In the Shadow of the Crown [antikvár]

The BetrothalI have taken for my motto 'Time unveils Truth', and I believe that is often to be the case. Now that I am sick, weary and soon to die, I have looked back over my life which, on the whole, has been a sad and bitter one, though, like most people, I have had some moments of happiness. Perhaps it was my ill fortune to come into the world under the shadow of the crown, and through all my days that shadow remained with me - my right to it; my ability to capture it; my power to hold it.No child's arrival could have been more eagerly awaited than mine. It was imperative for my mother to give the country an heir. She had already given birth to a stillborn daughter, a son who had survived his christening only to depart a few weeks later, another son who died at birth, and there had been a premature delivery. The King, my father, was beginning to grow impatient, asking himself why God had decided to punish him thus ; my mother was silently frantic, fearing that the fault was hers. None could believe that my handsome father, godlike in his physical perfection, could fail where the humblest beggar in the streets could succeed.I was unaware at the time, of course, but I heard later of all the excitement and apprehension the hope of my coming brought with it.Then, at four o'clock on the morning of the 18th of February in that year 1516, I was born in the Palace of Greenwich.After the first disappointment due to my sex being of the wrong gender, there was general rejoicing - less joyous, of course, than if I had been a boy, but still I was alive and