Princess Margery Tudor was the second and youngest daughter of King Henry VIII and Queen Anne Boleyn. All her life, she had been second to her sister Elizabeth.
But Margery didn't mind, it meant that she was free from the responsibilities and expectations that were forced upon her sister.
Margery pressed her head against the glass of the carriage she, Elizabeth and their governess were travelling in. Margery turned to Elizabeth who was staring out of the other window.
The younger girl couldn't help feeling a little jealous of her elder sister. Elizabeth was very pretty with light red-gold hair like their father and deep, dark eyes like their mother. Margery wished she had her mother's eyes, but she didn't. Instead she had inherited the dark locks of her mother and the bright blue eyes of her father.
She hated her eyes because she hated her father. He had killed her mother, declared her and Elizabeth illegitimate, sent them away to Hatfield Hall, married multiple women, had multiple children and basically forgotten about his daughters.
Margery felt a bit sorry for her older half-sister, Mary. Mary had been the daughter of their father's first wife, the Spanish princess, Catherine of Aragon. When Henry had married Anne Boleyn, Margery's mother, Mary had been declared illegitimate and sent away.
Margery knew how Mary had felt then. Unloved. Unwanted.
But it must have been worse for Mary because she had no one. Margery had Elizabeth and their governess, Lady Katherine Champernowne, who the girls liked to call Kat.
Margery knew a lot for a girl of eight, though she would turn nine in less than three months, she kept reminding everyone. Now, Margery, her sister and their governess had been asked to go to Greenwich Palace where King Henry resided because he apparently wanted to make a connection with his daughters.
"I don't understand," Margery thought out loud and Elizabeth snapped her head towards her.
"What now, Mar?" The older girl asked.
"Why would the King want us back, now?" Margery asked, she and her sister had never called their father, Father.
"It has something to do with Queen Catherine," Lady Katherine said, blinking her eyes open.
"Whatever do you mean, Kat?" Margery asked.
"Ever since King Henry has married Catherine Parr, she has been striving to make him create good connections with his daughters," Kat explained, "In July, he brought Lady Mary Tudor to court, gave her back her title as Princess and put her back into the line of succession. And now, even though it is almost October, he is bringing you two back. It is all Catherine Parr's doing."
"Then I am glad she is my new stepmother," Margery decided, "I cannot wait to meet her. I wish I could have met Katherine Howard or Anne of Cleves, or even Jane Seymour."
"I often wonder, Margery, how Elizabeth can be so polite and quiet and respectful when you are so loud and full of spirit?" Kat said.
"Maybe Lizzie is more like the King and I am more like Mother?" Margery suggested but Elizabeth scoffed and playful swatted her sister's hand away.
"Don't say that, Mar, you never knew what Mother was like. Neither have you met the King," Elizabeth said with reason.
"Oh, but I have heard stories, Lizzie," Margery countered, "everyone says Mother was bright and strong and that the King bent to her will."
"And look how it ended for her, Margery," Kat warned, though not in a mean way, "I expect you to be king and gracious to the King, and the Queen, and Prince Edward, and Princess Mary."
"Of course I will be," Margery said solemnly while her sister nodded along, "I am a Princess after all, Kat, I know my manners."
"Good," the governess said, "because we are here. And that is the king."
YOU ARE READING
A Tudor Rose
Historical FictionWhat if, before her execution, Anne Boleyn had another daughter by Henry VIII? What would happen to that daughter? Margery Tudor has been hated from birth by her father and his court, yet had been adored by her mother before her death. Margery never...
