No way as Philip’s daughters can still inherit Castile and Aragon (and he can always marry the eldest girl to Eduardo or Ferdinand’s youngest son for keeping Castile and Aragon under the Habsburg rule)
An Imperial Match: Anne Boleyn marries Charles V
- Thread starter pandizzy
- Start date
I may misremember this, but was Norway in a personal union with Denmark at this point?
4th of April, 1541.
York Castle, England. 4th of April, 1541.
There was something extraordinary about being a mother. Kitty wondered if every other woman felt the same when their own babies were born. If they ever felt their hearts opening to a new love, a love she had never felt before. For so long, Kitty thought she knew what love was. She loved her brothers and sisters, she loved her mother, and she loved her husband, but the love she felt for William was so different. It was more mature, and stronger. She knew as soon as they placed him in her arms that she would do anything for him.
He was a large baby, everyone said so, with her dark hair and the King’s blue eyes, though somewhat muddled in his young age. And he was beautiful. Charlie had joked that he looked like a knee, but her brother’s teasing couldn’t undo the truth. William would grow to be very handsome, Kitty was sure.
Her son would only be officially baptised when they returned to London in three months, though Reginald Pole had blessed and anointed him soon after his birth, to ensure his soul could go to Heaven and the Lord would know him by name. And Kitty was able to see and be with him every day, for Lady Howard, his appointed governess and her aunt by marriage, brought him every morning and left only when he needed a feeding or a change.
Kitty had wanted to feed him on her own breast, but Lady Howard, and her own sisters as well, told her not to and gasped in outrage when she made to do it anyway. It was unseemingly for a queen to do so, they said, and the more she fed her baby, the longer the King would have to wait for another heir of his body. If it were just for the hurt on her prestige, Kitty would have ignored their advice, but she didn’t want to disappoint John. She knew he would not enter her bed until she was churched, a ceremony still a month away, but she wanted to make him happy. She didn’t want him to wait until they had a Duke of York of their own.
William was a sweet baby, however. Kitty had placed him on the bed next to her, his eyes swelled shut as he slept a peaceful sleep, and laid down herself, observing his little face. The King always complimented her nose, but she was pleased to see that William did not inherit it. He had her lips though, a little poutier as he slept, and even the King commented on how much he looked like a Howard. That would please her uncle, if a great-nephew with Howard blood on his veins was not enough for him.
“I think he is clever,” Kitty whispered, raising her eyes slightly to look at Charlie, who was sitting next to her bed. “Do you think babies dream as we do?”
“I don’t see why not,” Charlie said. “They are still human.”
“I wonder what he is dreaming of,” Kitty murmured.
“Mother’s milk, possibly,” her brother answered and she chuckled, holding a hand against her mouth to muffle the noise. “Or the crown in his future.”
Kitty stroked William’s soft round cheek and he flinched slightly, just a bit. But he settled easily, moving his lips as if his uncle was right and he was dreaming of his wet nurse's milk. "I like watching him sleep," she whispered. "He looks so peaceful. Like nothing can ever hurt him."
“Nothing will ever hurt him,” Charlie said with so much finality that Kitty felt forced to believe him. “Maybe some growing pains, or when his teeth come, but your son is the most important child in the country, Your Majesty.” Her brother leaned in to squeeze her shoulder comfortingly. “No one will ever let anything happen to His Grace.”
Kitty nodded, tears brimming her eyes. She was so emotional since she gave birth, so prone to bursting into tears at each adorable yawn or sweet baby sigh that William let out. The midwife had told her it was normal, and she would feel better in a few weeks. She looked behind her, at Lady Stumpe who was embroidering the hem of the Howards old christening cloak.
“How is he?” a voice exclaimed just outside the enclosed quarters. Kitty immediately sat up, pulling William to her arms clumsily as her sister stood up to welcome the King. Her baby whined, pulled from his sleep as he opened his bright blue eyes, frowning deeply at his mother. She wanted to smile at him, and say, it’s your papa, my sweet prince, but she was too busy looking at the door to even think of it. “How is my son?”
The door opened and the King stepped inside, large and tall as life itself. At his boisterous laugh, William began to cry even louder, and Kitty rocked him gently, wishing for a moment that she had taken Lady Dorset’s offer to brush and braid her hair earlier. She must look quite bedraggled.
