Previously on The Spanish Princess...
How is my magnificent son and heir?
Do you believe that true union is possible
more than once in a lifetime?
I do.
A woman was seen entering the king's rooms.
It is the way of the English kings.
They jump into so many beds.
Catherine is distressed, and I am worried for the baby.
Sir Compton, I was hoping I might seek your help.
Sir William kissed another woman.
I must refuse him.
And nothing will come between us.
- Get out! - We are married!
You have betrayed your country, madam.
No! Bring them back to me!
Push!
How is my son?
It's a girl.
Thank you for your efforts.
*CREDITS*
- Come, let's go now. - Go where?
Where are we going?
I want to show you my family shield.
Well, let's find out. Come on, in here.
Where are you taking me?
Highness?
Catherine?
How can you bear this?
I cannot bear it.
I hate her.
And I do not want to hate,
so now I hate her twice for making me this way.
Have you spoken to him?
What is there to say?
That I do not like it?
I gave him every chance to tell me, and he did not.
What are you doing?
Not this one.
Don't dress me like some dowager.
If you can't even do your job, get out.
Lina will dress me.
See how good a matchmaker I am?
Henry Stafford and Ursula Pole are delighted
to have reached their wedding day.
They've even sent me a golden purse as thanks.
I fancy we shall have a masked performance after the service.
In fact, I've already arranged it.
Have they said they want one?
Everybody loves a masque!
The sun is shining.
It's a beautiful day for a wedding!
Princess Mary wants her mother.
She thrives. She is strong.
But she is not a boy.
Uh, Charlie, have you set the day for your marriage?
Uh, I'll tell you what, let's eat today for two weddings.
We'll get bloated on an orgy of beer and wine and pastry.
What do you say? Come on.
Well, you are the king. If you say, I must.
Wonderful.
The wedding is over, so speak with me.
You said your mind was on the wedding.
It is now done.
So give me my inheritance from Arthur
so I can pay for troops and take my children back.
Well, Meg, I told you you would have it
if you kept the peace in Scotland.
You have failed to do that, so now...
I kept the peace, until these last few months,
as you know full well.
How long a peace had you in mind?
Until I died?
Oh, how convenient for your treasury.
The terms of your regency in Scotland
were that you did not marry.
You chose to disobey those terms.
Therefore your regency is over, and you are...
How can you bear him, Catherine?
How can you bear my lying pig of a brother
and his pet dog Wolsey?
It is a wedding, Meg.
I will go to Scotland, and I will take my sons,
and I will reclaim everything that is mine,
with or without your consent.
Or yours, Archbishop.
The fairer sex... often very loud.
I have a houseful of them.
Your Graces, we give our thanks to God
that He has joined my son, Henry Stafford,
with his bewitching bride, Ursula.
- The bride and groom. - The bride and groom.
And as a very special wedding gift
to our newly wedded couple,
I have commissioned a masked performance,
a celebration of love.
Henry...
will you come to my rooms tonight?
Yes, of course.
Apologies. I have disturbed your peace.
No.
No, the child was crying.
Thank you.
You are troubled at your daughter's marriage?
No.
No, she would have whoever the king selects for her.
But I have never much enjoyed carousing.
As a child, I always found the darkest corner
or hid beneath the table.
My mother scolded me because she thought I'd run away.
She died young, didn't she?
They both did.
Ah.
I think your suitor has returned
to try his chance again.
Sir William, are you quite well?
Oh.
Oh, no.
No, move back. It is the plague.
- Oh, goodness. - My Lord?
Stay back, or you'll be infected.
Tell the king the court must be evacuated.
No one should come down here or near us.
We will bury him when the court is safely gone.
Please do as she says.
I knew Europe had had outbreaks but not here in London.
Your ladies have gone to pack your trunk and a cloak.
We'll go to Windsor and...
Your Grace, if I may be so bold.
My residence at Hampton Court is closer.
There would be less time on the road,
and it would be my pleasure to accommodate the court.
- No, Henry... - We ride to Hampton Court!
