March-December 1540: In England, Queen Anne Boleyn gives birth to a daughter, Princess Margaret. It is after the birth of this beautiful child, that Henry VIII became dangerously ill. In his delirium, he imagined he was being poisoned by a group of people. Margaret of Clarence, a woman who had raised his children, was charged with treason for the mere crime of have the wrong ancestry. However, it was when he turned on his Queen that people stepped into action to stop him. Anne Boleyn had been Queen for 7 years. In these years, she had worked tirelessly to help the English people. She had opened schools and hospitals, and had tried with all her might to win the public affection. No longer was she the “Bullen whore” but “Good Queen Anne”. Her name was uttered with love throughout England. And yet her husband accused her of plotting to put her sister-in-law/stepdaughter, Mary Tudor, on the throne. Angered by the accusation and tired of balancing her mentally unstable husband through life, she sprung into action. Henry VIII of England apprehended and placed until lockdown in his rooms. She then declared that her dear beloved Henry had fallen into madness and thus was unfit to rule. Until such a time as he had died or his madness had ended, she, Anne Boleyn, Queen of England, should act as regent in his stead. The Lady Margaret Plantagenet was retrieved from the Tower and returned to her position. This worked well, until Henry recovered. Furious to see himself being removed from power, he demanded to see his wife. However, Anne was, frankly, frightened of Henry, and had expected him to die. Thus, she sent him away from court, to a mansion in Yorkshire. This would prove to be a fatal mistake. It was there, under house arrest, he met a priest by the name of George Lyon. This man had been excommunicated after he began a heretical religious sect called “the order of Melchizedek.” This religion completely ignored the gospels and prophecies of the Bible, and instead held as their holy scriptures a manuscript allegedly discovered in Ireland, which told of a Jewish Princess who fled to Ireland, and had alleged “wrote” these books. They practiced, among other things, polygamy. This greatly pleased Henry, and he wholeheartedly converted to the order. Lyon arranged for the kidnapping of a young noblewoman, Mary Howard, sister of Kathryn Howard. The three, along with various other followers flee to Ireland. Mary is, of course, miserable, and terrified, especially when it comes time for the “marriage” to be “consummated”. News reached Queen Anne at court, who, obviously reacted with horror and shock. The marriage of Philip of Asturias and Jeanne of Navarre had gotten off on the wrong foot. Philip had, despite being 13/14, had been unable to consummate the Union, which had been the whole objective. It seems that neither party were particularly interested in being together to begin with and their match had not been as good as hoped. Philip was extremely embarrassed by this, frightened by fears of being sterile. He celebrating everything he could in a desperate attempt to enjoy in life what he could. Despite the King of Castile's desperate claims the young couple were just that, young, there was talk that they would never consummate the union. Of course, they were extremely young, so the fears were probably uncalled for. The tension was not helped by Maria of Castile, the wilful Infanta. Blind in her left eye after a nearly deadly accident and extremely ugly, she knew her only appeal to men was her position and thus despised all attempts to marry her off.
