I have been waiting a while for this chapter! And I think you’ve done poor Kitty justice here
However, I need to know: Is she reunited with her and Francois’ daughter and allowed to raise her as her own after her downfall as mistress?? I want her to be surrounded by her family
An interesting hint at the end here. Kitty will get another husband later on! I am excited to see her reappear again in the future, I must admit
RE: her daughter, unfortunately, no. Legally, the young girl isn’t even her daughter, but rather the daughter of someone who doesn’t even exist. On top of that, she was assigned legal guardians to care for her needs. Given that Francis died scarcely two years later, I’d say the possibility is slim. Once the girl gets a bit older, she’ll likely go into a convent, maybe/maybe not having a suitable marriage arranged later. Given François’ death, it’s likely that the guardians will deal with it—though I suppose they may go cap in hand to the new king to ensure the girl has a proper dowry, I think François II would do that, but I can’t see him playing any role in facilitating any sort of reunion. Anne Boleyn was always his surrogate mother of sorts, so I’m sure he took a dim view of Catherine’s short time at court. She does have children with her first husband.
Indeed, I’m unsure if she will formally reappear in a chapter, but perhaps in a vignette. Sort of like Marguerite de Valois, Catherine is the first woman to formally publish her own memoirs.
I thought that ou orthography looked a little strange for Italian and it turns out Angolemme is the more traditional Italian name for Angoulême. The foreignness of his surname is perhaps an interesting hint at the establishment of a new dynasty in Italy- one that seems like it might veer into a Reformist agenda. It’ll be interesting to see how far that’s allowed to go before the pope himself decides to lead an army north.
It’ll be interesting to see if François II finds himself having to support this Protestant Parma to maintain his influence in Italy if Beatriz leads Milan into the Habsburg camp.
So this is a typo on my part. I thought it was Angoulemme, but you are right! Will fix. Angolemme is the proper translation and now he will be known. As for Parma going Reformist, I’ll say that is very unlikely. We know of Anne’s potential thoughts, but her son has likely received a Catholic education, and on top of that will be needing a bride. Given the need for alliances with Beatriz to soon be over the border, antagonizing the Pope and the Catholic powers in Italy is the last thing she needs to do.
Well, I’m happy Catherine Howard isn’t getting the short end of the stick here, even if Anne should probably have considered her strategy of “bring in a new mistress” a bit more carefully.
It is funny for Francois I’s wife and mistress to now basically start battling it out in Italy.
Surprisedpikachu.png basically sums up Anne’s dealing re: Catherine. Desperate people do desperate things to hang onto power… even when she likely would’ve been fine regardless.
It will be interesting for sure!