Elizabeth, daughter of Anne Boleyn and Henry Tudor. (1533 – )
The story so far…
Week 14: Devil’s Spit / A Painter’s Eye
“Call her Elizabeth. Cancel the jousts.” The King names her after his beloved mother, but the “poor scrap” is otherwise unwanted. “Her own mother will wish her away.”
We see her later in the chapter: “an ugly, purple, grizzling knot of womankind.” There are evil rumours that she has teeth, six fingers, and is furred like a monkey. So Henry displays her naked to the ambassadors.
When Cranmer baptises her, he warms the water so as not to shock her. “You should have poured it boiling,” says Elizabeth Barton.
Elizabeth’s household will be at Hatfield, with her bastard sister Mary as her servant. After trying to eat her own fist, the future queen of England emits a screech “that would bring out the dead.”
Week 15: Supremacy
At Hatfield:
The child Elizabeth is wrapped tightly in layers, her fists hidden: just as well, she looks as if she would strike you. Ginger bristles poke from beneath her cap, and her eyes are vigilant; he has never seen an infant in the crib look so ready to take offence.
Lady Bryan: “You could show her at a fair as a pig-baby.”
Gregory: “She could be anybody’s.”
Lady Shelton: “You mean to say, Gregory, all babies look the same.”
Week 18: Falcons
Anne is grieved by the love Henry has for his daughter Mary. She wants Elizabeth to be “the only daughter he knows.”