"DIFUNDE LA CULTURA" "AUGUST 1485." "IT IS TWO DAYS SINCE KING RICHARD III WAS KILLED AT THE BATTLE OF BOSWORTH." "PRINCESS ELIZABETH WAS IN LOVE WITH HIM, BUT IS PROMISED IN MARRIAGE" "TO THE NEW TUDOR KING HENRY VII." "SHE HAS NEVER MET HIM." "WOODVILLE MANOR NORTH YORKSHIRE" "Mother!" "Mother, soldiers are coming!" "I thought we would have longer." "It is the Tudors, then?" "Or what passes for his army." " Is the rider here for Perkin?" " There's no time." "Quickly now, Richard, as we planned." "You must hide." "And us, Mother?" "Girls, come with me." " To where though, Lizzie?" " Come." " Quickly now, my Perk." " I must protect you." "I will tell them I'm Prince Perkin..." "They think that you are dead, my love, and so you will be if you don't escape now." "I want to stay and fight." "My darling Richard." "My Perkin." "Go to Tournai." "Find Jan Warbecque, the boatman." "Pretend to be his son." "I promise I will fetch you back to England and put you on the throne." "Up inside." "Quickly now." "I cannot lose you as I did your brother, Edward." "Do it for me, my Perkin." "?" "?" "?" "I am Princess Elizabeth of York!" "I am betrothed to King Henry Tudor and he will kill you if you lay a hand on us." "King Henry sent us here to fetch you back to London." "By the hair, if need be." "He didn't specify a method." "There is no need for that." "Sir Thomas Stanley." " Elizabeth Woodville." " Sir William." "We will come willingly, of course." "We have been waiting to be summoned." "WINGFIELD CASTLE SUFFOLK" "Where is the Earl of Warwick?" "Get out!" "Get out!" "Have it." "Have everything you want." "Please don't hurt us." "For York!" "For Uncle Richard!" "Teddy, no!" "They're not Richard's men, they're Tudors!" "King Henry Tudor has ordered the traitors to be brought to London." "Traitors?" "Men who fought against him in the battle." "That doesn't make us traitors!" "We fought for our king, Richard." "King Henry has declared his reign began the day before the battle." "Those that fought against him are declared traitors." "The Earl of Warwick." "The king is waiting for you." "WESTMINSTER PALACE LONDON" "This is yours now, Henry." "Your kingdom." "Your throne." "Burn them." "And ban the snow from falling." "I will have nothing white in England." "Where are my rooms?" "The king's rooms, Henry." "I have dreamed of this my entire life." "You always said God had chosen me." "You have always known His will." "And He will guide you." "As will I as I know England." "I will take the queen's rooms for myself, through this passageway." "So, this is how he treats the woman he expects to make his queen?" "I thought he would at least show some respect." "It's intended as a show of strength, but it only goes to show his weakness if he stoops to bully girls." "Perhaps the worst is yet to come." "What could be worse than killing my poor Richard?" "Lizzie, you must not speak of it." "No one must know what has passed between the two of you." "Did my brother get away?" "We must pray to God he will." "Jasper!" "Welcome to Westminster, Henry?" "Come." "Jasper." "How are you?" "My Lady Margaret." "Who would have thought to find us here like this with Henry on the throne." "I did." "I always did." "And your strength kept us through the dark and cold and bad times." "And now my stepson is king." "Move it." "Teddy, Teddy." "What is this?" "My cousins are here." "And my aunt and uncle." " Lizzie." " Teddy." "Teddy, come back." "Teddy." " Your Grace." " Thank you, Ned." "Dear God, save us." "My brothers are all dead and now we shall be next." "He dates his kingship from the day before the battle, so we are all named traitors." "But he cannot simply..." "Well, he has." "And Parliament has allowed it." "Or his mother did!" "That woman's waited half her life to take her vengeance on the House of York." "I am so sorry for your sons." "The England we once knew is gone, and with it chivalry and honor." "We are Yorks, Eliza." "We do not quake in fear." "We must see how this plays out." "You will appear before the king." "You must not speak unless I tell you to." "Dear Teddy." "Now..." "Hold my hand tightly, now." "Move, you old scum!" "Come!" "There is to be no welcome for the promised Queen of England?" "The king has lost his manners?" "He will see you when he's seen the traitors." "The others who loved Richard." "These are not the queen's rooms." "The king's mother, my wife, has those." "As First Lady of the Court." "I'll bring some ladies to attend you." "Perhaps he does not need me as he means to wed his mother." "He needs you." "He based his claim for England on you being by his side." "With you, he joins the Houses." "And that is what you want for me, even now?" "I am to be the spoils of war?" "The wife of a marauding madman whose mother even murdered children just so he could snatch the crown?" "You knew that you would marry whichever one of them should win." "This man is the victor." "For now, at least." "You are sworn to be his queen and nothing now could change that." "Well, unless he does not want her." "Now, girls, please listen." "Smile sweetly to their faces but know them for the Tudor spies they are and lose your tongues when they are near." "That childless bitch in Burgundy will reap her just desserts." "I wonder if they've told her yet her brother's lying dead on Bosworth