The Sinking Ship, the Grand Applause - A Mary I of England TL

[BlueFlowwer]

Chapter 1 – The English Channel in October of 1532

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It seemed like the storm had come out of nowhere. When the King of England had disembarked from Dover onboard the ship The Swallow the weather had been perfectly fine. The newly titled Marchioness of Pembroke, Anne Boleyn had come with him on the trip that was supposed to head to Calais where they were to meet the King of France. The purpose of the meeting was for Henry to gain support for his Great Matter, his annulment from his Spanish wife, Catherine of Aragon. During their twenty-three years of marriage only one child had survived infancy, a daughter. Mary Tudor was now a sixteen-year-old girl and the heiress presumptive to England. The king wished to marry Anne instead in order to conceive a son and heir to secure the Tudor line. His Spanish wife had the support of the Emperor, Charles V, also king of Spain and the fight had started in 1527. Henry already had a bastard son, Henry Fitzroy, who’s mother was Bessie Blount. His goal was to ensure that Anne would give birth to a legitimate Prince of Wales. In order to do that, he needed to annul his marriage to Catherine.

The King and his entourage never reached Calais. The storm that blew into the English Channel took the ship by surprise. The sailors onboard struggled to keep the ship from afloat, while high waves crashed into the deck and into the compartments inside. Both the King and Marchioness were drenched from the water that gathered in their cabins, while clothes and jewels flew all over the rooms. The coffer with the Queen’s jewels had been handed to Anne with great reluctance by Catherine, as Henry had wished to give them to the woman he intended to supplant her as Queen of England. The new gowns and jewels were meant to show off Anne’s status before France. Both fabric and jewels would sink into the sea along with Anne Boleyn, the Queen to be, or as she would be known to history, The Queen who never was.

Henry VIII of England and Anne Boleyn who perished in the storm in the English Channel

And so did Henry VIII, King of England, the second monarch of the Tudor Dynasty. The quest to annul his marriage had led to his death in the cold and dark waters in the Channel. It would be his sole daughter, Catherine’s only surviving child who ultimately would succeed him as Monarch, becoming by the Grace of God, Mary I of England.

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Author's Note: So I had a idea of writing a timeline where this scenario happened. No Queen Anne, no Elizabeth and Mary becomes queen of England earlier. I have a vague outline of where I want this to go, so any help will be graciously received. I know the chapter is rather short, but hopefully the next ones will be longer. Credit to @isabella for helping me brainstorm.

 

[BlueFlowwer]

So, I decided to put up a poll on who Mary should marry, so I can begin to scheme for the future. Poll will be open for 12 days, so remember to vote!

 

[BlueFlowwer]

Chapter 2 – Messengers to the Queen

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The horses were drenched in sweat when they arrived at Greenwich Palace early in the evening. The messengers had ridden hard to Catherine of Aragon, as she was now the Dowager Queen of England. Less then a day had passed since the storm had blown up in the channel. They were received by the worried Catherine, who had just become aware that a storm had occurred in the channel. Upon hearing the news that her husband had possible passed away, Catherine initially collapsed, but soon rallied as the possibilities of the future of England were at stake.

If the king had died, then she was a widow. If the king had died, then England’s true heir was her daughter. Mary would become the first true Queen Regnant of England. Her daughter was sixteen years old. Oh dear lord, “Mary”, Catherine thought. “Maria, my angel. I never wished you to receive the Crown in this way.”

Catherine of Aragon, Dowager Queen of England


Mary would be residing with her household in the Palace of Beaulieu in Essex. Only a day or two away from London. Both she and Mary needed to get to London quickly. And they needed allies quickly. Before the night came, Catherine had set out on her plan. She and her household guards would leave for London at dawn. Parliament would need to be called and Catherine needed the people of London on her side, while she had been shunned and disgraced from court, she was still respected and beloved. The treasury needed to be secured as well. Several messengers had been dispatched across both land and sea. Riders left for the homes of Thomas More, former Lord Chancellor of England, Mary Tudor the Elder, the former Queen of France and her husband, the Duke of Suffolk, Cardinal John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester and Maria de Salinas, dowager baroness Willoughby de Eresby, one of her closest friends. Two of the most important destinations were headed for Princess Mary in Essex and another had been ordered to make haste to the Low Countries and Spain, to seek out Emperor Charles V.

Catherine might have been a devoted wife, but she was first and foremost a daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella. And now she was a mother prepared to fight for her daughter’s right to the throne. The world needed to believe that Henry had survived for a few more days until she could reunite in London with her daughter. To the riders going toward Essex, Catherine had given a letter:

“My dear and beloved Maria. I fear that the Lord has called your sovereign father to his side in heaven now. The Boleyn family and their wretched daughter poisoned his mind against me, his lawful wife and you, his trueborn heir. Now, you must take the inheritance the Lord has intended for you as the Princess of Wales. Your late grandmother, my mother Isabel of Castile, strove to make her destiny as Queen of Castile and Leon against a bastard pretender. Your father's father also won his crown at Bosworth Field against a false king. Now you must do the same. Fitzroy must under no circumstances become King of England. Make the bastard your man of liege and limb and you shall have a loyal Duke. You are the beloved Princess of England. You know how to rally men, how to inspire loyalty and faithfulness in the people. Now it is time to cast off the robe of the young maiden and assume the mantle of Majesty. Call the people to your side. Ride for London with an army who will follow you to the very gates of hell. Call your banners and ride for London at dawn. Become the Queen you were born to become. My dear and darling Maria, I shall see your beautiful face when we meet in London again. Let me be the first to kiss your hand as the rightful Monarch of England.

Your loving mother, Catherine Mater Reginae.

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Author's Note: Catherine begins to plan and all parties starts to head for London. Have fun spotting the pop culture references!

