Queen's Gambit: A Novel of Katherine Parr (58 page)
Read Queen's Gambit: A Novel of Katherine Parr Online
Authors: Elizabeth Fremantle
Tags: #Fiction, #General, #Historical, #Literary
| W ILL H ERBERT  | ‘Wild’ Will Herbert; later Earl of Pembroke; husband of Anne Parr and brother-in-law to Katherine Parr; known as a brilliant military tactician and brave soldier; member of the Privy Council; religious reformer. (1501–1570) |
| W ILL P ARR | Eventually Earl of Essex, then Marquess of Northampton; member of the Privy Council; brother of Katherine Parr; spent many years trying to divorce his wife Anne Bourchier for adultery in order to marry Elisabeth Brooke; religious reformer. (1513–1571) |
| W ILL S OMMERS | Court Jester to Henry VIII. (Died 1560) |
| W ILLIAM S AVAGE | Musician at the courts of both Henry VIII and Edward VI; married Dorothy Fountain. (Dates not known) |
| W RIOTHESLEY | Sir Thomas Wriothesley; later Earl of Southampton; Lord Chancellor to Henry VIII; had been an ally of Thomas Cromwell but aligned himself to Gardiner on Cromwell’s demise; became a fervent Catholic conservative; joined Gardiner in the failed plot to bring down Katherine Parr. (1505–1550) |
I have endeavoured, where possible, to
remain faithful to the known facts, events and people of the period. None but some of
the most minor characters, grooms, stewards and the filthy-mouthed Betty Melcher are
entirely of my own invention. Though Katherine’s ordeal at Snape is documented,
Murgatroyd too is an imagined figure.
The greatest liberties were taken with the
characters of Dot and Huicke. Almost nothing is known about Dorothy Fountain save for
what is written above. She was almost certainly more gently born than I have made her,
and there is no evidence whatsoever that Dr Robert Huicke was homosexual. Having said
that,
Queen’s Gambit
is a novel and as such all my characters are
fictions.
From this distance in time even much
historical ‘fact’ is based on misapprehension and conjecture, and
people’s thoughts and feelings can only be imagined.
| 1509 | Henry VIII proclaimed King (21st April). Henry VIII marries his brother’s widow, Catherine of Aragon (11th June). Thomas Seymour born. |
| 1512 | Katherine Parr born (probably August). |
| 1513 | William Parr born. |
| 1515 | Anne Parr born (approximate date). |
| 1516 | Mary Tudor born (18th February). |
| 1527 | Henry VIII begins to seek annulment from Catherine of Aragon, claiming her prior marriage to his brother invalidated their union in the eyes of God; known as ‘The King’s Great Matter’. |
| 1529 | Katherine Parr marries Edward Borough (probably late spring). |
| 1533 | Henry VIII marries Anne Boleyn (25th January). Edward Borough dies (spring). Elizabeth Tudor born (7th September). |
| 1534 | Henry VIII declared Supreme Head of the Church of England, in the Act of Succession (23rd March). Catherine of Aragon’s title changed to Dowager Princess of Wales. Mary Tudor declared illegitimate. Katherine Parr marries Lord Latymer (summer). |
| 1535 | Thomas Cromwell recognized as the King’s principal secretary and chief minister. Commencement of the dissolution of the monasteries. Thomas More executed for refusing to accept the Act of Succession and Henry VIII as Head of the Church (6th July). |
| 1536 | Catherine of Aragon dies (7th January). Anne Boleyn executed (19th May). Elizabeth Tudor excluded from the succession. Henry VIII marries Jane Seymour (30th May). Pilgrimage of Grace; the North rises up in protest against religious reform (September–December). Katherine Parr (then Lady Latymer) taken hostage at Snape Castle. |
| 1537 | Two hundred and sixteen Northern rebels put to death. Lord Latymer pardoned. Edward Tudor, heir to the throne, born (12th October). Jane Seymour dies of puerperal fever (24th October). |
| 1539 | Cromwell’s Act for the Dissolution of the Greater Monasteries passed. Henry VIII excommunicated by the Pope (December). |
| 1539 | First edition of the English Great Bible published (April). |
