The Heretic Wind: The Life of Mary Tudor, Queen of England by Judith Arnopp (best ereader for students TXT) 📕

is my wish thatyou prosper after I am gone. Susan will protect you but this will give youindependence. Go with her and make a life overseas. If you should decide totake a husband, then choose him carefully. If I have learned anything in life,it is that there is nothing so damaging as a bad spouse.”

“Your Majesty.” With a fewsniffs and whimpers, she pushes the rosary into her pocket.

 The chamber is full of tears.Susan is prostrate on my bed, her face buried in the pillow beside me. In thenext room, I hear further sounds of weeping and realise that the remainingmembers of my household are weeping for me.

A bell begins to toll. Apriest mutters at the foot of the bed.

I must be dying. I turn myhead, searching for a friendly face, but I am blind and cannot see.

“I had always meant to be sokind…”

My mouth feels tight, mytongue stiff. I cannot form the words; they gurgle in the back of my throat. Iam a paralysed, voiceless wreck of a woman.

I meant to be so kind.

Someone is holding tight to myhand. I recognise the small palm, the smooth fingers and the voice whisperingmy name. My last human contact is with a girl named Anne.

I try to laugh at the ironybut my lips won’t obey.

Author’s note

As always, Imust stress that The Heretic Wind is a work of fiction. I carried outlengthy research to help me get inside Mary’s head and, of all the women I’vewritten about, I think Mary is the most tragic. Afterall the harsh things that have been said and written about her, I hadn’texpected that.

I haven’t attemptedto whitewash or excuse either her character or her actions. I have simply triedto understand, and imagine the events of her life from her own point of view.

 If you leave aside the religiousbigotry and the cruel punishments she inflicted on heretics in her latter days,and consider her experiences during her formative years, it is little wonder shebecame the woman she did.

 As I delved more deeply into Mary’spersonal life, the one aspect that stood out from the rest was her isolation. Duringand after her parents’ divorce, Mary had few friends, and no equals. Later on,she had faithful servants in Susan Clarencius and Jane Dormer, but they werenot her equals – they served her, they loved her but they could never reallyhave understood.

The only person with whom she might haveenjoyed an equal relationship was Elizabeth, the daughter of her enemy, AnneBoleyn, but for all her pretentions, Elizabeth was a Protestant. Although shewas often suspected of treason, Elizabeth escaped full punishment because Mary wentto great lengths to avoid it. This could have been due to fearing the backlashof the populace, but it could also be simply because Elizabeth was her littlesister.

For a time, they had been close, sharing thesame roof, the same father, and similar fractured childhoods. Theirrelationship was always complex, fraught with suspicion and probably more thana hint of jealousy. But, I think, empathy and shared blood proved stronger thanMary’s resentment.

During her youth, Mary experienced rejectionby her father, separation from her mother, Catherine of Aragon, banishment fromcourt and the loss of her title, her status. This was followed by the death ofher mother, and the execution of two stepmothers, and two who diedafter childbirth. During her father’s reign, Mary was mistreated, bullied and deridedas a bastard. During her brother’s, she faced religious persecution. Happinessand security were always just out of her reach.

Even when the crown of England finallybecame hers by right, she was forced to fight for it and her early reign wassmeared with violence, and the execution of her cousin, Jane Grey.

At this point, safely on the throne, shemight have imagined her trials were over. But an unsuccessful marriage toPhilip of Spain followed and, hot on the heels of that, came the humiliation anddisappointment of two phantom pregnancies.

Catholic to the point of fanaticism, Marywas determined to turn her subjects to what she regarded as the true church. InTudor England, the punishment for heresy was burning, something that Mary tookto the extreme, but the actions of the past must not be measured by twenty-firstcentury sentiment.

In studying the character of Mary Tudor, Idiscovered a woman who endured relentless misery. She was driven by unshakeablereligious faith, and the desire to be true to her God and her church. I think, inthe end, ravaged by sickness, blind and old beyond her years, Mary’s self loathingand disappointment was perhaps exacerbated by a touch of dementia.

After her death, Protestant England inflatedMary’s actions and subsequent popular history has turned her into a monster. InThe Heretic Wind I have taken her pain, her hopelessness, herdisappointments and her anger and tried to present a rounded character; acultured, pampered infant princess, a strong-willed warrior queen and, in herlast days, an angry, thwarted and isolated old woman.

Judith is the author of twelvehistorical fiction novels:

The Heretic Wind: the life ofMary Tudor, queen of England.

The Beaufort Chronicle (threebook series) tracing the life of Lady Margaret Beaufort.

The Sisters of Arden: on thePilgrimage of Grace

A Song of Sixpence: the story ofElizabeth of York

The Winchester Goose: at thecourt of Henry VIII

The Kiss of the Concubine: astory of Anne Boleyn

Intractable Heart: the story ofKatheryn Parr

The Forest Dwellers

The Song of Heledd

Peaceweaver

author.to/juditharnoppbooks

www.judithmarnopp.com

Judith Arnopp’s books areavailable on Kindle, Paperback and some are on Audible

 [CP1]Fatherand farther??

 [CP2]Ithink this is far too modern a phrase. I’d suggest ‘to heart’.

 [CP3]Repeatof ‘stubbornness’.