Her Majesty’s Secret Service

049. Pregnancy

Two months have passed since the affair of Earl Russell concluded, and in a few days, it will be May.

May, the queen of seasons, yet London’s fickle weather remains ever unpredictable. Rain followed by sudden clear skies, then overcast again, and strangely, winds not befitting the season blow. Truly, the weather is beyond description.

As time has passed, the events of two months ago have become a distant memory. There was a time when guilt was felt for days, but now, life goes on without a second thought.

“Sir Logan, it is your servant Oliver. May I enter?”

The time is early dawn, just as the day begins to break. Oliver’s voice from outside the door signals that the day’s schedule is about to commence.

The mornings at Whitehall Palace start early.

As the head chef, my mornings are leisurely, but the other servants and cooks rise at cockcrow to begin their work. And rightly so, for the palace’s schedule starts when the queen awakens.

The problem is, the queen’s waking hour varies daily.

Sometimes she wakes at the crack of dawn, other times at the tolling of the first bell in the chapel. Well, usually, she wakes before the chapel bell rings, but still.

In any case, once the queen is awake and ready, the next item on her agenda is to go to the chapel for morning prayers.

Only after morning prayers does the queen’s breakfast begin. If there are no other duties, she commands that breakfast be brought to her room; if the day is busy, she dines in the dining hall while listening to reports from her secretary.

Traditionally, when the king dines, the cook who prepared the meal must taste it first to prove it’s free from poison before the meal can begin.

However, since the establishment of the head chef position, I taste the food first, and then the queen begins her meal.

“Is she dining in the hall again today?”

“Yes, Sir Logan. It seems she’s been quite busy lately.”

“Come on, drop the formalities when it’s just us. It’s really awkward.”

“Hehe, what can I do? You are ‘Sir’ Logan now.”

Oliver came to inform me of the queen’s dining location.

As I mentioned, I must taste the queen’s meal before she starts, so I always need to be at her dining location first. Of course, if I am absent, the cook who prepared the meal will do the tasting as usual.

Before the chapel bell rings, it seems I could reach the dining hall before the queen arrives if I leave now. Taking the meal I prepared with Oliver, I made my way to the kitchen and then to the dining hall.

For the past two weeks, the queen’s breakfast has been served in the dining hall, not in her chambers.

As time passed, negotiations for the authority Eric would hold as the Grand Duke were reaching their conclusion, and more importantly, the promised naval reconstruction funds from Spain had arrived.

Both matters were of interest to the queen, who had been tackling her duties with great enthusiasm lately.

‘Maybe the first installment of support will be used to expand the shipyard at Deptford?’ I wondered.

Last month, the task of transcribing the book I brought into the English of this era was completed. The queen was so pleased that she even considered declaring it a holiday. Her interest in the new warships was evident.

Once all the blueprints in the book were interpreted, it became clear that the current capacity of the Deptford shipyard was insufficient to build the ships depicted. With the support from Spain, the queen ordered the expansion of the shipyard first and foremost.

Of course, the nobles of the House of Lords showed their disapproval, but the remnants of the recent rebellion prevented them from openly defying the queen’s command.

“Ah, Anne. Good morning. Where is the queen?”

Upon arriving at the dining hall with the meal, I saw Anne, the housekeeper, walking towards the dining hall.

When I greeted Anne, she responded in kind.

“Sir Logan. As diligent as ever, good to see. She is on her way here now. Is everything ready…?”

“As perfect as usual. When have the kitchen staff ever disappointed Her Majesty?”

“Indeed… Since Sir Logan took over, Her Majesty has never been disappointed with the kitchen’s cooking. Please, go in and wait.”

“Yes, I shall do that.”

After Anne’s words, I found a suitable spot in the dining hall and waited. Soon, the doors opened, and the queen entered.

The queen, her secretary, and her personal priest took their seats at the head table and began the pre-meal prayer.