| 1540 | Henry VIII marries Anne of Cleves (6th January). Marriage to Anne of Cleves annulled, due to non-consummation (9th July). Henry VIII marries Catherine Howard (28th July). Thomas Cromwell executed (28th July). |
| 1541 | Catherine Howard executed (13th February). |
| 1542 | Scots routed at Solway Moss (24th November). Mary Stuart born (8th December). James V of Scotland dies, leaving the week-old Mary Stuart as Queen of Scots (14th December). |
| 1543 | Lord Latymer dies (March). Henry VIII marries Katherine Parr (12th July). Anglo-Imperial treaty signed; pledge to attack France. Religious conservatives, including Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, on the rise; statute declared restricting the reading of the English Bible to the wealthy classes. Three Lutheran preachers burned (4th August). |
| 1544 | Elizabeth and Mary Tudor restored to the succession though neither legitimized. Thomas Wriothesley appointed Lord Chancellor (3rd May). Victory in Scotland; Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford, burns Edinburgh (3rd–15th May). Anglo-Imperial war against France; siege of Boulogne; Katherine Parr rules as regent (19th July–18th September). Emperor makes a secret treaty with François I, thereby leaving England to fight France alone. |
| 1545 | French and English fleets engage near Portsmouth; the Mary Rose is sunk (19th July). |
| 1546 | Anne Askew burned for heresy (6th July). Gardiner and Wriothesley attempt to bring down Katherine Parr ( July and August). |
| 1547 | The Earl of Surrey executed (19th January). Henry VIII dies (28th January). The King’s death announced three days later. Edward VI proclaimed King, with Edward Seymour (soon to be Duke of Somerset) as Lord Protector (31st January). Thomas Wriothesley (now Earl of Southampton) dismissed as Lord Chancellor (6th March). Katherine Parr marries Thomas Seymour (now Lord Seymour of Sudeley and Lord Admiral of England) in a secret ceremony (spring). Bishop Gardiner imprisoned (5th September). |
| 1548 | Elizabeth Tudor sent to Cheshunt to avoid scandal of sexual misconduct with Thomas Seymour (May). Mary Seymour (daughter of Katherine Parr and Thomas Seymour) born (30th August). Katherine Parr dies of puerperal fever (5th September). |
| 1549 | Thomas Seymour executed (20th March). |
I would like to offer my gratitude to three
biographers of Katherine Parr – Susan James, Linda Porter and Elizabeth Norton – whose
historical excavations provided me with the framework around which I was able to build
Queen’s Gambit
.
I am grateful, too, to the authors listed
below whose works have helped me reconstruct something approximating the world of the
Tudor court.
Baldwin Smith, Lacey. 2006.
Treason in Tudor England: Politics and Paranoia
. London: Pimlico.
Boorman, Tracy. 2010.
Elizabeth’s Women
. London: Vintage.
Dickson Wright, Clarissa. 2011.
A
History of English Food
. London: Random House.
Doran, Susan. 2008.
The Tudor
Chronicles 1485–1603
. London: Quercus.
Duffy, Eamon. 2001
The Voices of
Morebath: Reformation and Rebellion in an English Village
. New Haven, CT: Yale
University Press.
Emerson, Kathy Lynn. 2008–2012.
A
Who’s Who of Tudor Women
,
http://www.kateemersonhistoricals.com/TudorWomenIndex.htm
.
Fraser, Antonia. 1984.
The Weaker
Vessel: Woman’s lot in seventeenth-century England
. London:
Heinemann.
Frye, Susan and Robertson, Karen
(eds). 1999.
Maids and Mistresses, Cousins and Queens: Woman’s alliances in
Early Modern England
. New York & Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Haynes, Alan. 1997.
Sex in
Elizabethan England
. Stroud:
Sutton Publishing Ltd.
Hutchinson, Robert. 2006.
The Last
Days of Henry VIII
. London: Phoenix.
Hutson, Lorna. 1999.
Feminism and
Renaissance Studies
. New York & Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Ives, Eric. 2009.
Lady Jane Grey:
A Tudor Mystery
. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
James, Susan. 2008.
Catherine
Parr: Henry VIII’s Last Love
. Stroud: The History Press Ltd.