Seeking favors from Jane Seymour’s son, Edward, a boy not yet ten years old when he succeeded to the throne, had been even more impossible. His reign had been difficult to endure. Since Edward VI had been too young to rule on his own, England had been governed by his advisors. They’d been radical in their religious beliefs, so harsh in their suppression of papists that even though Mary Tudor was the king’s half sister, she had feared for her life.

Nan’s choices had been limited at the start of Edward’s reign. He’d had no queen for Nan to serve. There had, however, been a powerful woman at court. Queen Jane’s brother, Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford, had been named lord protector and elevated in the peerage to Duke of Somerset. In all but name, he was king and his wife a queen. But just as Cat Bassett had shied away from entering the then Countess of Hertford’s household when the two sisters first came to England, so Nan had been reluctant to place herself at the mercy of a woman reputed to be a vicious, vindictive virago. Nan had always thought it a great pity that her mother had wasted the gift of her own pet linnet on such a notoriously bad-tempered noblewoman.

Instead, Nan had returned to the Lady Mary, this time as a lady-in-waiting. Mary Tudor had been out of favor, but until King Edward married and had children of his own, she remained next in line to inherit the throne of England. Nan had joined her fate to that of King Henry’s oldest daughter and had never looked back. She and Wat had been patient, and when Mary Tudor finally succeeded her brother, Nan once again became a gentlewoman in the service of a queen.

This time the queen was a queen regnant, a woman with power. And Queen Mary believed in rewarding those who had been loyal to her.

Nan drew in a deep breath as they reached the chapel. Wat Hungerford of Farleigh waited just inside, together with the Catholic priest who would perform their wedding ceremony. Wat was no boy now, but a man in his prime. And yet the look in his eyes as he watched her approach was the same as it had always been. He had never wavered in his devotion, never stopped proposing marriage, never grown tired of waiting until the day—today—when, at last, they could be united in holy matrimony.

Friends and family filled the chapel, gathered to celebrate Nan’s nuptials. She felt a moment’s sadness for those who could not be with her. As she well knew, death could take away the young and healthy as well as the old and infirm. Her good friend Anne Herbert had died two years earlier. Anne’s sister, the widowed queen, Kathryn Parr, had been lost to childbed fever less than a year after her marriage to Sir Thomas Seymour. Jane Mewtas was gone, too, and both Joan and Anthony Denny.

But I am alive, Nan thought. And I have a bright future ahead of me.

Close to the spot just within the chapel door where she and Wat were to take their vows stood the members of Nan’s immediate family. She scarcely knew her brothers, George and James, but they had come to attend the ceremony. Nan’s mother was present, too. For once, she looked pleased with her daughter’s accomplishment. And why not? The queen had promised that Wat would be knighted. Less certain was that he would be restored to the title of Baron Hungerford, but that no longer mattered to either Nan or Wat. Such honors were not as necessary as Nan had once believed. It had taken her years to realize it, but loving and being loved by a good man was far more important.

Nan’s sister, Cat, stood beside their mother. Cat’s husband and six-year-old son were with her. They lived in Kent, near enough to the queen’s favorite palaces for Nan to have visited them often. Whatever rivalry had once existed had been set aside long ago.

Nan’s oldest sister, Philippa, was also on hand. She, too, was accompanied by a husband and a son. The youngest Bassett girl, Mary, as yet unmarried, sniffled into a handkerchief, but she managed a watery smile for her sister.

Elsewhere in the chapel, Nan caught sight of Lucy Somerset, now Lady Latimer, and Cousin Mary, who had remarried and was now Countess of Arundel. Most of the maids of honor Nan had served with in Mary Tudor’s household, both before and after Mary became queen, were also present to celebrate with her.

Nan took her place beside Wat, standing at his left hand. The queen herself blessed their union and gave Nan into the keeping of her future husband.