 

[BlueFlowwer]

Chapter 3 – The Road from Beaulieu

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That letter would be opened by Mary when the messengers reached Essex. And by dawn, Mary left Beaulieu accompanied by her household guards, her faithful ladies and other attendants. As she reached the city of Chelmsford, she stopped at the town square while the commoners gathered, their curiosity awakened by their princess entry. Dressed in black velvet and cloth of gold with a fur cape around her to ward of the cold, Mary spoke from atop of her soberly attired white mare. Her words were simple, but powerful.

A loyal and faithful daughter who feared for her father at sea. Of wanting to see her mother, the beloved queen Catherine in London. She rode for the city to assure the worries of many, now that it seemed dark clouds were to gather at the horizon. No desire but to be a steadfast support, no desire but to show that despite fear, there was someone the people could turn to in times of grief. A living emblem of the hearts of all good Englishmen and Englishwomen.

When Mary departed from Chelmsford, the words spread like wildfire. Their princess was going to London. As she rode on towards the city, her entourage swelled. From her meagre household that she started out with, she ended up with over 5,000 men following her into the heart of London. Her aunt, Mary, had sent her an entourage of 800 men, composed of riders and bowmen, men dressed in armour and livery, carrying flags and spears. Over 3,000 soldiers, guardsmen and knights had ridden to meet her along the way and Mary greeted all with grace, thanking them for their protection and assuring that she was only going to London as the rightful Princess and not to conquer.

It was a play straight out of her ancestor’s book. Henry IV had claimed something similar upon his return to England in 1399, her great-grandfather Edward IV had claimed to return in order to get his Dukedom back in 1471. Mary, being the daughter of both the Rose of Lancaster and the Rose of York, would prove to be every inch her ancestor’s heir in 1532.

Her grand entry into London days later would prove to be a splendid affair. The procession entered into Stratford in the east on the twenty first of October, while Londoners had gathered along the streets, some having climbed unto roofs and windows to see the procession of the first Queen Regnant of England into the heart of the kingdom.

Mary I of England

The entourage stopped at St Paul’s Cathedral where Catherine of Aragon awaited her along with the lord mayor Sir Stephen Peacock. In attendance was also several nobles and members of Parliament, as well as former Lord Chancellor Thomas More, beaming with pride. At the time of the arrival, all of England had been made aware that Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn had perished at sea.. While the king was heavily mourned, Anne had made herself unpopular with several nobles, so Mary had several potential allies in her corner. Most importantly, now she was finally reunited with her mother, much to both’s relief.

Now it would be up to the first true queen regnant of England to prove her mettle for the whole of the kingdom. For many of the commoners and townspeople, she had already started to make a good progress.

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Author's Note: Mary is in London and Catherine is reunited with her daughter! And Cromwell got a hail Mary (appropriatly enought) so he lives.

 

[BlueFlowwer]

Chapter 4 – A tale of two Thomases

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Thomas Cranmer smiled at the letter in his hand. The king was recalling him to England to make him Archbishop of Canterbury as William Warham had passed away. His relationship with the lady Anne Boleyn and her family had paid off! As archbishop he would have both power and the king’s ear and the power to fulfil his ambitions and to annul the false marriage with that lying and scheming Spaniard they called Queen Catherine. Mistress Boleyn would becoming the rightful consort and England would have an heir raised in the right faith, not mislead by the catholic heretics that poisoned the kingdom. And Cranmer would be the ultimate architect of that utopia, with his name being praised for generations. He would have to speak to the Emperor, to inform him that he could no longer attend his court and would be making preparation to return to England. Tucking the letter in his robe, he set off to find the emperor to share the good news with him and to begin his journey to the destiny that awaited him.

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The fisherman had just thrown his net out in the chilly waters when a figure caught his eye. The dark blob bobbed up and down in the churning sea, being barely visible in the emerging lights in the morning. Was it a seal? A large fish?

Soon shouts went up as the small company of men on the boat scrambled for ropes and more nets as the shape revealed itself to be a man in the water. With effort, as the man could almost not move his fingers to grasp the lifelines the sailors threw him, they hauled him up from the sea and up to deck. The men crossed themselves and whispered prayers to the Virgin and the saints, as their newfound guest seemed more ready to pass into the embrace of Christ then he was to remain amongst the living.

Fortune prevailed for the nearly drowned man, helped by thick fabrics being wrapped around his freezing frame and hot broth spooned down his throat. As they made land later, their charge had been moved to a nearby monastery, where the monks treated him with the same care hey extended to all coming to seek relief to their agonies. Over a week later, the man finally opened his eyes. For several days he remained too weak to speak and move, but a fortnight after arriving he finally rasped out that he was an Englishman in the service of the King of England and that he had been lost in the storm that had fallen upon the royal ship in the channel. Where was he? Had they news of the king and had he made it safely out of the storm? He must return to England as swiftly as possible.

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What Thomas Cranmer and Thomas Cromwell did not know at this time was that their sovereign had been lost in the hungry maw of the icy waters of the English Channel, along with the Queen who never was and that the throne now belonged to the Lady Mary Tudor, now Queen Mary I of England.

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Author's Note: Guess what, I'm back bitches! I decided to continue this tl and I wrote this chapter to get back in the swing. Short, but I wanted to explore the alternative futures of Cranmer and Cromwell in this tl. Cromwell gets a hail Mary as he survives the storm unlike his king and gets the news that Mary Tudor is now the ruling monarch. Cranmer can go fuck himself and he will soon find out that the girl who's mother's marriage he tried hard to annul is now queen and his alliance with the Boleyns are dead in the water. Literally in this case. He can kiss the Archbishopric goodbye as well as any ambitions he has in England. Mwahaha!