monarch

There is never a shortage of gossip in the court, especially gossip about big figures.Hiding in the dark corridors or behind the hedges in the garden to whisper to each other after tea and dinner, exchanging these gossips with each other is the most enjoyable activity for many low-level nobles and even big nobles in a day.And there is no doubt that the most rumors are related to the queen, most of which are exaggerated and groundless. After all, rumors and rumors will end up with fantasy stories such as "the queen raised ten Turkish noodles in her bedroom" , anyone can see the absurdity in it.

However, in recent months, some more credible-sounding messages have started to go viral, "The lady had a midnight tryst with a king's attendant", and there are other specific times The location description, for experienced gentlemen and ladies, there is often a trace of truth in this kind of rumors, they are like sharks that have smelled blood, scrambling to chew the limited information, after all, there are only two lives in Whitehall Palace ——The life of a master and the life of serving a master, for the latter, life is really too boring.

The center of the topic, Queen Catherine, was walking in the garden with her maids. The weather outside was excellent, and most of the winter snow had melted, but this also caused the paths in the garden to become muddy.The Queen wore expensive moccasin boots and walked on them indifferently, not caring about the mud spots on the expensive skirt and boots at all, while the maids behind her were already complaining.

At a fork in a path, Catherine stopped, she turned her head and said to the maids: "Okay, ladies, I won't keep you, you can do what you want, as long as I have Mrs. Rocheford with me. "The maids are used to it. These days, the queen is always alone with Mrs. Rocheford, and many of them stare at the magistrate with jealous eyes.

Mrs. Rocheford felt a little anxious, but she was not in the mood for such matters at present.She supported the queen and walked up a path with hedges as high as a person on both sides, and at the end of the path was a small Greek-style pavilion, also surrounded by hedges, which looked very quiet.

The two walked into the pavilion and sat down, and the queen couldn't hold back immediately.She looked at Mrs. Rocheford anxiously: "How is it?"

"Your Excellency the Duke has agreed, and he will pay to silence Mr. Direham," said Mrs. Rocheford.Obviously, a position next to the queen is not the end of Mr. Dillham, on the contrary, he is playing the idea of ​​a steady flow.Two months ago the Queen found out that her private secretary had enriched herself with money from her treasury, and Mr Dillham hadn't even bothered to fake the accounts.When the queen went to question him, he readily admitted and said that he was short of money and hoped that the queen could "lend him" three thousand pounds.

"If His Majesty is inconvenient, I will go to the Duke of Suffolk or the Earl of Hertford," he said.

The queen gave him the money from the inner library, but half a month later, Mr. Direham came again, and it was still the same routine.

The Queen gave it to him again.

After four times, Queen Catherine finally realized that this was no longer a problem she could solve, so she asked Mrs. Rocheford to tell her uncle.

"So the Duke will dismiss him, right?" Catherine looked at Mrs. Rocheford expectantly. She really didn't want to see Francis Direham. If this person continued to serve by her side, she would undoubtedly madly.

"Your Excellency said that a long-term plan is needed." Mrs. Rocheford said, "He is afraid that Mr. Dillham will jump over the wall."

"Then he can't..." Catherine put her hand on her neck and made a gesture.

Lady Rocheford felt a chill run through her, and she looked at Catherine, her young and pretty face unchanged, as if they were discussing the weather or the fashions of Paris rather than taking a life.

"This..." Mrs. Rocheford was a little unable to answer, "I believe your Excellency has thought about it..."

Catherine snorted disdainfully. She used to think that her uncle, the duke, was some kind of lofty existence, but now it seems that it is nothing more than that.England's first official, it is so annoying to deal with a small squire. "Don't you understand, the Duke? The Howard family's status today is all because of me! A threat to me is a threat to him. I am the queen, you go and tell him, he has to listen to me! I want Direham to follow me Disappear in front of your eyes!" She has become full of style during these days as queen.