- To Hampton Court! - Hampton Court!
Your Grace, the horses are too few for everyone.
Could the ladies ride with the children in the wagons?
- Henry. - Yes.
Take Princess Mary.
Bessie, Lina, tend to the queen.
Oviedo.
The king asks me to stay here in the palace
in case of looting.
Henry Pole will fetch our boys and bring them to you.
My mother says that she will not come.
She stays behind for your sake and the court's.
Her lady mother tended Sir William.
She fears she is infected.
No.
Wiltshire, your daughters will ride with the queen.
Attend the queen. It will advance us in court.
Go. Go.
- Ride out to Hampton Court. - Ride to Hampton Court.
Guard the ladies on the road.
Anne, come, get in beside me.
I have wrapped him in some muslin.
Perhaps it will contain the sickness as we bury him.
He was a good man,
and I wasn't always kind to him.
Let me help you carry him to the garden.
Please, don't come too close. We may be infected.
My God may take me when He chooses.
A lady does not carry.
My men will dig a grave, and I will lay him there to rest.
Come. I have left him in the chapel.
I will help you.
You should change your clothes, and we will burn them.
The same for us when he is in the ground.
What else should we do?
There is nothing.
Wait. Live.
Hope we don't get sick.
Or go home to your family.
They are still in London, no?
I will not risk infecting them.
I'm afraid you'll have to endure my company
for a little while longer.
We go to secure the palace.
Come, let us, uh, pray for William Compton's soul...
...and that your children and our king and queen
are safe now.
Good morning, Your Grace.
He will tire of you, you know?
You were a plaything while I was with child, nothing more.
But his light will soon return to me...
his constant and his queen.
And when it does, you will be cast out of the palace.
Stop the wagon!
The rocking of the cart is unsettling to the stomach.
The queen is not unwell from it.
And nor are we.
It is not the rocking.
Drive on!
Drive!
Let us get to wherever it is
in hell's name we are going.
_
This is bigger than Westminster Palace.
Mm.
So where in God's name
does a young upstart boy from Ipswich get his wealth?
Mm, perhaps we should enquire
while we are here.
I'm ever your servant, madam,
especially when it might relieve our host of some cheer.
Ten groats says his hospitality is a new bid
for the Chancellorship of England.
Ah, Your Grace.
I trust the journey was not too great a hardship
for the princess and yourself?
A small price to arrive at such grandeur.
You've been too modest about the scale
of your ambition, Wolsey, and your means.
A feat of great design,
which looks far grander than it is, Your Grace.
How fortunate, though, that your funds can stretch
to housing the entire court, Wolsey.
We must thank your benefactors.
Yes, I will.
I will go to help Lina.
We should set up a nursery for the children of the court.
I will help you.
This way.
I will show you to your rooms.
No, you will take me to the king.
Ah, you are unharmed from the journey.
And Princess Mary?
We survived it.
Though it may take Bessie Blount
a day or so to readjust.
Bessie Blount?
Oh, she is with child.
With child?
Well, is it mine?
I know of no other man reputed to be in her bed most nights.
Fetch her.
Fetch her to me now.
You mistake me for a servant, Henry.
Fetch her to me!
Anne?
Please fetch my lady Bessie Blount here.
Yes, Your Grace.
Your Graces.
I'm told you are carrying a child.
Yes, Your Grace.
Well, is it mine?
Yes, Your Grace.
You are my first and only.
You will be sent back to your family.
No, no, no, you...
you will remain here in the service of the queen
until such time as you cannot work.
Then you will be made comfortable
until the birth of the child.
I have a feeling you carry a boy.
A bastard boy.
A bastard.
If it is a boy at all or...
or if he lives.
And the child may be a girl.
_
Halt.
I trust your memories are not so short
that you have forgotten who I am.
Step aside.
I will see the Duke of Albany.
Now.
I will take you to the Duke, Your Grace.
Thank you, Negasi.
Your Grace, the Duke of Albany.
At your service. Welcome home.
Where are my children?
You cannot keep them from me or my rightful home.
