Katherine Howard has twins

[aoifeloveskhoward]

Nothing happened in the months between.
Katherine gave the children some of the best presents they would get: A younger brother.
Edmund culpeper had black curly hair and blue eyes. He had freckles dotted around his face and was a plump child.
May squeezed him tight and had to be told to be gentle more than once. Henry wanted to call him Henry after himself but was refused so sulked. Harold was filled with a sense of wonder over the wriggling human.
“Mummy was I just like him?” Asked may.
“You were and I remember it well!” She put may in her lap along with Henry and Edmund and rocked them side to side.

Edmund was her first normal child. Not one in line to the throne or anything. Just a child. May would still be her favorite but Edmund had something none of her other children had: Freedom.
Elizabeth had only just met Edmund when she sighed.
“He looks just like Edward!” She muttered. Later she wrote in her diary “although there is no shared parentship, they are almost exactly the same. It was around this time that Elizabeth started her Christmas present for her mother. She would write and embroider the psalms from the New Testament and put them to music in a book.

 

[aoifeloveskhoward]

Btw when I say nothing really happened in between it means I want to add a new baby but I can’t be bothered to write anything else because I’m lazy
Elizabeth cradled Edmund and held his hand. Troubles were brewing in the Tudor court. Edward and Thomas Seymour, the lord protectors who shared the young kings custody, had quite a bit of proof that Thomas was flirting with Katherine while she was Queen.
“So here’s our plan. We try to get one of the Seymour children into the royal family as we lost control after Edwards death. Maybe get my daughter Anne to marry Harold or even better, the king. Then we , now in close contact to the king, turn him against his stepfather.”
“We could always just kill him now?” Asked Thomas.
“Oh yes we could.”
Harolds new bride Anne was quite ugly and old. Her hair was more blonde than red or brown and her eyes were small and brown, instead of bluish grey. She was also very tall. Six was also much too old for him.

 

[aoifeloveskhoward]

im writing this on my laptop so i have little to no punctuation
May and Harold were holding heavy wooden bows and seemed to only just be able to do that. Katheryn laughed as they kept throwing it down on a ginger horse. The children were so close that they shared a horse but with May riding sidesaddle at the bottom and Harold riding normally.

"I would much rather marry you May then ugly Anne."
"But Harold you are my very very ugly brother"
"Then I will marry Mary the scottish girl"
"Henrys marrying her"
Harold groaned. Was there any pretty bride left.
Harold was starting to wish he hadnt broke off the proposal with Jane as although she was old, she was pretty.

 

[aoifeloveskhoward]

Thomas wanted to love Katherine but now she was crazy. She sobbed uncontrollably one second and was ecstatic the next. So much that she coudnt rememember anything that he did to her. Soon Katherine was pregnant and wrote her will.
This is my will and it shows what i give to my family.
For my very naturael daughter mary i will give her a silver necklace and an emerald ring. For my daughter elizabeth I give her gloves and a b neclace out of gold and pearls i aqurried from her mother. For Henry i give him Sheen castle to share for my children. I give him hatfield. For may she gets shared ownership of sheen and hatifield and all my necklaces and sables. And a ring with a purple stone. Harold and edmund get Hunsdon and the new child gets the rest of my possesons. None for Thomas.
8 months later a girl was born and Katherine seemed ok. They named her Cecily Rose Anne. She was so tiny compared to Edmund and the other children people suspected she would die. Then Katherine started to have another child.
"Another boy! How lucky am I!"
Soon Katherine gave birth to the hoped for boy, Her miscarraige.
It became clear she was worsening. May, harold and henry were pounding at the door of there mothers room with their fists, often punching each other.
"Let them in let my children in!" She cried.
"No Katherine."
Thomas was tutting.
"Im not a child anymore!"
Henry threw an emerald the size of a walnut at the door yet it still didnt budge. May was crying.
"Mummy Daddy!"
"Please leave mummy and daddy alone now."
"No they are my children!"
Katherine didnt say any more.
SHE IS NOT DEAD,

 

[aoifeloveskhoward]

Thomas Culpeper was staring guiltily at the floor and fidgeting with his fingernails.
"Is it true you would not grant Queen Katherine her request of seeing her children when they were calling for her and she for them?"
"It is true"
"Then that is treason"
Two guards with the kings livery stormed in.
"Beauchamp!" Edmund sang as the two Seymour brothers embraced each other.

Thomas Seymour sidled up to Elizabeth and pounced on her. She giggled.
"Stop it Thomas."
"No Liz"
Elizabeth was starting to feel strange about Tom Seymour. He left his young daughter behind and woudnt talk about her, or katherine parr. When Elizabeth asked about them, he said it was all in the past. Elizabeth felt the past would come back soon...
"You have to let me in your court, Kit,"
"I have to, do I? Last time i checked it was my court, Not yours."
Katherine tossed her hair and smirked. He would be gone now.
"I have asked the young king, and he agrees."
"DONT YOU DARE!"
"What is it, my rose?"
"I am NOT letting you treat Mary and Lizzie and MAY like you treated ME!"
"I HELPED YOU KATHERINE"
"HELPED? VERY FUNNY BUT I AM SICK OF YOU NOW! GO AWAY AND LEAVE ME ALONE."
"Well I cant really leave-"
"I DO NOT DESERVE TO BE TREATED LIKE THIS BY A LOWLY MUSICIAN! WORK ON RESPECT!"
.........................
Where had Papa gone? He hadn't been visiting for a long time. Mary was starting to miss him. Well she wasn't missing him, she was missing the presents. Mary was a pretty young five year old, with strawberry blonde hair and brown eyes. She was a faveroite of the Queen for her charm and youth but was quite impulsive. She coudn't bear to part with Katherine willohbys dog, Gardner.
"Bye bye gardner I will miss you every day at court and ask the king if you can come." She planted several kisses into his shaggy fur and said goodbye to Kate and then set off on a glossy black horse to court.
........
It was the freezing cold winter and mary soon wished she had brought her shabby cloak.