Throughout the solemn, scripted ritual that followed, Nan could only think how glad she was that this moment had finally come. She did not regret her time at court, but she was ready to leave the service of royalty behind. She wanted nothing more than to spend the rest of her life at Farleigh Castle as Lady Hungerford.

Wat took her right hand in his right hand, his grip firm and confident. He’d never once doubted that they belonged together.

“I, Walter, take thee Anne to my wedded wife, to have and to hold from this day forth, for better or worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, till death us depart, if holy church will it ordain, and thereto I plight thee my troth.”

As the ceremony demanded, Wat withdrew his hand and Nan took it back again to make her own vows: “I, Anne, take thee Walter to my wedded husband, to have and to hold from this day forth, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, to be bonair and buxom in bed and at board, till death us depart, if holy church will it ordain, and thereto I plight thee my troth.”

Bonair and buxom, she thought, smiling slightly, words that meant courteous and kind. She would have no difficulty with either. Not with Wat as her husband.

The priest blessed the ring, which had been placed on a book along with a monetary offering. When he’d sprinkled it with holy water, Wat took the ring in his right hand, using three fingers, and held Nan’s right hand in his left. Then he repeated the priest’s solemn words: “With this ring I thee wed and this gold and silver I thee give; and with my body I thee worship, and with all my worldly cattle I thee honor.”

He placed the ring on Nan’s thumb, “in the name of the Father,” moved it to the second finger—“and of the Son”—and on to the third finger: “and of the Holy Ghost.” When he placed it on her fourth finger, he concluded with, “Amen.”

Nan looked down at her hand, wondering if it were true that in the fourth finger there was a vein that ran straight to the heart. Overwhelmed by the emotion she felt at this moment, she was certain there must be a connection.

Together, Nan and Wat moved to the step before the altar for the nuptial Mass and blessing that would precede a wedding breakfast in the royal apartments—another mark of favor from the queen. Nan scarcely heard a word for the haze of happiness that surrounded her.

When all the prayers were done, Wat received the pax from the priest. The final act of the ritual was to convey it to Nan by kissing her. “At last,” he whispered just before their lips met.

At last, Nan thought, relishing his touch, basking in her sense of belonging and the sheer joy of mutual love and respect.

The kiss Nan gave Wat in return told him everything that was in her heart.

A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR

I chose to end Anne Bassett’s story on a happy note. Sadly, she did not live long after her wedding. In common with many sixteenth-century wives, she bore her husband two sons who died young and was dead herself sometime before June 7, 1557, the date of Walter Hungerford’s remarriage.

For those who want “the real story,” it is to be found in M. St. Clare Byrne’s excellent six-volume edition of The Lisle Letters. I have drawn my own conclusions about certain events in Nan’s life and about Lord Cromwell’s involvement in the Botolph conspiracy, but overall I have worked within the historical record. I did choose to omit a number of details of the Botolph conspiracy simply because they made the scheme too preposterous for a modern reader to believe.

Maids of honor may have waited on the queen in shifts, with two on duty for each eight-hour period, but since no one knows for certain, I often have all six in attendance on the queen at the same time. The identities of these “damsels” are also open to question. Many more women are said to have held the position than is possible, even with a great number of them marrying and leaving the ranks. Some young ladies, like Elizabeth Brooke, as the daughters or sisters of courtiers, lived at court without having any official position.

For more information on the real people who populate this novel, see the Who’s Who section that follows this note. You will find more mini-biographies of Tudor women at my website, KateEmersonHistoricals.com. The only characters in Between Two Queens who are entirely products of my imagination are Nan’s maid, Constance; the midwife, Mother Gristwood; Jamie and his adoptive parents; and Ned Corbett’s violet-eyed wife.

A WHO’S WHO

OF THE TUDOR COURT

1537–1543

Anna of Cleves (1515–1557)

Henry VIII married his fourth queen on January 6, 1540. She was persuaded to accept an annulment on July 9 of that same year. She retired to Richmond and Bletchingley, properties granted to her in a generous settlement, and was thereafter treated as “the king’s sister.” A false rumor, circulated in 1541, claimed she’d given birth to a child. She was present at ceremonial occasions throughout the reign of Mary I. She was buried in Westminster Abbey. Her portrait by Hans Holbein the Younger still makes her appear, to modern eyes, the most attractive of King Henry’s wives.

Arundell, Jane (d. 1577)

Jane Arundell, older half sister of Mary (below), was one of Queen Jane’s maids of honor when Anne Bassett first came to court. She was at least thirty years old at the time, since her mother had died before 1507. After Queen Jane’s death, Jane Arundell joined her half sister’s household. Nothing further is known of her.

Arundell, Mary (Countess of Sussex) (1517?–1557)

Mary Arundell was Anne Bassett’s cousin. Their mothers were sisters. She was at court as a maid of honor to Queen Jane Seymour until she became the third wife of Robert Radcliffe, Earl of Sussex, on January 14, 1537. Mary remained at court as one of Queen Jane’s ladies until Jane’s death and returned to court as one of the great ladies of the household under Anna of Cleves and Catherine Howard. She had at least one son by Sussex, born in March 1538, but he seems to have died young. After the earl’s death, Mary became the second wife of Henry FitzAlan, Earl of Arundel, marrying him on December 19, 1545. She was once thought to have translated Greek and Latin epigrams, but it is now believed that scholars confused her with her stepdaughter, Mary FitzAlan.

Astley, Jane (Mistress Mewtas) (1517?–1551?)

Jane Astley was a maid of honor to Queen Jane Seymour until she married Peter Mewtas. The wedding took place after Easter but before October 9, 1537. Jane is the subject of the sketch by Hans Holbein the Younger labeled Lady Meutas. Jane and Peter had several children—Cecily, Frances, Henry, Thomas, and Hercules. Anne Bassett lived with them in their house in London after she left the Countess of Sussex’s household.

Bassett, Anne (1521?–1557?)

Anne was the third daughter of Sir John Bassett and his second wife, Honor Grenville. When her stepfather, Arthur Plantagenet, Lord Lisle, became deputy of Calais in 1533, Anne was sent to Pont de Remy to live with the family of Tybault Rouand, Sieur de Riou, and complete her education. In 1537, she became one of Queen Jane’s maids of honor but her stay at court was short. She was sworn in only one day before the queen went into seclusion to await the birth of Prince Edward. Following the queen’s death from complications of childbirth, Anne went to live in the household of her cousin Mary Arundell, Countess of Sussex. Later she resided with Peter Mewtas and his wife and then, at the king’s suggestion, with Anthony and Joan Denny. The king took a particular interest in Anne and at one point gave her a horse and saddle as a gift. Upon Henry VIII’s marriage to Anna of Cleves, Anne resumed her post as a maid of honor. She entered the household of Queen Catherine Howard after the marriage to Anna was annulled. When Queen Catherine’s household was dissolved, the king made special provision for Anne Bassett, although exactly what provision is unclear. At the time, her mother and stepfather were both being held on charges of treason in connection with a plot to turn Calais over to England’s enemies. Their continued imprisonment did not seem to affect the king’s fondness for Anne. At a banquet where he entertained some sixty ladies, she was one of three singled out for particular attention, leading to speculation that the king might marry her. When Kathryn Parr became Henry’s sixth queen, Anne resumed her accustomed post as maid of honor. She left court during the reign of Edward VI, but returned as a lady of the privy chamber to Queen Mary in 1553. In June 1554, Anne married Walter Hungerford of Farleigh, a gentleman some years younger than herself, in the queen’s chapel at Richmond. The queen granted the couple a number of properties that had been lost when Hungerford’s father was attainted and executed in 1540. Anne bore her husband two sons who died young and had died herself before June 1557, when Hungerford remarried.