- Catherine of Aragon: Why do you smile, Your Grace?
- King Henry Tudor: I smile, because we're both clearly having such a splendid time of it. When one is king one dines for many reasons with many guests... for politics, to gain intelligence, to push a truce... to pursue a bride. I'm not unfamiliar with the sensation of this table growing longer nor the food growing more tasteless upon the plate.
- Catherine of Aragon: I'm sorry. I do not wish to take your appetite. Did you and the Queen take all your meals in here?
- King Henry Tudor: Goodness, no. Look at it!
- Catherine of Aragon: Arthur liked to eat under the trees. He would have taken all his meals outside, come wind or rain.
- King Henry Tudor: As did his mother... given the chance. When we were first wed, I arranged picnics for her throughout the grounds. I tried everything to warm her heart.
- Catherine of Aragon: She was cold to you?
- King Henry Tudor: Mm.
- Catherine of Aragon: But you were so in love. A blind man could see it.
- King Henry Tudor: The battle for her heart was hard-won. Winning the throne of England was less arduous.
- Catherine of Aragon: When did you know that she loved you?
- King Henry Tudor: I cannot tell you the hour. Only that one day I was aware of a peace in my heart... a sense that when I was with her I was home.
- [They smile]
- King Henry Tudor: You know, you have the look of her in your eyes. You both had mothers who not so much raised you, but smelted you.
- Catherine of Aragon: I am a lump of steel.
- King Henry Tudor: [Henry laughs] There. Who said I cannot woo a woman?
- Catherine of Aragon: Lord... give me your wisdom. You have called me to be Queen of England. Shall I take the King to be my husband? Why don't you speak to me?
- King Henry Tudor: How dare you challenge me? It was your mother's dying wish. Does that mean nothing to you?
- Prince Harry Tudor: She was dying! She was in agony!
- King Henry Tudor: And you would put yourself ahead of the Queen's command?
- Prince Harry Tudor: No. I think that you asked this from her. Why would her final wish be to take away my happiness?
- King Henry Tudor: You always think everything is happening to you.
- Prince Harry Tudor: No, I think, Father, that you are jealous...
- King Henry Tudor: Oh!
- Prince Harry Tudor: -jealous of my confidence and my courage. And I think you seek to take away the one thing that I desire.
- [he leaves]
- King Henry Tudor: What did we do to make him as he is? As if this wasn't already hard enough.
- Margaret Beaufort: For once in my life, I find myself agreeing with your late wife, God rest her soul.
- King Henry Tudor: [Henry cross himself] Mm.
- Margaret Beaufort: I now see the wisdom of this union with the girl. I'll soothe our hothead. Yo go and see your new wife-to-be.
- King Henry Tudor: Uh, is this for me?
- Margaret Beaufort: Sir Richard Pole left it for me because I refused to see him. He pleads for his wife's return, no doubt. She disobeyed our rule, Henry. I will not have that.
- Catherine of Aragon: He has written to my mother to ask her for her blessing on our marriage, but I don't believe I have been blessed since I left Spain.
- Lina de Cardonnes: Then perhaps you should return to Castile. Go back to your mother. Find another life. At least you have that option. I do not.
- Catherine of Aragon: Lina? Lina! Why do you talk to me this way?
- Lina de Cardonnes: I have supported you in every way I can and perhaps some ways that I should not. I have been loyal to you. And now the King says he'll have you, so you should rejoice in victory and take the orange that has landed in your lap. If your destiny is to be Queen of England, take the King, but if your dream is love, then that it all I want, too.
- Catherine of Aragon: Then find love with your husband.
- Lina de Cardonnes: Charlie Brandon? I cannot love a fool! I am in love with Oviedo, the bowman, who is not a Tudor, nor a noble, nor an Englishman.
- Catherine of Aragon: Nor is he Catholic. I've been told he worships Islam.
- Lina de Cardonnes: There is no law against it here in England, but in Spain, if we went back, he would be tortured by your mother. And perhaps I would be, too, because they don't believe those who converted.
- Catherine of Aragon: My mother would do no such thing. It must have been the church.
- Lina de Cardonnes: If I wed Oviedo, who will cast me from your service? Is it the King? Lady Margaret Beaufort? Or is it you?
- Catherine of Aragon: Lina... you came here for a better life. Now, if you throw it all away, how would you live, raise children? The men the Tudors took from me, including your man Oviedo, and not even paid a wage. They work for food and lodging. You cannot raise a child on that.
- Lina de Cardonnes: I have some money that my parents left me when they died, and then I'll think of something I can...
- Catherine of Aragon: What thing would you think of, Lina, to support yourself, your husband, and your children?
- Lina de Cardonnes: I...
- Catherine of Aragon: You have a duty to my mother and to me and to your parents, who worked their lives to send you here for this. You will tell me when you've chosen if you will take your Tudor husband or will leave my household.
- Maggie Pole: Richard. How is Westminster?
- Sir Richard Pole: I tried to speak to Lady Margaret, but she seems quite certain of your treachery.
