The cursed queen, to be sure.
Lonely you stand in your tower,
thickened waist and wrinkled cheeks.
There is no one but God here, now.
The men you loved are dead- one in body,
the other in spirit,
but still making love to another
on your broken marriage bed.
Your mother gone, and with her your children,
though their tiny things
still rest in the cupboard, their tiny hands still clutch your heart.
Your sister is mad, keening still
over the moulding coffin of her long-dead king.
Your one salvation, your living daughter,
small and kind with her parents red hair,
is shunned and rebuked as you are,
though you send her kisses on the wind.
Still you stand, refusing to fall to your knees
you have taken the armor of God
as you once took the armor of man.
Though under that armor
your heart is breaking.
This is about Catharine of Aragon, first wife of Henry VIII. Of the tudor dynasty, she is one of my favorite figures. Catharine was said to have been quiet, thoughtful, extremely intelligent, and passionate. She was first brought to England to marry Author Tudor, older brother of Henry, but upon his death, she was married to Henry to preserve the alliance between Spain and England. Contrary to popular belief, she did bear Henry a son, but he died only a few months after birth. She had a series of miscarriages, and Mary Tudor (****** Mary) was her only child to survive. As though this were not enough tragedy, her beloved mother, Isabella of Spain, died shortly after her arrival in England. Her sister, Juana, Queen of Castille, went insane, and after the death of her husband Phillip, refused to let the body be buried, and treated her husband as though he were still alive. She was later confined to a tower where she remained until her death-- with an empty coffin so she could take care of her "husband" (she pretended to feed him, covered him when it was cold etc). Henry VIII, upon his divorce of Catharine, and marriage to Anne Boleyn, stripped Mary of her birthright, and banished her from court, not allowing her to see her mother- even when Catharine was dying. Overall, she was a very tragic figure, but a wonderfully strong and intelligent woman whom I admire a great deal.