King Henry fell ill again in January of 1503. He died on February 11 [1] which just so happened to be his wife's birthday. He left his seven month grandson to succeed him. The new King Arthur was now the youngest monarch to take the English throne [2]. Despite mourning for King Henry, the three ladies immediately took control of the regency, unwilling to allow any member of the council, to usurp their position. They were right to worry as the late monarch's body was barely cold when the Duke of Buckingham tried to convince the regency council to make him Lord Protector, citing his right as the oldest male member of the royal family.
If King Henry had not anticipated this move, and the first royal Tudor was not known to be shortsighted, his mother certainly did. She made sure to bolster her standing with the other members of the council, and for those she could not, she simply sent her daughter-in-law, the much loved dowager queen. Buckingham found himself squaring off with Empson and Dudley who both owed their standing to the late king, the Marquess of Dorset who was quite loyal to his half-cousin, the Earl of Oxford, who was a Tudor man through and through, Richard Pole who was actually the eldest member of the royal relatives but did not have the high status to contend with Buckingham.
In the end, Margaret, Katherine, and Elizabeth were sworn in as regents. The late king's will stipulated that the regents would rule until King Arthur was eighteen-years-old. He also made a note that once the Duke of York was a man of eighteen, he would be co-regent as well. Considering there was no mention of Prince Henry becoming Lord Protector to his nephew (something he would constantly grumble about in his later life), it can be assumed that it was King Henry's wish to keep the three ladies in power for as long as his grandson was still too young to rule. Many suspect it was his way of keeping the power balanced and focused on the prince at hand. It worked for the most part. Although many media will play up the rivalry between the three ladies, it should be noted that while there were squabbles between Margaret and Katherine, Dowager Queen Elizabeth was quite skilled playing mediator as Prince Henry once put it, "Those who think my mother is meek and submissive are simpletons. For with only a few quiet words or a disapproving frown, my beloved mother can end an argument."
Once the Time of the Ladies had truly begun, they went to work on handling the negotiations of the remaining Tudor siblings' marriages. King James IV was concerned that with the new changes of management of England that his marriage to Princess Margaret would be delayed or forgotten about. He sent envoys to request that he have his bride by the end of the year. Knowing the history of Lady Margaret [3], King James was even shrewd enough to offer to make an official declaration that he would not consummate the marriage until his queen was older than fifteen. However, he wanted his new queen to live in Scotland to get familiar with her new country. As Margaret and James had already been married by proxy in January before the late king fell ill. It was agreed that Margaret would be sent to Scotland in August, allowing her to celebrate her nephew's first birthday.
As for Princess Mary, she was the seven year old aunt of the new king. At first there was suggestions of a more domestic match. They discuss having Mary marry Thomas Howard or Henry Stafford. However, all discussions comes to a grinding halt when they are offered a chance to have the youngest Tudor be a queen. King John of Dnemark had hoped for a Hapsburg bride for his son, the Prince Elect Christian. Upon learning about this, the English Ambassador of the imperial courts decides to make contact with the Danish envoy. Charles Somerset [4] met with the Danish envoy secretly, not wanting King Arthur's chances of getting a Hapsburg bride be hurt by poaching a possible husband for Isabel of Austria. Thankfully if Philip or Joanna or even the emperor himself knew about the discreet meetings they did not seem to mind all that much, perhaps because it saved them from wasting one of their archduchesses on a prince who might not be king. Still, to not ruffle any feathers, the negotiations were kept under wraps for the time being.
Then there was the matter of Prince Henry, the Duke of York. Anne de La Tour d'Auvergne was the heir of her father, gaining his titles and lands. This of course unnerved the French king so did not want the heir of the English king gaining a bigger foothold in France. He tried to give an alternate, the sister of the Count of Angouleme, Marguerite. He even tried to sweeten the pot by suggesting a dowry fitting a princess. It was a tempting offer especially when Marguerite's brother Francois was the sister of the second in line to the throne of France [5].
However, they would not have time to dwell on such things as de la Pole brothers were poking their head out of the hole they had been hiding in and the three ladies had their first big storm brewing.
[1] Yes, he died the day his wife died in history. I thought it was ironic.
[2] The last baby king was King Henry V who was nine months old, just two months older than our King Arthur.
[3] Margaret gave birth to her son at age thirteen. She would not want her granddaughter going through the same thing. While King James in history did not sleep with Margaret until she was at least sixteen, I feel like he would have gone the extra mile to appease the three regents.
[4] Charles Somerset was actually the French ambassador but I decided to have him working in the Imperial courts instead. Thanks to his actions here, he will be getting that earldom early.
[5] A butterfly. Anne of Brittany's son in 1503 survives. He is named Louis.