I waited for the prayer to end before sampling the food on the queen’s table. Today’s breakfast was steak and eggs with butter, along with freshly baked bread.

Thus, the queen began her meal as usual, receiving reports from her secretary. Even as she listened, she occasionally spread jam and butter on her bread, seemingly a bit hungrier than usual.

‘Today, she’s eating a lot of jam-spread bread. Well, with all the complexities on her mind, it’s no wonder she’s craving something sweet.’

—

The Queen, who usually spread a thin layer of butter on her bread, was suddenly slathering it with jam. It was a bit odd, but everyone has days when they crave something sweet.

“Ugh…”

As the Queen brought a piece of buttered, toasted meat to her mouth, she suddenly gagged. Those dining with her, as well as everyone watching her eat, were shocked and rushed to her side.

“Your Majesty, are you alright?! Sir Logan, how could you not notice the Queen feeling nauseous…!”

John Bon, the Queen’s secretary who was reporting to her at close quarters, snapped at me.

Anne, the housekeeper, hurried over to support the Queen and only stepped back after ensuring she was unharmed. She then glared at me, about to say something.

“Sigh… There’s nothing wrong with the food, so don’t be too harsh. I just suddenly felt nauseous… Ugh…”

The Queen’s repeated gagging left everyone alarmed and unsure of what to do, while Anne looked at her with a hint of suspicion.

“How strange. Today, for some reason, the smell of meat is repulsive… I have no appetite for it. Logan, remove the meat and bring more jam and wheat bread. I have an odd craving for wheat bread.”

Looking over the table, indeed, only the wheat bread and jam were nearly finished.

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

I was about to follow the Queen’s order when Anne cautiously spoke up.

“Your Majesty, have you been experiencing severe headaches these past few days?”

“Anne, how did you know that?”

The Queen’s response twisted Anne’s expression strangely.

“Do you also feel a bit of an upset stomach? Perhaps…”

“Why suddenly ask that… Ahem. It has been a while, as you said. I’ve also felt a bit heavier and had some back pain.”

As Anne continued her questioning, she whispered something to the Queen, causing her face to flush slightly. Anne’s face, upon hearing the Queen’s response, bore an ambiguous expression, uncertain whether to be happy or not.

“I… I’m not sure if my guess is correct, but… Sigh…”

Anne hesitated, sighing deeply, and the Queen’s expression began to change dramatically. She seemed to realize something and opened her mouth to speak.

—

—

“Is what you’re about to say to me, the same as what I’m thinking?”

“It’s… not certain. It might be best to call a doctor to check…”

From noble mtl dot come

A doctor? Vomiting? By now, I too had a guess at what Anne was implying.

The secretary and the personal priest, like me, seemed to have realized what Anne’s words meant, looking at the queen with surprised eyes.

“Anne, are you saying that the queen is pregnant?”

“I’m not certain, but the symptoms the queen is experiencing are…”

“Congratulations, Your Majesty.”

“Congratulations… Oh, Lord… What is this.”

The sudden news of the queen’s pregnancy started a commotion within the palace.

* * *

Mary stopped her meal and canceled all her morning appointments. Then she summoned the court physicians to examine her condition.

“Well, what does it seem like?”

“Well… it’s…”

“Don’t beat around the bush, tell me. Is it pregnancy?”

The court physicians, hesitating under Mary’s persistent urging, sighed as if they had no choice.

The queen’s belly wasn’t very swollen yet, so they couldn’t confirm it at the moment. However, the symptoms the queen was exhibiting were undoubtedly those of pregnancy, so the oldest physician spoke on behalf of the others.

“We’ll know more once your belly grows a bit more… but based on the symptoms you’re showing now, it’s likely you are pregnant.”

“Really pregnant! You mean, I am, I am pregnant?”

Mary, ignoring the physician’s words about needing to wait for more growth, remembered only the confirmation of her pregnancy, and her face lit up with joy.

“Your… Your Majesty.”