Lady Rocheford was tongue-tied, which she dared not tell the Duke.She stammered, "I think..."

"Crack!" A crisp voice interrupted Mrs. Rocheford's words, and both of them were startled.A stone fell on the stone floor of the pavilion and rolled to Lady Rocheford's feet.

"Who is it!" Catherine yelled in horror, she looked around uneasily, but the hedge that was one person tall completely blocked her sight, and she couldn't see what was on the other side of the fence at all.

Mrs. Rocheford picked up the stone from the ground. "There is something on the stone," she said.Catherine took a closer look, and sure enough, a piece of paper was tied to the stone with a thin rope.Mrs. Rocheford tore off the string and unfolded the paper, but after only a second look, she stared blankly at the paper as if struck by lightning.

"Writing what?" the queen asked impatiently, but Mrs. Rocheford didn't seem to hear it.At last the queen's patience was exhausted, she snatched the letter paper, and read it.

His Majesty:

Thomas Culpepper, the king's valet, was once seen entering and leaving your chambers in the middle of the night.

If you want the secret to be concealed, please ask someone to open a room at the "White Horse Hotel" in London before 13:[-] pm tomorrow, and put a Venetian gold coin worth two thousand pounds in the room, and then please leave the key at No. [-], Angel Street In the manger in front of the door.

If you don't want this to be made public, please don't try to track down the guy who came to get the keys, he doesn't know anything.

I wish you good health.

a faithful servant of yours

The queen felt her whole body limp. She waited for Mrs. Rocheford, her face flushed, as if someone had strangled her neck.She seemed to want to say something, but she didn't say it in the end, and just slumped on the stone bench.

……

A few miles away, at Westminster Abbey, a little priest was sorting incoming letters.Letters were sent by many people, from all over England, and most of them were addressed to the Archbishop of Canterbury, the highest bishop in all England.The contents of the letters are varied, some ask the archbishop to pray for him or her, some villagers write letters saying that they have found miracles in their villages, and some charlatans hope to sell their holy relics that they do not know where they got. To the church, more than a dozen people have sold the "Shroud of Jesus" in this month alone, and there are nearly ten sellers of the Gun of Longinus, all claiming to be genuine.Of course, many of these letters are serious official documents, reports from subordinate churches, etc., which need to be processed by the archbishop's office, and the archbishop has a lot of work to do, so this job falls on a 19-year-old trainee priest.

The little priest took out a letter from the basket. The envelope was very strong, and there was no return address written on it.He cut the sealant off the envelope with a letter cutter, completely ignoring the cursive words "From Your Majesty the His Holiness" written on the envelope.There were two sheets of paper in the envelope. The quality of the paper was very good. It seemed that the sender was not poor.The young priest unfolded the letter and began to read, but his eyes widened in astonishment after reading a few lines.He hurriedly read it in one breath, and when he read the last word, he was already dumbfounded.He sat there, stunned for a few minutes, suddenly stood up, opened the door, and ran out.

The medieval corridors of Westminster Abbey are as narrow as other buildings of this era. The young priest ran in the corridors, and there were bursts of dissatisfied shouts from the people he bumped into behind him, but he didn't stop at all. pace.He entered the prelate's office through a small courtyard with a fountain and two oak trees.The building was very quiet, but the sound of his running footsteps was particularly loud. He climbed up the stairs and came to the door of a room on the second floor. At this time, he was already out of breath.Without taking a few breaths, he pushed open the closed door without even knocking.

The bishop of London, John Boehner, was taken aback. He looked at the reckless young man in front of him with dissatisfaction. He was disheveled and flushed, and he obviously ran all the way. "Don't you even knock on the door?" he said dissatisfied.

"Sorry... Your Excellency." The young trainee priest blushed, and he took out the two letters with some embarrassment, "But you must read this."