I have not tried to.
It was you who left the country of your own accord.
Uh, bring in the boys.
I am appointed regent,
and the princes will stay with me at the castle in my care,
but you may visit them as often as you care to.
No, my boys must be with me.
Jamie is the future king of Scotland.
The Stewart Clan insist there will blood enough
to form a river if the Earl of Angus
ever gets his hands on him.
Where is Angus?
Uh, he is at your home, Holyrood.
I think it's only fair to warn you
that he has had Jane Stewart in his bed there
since you left.
Mama!
Oh.
Oh, how I've missed you both.
Can I stay here at the castle for a little while?
I need to be with my boys.
You'd be welcome.
I'd be grateful
for some civilized companionship.
We're a burden to your household, Wolsey.
But you serve us all on such fine French gold plate.
Do you have a wealthy wife stowed away out of sight?
Everything you see here is a gift
from the devout and the faithful.
I've heard you have a hidden mistress and two bastards.
There will always be malicious talk.
The Lord grants me the grace to weather it.
Oh, and the Pope has sent word
that he has made me Cardinal.
So...
I am blessed indeed.
May I be the first to offer my congratulations, Cardinal,
and that of my family.
Well, to the ever-rising Wolsey, eh?
To Wolsey.
Felicitations must also be extended
to His Grace, the king...
who sires another child.
I wasn't aware the queen had such happy news.
The queen has not.
No, it's, um... it's Bessie Blount here.
But this time I'm certain it's a boy.
Congratulations, Your Grace.
Congratulations.
Leave us, Bessie.
I do not want her tending to me.
It is too much to ask of me.
Catherine, you must not mind about your lady.
- She is nothing to me. - And Wolsey?
Why do you let him humiliate me before the court?
God has given me a second chance,
a chance to have a son.
But he will not be a prince
and never can be.
But if Bessie can produce a boy, then I know.
I know.
What do you know?
That it isn't me He punishes.
Why would He punish either of us?
Who says He does?
Who says it, Henry?
Your Grace.
It is the French.
It is the French who make him rich.
They pay that bastard Wolsey
to backchannel for them with the king.
How do you know?
He keeps a locked room in the gate house.
I managed to persuade a servant to open it,
and when I did, I found a stack of gold plate
adorned with fleur-de-lis...
and the French royal coat of arms.
And yet Henry doesn't see it.
Thank you.
Lady Pole?
Lady...
Lady Pole.
Maggie.
Call me Maggie.
Maggie.
Huh.
Listen.
I hear nothing.
No.
No spies,
no gossip,
no judgment,
nothing.
It is a wonder.
When I was a girl, the king was away on progress,
and Lady Margaret Beaufort had the palace all closed up,
and Lizzie and I and Teddy
walked through this chamber,
and I put my arms out wide,
and I spun.
And I thought that I could say anything at all
and receive no punishment for it.
I'm sorry, Master More.
We should take food to the sick.
What might you say here in this silent palace,
if... if you could say anything?
I would say many things.
Tell me.
Dreams I've had...
...thing I wish I could do but cannot.
Such as?
I would speak of books I've read,
pageants I remember...
...and prayers when I've felt close to God...
...my mother's touch,
good things.
Only good things before the bad things happened...
...before I lost my innocence.
I would speak of my deepest feelings...
...thoughts I hardly admit to myself.
I would speak of love.
Now you.
Freedom to speak and license to speak
are two different things.
I cannot say what I would.
Though my heart has longed to
most deeply for a long while.
What does God want from us?
He tests our faith...
...to see if we are worthy of an everlasting life
in His heavenly kingdom.
Perhaps He tests us through,
um, temptation.
Perhaps it is our courage that He tests...
...to see if we are brave enough
to seize what is before us now
and take joy even in the face of suffering?
Would it be transgression
if it took place in a silent palace?
Sir Thomas, I take food out to the sick.
Of course. I will come and help.
Maggie.
Please stay here. Do not risk yourself.
I will return.
"To my dearest brother Henry.
I hear there is a plague in London.
