One of nine sisters, two of whom married earls, Mary made a career of courtiership. She was at court from 1509–1527 as Lady Jerningham, one of Catherine of Aragon’s ladies. At the beginning of 1532, she took as her second husband Sir William Kingston, constable of the Tower. During the imprisonment of Anne Boleyn, Lady Kingston was called upon to hear the queen’s apology to Mary Tudor and deliver it to the king’s daughter after Anne’s execution. Lady Kingston carried Mary’s train at the christening of Prince Edward. According to some accounts, she served the first four of Henry VIII’s queens and also spent time in the household of Princess Mary. She may have been in charge of the joint household of Mary and Elizabeth from March 1538 until April 1539. Several of her children, including her daughter, Elizabeth Jerningham, entered royal service.

Seymour, Jane (1509?–1537)

Jane came to court as a maid of honor under Catherine of Aragon and also served Anne Boleyn. Henry VIII married her shortly after Anne’s execution. She collected poppets (dolls). She died as a result of giving birth to Prince Edward.

Skipwith, Margaret (1520+ –1583)

Rumored to be Henry VIII’s mistress in 1538, Margaret married George, Lord Talboys, in April 1539. He was the son of Henry’s former mistress Elizabeth Blount. After Talboys’s death, Margaret married Sir Peter Carew, and following Carew’s death took Sir John Clifton as her third husband. She had no children by any of them.

Somerset, Lucy (1524–1582)

Although she was identified as one of three young women to whom Henry VIII paid particular attention at a supper and banquet in 1542, Lucy was never seriously in the running to become wife number six. She was the daughter of the Earl of Worcester and was a maid of honor to Catherine Howard. In 1545, she married Queen Kathryn Parr’s stepson, John Neville, Fourth Baron Latimer, and was part of Kathryn’s household as Lady Latimer. She and Latimer had four daughters.

Stradling, Katherine (1513–1585)

Orphaned by the death of her father in 1535, Katherine entered the service of Mary Arundell, Countess of Sussex. She was there at the same time as Anne Bassett and became the subject of a heated correspondence between Anne and her mother, Lady Lisle, because Anne had shared a gift of pearls with Katherine. Katherine was one of the English maids of honor assigned to Anne of Cleves at the beginning of 1540, but soon after that married Sir Thomas Palmer of Parham, Sussex. Their first child was christened on August 23 of that same year.

Zouche, Mary (1512?–1542+)

In 1527, Mary Zouche wrote to her cousin the Earl of Arundel to complain about her mistreatment by her stepmother. She asked to be taken into royal service in order to escape Lady Zouche’s cruelty. As a result, she came to court as a maid of honor, probably to Catherine of Aragon. She was definitely at court as a maid of honor to Anne Boleyn and Jane Seymour. Some accounts say she never wed, but others give her a husband named Richard Burbagge. She is probably the “M. Souch” in the sketch by Hans Holbein the Younger.

READERS CLUB GUIDE

Introduction

Anne Bassett (Nan) is about to become one of Queen Jane Seymour’s maids of honor and has been taught for all of her sixteen years that this is the opportunity of a lifetime. She has no great dowry, but she is very beautiful. At the royal court she’ll have a chance to catch a wealthy and titled husband. Even the king has found wives among the maids of honor, first Anne Boleyn and then Jane Seymour, and Nan is encouraged when the king notices her. But the day after Nan wins her post at court, the queen and all her ladies go into seclusion. Jane is about to give birth to King Henry’s heir. When Queen Jane dies after birthing the future Edward VI, Nan’s hopes are dashed. She will not be able to catch anyone’s eye if she isn’t at court, and as long as there is no queen, there is no need for maids of honor. Uncertain of her future, she goes to live with her cousin Mary.

Nan is young and headstrong, but she knows the king will most likely make a foreign marriage and it may take years before there is a new queen. Even then, there is no guarantee Nan will still be wanted as a maid of honor. Visits from her stepfather’s servitor, Ned Corbett, bringing news from her family’s home in Calais, soon become the highlights of her days.

What begins as a simple rebellion—slipping out through the gate to see the sights of London with Ned—quickly grows more complicated. Combined with a conspiracy plotted against her family, Nan’s future at court becomes more and more unlikely.

For Discussion

1. How did the letters that opened each chapter impact your reading experience?

2. Consider Nan’s reflection: “How odd, she thought, that her mother believed bribes of wine or quails or jewelry were acceptable, but that offering one’s self in return for favors was a sin” (page 124). Do you agree with Nan’s suggestion of her mother’s hypocrisy, or do you think the form of bribery that Lady Lisle engages in is comparatively innocent? Why or why not?

3. What is your impression of Nan’s mother, Lady Lisle? Do you believe that she uses her daughters for her own advancement, or are her actions necessary for survival? Is she more powerful than her husband, Nan’s stepfather?

4. What does the conversation a young Wat Hungerford eavesdrops on between Lord Cromwell and Sir Gregory Botolph foreshadow?

5. Ned plots to court Cat so that he may continue seeing Nan (pages 54–55). What, if anything, do you think this says about his character? How does Ned evolve in this story? What effect does his innocent involvement in Cromwell and Botolph’s plot, including his subsequent imprisonment in the Tower, have on his character?

