The King’s Curse, set between November of 1499 and May of 1541, is about the Tudors and their heirs. The book follows Margaret Pole, senior member of the defeated Plantagenet line during the reins of Tudor Henry VII and Henry VIII, as she tries to navigate the increasingly chaotic times of the later king’s reign. She is not a main character in the histories, but her position as mother to important actors in the court of Henry VIII gives the reader a larger view of the events that led to the English Reformation.

As with other books in the series, the title refers to the main character: Margaret Pole, as the senior or at least closest living Plantagenet heir, is a constant reminder to the Tudor king that there are others with a claim to the throne. Yet the title takes on so much more during this book. At various times, I read the King’s Curse to mean:

• The sweating sickness, a reoccurring plague attributed to the Tudors, that often sweeps across the land
• Any king’s need to have a male heir to continue to line
• Henry VIII’s inability to conceive a child, or for those children to survive.
• Henry’s descent into tyranny and/or madness

Of the books in the series so far, this was one of the roughest to read. Unlike the Wars of the Roses, I know something of the Tudor years and Henry VIII. Knowing what is coming and watching the characters antagonizing over trying to stop it, and knowing how it will end, is intense. Not going to lie; there were a few times I stopped reading early on the bus ride because I needed a break. 

Family Fortunes

Margaret Pole, the niece of two York kings, is aware of her family’s dangerous position. The story starts with the execution of her brother, Edward of Warwick. She is married to a minor supporter of the Tudors (as one of Margaret Beaufort’s efforts to humiliate a York princess). And Henry VII is well known for his network of spies and his vindictive and crippling penalties for real or imagined slights.

Pole’s husband commands the castle where Henry’s eldest son and his new wife, Arthur and Katherine of Aragon, are to spend their time after their wedding. This time is short lived, as a sickness passed through the castle, taking Arthur and leaving Katherine a widow. Margaret becomes a conspirator with the princess to claim the marriage was not consummated and that she is free to marry the other son, Henry. This puts her in conflict with Margaret Beaufort, who seeks to discredit the princess and force her out.

Pole’s is cast from the court, her children’s opportunities cut short. This is further exasperated by the death of her husband and the Tudor abrogation of their responsibilities to their family. Beaufort once again demands Pole’s support against Katherine of Aragon. When Pole refuses, Beaufort continues to apply pressure, forcing the family disperse to monasteries to survive. Pole’s fortunes seem dark.

The New King

Pole’s fortunes change with the death of Henry VII and the elevation of his son. Margaret Beaufort’s power is broken, and Katherine of Aragon becomes queen. Pole and her family are pulled from the monasteries they’d taken refuge in, their lands are returned, and their fortunes reversed. Beaufort dies a short while later (Pole’s interpretation is that she refuses to see a court where she is replaced by younger and more beautiful women making merry where she would counsel humility.) Things are looking up.

This is where Pole’s position and the focus of the story becomes clear. Pole is a friend of the queen and a figure of some importance to the young king, which gives her some prominence. Her sons become important nobles in the king’s court and one a scholar of some note in the Catholic church.  As such, either through her own experiences or through correspondence, she is well placed to see the events leading up to the English Reformation.

The Divine Need for Princes

Henry has the firm belief in the divine right of Tudor rule. Pole, chosen to be the governess of the Tudor children, gets to see this belief tested as Katherine suffers miscarriages and weak children. Only one of six pregnancies delivers a healthy child, and that’s a princess (the future Queen Mary). Despite having a strong grandmother (see, I complimented Margaret Beaufort!) Henry is obsessed with a male heir. He sires an illegitimate son with another woman and recognizes him as a potential heir, but he’s frustrated that Katherine continues to fail to give him a legitimate prince.

Is the marriage cursed because Katherine lied about her consummating her marriage to Arthur? Is there a curse against the Tudor line for murdering the Princes in the Tower? Henry beings to search for a way to set Katherine aside, an act that the women of the story find abhorrent. To acknowledge that a husband can set aside a wife at will would be to ‘overthrow the safety of every woman in England.’

Henry persists, and one of Pole’s son (the Catholic scholar) is involved in researching how this might come about. But just as Pole is convinced that the Catholic church can bring Henry to heel, so is Henry convinced that he is right. He brazenly says so to Mary in the presence of Pole.

‘And I am doing God’s will. God speaks directly to kings, you know, So anyone who speaks against me is speaking against the will of God Himself. They all say that – the men of the new learning. They all write it. It is indisputable. I am obeying the will of God and your mother, mistakenly, is following her own ambition.’  

Conspiracy

Pole is stuck in a tough position. Her family is dependent on Henry for their fortune; yet even that does not protect all of them. Royal agents remove her chaplains and reduce their monastery to nothing; one goes as far as to threaten to take back some of their lands for little to no reason other than she’s shown support for the Queen over the King. Her scholastic son sends a report that does not support the king’s position and is effectively exiled.

The old Plantagenet forces come into play, not to necessarily overthrow Henry but to try to get him to see reason or to accept the situation he sees himself in. Many letters Pole reads or writes end with ‘Burn this’. Opportunities to oppose the king come and go; some are missed, some are avoided, some are taken but fail to bring the desired outcome.

The king’s divine faith in himself leads to the English Reformation, though to Pole it looks more like madness. Henry sets aside Katherine and begins running through wives. Anne Boleyn is executed. Jane Seymour dies. Henry separates England from the church and no heir comes. Mary is forced to acknowledge that she is illegitimate, and Pole must accept that in order see her at all.

Henry’s tyranny is widespread. Monasteries are dissolved and their wealth taken. Those who irritate the king find themselves in the Tower. Executions, even of those who were once his great supporters, becomes commonplace. (Which does allow for one moment of karma, when a man who arrogantly harasses Pole several times in the book falls victim to the machinery he built.)

Remember above when I mentioned how this book got hard to read? A lot of that came from this part of the novel. As a historian I can appreciate how the Reformation fits into the grand story of Europe and Christianity, but man did it suck for a lot of individual people and families.

Conclusion

Margaret Pole’s position in the series is less central than the other stories so far. But that gives the reader a much broader view of the events of Henry VIII’s decisions that begin the English Reformation. The information provided to Pole via her friends and family members gives her and by extension us a story that is more about a changing society and not about one king – or one family’s – quest for power.

The book was rough to read at some points, and I’m worried how the next few books will go as we continue into the queens and chaos of Henry VIII. Reformations being what they are, I’m pretty sure I’ll continue to be cutting my bus readings early. And we’re not even halfway through the series.