I: 10 November 1518
So, I've been lurking on this site for a while and now that I'm officially a member, I thought I'd explore making a timeline based off one of my old Tudor Fanfictions. The advantage being that I have the whole basic story written, so I can just rewrite the bits I think need it. As such, updates should be fairly frequent.
The basic premise? What might have happened at the Tudor Court had Katherine of Aragon died in childbirth with her final child, leaving Henry VIII a widower. Enjoy!
10 November 1518
With a woman’s final anguished breath, the fate of a country changed forever.
The woman was Queen Katherine of Aragon, wife to King Henry VIII of England and her body, exhausted with the travails of six pregnancies and childbirths, was finally giving up.[1]
The physicians exchanged a look over her head.
“It’s no good, Thomas,” one of them said, “The child is stuck. The labour has gone on for too long. Even if we were to cut open Her Majesty, there’s but a slim chance that the child would still live. And Her Majesty’s person is sacred. We cannot…”
“Aye, but if this child is a boy, then it is the King’s heir. The son he has wanted for this past decade. If it yet lives, the child is our Prince of Wales. Doing nothing means we give that boy up for lost. We may well murder him. Need I remind you of the oath we both took when we entered this profession?”[2]
“No.”
“Well then. And this is no ordinary mother and child. This is the Queen of England, giving birth to a child that may well be our Prince. Would you have the blood of a Prince on your hands, William?”
“Sirs,” a woman’s softly accented voice broke in before the other man could respond, “This is no time to think of Royal protocol. The Queen is a woman and a mother like any other. She would want you to do everything within your power to save her child.”
The physicians turned to look at the speaker.
“With all due respect, Mistress Willoughby, you know nothing…”
“No,” Maria Willoughby, nee de Salinas, cut him off, “I do not. But I do know Catalina. I know what she would want.”[3]
Pausing, she stroked a tendril of her mistress’s auburn hair away from the waxen face. When she spoke again, her voice was scarcely above a whisper, but there was a determination in it that could not be gainsaid.
“Cata is beyond pain now. She’s gone to meet our beloved Father in Heaven. She’s in His hands. So do what you have to do, Sirs. Do what you have to do for the sake of this country. I’ll answer for it to His Majesty.”
Bowing before the steel in her eyes and voice, the two men nodded and reached silently for their scalpels.
With trembling hands, they sliced jaggedly into the Queen’s still warm flesh, praying they wouldn’t be sent to Hell for violating Her Majesty’s person.
To no avail. They were too late.
His Highness, the Prince of Wales, who would have been the apple of his father’s eye, had he lived, but instead had done nothing more than condemn both himself and his mother to death, lay jammed in the birth canal. He was perfectly formed, but large. Too large.[4]
Dr William Butts picked him up, rubbed him down with a linen cloth and put his ear to the boy’s chest, searching for a sign of life that he already knew would not be there.[5]
“Dead?” His colleague’s voice was low, mournful. William nodded gravely.
“Dead.”
[1] The POD. Historically, Katherine survived this childbirth and went on to live almost another 18 years.
[2] The Hippocratic Oath doctors used to have to take. In a nutshell, it means to do no harm.
[3] Maria de Salinas, Baroness Willoughby. OTL one of Katherine of Aragon’s friends from childhood, who defied Henry VIII to be at Katherine’s side as she died in 1536. I couldn’t not have her present here.
[4]Minor butterflies. OTL Katherine of Aragon gave birth to a stillborn girl on November 10th,1518. Here, it’s a boy.
[5] OTL one of Henry VIII’s most famous court physicians. The Thomas mentioned earlier is his predecessor, Dr Thomas Linacre. I'm not entirely sure Butts was working for Henry in 1518, but I couldn't find another physician who might have been. Happy to edit if someone can correct me.
The basic premise? What might have happened at the Tudor Court had Katherine of Aragon died in childbirth with her final child, leaving Henry VIII a widower. Enjoy!
10 November 1518
The woman was Queen Katherine of Aragon, wife to King Henry VIII of England and her body, exhausted with the travails of six pregnancies and childbirths, was finally giving up.[1]
The physicians exchanged a look over her head.
“It’s no good, Thomas,” one of them said, “The child is stuck. The labour has gone on for too long. Even if we were to cut open Her Majesty, there’s but a slim chance that the child would still live. And Her Majesty’s person is sacred. We cannot…”
“Aye, but if this child is a boy, then it is the King’s heir. The son he has wanted for this past decade. If it yet lives, the child is our Prince of Wales. Doing nothing means we give that boy up for lost. We may well murder him. Need I remind you of the oath we both took when we entered this profession?”[2]
“No.”
“Well then. And this is no ordinary mother and child. This is the Queen of England, giving birth to a child that may well be our Prince. Would you have the blood of a Prince on your hands, William?”
“Sirs,” a woman’s softly accented voice broke in before the other man could respond, “This is no time to think of Royal protocol. The Queen is a woman and a mother like any other. She would want you to do everything within your power to save her child.”
The physicians turned to look at the speaker.
“With all due respect, Mistress Willoughby, you know nothing…”
“No,” Maria Willoughby, nee de Salinas, cut him off, “I do not. But I do know Catalina. I know what she would want.”[3]
Pausing, she stroked a tendril of her mistress’s auburn hair away from the waxen face. When she spoke again, her voice was scarcely above a whisper, but there was a determination in it that could not be gainsaid.
“Cata is beyond pain now. She’s gone to meet our beloved Father in Heaven. She’s in His hands. So do what you have to do, Sirs. Do what you have to do for the sake of this country. I’ll answer for it to His Majesty.”
Bowing before the steel in her eyes and voice, the two men nodded and reached silently for their scalpels.
With trembling hands, they sliced jaggedly into the Queen’s still warm flesh, praying they wouldn’t be sent to Hell for violating Her Majesty’s person.
To no avail. They were too late.
His Highness, the Prince of Wales, who would have been the apple of his father’s eye, had he lived, but instead had done nothing more than condemn both himself and his mother to death, lay jammed in the birth canal. He was perfectly formed, but large. Too large.[4]
Dr William Butts picked him up, rubbed him down with a linen cloth and put his ear to the boy’s chest, searching for a sign of life that he already knew would not be there.[5]
“Dead?” His colleague’s voice was low, mournful. William nodded gravely.
“Dead.”
[1] The POD. Historically, Katherine survived this childbirth and went on to live almost another 18 years.
[2] The Hippocratic Oath doctors used to have to take. In a nutshell, it means to do no harm.
[3] Maria de Salinas, Baroness Willoughby. OTL one of Katherine of Aragon’s friends from childhood, who defied Henry VIII to be at Katherine’s side as she died in 1536. I couldn’t not have her present here.
[4]Minor butterflies. OTL Katherine of Aragon gave birth to a stillborn girl on November 10th,1518. Here, it’s a boy.
[5] OTL one of Henry VIII’s most famous court physicians. The Thomas mentioned earlier is his predecessor, Dr Thomas Linacre. I'm not entirely sure Butts was working for Henry in 1518, but I couldn't find another physician who might have been. Happy to edit if someone can correct me.