“Growing strong?” The King didn’t even notice Charlie or Lady Stumpe’s respectful bows, looking instead at Lady Howard. “Feeding well?” Kitty’s aunt rose from her curtsy as William continued to cry. “Those lungs will out-bellow even the Pope’s town crier.”
“His Grace is heard from the city whenever he wants his wet nurse, my lord,” Lady Howard proclaimed.
The King nodded. “Good, good.” He stepped forward. “Give him to me, the boy wants his father.” Kitty smiled as John took their child from her, large arms supporting William’s soft head and little bum. Their son was a large baby by all accounts, but with his father, he looked extremely diminutive, especially with the King’s puffy clothing. “There, there, William. I’m right here.”
With a gentle rocking and firm pats on his back, William calms down easily, as if the King’s words were true and he did truly want his father. Kitty stretched a bit on her bed, wanting to see if he had fallen asleep, and the King looked at her with a smile. “Look at our son, Kitty,” he said. “The country celebrates with us. Wine flows in the streets, the bells ring every day on jubilee. And I have ordered that a hundred petty criminals be pardoned in William’s name, so he will be well-loved by all.”
“Of course he will!” Kitty would never allow anyone to say otherwise. “Who would have cause to love him any less?”
John rolled his eyes. “Who do you think?” he questioned and she leaned back against her bed, not knowing if she should say the answer in her heart or not. But she was sure that Princess Elizabeth was not joyous at the news of her nephew.
But the King shook his head, looking back at William. “My son will see a new age in England, and in Europe,” he murmured. “The age where the corruption of the church finally comes at an end.”
Charlie frowned. “Your Majesty…?” he started in a confused voice.
The King handed a sleeping William back to Lady Howard who curtsied as she moved to take him away. When she was gone, John clapped his brother-in-law in the back. “Come, Charlie,” he said. “We have many important matters to discuss.”
Jane Seymour is little William’s governess? Very cool! And I adore Kitty as a mother. Hopefully Elizabeth gets over herself soon, otherwise John will have to sharply remind her, that it’s borderline treason. Him going after the church is intriguing, and hopefully he’ll root out the worst of it
Kitty and her precious baby are a balm to my soul 🥰.
But I'm wondering how corrupt the monasteries really were in England at this time? They provided a huge social service for the common people and scholarly importance as well, I think?
But I'm wondering how corrupt the monasteries really were in England at this time? They provided a huge social service for the common people and scholarly importance as well, I think?
Kitty loves children, so I see no reason why she wouldn't love her own child.
I mean, it depends on what you refer to as ‘corrupt’.
Apparently it was definitely true that a lot of the monasteries weren’t keeping the Rule of Saint Benedict anymore. They were fairly idle, they ate well and lived luxuriously, they gouged money from the masses for getting to look at fraudulent relics*, Abbots enjoyed considerable wealth and privilege (and power, as members of the House of Lords). Some of the more scandalous stories were likely invented, though apparently sodomy was pretty widespread.** And, from what I’ve read - not least in the work of CJ Sansom, who is actually a Tudor historian as well as a novelist - by this time in England, monasteries weren’t attracting a high calibre of monk. It was mostly men who didn’t really fit in the outside world for one reason or another, or men who wanted an easy life.
And honestly, the wealth of the monasteries is such that it likely doesn’t matter how corrupt they truly are. That’s money and land going idle when it could be going to the Crown - any amount of corruption is their death-knell.
* Which was something even a lot of devout Catholic were looking sideways at. Erasmus was the one who made the comment about there being enough pieces of the True Cross to build a ship…
**Obviously I’m not saying being gay is scandalous, I’m saying that in the eyes of believers of the time monks having sex with one another would have been pretty scandalous. And, of course, in monasteries it could often involve pederasty, which is wrong…
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John could easily employ men that can calculate how much land/money each monastery needs to sustain itself and continue their charities, for example.
Awww, Catherine is such a good mother to little William, and it seems that John is engaging in some sensible reform to the church.
Yeah, and it's not as war-like as it was OTL. This isn't about dissolution, it's an investigation.
True, I've probably said this before but it wasn't all that uncommon as long as the pope was fine with it.
A investigation is good. It's just that the dissolution tore such holes in the social fabric and increased the level of poverty in England, so if John finds a balance, I'm happy.
This TL is really kicking higher and higher with every chapter delivered.
*tips hat in @pandizzy general direction*