6. Compare Nan and Ned. Although their destinies diverge, do they share similar ambitions? Would they have made a successful marriage, had Nan accepted Ned’s proposal?

7. Nan’s priorities and desires change throughout the course of the novel. What events account for the change in her sense of purpose? Can you identify any particular turning point for her character?

8. Why does King Henry befriend Nan and grant her favors, even after he marries Catherine Howard? How do Nan’s interactions with Henry maintain his respect and favor toward her?

9. When Catherine Howard’s flirtations with other men in the court begin to get noticed, Nan vows to stay uninvolved. “A remark Catherine Howard had once made, back when she was a maid of honor, niggled at Nan’s memory. She did not wish to examine it closely. It was not safe to know too much, she reminded herself again. Nor was it wise to speculate” (page 287). To what remark is Nan referring? What dangers does Nan avoid by refusing to make further conjecture?

10. Why does Nan surreptitiously orchestrate Henry’s marriage to Kathryn Parr?

11. What does Nan’s marriage to Wat Hungerford indicate about her development as a character?

Enhance Your Book Club

Author Kate Emerson drew inspiration for this novel from M. St. Clare Byrne’s The Lisle Letters. Read it as a companion text.

To see a Who’s Who of Tudor Women and additional information about the time period and the author, visit KateEmersonHistoricals.com.

To learn more about many of the royal and historical sites featured in the novel, including Hampton Court and the Tower of London, visit www.hrp.org.uk/.

Read the first book in Kate Emerson’s Secrets of the Tudor Court series, The Pleasure Palace.

A Conversation with Kate Emerson

1. When Nan first came to your attention as a historical figure in The Lisle Letters, as mentioned in your Author Note, did you immediately begin to imagine the arc of her story line for this novel? What was your process for developing the fictional version of this woman from the historical references?

The plot of Between Two Queens was inspired by a combination of things. I’ve written a number of historical mysteries and novels of historical romantic suspense, so I’m always on the lookout for a good, real-life conspiracy/spy story. I’ve also written biographies, so the stories of interesting women tend to appeal to me. That said, I didn’t immediately fix on Nan as the protagonist. Her mother is the central character in The Lisle Letters and Nan’s youngest sister Mary is the one with the most romantic story. But Nan, in addition to being at court and having caught the king’s attention in real life, also had more interesting gaps in what is known about her. In developing a fictional character from a real woman, I try to answer all the questions that aren’t answered in the historical record. Was Nan the king’s mistress? Did he really consider marrying her? If so, why didn’t he marry her? What happened in Nan’s life between the events recorded in The Lisle Letters? What secrets might she have that would make her fear marriage to Henry VIII?

2. Are the letters that open each chapter in Between Two Queens real letters that were exchanged between these historical figures? When you set out to write this novel, did you plan from the beginning to include a character Who’s Who?

The letters are all real. I’ve modernized some of the spelling, but otherwise they are just as they were written. As for the Who’s Who, I did plan that from the beginning, since almost all the characters in the novel are real people. There will be a Who’s Who in each of the books in the Secrets of the Tudor Court series.

3. Nan and her sister are in competition with each other in the beginning of the novel. With whom did you find yourself sympathizing more as the novel progressed? Was competition within families for status and reputation a common occurrence in the Tudor Court?

I can’t really say I sympathize with either Nan or Cat, but since Nan is the protagonist, I was always more in tune with her feelings and reactions. Competition within families was indeed common and there were often pairs of sisters at court, vying for the same suitors, if not the same posts.

4. It seems that so many maids of honor became mistresses to Henry VIII. Do you believe that the women who entered court often expected that the position would result in a wealthy marriage or romance with the king, or did they more often go to court with only the intention of serving the queen?

Almost all courtiers, male and female, were at court to advance themselves and/or their families. The maids of honor were unmarried, so they were particularly interested in finding husbands; but there were many more women, most but not all of them married, who made a career of courtiership. They earned wages and were not averse to taking bribes to whisper a word in a royal ear.

5. Nan’s stepfather, Viscount Lisle, was the illegitimate son of King Edward IV. What determined the royal court’s response to bastard children?

Royal bastards were either acknowledged or not. Those acknowledged by their fathers (Lord Lisle; Henry Fitzroy) enjoyed a privileged upbringing. Those who were not, were raised as the children of their mothers’ husbands. Either way, there does not seem to have been any stigma attached.

6. How likely do you think it is that Nan would have been able to rescue Ned from the Tower? Are there historical records that indicate that prisoners were able to escape?

In writing the Tower scenes I studied details of two real escapes, that of Alice Tankerfelde in 1534 and that of William Seymour in 1611. Both were successful, but Alice was later captured because she aroused suspicion by being dressed in men’s clothing.

7. In the description of Anna of Cleves in the Who’s Who at the end of the novel, you state that Hans Holbein the Younger’s portrait of her “makes her appear, to modern eyes, the most attractive of King Henry’s wives” (page 335). Is there evidence to suggest that King Henry truly annulled his marriage to Anna of Cleves because of her lack of beauty? Why would Holbein have misrepresented her in the painting? Based on Holbein’s portraits and what is recorded in history about the appearance of Henry’s other wives, have perceptions of beauty changed since the Tudor era?