Field." "Scribe." ""I, Henry Tudor, King of England," ""hereby, prohibit any English trade with Burgundy."" "There." "That's for all the times that Yorkist duchess tried to catch me in her trap for Richard's executioner." "You must decree the English Lords' reduce their guards, or they will form them into private armies and rise up at every tax you levy." "Are we certain the York Princes are truly dead?" " If one of them still lives..." " They are both dead." "It is well known." "King Richard killed both princes in the Tower." "There is nobody for England now but you." "Step forward." "Which one of you is John de la Pole, the Earl of Lincoln?" "The dead York king named you his heir before the battle." "You understand that this has been revoked and you are now heir to nothing?" "Do you understand that?" "I pledge my allegiance to you, Your Grace." "I do not." "You are not the king, in law nor in God's eyes." "And while you may have killed my son and stolen his crown, you are descended from a servant." "And while my grandson may impersonate his fealty," "I bow only to God and to my own conscience." "Mother." "Please..." "Your sister in Burgundy would never stoop so low." "And she has had her trading licenses revoked so you should shut your mouth!" "You may be glad you are an old woman whose noise is of no consequence to His Grace." "You will swear fealty or be thrown into the Tower." "Jasper Tudor." "You would not dare." "Take her away." "You can't." "You will release me!" "Let me walk." "Let me walk." "Who are these?" "Edward and Margaret Plantagenet, son and daughter of George, Duke of Clarence." "The Earl of Warwick, Your Grace." " The last York heir..." " I'm aware." "Your Grace." " One day, I'll be king." " He doesn't mean it." "Our Uncle Richard once thought Teddy might be king but..." "Well..." "Teddy isn't." "Well, even Richard changed his mind..." "But he remembers." "We are just children." "Do you swear allegiance to me as your king?" "We do." "And renounce your York claim to the English throne?" "Yes." "We do not want it." "And Teddy doesn't either." "Then he may say so for himself." "He..." "Teddy, tell the king that you love him." "What did you say to your Uncle Richard?" "Long live the king!" "Your grandfather's lands of Warwick and Salisbury are confiscated, hereby given to Lord Thomas and Lord William Stanley in reward for their fealty at Bosworth." "Thank you, Your Grace." "Take no notice of the dead king's mother." "They will all accept you, given time." "They will have to." "With a York girl by your side." "A whore who lay with my own enemy before the battle." "She has been brought here, Henry." "Well, what if I don't choose to marry her?" "You made a promise at Rennes Cathedral and raised your army on that pledge." "There are other York girls, aren't there?" "Surely any one of them would do as well?" "Meet her, Henry." "There's no rush." "A steady course." "Uncle?" "Who is it to?" "They are awake." "Who is it to?" "Jan Warbecque, the boatman in Tournai." "I bid your brother go to him." "We must pray he got there." "But how will you deliver it?" " I forgot my prayer book." " I'll go back and get it." "Thank you." "Your Grace." "Your blood will wash the stable floor if the new king sees you bend your knee to me." "You will always be the Queen of England in my eyes." "You and the king were very kind to me." "And is this new king kind?" "Will you do my bidding, Ned?" "I would not ask if it were not important." "You will need to pay the messenger." "Take this letter." "Find an honest boatman to deliver it." "No one must know." "When you have news, send this to me..." "I will come and find you." "Lady Margaret." ""My Lady, the King's Mother" now." "I am called "Your Grace"" "and I receive a royal bow." "Indeed." "And does it bring you the joy you hoped it would?" "It is God's will." "It is God who put my Henry on the throne." "And God who puts my daughter on the other throne beside him." "She is not made queen yet." "We will call with you this afternoon and if she begs forgiveness for her sins, perhaps, my son will grant it." "Lizzie does not beg for anything, but you may try." "Good day, Princess Elizabeth." "You will address the king!" "Good day, Your Grace." "Some wine, Your Grace?" "My other daughters..." "Cecily, Anne, Catherine and Bridget." "Your Grace." "My mother is arranging for your allowance to be paid." "Your service as my mother's lady-in-waiting will never be forgotten, Lady Margaret." ""The meek shall inherit the Earth."" "So the Bible tells us." "Dance for me." "No." "Princess Cecily." "I think, perhaps, you have more grace." "The girls can dance together." "My mother has decided on a motto for you." ""Humble and penitent."" "You would do well to abide by it." "I pray my brother brings his challenge swiftly so I do not have to marry him." "He does not seem to want to marry you." "Of course he wants to marry her." "What man wouldn't?" "I will not marry her." "There are a dozen European princesses all of whom are chaste and would make more obedient wives." "But none of whom will unite the warring houses." "The other York girls would." "Or Margaret Plantagenet." "God knows there's enough of them." "But you have promised that you will marry Princess Elizabeth." "If you refuse, you will insult her and the Yorks will rise