The Countess who should have been Queen

Chapter 1

A Botched Execution

This has been by far the worst duty I have ever had to perform in service to the Crown.

I share your sentiments. I feel disgusted with myself for having to be involved in this brutal act but what else could we have done?

This conversation was taking place between Sir Philip Clifford and Lord William Holland, two elderly retainers at the Tudor court of Henry VIII. They were disconsolately wandering away from Tower Green to the Lion Gate where they would exit the Tower of London to return to their homes. The quality and cut of their clothes, their fashionable shoes and plumed hats marked them out as aristocracy, but their clothing was disheveled and spattered with blood. They had just witnessed an execution. They walked with heavy steps. It would be very unusual for witnesses to an execution to leave the scene, blood spattered, but they had had to do more than just witness the event.

The person whose execution had just been witnessed was the last of the royal line of Plantagenet. Her execution on a fabricated charge of treachery had only been arranged the previous day. There wasn’t enough time to build a proper scaffold and she was dragged to the block while vigorously protesting she was not a traitor. She refused to kneel at the block and so the inexperienced axe man, who had been pressed into service as executioner at short notice, aimed a blow at her neck but hit her shoulder instead. She ran from the scene, still declaring that she was not a traitor and had to be dragged back by Sir Philip and Lord William who held her while the axe man hacked her to death, taking many blows to finish his grisly task.

She was the most lovely, most gracious woman at court, said Sir Philip as they continued their conversation. She wasn’t a traitor and there was never any suggestion that she was pushing her claim to the throne. Her son, Reginald, is living in safety on the continent. He must be held largely to blame for this travesty of justice taking place.

She certainly had a better claim to the crown than Henry VII, our present king’s father. replied Lord William. Her father was the Duke of Clarence, King Edward’s eldest brother, and although he was attainted and executed, this should not disqualify his descendants from inheriting the title. She was certainly ahead of Edward’s younger brother, Richard, who seized the crown, but he was killed at Bosworth. Her younger brother, Edward, who inherited the title, Earl of Warwick, also had a claim to the throne, but he was executed at the turn of the century.

Sir Philip looked round to be sure that he could not be overheard before addressing his next remark to Lord William.

What have the wars of the past thirty years been about – who was the rightful King of England? But could the peasants who followed their feudal overlords into battle really have cared whether Edward or Henry was king? Yet they died in their thousands on this issue. And what has been the ultimate result of all this bloodshed? We now live in a realm where a monster sits on the throne!

Let’s not be too pessimistic, Philip. While I agree with your sentiments, at least the wars are over, the country is now stable and others like ourselves are prosperous.

Sir Philip and Lord William fell silent for a while after their discussion of the conflicting claims of potential heirs to the throne which had come into existence after the dynastic mess which gave rise to the Wars of the Roses. They sadly contemplated the horrific act, in which their duty as loyal subjects of the king, had required them to become involved.

(The family trees included after the foreword should help the reader unravel the lines of descent which the courtiers were discussing and which have been made that much more obscure by their inclusion of so many with the names, Edward, Henry or Richard.)

Chapter2

Primogeniture and Salic Law

Sir Philip and Lord William left the Tower of London, a foreboding fortress with dark and ominous secrets, a castle from which few who had been arraigned and entered via Traitor’s Gate ever emerged alive. After many minutes of musing on the events of the last few hours, they resumed their discussion of dynastic matters.

You, know, started Sir Philip, it’s amazing how many ladies have been mentioned as potential heirs to the throne in our discussion. The strongest claimant was of course King Henry’s mother, Elizabeth of York, but the sisters who outlived her would also have had claims.

Yes, and there’s Lady Margaret Beaufort from whom the present king’s father was descended. added Lord William.

And of course, there’s the lady whose execution we regretfully had to witness this morning, stated Sir Philip.

But, mused Lord William, would a woman be allowed to succeed to the throne? Indeed, most kingdoms are subject to Salic Law. It’s commonly believed that only a powerful war lord could rule a country, control its own inhabitants and ward off threats from outside.

(Salic Law which applied at the time to most European monarchies, denied inheritance of the crown to a woman or through her line. Thus, at the end of the Hanoverian era, although Victoria became Queen of Great Britain, she could not inherit an equivalent title as head of state of Hanover. This title was awarded to her uncle, Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland.)