- Maggie Pole: I have always been a Plantagenet and always been the enemy to her. Yet in her anger, Lady Margaret has done me a great service. I may stay here with my children in the country, free from all of them.
- Sir Richard Pole: You think she will let you stay here in peace? You think she won't break you every chance she gets? You defied her, Maggie. I love my children, and I would die for them. I know you would, so lie for them! Tell Lady Margaret Arthur's marriage was a full one.
- Maggie Pole: No. I have told that woman what I know, and only what I know to be the truth, that I didn't see Catherine and Arthur with my own eyes.
- Sir Richard Pole: You tread a dangerous path.
- Maggie Pole: I tread a narrow one, I know, but that path is my conscience. The Tudors have taken a great deal from me, Richard, but they will not take that.
- Sir Richard Pole: The King says he will marry Catherine. I suppose that eases things a little.
- [he sees the book from Edmund]
- Sir Richard Pole: Maggie, if you've heard from your cousin, you must say so. It may even save your place at court.
- Maggie Pole: Have you heard nothing that I have said? I do not want a place at court. And I have not heard from him.
- Catherine of Aragon: Harry.
- Prince Harry Tudor: We will fight him, Catherine. Tell your mother to refuse the match. Your children won't succeed you if they're sired with him and your mother surely doesn't want a barren throne for you.
- Catherine of Aragon: She may not even care about that anymore. We don't know what she'll say.
- Prince Harry Tudor: Well, then you must tell him no, that you won't have him.
- Catherine of Aragon: How should I refuse him, Harry, the King of England? Do you think he will smile kindly on my marriage to his son if I insult him and drive a dagger in his pride? I cannot disobey the King.
- Prince Harry Tudor: Why not?
- Catherine of Aragon: Because he'd send me back to Spain.
- Prince Harry Tudor: But you are your mother's daughter. You don't hear no. You fight. What, did you trifle with me just to win my father?
- Catherine of Aragon: No! Of course I didn't.
- Prince Harry Tudor: If you want him, say so... and I'll know you for a devil in a dress. You don't know, do you?
- Catherine of Aragon: How is this my doing? How is this at my door?
- Prince Harry Tudor: You don't know what you want.
- Catherine of Aragon: I don't know what my choices are! I don't know if I have a choice.
- Prince Harry Tudor: Well, damn you, then. If your love is so fickle that it can blow away like dust... I will forget you.
- Maggie Pole: [the letter] "Dearest Meg, it warmed my heart to get your letter. I couldn't bear it that you thought I hadn't said goodbye to you in London. What a joy to read that you do not believe your life in Scotland will be unpleasant. I hear he is an accomplished man and interested in everything. Although a nursery full of bastard children is more than I would bear on my arrival, so I think you are a stronger woman than I am. I'm glad that you are happy, though, and I report the same. My only sorrow is my husband, as I know I've disappinted him. Your loving aunt, Maggie."
- Margaret Beaufort: Maximilian has yet again refused to hand over the traitor Edmund de la Pole. We're offered trade deals, money. God knows his country needs it, but still he has refused.
- King Henry Tudor: He is coming for me. Dudley, where's my army?
- Sir Edmund Dudley: Ah, yes, Your Grace.
- [Harry enters]
- Sir Edmund Dudley: The military expansion is a costly venture...
- Prince Harry Tudor: Uh, sorry. Why do we need men? Why are we expanding?
- Margaret Beaufort: Because the threat of an invasion led by Edmund de la Pole...
- Prince Harry Tudor: Oh, right. Um, de la Pole, the York.
- Margaret Beaufort: Yes.
- Prince Harry Tudor: Yes.
- Sir Edmund Dudley: We had agreed on a defense tax, but it'll take time to raise the funds to pay the men...
- Prince Harry Tudor: Well, then don't raise them. You are hell-bent on robbing the people. Pull men from the armies of all the nobles sitting here. Staffors, how large is your retinue, 300 men, 400? If we centralize the military, my father wouldn't have to beg and simper to you all like a serving maid.
- King Henry Tudor: My son is agry, because a girl who has his young heart in her keeping prefers a king to a boy. But if he spent less time on girls and ale, he would know that we are already drawing men from all these noble houses! And so your contribution to this privy council is of no use whatsoever!
- Margaret Beaufort: Gentlemen, please leave us. The council is dismissed.
- Prince Harry Tudor: Ale can be a marvelous thing. It lures me into taverns on a quest for insobriety, but while you men grow old with talk... I discover. De la Pole is here, in London.
- Margaret Beaufort: Harry? Harry! Harry. So it's true, Edmund de la Pole is here?
- Prince Harry Tudor: It's not difficult to rule, to find out what you want to know, if the people love you.
- King Henry Tudor: Where is he?
- Prince Harry Tudor: He's very near the palace.
- King Henry Tudor: Where is he?
- Margaret Beaufort: I will deal with this.
- [Henry leaves]
- Prince Harry Tudor: I don't know what you're so up in arms about. You always want me at the council meetings.
- