‘We shall allow the rest of your servants to stay tonight,’ said the nun, ‘but they must leave at first light.’
Elizabeth listened in horror. Mrs Crew had been with her for as long as she could remember.
‘I shall see you again,’ Mrs Crew assured her, squeezing Elizabeth’s hand as the door closed and the bolt slid home.
Outside, the curlew cried again. Elizabeth pressed her pebble through the leather of her satchel as words, unbidden, crept into her mind:Doom has followed us in.
3
LONDON – MAY 1489
Blood pooled on her fingertip and she sucked it, darting her finger into her mouth with a quick practised movement as she did not want to mar the pale linen she was embroidering as a present for her father.
‘Careful, Lizzie,’ said Anne who sat beside her. ‘Make smaller movements with the needle; the more delicate your touch, the less likely you are to hurt yourself.’
‘There was a knot in the silk,’ she explained, ‘and I tugged too hard. When it released unexpectedly, it caught my finger.’
‘Where’s the silver thimble Mama gave you?’ asked Anne, but before Elizabeth could reply, they heard footsteps in the corridor outside, followed by a firm rap on the door.
‘May I enter?’ came the voice of Thomas Howard the Younger, Elizabeth’s eldest brother.
‘Of course,’ called Elizabeth. ‘We’ve told you before, you don’t have to knock.’
‘This solar is designed for women,’ he said. ‘It’s polite to give you warning of a male attendee.’
‘Come in and sit down,’ said Anne, ushering Thomas to the fireplace.
‘Thank you, Anne, but this is a short visit, Mama asked me to send the news that Papa is shortly to be released from the Tower,’ he said and smiled, his narrow face lighting up with delight.
‘This is wonderful news,’ exclaimed Elizabeth, pushing aside the frame she was using to hold her sewing in place and throwing herself into her elder brother’s arms. ‘Will his title be restored? Is he a duke again? Will you be an earl?’
At nearly seventeen, Thomas Howard, referred to by the family as Younger, was a wiry, slender youth of medium height, with dark hair and eyes. He had inherited the long Howard face and, what his mother described as, a patrician nose.
‘Papa has been restored to his title of the Earl of Surrey and to the Order of the Garter, but the dukedom continues to be held back.’
‘Why?’ said Elizabeth.
‘It’s a test of his loyalty,’ replied Thomas. ‘He will be granted access to a portion of his lands but not all. It’s very cunning of the king.’
There was grudging respect in Thomas’s voice.
‘Do you like King Henry?’ Elizabeth asked.
Thomas grinned and Elizabeth felt as though the sun had chosen to shine for her. She adored her older brother, but she was wary of his quicksilver changes of mood: he could take offence at the smallest comment, but when he chose to be charming, she felt all the wrongs in her life were righted.
When they had fled Shurland Hall four years earlier, arriving at the convent, tired, hot and scared, Thomas had comforted her, and when she had produced a packet of playing of cards to distract them all from their difficulties, he had scooped her up and spun her around in a circle, exclaiming, ‘You are the cleverest little sister in the world. The hours will pass far more quickly now we can play cards.’
She had glowed with pride.
They had spent a month in the convent while her mother waited for news. As Anne had predicted, Henry VII could not execute every man who had fought against him. Instead, he held them prisoner while he laid his plans. His first political act was to reinstate the legitimacy of the former royal family, he then married Elizabeth of York, the eldest daughter of Edward IV and Queen Elizabeth Woodville, forever uniting the houses of Lancaster and York. The Tudor rose – comprising the white rose of York and the red rose of Lancaster – became a potent symbol for the new Tudor reign.
Content they were in no immediate danger, in early October, six weeks after their desperate flight to safety, Lady Howard had gathered up her children and moved them to Ashwellthorpe Manor in Suffolk – a property she had inherited through her dower from her first marriage to Henry Bourchier. Despite doing verbal battle with one of the king’s servants, Baron Fitzwalter, who tried to have her removed, Lady Howard’s rights to the manor could not be denied and the family settled in for the duration.
To attain land and wealth, during his first parliament in December 1485, Henry VII announced his decision to backdate his reign to the day before the Battle of Bosworth. The battle had taken place on 22 August 1485, but the statute books now showed Henry Tudor as monarch from 21 August, making him the defending king – the hero of the piece, rather than the potential usurper. It also meant he could claim the nobles who had fought for King Richard were traitors for opposing the rightful monarch.
Elizabeth’s father was one of twenty-six noblemen attainted during Henry VII’s first parliament and whose lands were confiscated by the crown. Yet, despite the Earl of Surrey’s continuing imprisonment, the sizeable sum set aside for hisupkeep showed his life was not in danger and hinted at the possibility of rehabilitation.
As the years passed, Elizabeth’s two brothers, Edward and Edmund, were invited to court to act as pages and begin their training as courtiers styled under the name the Lords Howard. Shortly before the Battle of Bosworth, Thomas the Younger had been betrothed to Anne Plantagenet, sister of the now-queen, Elizabeth of York. This betrothal was not rescinded, and the entire family took this as another sign there would one day be royal forgiveness for the Howard family.