I hope that you and the queen are safe.
I write to say that I have been a dutiful sister,
though I would be hard-pressed to pretend it has been easy.
I write now with a solemn heart to inform you
of the death of my husband, Louis.
His heart has run its course.
I will be confined here for a period of mourning
until they are satisfied that I am not with child,
and then I will be a free woman once again,
free to marry whomever I choose."
You are crying.
Uh, it's nothing, Your Grace. Forgive me.
It's nothing.
Why?
Cardinal Wolsey says that if this is a girl,
then I'll be sent away.
And I can't go to my family.
They've already said they will not have me back
because I've...
spoiled myself for any decent man
and that I must make my living on the streets.
What did you think would happen, Bessie?
The king told me I'd be safe no matter what.
But w-where will I go? What will I do?
Please.
I know you're angry with me,
but he said he would care for me.
You should have thought of that before you bedded him.
You think only of your own fate,
while London is struck down with plague.
Do not ever leave my daughter unattended again.
She would love to feel her mother's arms, Your Grace.
I am deeply honored that Hampton Court
will have played its part in history, Your Grace.
I am Queen of England, Wolsey.
I move freely as I please.
Is that news from London?
I hoped for news from Lady Pole these last few weeks.
So which suitor best serves our alliance?
Is it the Duke of Lorraine or the Duke of Savoy?
Suitor?
For whom?
My sister Mary is now dowager Queen of France.
Louis didn't last a year.
So now I must arrange another marriage
that cements our Anglo-French alliance.
But...
you promised Mary she would have her own choice
when her husband passed.
Those were the terms on which she married him.
You made a promise to her, and I brokered it.
Well, this is none of your concern.
It is entirely my concern.
Go.
Go so I may have an audience with my wife.
You would make a liar of me and yourself.
Wolsey listing French suitors isn't for the good of England.
It's to feather his own nest.
The man is in the pay of France.
Where do you think his riches come from?
He has a locked room filled with bribes
of the very best French plate.
He is not loyal to you but them.
I know about it.
Wolsey takes bribes with my blessing,
because there's nothing that Wolsey owns
I can't take from him one day, should I choose.
So, while you and Stafford and Charlie Brandon
seek to mock him,
Wolsey is the one who does my bidding.
And what's more, he understands me.
Charlie Brandon!
Ride to Fontainebleau
and fetch my sister Mary back here!
Do you jest, Henry?
My title is "Your Highness" or "Your Grace."
The fat French king is dead, so fetch her back.
There's plague.
Yes, try not to let her die of it.
A dead girl will not fetch so high a marriage price.
And then I'll decide who I'll wed her to.
"Dearest Mary,
the king has told me of your loss,
and I am sorry for it."
Lina.
Oh.
Children, wait for Lady Stafford.
"Although I fear the news
I must impart may bring a deeper grief.
He says he will not honor his agreement with you
and that, with Louis' passing,
he will choose your next husband himself...
...that it may benefit the Anglo-French alliance.
Wolsey's hand is in it, as you can guess.
Charlie Brandon has been sent to bring you home.
You must act as you see fit now
with what little time you have before you are returned here.
Your ever-loving sister Catherine."
Not too much, not too much. That's fine.
Meg.
Blessed saints, you're safe.
You have returned to me.
"Returned to you"?
You betrayed me to a pack of kilted dogs,
ripped my boys from my arms, and stabbed me in the back!
No, I knew they would kill you
when we stepped out of the kitchens,
so I formed a plan to save you.
Oh, Jane Stewart.
What a shock to see you here.
Jane's been helping with James' other children
and to keep them safe from plague.
We heard that England quivers
in its sick bed with this scourge.
I, um...
I wrote an ode for you.
"Long were the nights, hollow was my heart.
"If she returns to me...
never more shall we part."
There is a worse scourge here in Scotland,
and it's called infidelity!
You think that I don't know that you're bedding her?
- You lying, cheating... - Your Grace!
...son of a whore!
You left me! You went to England!
I thought you were never coming back!
