonde hair and wearing the scent of lavender. From the way Mistress Eleanor reacts so favourably to the scent of lavender, the soon-to-be Lady Carey must wear it. And of course, both Mary Boleyn and baby Eleanor have the blonde curls of their late mother, Lady Elizabeth Howard.

All these various challenges together, then, means that the nursery wing at Greenwich is hardly a haven of serenity, except for a few hours each evening when all three girls have been coaxed into their cradles and, with luck, won’t need anything else until Princess Mary wakes just as the household is retiring for one of her countless feedings.

But of course, the King never visits. Proud though he is of his only living daughter, he’s far too busy to pay much attention to her, at least until she can walk and talk.

Thus, although he is a doting father on the few fleeting visits he does pay to the nursery, King Henry never guesses what turmoil his careless generosity to the Queen of Scots and Sir Thomas Boleyn has caused Lady Bryan and the rest of the nursery staff. And Margaret will never tell him. She’s too proud for that. She’s been shouldered with a duty to England and she’ll fulfil it without a murmur, even if she drops with exhaustion in the process.

*** *** ***​
Across the Channel, however, things are running far more smoothly. To everyone’s surprise, little Marguerite, or Margot, as she quickly becomes known so as to distinguish her from her namesake aunt, is a remarkably placid baby. The tiny girl is content to lie in her cradle, or in the arms of her governess, Francoise de Foix, for hours on end and scarcely makes a peep.

She is so calm, in fact, that Marguerite often jokes that if it weren’t for Margot’s dark hair and cerulean eyes, she’d wonder whether the child was Francis and Marie’s daughter at all.

“This girl never cries!” Francis boasts to the Spanish Ambassadors, as he shows six-week-old Margot off at the lavish banquet following Marie’s churching.

He strips Margot bare as he speaks, declaring her as faultless and beautiful as her mother, the fairest rose in all of Christendom.

The Ambassadors, as is their wont, fall over themselves to agree with him, and Francis smirks at Marie over their bowing heads.

Even from several feet away, she can feel the lust in his gaze.

A shiver runs down her spine. It is a full three months, if not longer, since she and Francis even so much as slept in the same room. At moments like these, it feels like an eternity.

She returns his look boldly and tilts her head, her lips curving into a pout as sultry as any courtesan’s.

“Later,” she promises him silently, “You can seek to seed my womb with a Dauphin later.”
 
Very interesting that Eleanor is lodged with the Princess Mary and Meg Douglas, hopefully, they'll grow up to be friends. Poor Lady Bryan seems to have her hands full, still, I suppose at least there is a need for her services.... Funny that Margot is far calmer than her parents, I wonder if that will change as she grows older?... Excellent chapter!!!!
 
Very interesting that Eleanor is lodged with the Princess Mary and Meg Douglas, hopefully, they'll grow up to be friends. Poor Lady Bryan seems to have her hands full, still, I suppose at least there is a need for her services.... Funny that Margot is far calmer than her parents, I wonder if that will change as she grows older?... Excellent chapter!!!!
I haven't planned for her temperament to change... I see her as the peacemaker in the nursery, while her younger brother, Lord Orleans, has every bit of his namesake uncle's character... 😉

And yes, Lady Bryan does have her hands full!
 
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