Bishop Bona took the letter paper, and with his left hand, he touched a pair of crystal glasses made in Venice on the table, which was considered a rare commodity at this time.He put his glasses on the bridge of his nose and began to read the letter, when suddenly he stopped abruptly, with a look of disbelief on his face.He slowly read the letter, raised his head, and asked the trainee priest who seemed to be frightened by the side: "Where did this thing come from?"

"It came this morning, sir. It was an anonymous letter."

Bishop Bona took the letter and stood up. He looked at the young priest coldly. "Don't tell anyone." He said coldly, "For your own good." He waved his hand, and the young man disappeared through the door like a leopard behind him.

The bishop read the letter again, and a small smile appeared on his face.The Archbishop would be pleased, he thought, as the Bishop of London was the reward of his loyalty to his master as the Archbishop's private secretary.Holding the letter in his hand, he walked out of the room as if holding some kind of priceless jewel.

……

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, was looking at official documents at his desk.Since the promulgation of the "Supreme Act", the King of England has become the supreme ruler of the national church, and the Archbishop of Canterbury, as the highest priest in England, has naturally assumed all the daily management of the entire church.Archbishop Cranmer, dressed in plain black robes, looked more like a scholar doing research in his study than a priest as he hunched over his desk.In fact, he was indeed a Cambridge scholar before, and he had almost no experience as a priest before he was favored by the king and became No. 1 in the church.But as the Supreme Act emphasizes, the word of the king is the law, isn't it?

Archbishop Cranmer put down the official document in his hand and rubbed his eyes wearily.He looked out the window, where melted snow from the cathedral roof was dripping from his window.At that time, he devoted himself to the cause of the religious reform with enthusiasm, for which he put down his figure to please Anne Boleyn, but when he finally sat in a high position, he found that his life was full of such trivial matters : A priest in a church in Worcestershire committed malfeasance; an abbot in Sussex broke the commandments; a priest in Somerset took off the silver from the altar and sold it for money... The archbishop smiled wryly, and now The king's enthusiasm for religious reform is fading, and pro-Catholic people like the Duke and Queen of Norfolk around him have been instilling in him the benefits of shaking hands with Rome, and perhaps his future life will only be for the church. Back to things like the money that was dug out and sold, he sighed, and picked up the official document he had put on the table.

There was a knock on the door, "Please come in." The archbishop said, it must be his secretary, Bishop Bona, who is the only one who can knock on the door with three-eighths, and the archbishop smiled slightly.

Bishop Bona walked in hurriedly, "Your Majesty." The joy on his face could hardly be restrained, "I have excellent news." It will greatly strengthen the position of the archbishop, and perhaps completely solve the big trouble of the Duke of Norfolk.He couldn't wait for the reward he was about to receive.

"Calm down, dear John." The archbishop smiled slightly, "Don't forget that you are a bishop, and the priests outside are watching you."

Bishop Bona handed the two letter papers in his hand to the archbishop. He stood by and watched the archbishop unfold the letter expectantly.

The Archbishop slowly read the letter in his hand, but to Bishop Bona's surprise, he didn't respond, he just frowned slightly.He folded two sheets of letter paper and put them in a drawer.

"That doesn't mean anything," he said. "There is no evidence that the Queen had an affair with any other man."

"However, this letter is very detailed." Bishop Bona felt that it was difficult for anyone to make up such a detailed story.

"You have to remember." The archbishop said sternly, "We are religious people, and we should not care about such rumors. Especially senior priests like you, you should be more cautious in your words and deeds."

Bishop Bona was a little disappointed, "Okay, Your Excellency." He bowed and was about to leave.

"However, as His Majesty's servants, I don't think we should just ignore this matter." The Archbishop spoke again.

"Then what would you like to do?"

"Send someone to investigate. If I want to report to His Majesty, I need to submit a complete report to him." The archbishop lowered his head again and continued to review the official documents on the table.

Bishop Bona laughed, how could he have forgotten that the Archbishop is an excellent politician, and not all Cambridge scholars can become No.1 in the Church of England within a few years.

"Follow your will, His Excellency."