And your heart broke so much
that you had to dip your wick in her!
Hen, please.
I love you.
I'm weak for women. I-I admit that.
Jane was here, and the bed was cold.
She's nothing more than that to me.
You lying sod!
He's been bedding me since before the two of you were wed!
No, I...
No. She's lying! She's lying!
No, no, I-I'll be worthy of you, Meg!
I'll send her away.
Go. This is my wife.
Get out of here. Get out.
That's right, just-just-just go!
The pair of you!
Get out and do not come back.
But...
I'm your husband.
No, you're not.
I will find a way to end this marriage,
or I will die in the attempt.
You can have my word on that.
Now get out!
We're not done here.
I'm your husband.
So all of this is mine.
Hello, Charlie Brandon.
Hello, Horse.
_
Horse, I'm sorry about old Louis.
I'm not. He was a fat pig.
Yes, I'll probably go to hell.
Mm.
Well, if you do, it can't be worse than this tastes.
Chartreuse.
It's what's kept me going
through the worst hell of my marriage.
You don't look as though you're struggling.
You look radiant.
Well, a little death does wonders for the complexion.
Mary, I've missed your humor.
We've been holed up with the ghastly Cardinal
while the plague moves through the city.
But now you're sent to bring me home.
What does my brother say my fate should be?
I haven't asked.
I didn't care to know.
Why not?
It doesn't matter.
I feel I don't know Henry as I used to.
- Wolsey? - Yes.
Henry, he's... he's lost his joy.
He has an anger now about him.
Whoever you are married to, he'll be a lucky man.
What of you, Charlie?
Are you married yet?
No.
You spy on the king's bedchamber now?
Would you take my place there, too?
Mm, there are others for that.
I sleep but little.
Like the night owl, I prowl my territory.
A territory paid for by French bribes.
No, no, no, not bribes.
How business is transacted, plain and simple.
I understand business, Wolsey.
I ran my own household for long enough
when I was forced into poverty.
Indeed, the queen was a woman of business...
politics and warfare, too.
How excellent to be so well-rounded.
Of mind at least, if not of body.
If you cannot deliver an heir to your king...
...your other attributes are nothing.
Do you remember how you used to tease me?
You deserved it. You were a ghastly thing.
What am I now?
Even ghastlier.
You see, that's the thing about us, Charlie.
We always made each other laugh.
We always understood each other,
and yet here we are,
both of us instructed by my brother
into marriages we do not wish to make.
You don't know who yours is yet.
He might be handsome.
He'll be an ancient goat
who I am forced to spread my legs to.
Why should I be faithful to a king
who cannot keep his word to me?
He uses you. He bullies me.
Let's make our own choice.
What do you mean?
Let's choose each other.
Mary, I-I've wanted to for a long time.
I-I've thought about it.
But it's treason.
If Henry didn't take our heads, he'd banish us.
He's my brother.
He's your best friend. He'd forgive us.
Our fall would be...
Quite biblical. Exciting.
He'd only see betrayal, and I'm betrothed to...
To a child.
He could have sent anyone out here to fetch me.
But God made him choose you.
If you won't have me, then I'll enter a nunnery,
because I will not be my brother's pawn again.
You cannot join a nunnery.
Let's fall in love, then.
Fall with me, Charlie Brandon.
Highness?
You must eat.
You have to keep your strength up if you hope...
I have terrible thoughts,
thoughts that shame me and should see me go to hell.
No.
Evil creeps into my prayers unbidden.
That her baby dies.
That they both do.
You must forgive yourself.
Thoughts are not actions,
or we would all of us burn in hell.
God will forgive us those.
I know she will be a good mother.
I see it in her.
But must it always fall to me to be magnanimous?
Perhaps that is what God would have me do?
Show Bessie Blount compassion to make amends to Him
for the sins I have committed.
You have no sin.
Your only sin
was fulfilling the destiny God set for you.
He called you to be Queen of England,
and you are.
But did I do it for His sake or...
...or my own?
Was it all my own ambition,
and I just told myself it was for Him?
Highness...