up in her defense." "The Yorks can still command England, Henry." "Your pledge was to unite the country which is why you have us on your council." "I can only tell you what the others of our House will do and now they feel..." "forgive me, Your Grace, that you are a Welshman who's lived your life in France and does not even know our customs." "Take another as your mistress." "Take anyone you choose." "But they insist you marry Princess Elizabeth as you have sworn to do." "Henry?" "I have prayed upon this." "Perhaps this is the sacrifice that God would have you make." "Jesus suffered in the desert and when they crucified him." "It is divine to suffer and you have more divinity than any man on Earth." "God asks for this, and in return, he gives you England." "Parliament have said that he must marry you." "I was right then, that he does not want to." "How do you know that they have said that?" "Princess Elizabeth?" "The king will see you in his private rooms tonight alone." "We are not married, I cannot." "My daughter thanks His Grace and is delighted to attend." "Go, Lizzie." "Perhaps you may yet grow to like him." "Your mother should be here to chaperone you." "Perhaps she learned her disregard of decency from you." "Perhaps she knows a chaperone is pointless, in your case." "Foolish to close the stable door when the horse has long since bolted." "But that filly loved her stolen freedom more than you could know." "In fact, she spent herself so fully on her gallop that its memory would sustain her until she died." " Come with me." " What are you..." " Get off me!" " Come." "What are you doing?" "What are you doing?" "Unlock the door!" "So, this is how the King of England behaves towards a lady?" "Towards a whore and you have said yourself that's what you are." "Well, if I am a whore, you will not wish to wed me, will you?" "I do not." "With all my heart, I don't." "But I am told I must" " for England..." " For yourself!" "They will not have you for a king without me." "My heir must have some York blood in his veins, as well as Tudor." "And we will know that you are fertile before you sit on any throne beside me." ""We!"" "Your mother bids you to rape me?" "It isn't rape." "We shall be married." "Only if I will have you!" "You think you have a choice?" "You think you have free will in this?" "I am the king and I do not." "Let's get it over then." "Yeah?" "Have you finished?" "I barely even noticed." "I thought about your sister Cecily." "It made it quick." "Lizzie?" "Get out, Cecily." "I said get out!" "Take the little ones." "What is it?" "What's happened?" "Oh, Maggie..." "He is a bad man, Maggie." "A horrible bad man." "Did he force you..." "No!" "No, he did not take me." "He has not won this moment." "He has not won." "He will never beat me." "Your Grace?" "I'm sorry for my sister's rudeness." "I hope you see that I am not the same as she is." "If you'd like for me to dance for you again or..." "You should show more loyalty to your sister." "We never planned much after the battle." "He's overwhelmed, I think." "He won the battle, he has the crown." "And he will keep it." "With our help." "He wishes us to set about his coronation." "He thinks that we should do it now to show England that he is king alone, not joint ruler with the girl." "He hasn't mentioned it to me." "Margaret, in time, he will share all his confidences with you." "But it was Henry and I alone for many years." "He saw betrayals from all sides, from those who claimed to love him and all this is very new." "I am his mother." "I have given up my life for him." "And he will learn to trust you." "He will only marry her if she conceives a child." "Well, they are intimate already?" "We have to know if she's fertile." "He's bid me search the Tower for the bodies of the York princes." "While there's no proof that they are dead, rumors persist and fuel rebellions." "I will do it." "I need to earn his trust." "Princess Elizabeth?" " This way." " Why?" "You are lucky in your looks, just like your mother." "You will have handsome children." "I suppose you are still vain in your appearance though." "I wish to speak to you as a friend." "We continue to be at odds with one another and..." "I regret it." "I am to be your mother-in-law and you will find when you come to know me that I have great love to give, and that I have a talent for loyalty." "When I was a little girl..." "I was called upon to give birth to Henry." "Now, I knew he would be King of England and I would put him on the throne." "When I met you," "I knew that you had a destiny to bear his son." "That is why I was hard on you, why I was so furious when I saw you straying from your path and fighting against your calling." "You think I have a calling?" "You will be mother to the King of England." "A boy who is the red rose and white combined." "You will be the peace that ends the cousins' war." "And God himself will call you blessed." "You may now go to my son's rooms and do your duty." "So, Lizzie has a king to wed, but what about the rest of us?" "Who's king?" "Is it me?" "No, Teddy." "You mustn't say it." "It isn't fair that we are not invited to the coronation." "I'm sick to death of being cooped up here." "But what if they should cheer for us?" "Londoners love the House of York." "They would call for Lizzie and for Teddy, too." "He