Elizabeth Tudor
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.”
Week 21: Angels
New Year, 1536. The princess is paraded at court.
Elizabeth's face is losing its baby roundness. Hail Princess Ferret Face. The older courtiers say they can see the king's father in her, and his brother, Prince Arthur. She has her mother's eyes though, busy and full in their orbits.
Her father coos to her, tosses her up to the sky, and kisses her head.
Week 33: Salvage (Part 3/3)
Princess Elizabeth is now a bastard, simple Lady Eliza. Cromwell and the dukes inspect her at Hundson, where Lady Bryan complains about the state of her wardrobe. Eliza shrieks and appears to be trying to eat her own fist. Norfolk says Eliza is to be known as ‘My Lady Bastard, till you hear different.’
Week 38: Vile Blood (1/2)
Elizabeth now looks less like a piglet and more like her father. She is still a bastard, but must be raised as a princess. Cromwell arranges for her to be tutored by Cat Champernowne.
Week 43: Nonsuch
Her father is looking for an imperial bride, so at Hampton Court she entertains the ambassadors with some ‘pretty Latin verse.’