No, I am a sinner.
But if I show my Christian charity,
perhaps God will ensure that Henry doesn't cast me out...
...with my own useless girl.
He cannot cast you out.
You are his wife
and queen.
Nothing can change that.
Amen.
_
I love you, Mary Brandon.
How could you not?
Seņor More?
- You are sick? - No.
I merely burn.
Highness, Oviedo writes to me.
The plague is passed.
They are all well. Lady Pole and Master More, too.
We can return to London.
We will give thanks to God.
But first I must speak with Henry.
Henry, your sister writes to me with news from France.
She begs me for her own choice, I imagine.
She has married Charlie Brandon.
Is that a joke?
What, is this a bloody joke?
Damn them both to hell!
They'll both hang for this!
There'll be no mercy for them! They'll both be executed!
Mary is a loving sister and loyal subject.
She only did what you had promised was her right.
And Charlie?
What promise I made him compelled him
to betray his best friend and king?
This is treason.
He is betrothed here in this court.
To a child to whom he was promised for politics.
Henry, read this letter.
They write to beg for your forgiveness.
I will not grant it to them.
I will not have another woman slip from my command.
Is this your work?
I told her you would break your promise,
that Wolsey sought to marry her to the highest bidder
France could find for his own gain.
I told her she should make her own decision.
But did I bid her marry Charlie Brandon?
No, I did not.
They did that out of love.
We were those lovers once.
Perhaps you have forgotten.
Get out, Wolsey.
You betrayed her, Henry.
You have betrayed us all.
You told your sister Meg
she would have her inheritance from Arthur,
and yet you will not hand it over.
You told your sister Mary
she may choose her second husband for herself,
and yet you plot behind her back to do the opposite.
You promised me fidelity,
yet there is Bessie Blount.
And to your mistress, Bessie, you promised food
and water and a roof above her head,
yet that, too, is a lie,
and now she cries herself to sleep at night.
You talk to me of promises and betrayals?
Take your own.
You promised me a son and heir, and yet no boy arrives.
The world must know that God makes me powerful,
that He blesses me.
I will not be denied what lesser men find easy.
If you do not do as I command,
then I will treat you as I please
and any other woman on this earth as well.
Catherine.
Catherine!
I have a need
for something I cannot get.
Give it to me, Catherine.
Give me a son.
The craftsmanship is very skilled.
I also made one for my boys.
Hmm.
The plague has passed, so now I will return home
and ready for my wife and children.
How soon till the court return?
In a few days, I think.
There... there was a letter from the king.
Thomas...
Let me tell you something from my childhood.
I had a toy. It was a simple thing.
It was a puppet soldier.
And...
...I gave it to my own daughter
when she was afraid of the dark.
And I told her it would guard her
and that no anguish would befall her.
That is a father's promise, isn't it?
That as best he can,
he will not do anything
that would bring pain or anguish upon his children.
Oh, to be children.
Such simple joys.
I will cherish our time alone in our palace, Maggie.
That was a joy to me.
"Dearest Mary,
I write with joy, if some surprise,
at your news.
But as you feared, the king is angry.
You should not return to England,
either one of you, until his blood has cooled.
I myself have trials of my own."
Bessie.
I will go to her.
Elizabeth, take Anne with you and help her.
Deep breaths, Bessie.
I'm dying!
You have to push now.
What? What... what is it?
Just keep pushing.
Oh, no. Oh, no.
The baby's head crowns then goes back inside again.
She cannot squeeze the baby out.
You should not be in here.
Your Highness, he will die.
We will both die.
Shh. We are here to help you, Bessie.
Oh, no.
- No, no, Highness! - Get... get off me!
No, no, no, no, no!
Now, push!
Push!
What do you think I meant to do?
Slice the child in two?
Let... let me see.
Let me see my baby.
A boy.
It is boy.
Let me... let me have him.
I will take him to the king.
No, oh, no.
No.
Henry.
This day...
I give to you a son.
A son.
My son.
I will give thanks to God.
Catherine?
Thank you.
*CREDITS*