cannot risk it." "Our cousins are there, and Aunt Eliza." "Well, they have turned their coats to Tudor and he will want to make a show of it." "Please bleed." "Bleed." "A stable boy brought this for you." "He says you dropped it." "Maggie, would you do something for me?" "I cannot go as we are followed by the "ladies."" "Would you get some herbs for me?" "For my belly pain." "What kind of pain?" "It's my monthly course." "Do you have news for me?" ""Dear Lady." ""I wish that I could give you joy about your jewel." ""But I have not seen nor heard of it," ""although I have prayed I would."" "Thank you." "I..." "I went as well to your home, Your Grace." "And what did you find there?" "Nothing." "Everything that once you had inside is looted." "Even doors have been ripped off." "Your servants gone." "Your orchard's plundered." "There's..." "There's nothing." "And..." "The soldiers who were there, who came there to collect you, they were..." "They were told to slaughter any boys they found there." "And did they?" "I don't know." "Who gave the order?" "My Lady, the King's Mother." "God save the king!" "God save the king." "What have you got there, Maggie?" "Lizzie asked me to fetch it for her." "For her belly pain." "Maggie brought this for you." "Mandrake." "I know two uses for it." "One, to poison someone's dreams." "The other..." "To dislodge a baby from my womb." "All I have ever wanted, all my life, is to marry a man for love." "You know, my Lizzie, that girls of your nobility cannot do that." "You did." "I had the good sense to fall in love with the King of England..." "And so did I." "It should be Richard's child in my belly... not this." "But he is dead." "That part of your life is over now, Lizzie." "And what is here is Henry Tudor, this child!" "A creature put inside me by a monster." "A baby." "Your baby." "My grandchild." "I thought I might outwit him." "Make him hope to take another for his bride, instead of me." "But now..." "Well, now I have no choice." "Or only one..." "Because if I do not marry him, yet have his child," "I am shamed to everyone, and any other life for me is gone in any case." "The stable boy brought news from home." "Lady Margaret told the soldiers to murder any boy they found there." "And did they?" "Find him?" "There were no bodies." "But neither is he in Tournai." "There are never any bodies." "Can't you kill them both?" "Wish a sickness on them so they'd die in awful pain?" "I cannot do that." "I know, my "curses."" "But perhaps, they're just wishful thinking." "Perhaps I take good luck and call it "magic."" "My powers cannot be very strong if we find ourselves as we are now, with my son lost again" "and this before us." "Some say that folk are sick along the route the Tudor army took through Wales." "Perhaps they'll bring about their own destruction." "I know one thing..." "You cannot blame this baby boy." "And if you have him, he will be ours, not Henry Tudor's," "and we will make him strong and tall and our own rose of York." "The choice is yours, my Lizzie." "But I will take a piece of this." "I have my own use for it." "Henry, a child!" "My grandson!" "Congratulations, Henry." "Oh, God smiles on us." "We must praise him with a mass." "With a wedding." "I will not be dishonored, so we must hold a wedding quickly." "We will arrange it." "I share your joy, Your Grace." "We will name him Arthur and christen him in Winchester." "You need do nothing." "Except consent." "And look delighted." "England needs a joyful bride." "All else will be arranged by me." "No." "No, I will choose the dress myself." "Of course." "Elizabeth?" "At last, you bring good news." "Perhaps, we may yet join as friends in our new grandson." "Perhaps." "I know that you were looking for their bodies in the Tower." "But even if you found the bones, you'd only find one prince." "Because I swapped the other for a servant boy." "My mother and my sister cursed you for my murder." "The male line of your family will die." "My York Prince Richard will come against your son." "One lives, Lady Margaret." "You have won the people, Henry." "And with this marriage, they will love you." "And you already have an heir." "There is one matter..." "God has shown me that you must relieve her of her mother, or she will poison the girl against you." "Once your son is born, you must imprison Elizabeth." "It is God's will." "Today, you will marry a king." "In a dress fit for a harlot." "Today, I am a whore and a martyr, because that is what he has made me." "They will simply think it's red for Lancaster and you are being loyal." "Walk through your sorrow, my daughter, and you will end up where you want to be." "I will walk through my sorrow and I will smile through my pain." "I will pretend to be a dutiful wife, but only to their faces." "He is my enemy and so is his mother." "I will fight them from within my marriage and they will not even know it." "I will plot to bring my brother back, or, if he is gone, another who will kill this monster Henry Tudor." ""Humble and penitent" may be damned." ""Hidden and patient."" "That will be my motto." "You're not afraid?" "I approach you with a dagger and you do not even flinch?" "My life is gone, in any case." "Give me your foot." "It's for your reputation." "So my son is not a bastard." "Sleep." ""Hidden and patient.""