—

—

The one who approached the queen, basking in joy, was Anne, the queen’s chamberlain.

“Why so, Anne?”

“I have something to ask of you.”

“Speak.”

“What shall we do about the dress? Should we start making a new one from now?”

“The dress? Ah, my wedding dress you mean? Why all of a sudden? Oh…!”

“Yes. You had planned for the end of August, had you not? If you begin to show, the dress made now will not fit… What shall we do?”

The queen’s face, filled with ecstasy just moments ago, twisted slightly. The issue of the wedding, forgotten until now, surfaced in her mind.

* * *

The incident from this morning’s dining hall spread through the palace at an incredible pace via the servants and maids.

By midday, there was hardly anyone in the palace who hadn’t heard of the queen’s pregnancy.

“The queen is with child? It seemed likely, given how inseparable the two have been.”

“What? The queen is pregnant? But, wasn’t the wedding yet to be held? Surely the queen, a devout Catholic, how could she… before marriage…”

The reactions to the queen’s pregnancy varied, but there were notably two prevailing ones: those who accepted it as inevitable, seeing the queen and the duke together, and those who questioned, “How could a Catholic, and a queen no less, engage in premarital pregnancy?”

While the opinions of these two groups were polar opposites, they shared one common belief: “Regardless, the birth of an heir is a blessing.”

The news of the queen’s pregnancy also affected the Swedish delegation and the English negotiation team.

“Hmm… The birth of an heir between the two is indeed a blessed event. The problem is…”

“We must discuss the dire possibilities.”

With Mary’s pregnancy revealed, the issue of succession rights, which both sides had been reluctant to address, became a point of contention. If the child Mary carried were to be born and grow up safely, it would naturally exercise its rights as the joint heir of Sweden and England. However, there was a separate concern.

“If Her Majesty the queen were to pass away without leaving an heir, and before His Grace Duke Eric, wouldn’t it be right for His Grace to ascend the English throne?”

—

—

“What are you talking about? There are still two legitimate heirs remaining.”

“Perhaps, both are women, aren’t they?”

“That is… Ah, yes! But what about the opposite case? If Duke Eric were to precede Her Majesty the Queen…”

“Look, in such a case…”

“What if this happens? Whether it will be a prince or a princess, I’m not sure, but if one of the two passes away before the child born to them comes of age, where should that child be raised…”

If Mary could safely deliver the child and there was a guarantee that the child would grow up without any issues, there would be no need for such discussions. But in those times, no one could assure that.

Young women frequently died in childbirth, and what about Mary, who was now 38 years old? Even kings could not escape certain fates.

And so, on a day when both sides had been sharply divided upon hearing the news of Mary’s pregnancy. Precisely, three days after the news had spread throughout London, both sides were able to come to a dramatic compromise.

In the event of a tragic occurrence, both sides agreed not to claim the right of succession. The story could be drawn out further, but once again, Mary, Mary was the problem.

“The wedding planned is to be moved forward. Let it be known to the lords.”

It was Mary who had moved the wedding forward.

Without any other agreement, it was possible to move the wedding, originally set for the end of August, up by two months, thanks to the convention that a king’s wedding is determined by the king himself.

As Mary moved the wedding up by a couple of months, the negotiating teams from both sides were inevitably burning with impatience. The wedding being moved forward meant that the agreement had to be concluded quickly. After all, a conclusion had to be reached to proceed with the wedding.

Eventually, the staff from both Sweden and England decided to give ground to each other.

Thus, the news of the Queen’s pregnancy complicated many people’s thoughts.

Footnote:

*16th-century ceremonial dresses were not white as they are now, but dyed red. It was to signify the authority of the royal family, and the cost of dyeing was not a small sum…

*When a foreign royal married the Queen of England, they were treated as a co-monarch, and upon the Queen’s death, they could claim the throne. In situations like England in the 1550s, where the only legitimate heirs were women, a foreign king would inherit the crown.

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