Salic Law does not apply in England as it does in so many European countries where inheritance through a female line is prohibited, explained Sir Philip. Otherwise, the Tudors could not have inherited through Margaret Beaufort or indeed the Yorkist line through Philippa, Countess of Ulster. This principle was contested within a generation of the conquest when Matilda fought Stephen of Blois on this very issue. By the treaty which ended the hostilities, Stephen retained the throne, but it was agreed that Matilda’s son, Henry, should succeed him. The law of primogeniture which applied in England requires that a king is succeeded, first by his sons in order of seniority, that is age, and then the succession passes through the daughters. Only if a king dies without issue does the inheritance go back a generation to the king’s surviving brothers.

(English Law has now been updated to allow the children of a king or queen to inherit the crown, solely on the basis of their seniority, regardless of gender.)

Yes, agreed Lord William. Primogeniture is a device preventing all and sundry struggling in competition to take over when a king or chieftain dies but as you know, on occasions in our history, the eldest son has been bypassed when a younger son proves to be more fit to rule.

After a short silence, Sir Philip continued to display his grasp of dynastic matters.

You say that a woman could not become queen because the ruler must be a man, a king who is a great war lord, but Henry Tudor couldn’t really be described as a war lord in the sense he was a successful field commander, leading his troops in battle. He may have turned up in amour at Bosworth and played a part in the battle but the Lancastrian army was really led by the Earl of Oxford. It was he who rallied the troops and organized the strategy which enabled him to defeat Richard III whose army was larger than the Lancastrian force. Henry Tudor was successful as king because of his shrewdness in dealing with opposition and managing money. Indeed, he was almost a miser.

Sir Philip then went on to remind Lord William of women who had been great war lords.

Recent history has shown that a woman too can be a great warrior. The French have regained so much territory in France held by we English because they were led by a woman, Joan of Arc. Indeed, during the Roses Wars, a woman emerged with great leadership qualities. Henry of Windsor may have been no war lord but Margaret of Anjou, his queen, certainly knew how to rouse her troops to action. However, she was on a hiding to nothing at Tewkesbury where her army was outnumbered and out manoeuvered. Then there was Matilda. She could more than hold her own in the field against Stephen of Blois. King Alfred’s daughter, Ethelflaeda, ruler of Mercia, led Saxon armies which defeated the Danes. Way back, Boadicea gave the invincible Roman armies a run for their money. In Biblical times, Barak would not go to battle against the coalition of Canaanite kings without Deborah, the warrior prophetess, at his side. I fully expect that in years to come, England will be ruled by queens who are every bit as able as their male counterparts to successfully steer the nation through a war.

(Little did Sir Philip know that growing up amongst them, Elizabeth, the king’s youngest daughter, would rally the nation when threatened by Spain, the European superpower of the day. In subsequent history, Queen Anne, Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth II would all exercise their sovereignty at times when Britain fought successful wars.)

Chapter 3

Executions carried out on Tower Green

Many readers of this novel will have visited the Tower of London and no doubt, will have been entertained by the erudite accounts of the executions which took place on Tower Green, a focal point of tours round this ancient castle. These accounts are usually delivered by the Beefeaters who act as custodians of the Tower. Of those executed here, only Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, disgraced favourite of Queen Elizabeth I, was guilty of an act of treason as he sought to overthrow the Crown. This really did merit a death sentence.

The other names among the list of seven which are immediately recognizable are Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, the ill-fated wives of Henry VIII. Their crime was committing adultery which was regarded as an act of treason if committed by one who was married to the King. Today, such an act might be considered to be a sin, a serious sin, but certainly not a capital crime and the jury is out as to whether Anne Boleyn actually did commit such an act.

Lady Jane Grey was proclaimed queen on the death of Edward VI by her ambitious father, the Duke of Suffolk, her father in law, John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, and her husband, Lord Guilford Dudley. She was the great granddaughter of Henry VII, and Edward VI had nominated her to be his successor to the Crown in his will, ahead of his half sisters, Mary and Elizabeth. Jane became nominal queen for nine days but was imprisoned in the Tower when Mary Tudor arrived in London with a strong force to claim the throne for herself. Lady Jane Grey was really no more than a pawn in a power struggle. She was sentenced to death but would have survived except for the fact that her ambitious relatives continued to plot against Mary Tudor. She and her husband were executed after a rebellion in which she had no part. Lord Guilford Dudley was not executed on Tower Green but outside the Tower on Tower Hill.

The other names don’t receive great emphasis in our history books and thus, are relatively unknown. William Hastings was executed by order of Richard III when his loyalty to the family of the previous king, Edward IV, was seen by Richard as an obstacle to his own ambitions of power. Jane Boleyn, Viscountess Rochford, was Anne Boleyn’s sister-in-law and lady in waiting to both Anne and to Queen Catherine Howard. Little is known in detail about her life and she has perhaps been unfairly cast