 

[aoifeloveskhoward]

Mary got on with her little namesake quite well. She spent most of her time helping the little girls of the court and sewing so Katherine thought she deserved a treat. Then she heard what happened to Thomas.
"He is a Noble of England. You are a minuscule servant of the land. Let him out NOW!"
Edward was starting to fear the child's wrath. " We will send a message announcing his release. "
Why oh why was he here amongst the rotting peasants. He was royalty. He had children in line to the throne. Edmund and Cece would miss him.
An old man strode in. Cramner! He would let him out. He had confessed after all, and was ready to enter the arms of God again.
"Follow me sir."
Thomas imperiously strolled out.
Wait.
Why was a block there.
He wasn't going to die.
"No I'm innocent!"
" Many other men have been innocent, yet died braver then you. "
He trembled as he took off a golden and ruby ring.
"For Cece."
Then he took off his pearl bracelet.
"For Eddie" He whimpered as he placed them in Cramners hands, and sighed.
" Good people, I did not know that my life would end like this, and that I did not intend it to happen by malicious deeds. Although it seems I have been condemned, I am completely and totally innocent in the matter. "
He laid his head down on the block, and stretched out his arms. The axe fell just as a messenger came rushing up with a pardon.

 

[aoifeloveskhoward]

Katherine wailed and sobbed at the message that her husband was killed. It was another mistake. Everything she did was. As a child whenever she only called her sisters a dunce she was a mistake. When she married Thomas that was another mistake. Could she do anything right? She was just a pawn in the game of the court. The love and value she was given was always conditional and never about her. The people of England were ok with her, but only as she was Queen. She would be just another Howard girl if not. Only another daughter. Even her daughter May was yet another mistake, although she gave the king sons. And there was her dear boy who had left the world before his birth and Jacob, who died Early. She could never do the unexpected and was now to most people a widow who had gone insane. Well now she was a sinner. She couldn't help the lady Mary or stop Jacob dying or do anything right.

The lady Mary felt sorrow for the Dowager Queen, too much. Her husband was taken from her and she was just another widow who men would hope to marry and rise above their stations by marrying a dowager. Now Katherine seemed to be going crazy too. She didn't eat much or talk much and mostly kept to her rooms with little Mary seymour and Elizabeth, and sometimes even her. Mary saw her broken and crying wildly.
"Elizabeth you must never tell anyone how mama Katherine acts in her rooms."
Elizabeth nodded. She knew that this was needed to keep Mama Katherine safe and to keep England safe so nobody would know the country was partially run by a sad and angry girl.

 

[aoifeloveskhoward]

By October, Katherine was well enough to go out in public again. She was still unpredictable though, and some of her enemies said she fainted.
Although it was probably true, most women, even the Protestants felt sympathy for the 21 year old woman who had been widowed twice.
Mary Seymour had felt it even harder to tell though as soon as Big Mary said not to. It was like having a big secret that would burst if she didn’t tell it. Eventually she told her father Thomas, and he rubbed his hands together and plotted…

 

[aoifeloveskhoward]

I DONT WANT KITTY HURT THIS IS FOR THE BEST THOUGH!
A knife came out of some breeches, gleaming and slashed Kitty on her leg. Blood was staining her dress as she cried out in pain. A guard grabbed the man near her, and a man from the crowd on her barge picked up Kitty.
“ROW FASTER YOU USELESS LUMPS WE NEED TO SAVE THE QUEEN!”
As ordered they rowed quicker to Lambeth and rushed off, puzzling the crowd.
“Quick we need to get the dowager into her chambers”
“Bring the child”

May wasn’t stupid. She knew a bad man hurt her mother and wasn’t sure which one. It can’t have been her special friends but they were the only ones her stupid friend Mary Seymour told.

Thomas Seymour stood on the Queens barge, sitting motionless and letting the shock of this sink in. He could have killed the Queen. For gods sake she could even be dead. The people stood murmuring over what happened and what could have. Then the realisation sank in. A few brave men used their own little fishing boats, and tied Thomas Seymour’s knifes to his own hands and feet. Then they dropped him in as people cheered.
“She’ll pull through!” Kate Ashley came rushing in with Elizabeth, Edmund and Cecily.
“Mama are you ok!” Elizabeth asked, with her face red with tears. Anna of cleves dashed in and gave Elizabeth a hug then held Katherine’s hand while holding Edmund with the other.
“She’s alive.”
Everyone gasped in relief.
May and Elizabeth’s detective skills worked it out together, and they included little Mary Seymour, she didn’t know any better. At least Thomas Seymour would never endanger anyone again.

 

[aoifeloveskhoward]

The whole country was shocked at the Seymour family and were immediately taken down from their influence. Edward Seymour was thrown into the Tower of London, and their siblings were removed of their titles and into house arrest.
Mary Seymour left court for a year after that incident.
King Henry IX was easily impressionable, and with his uncle Thomas of Norfolk and Stephen gardiner he was a Catholic, and his advisors started to set England’s alliance with the pope and Catholic Europe.
The fifteen year old princess Elizabeth was going to get married when she was 16 to marry Philip, heir of spain.

 

[acgoldis]

Hi! Just stumbled across this thread. I didn't read it all, but since this is Katherine Howard, imagine the following scenario.

In a London bar, someone gets drunk, loses his inhibitions, and announces to the world:

"I have quadruplets!"

"Ha! You are so fortunate! The king is the father of quadruplets as well!"

"Actually, he isn't!"

Suppose Henry VIII is very old at this point and doesn't have much more time to secure any more heirs.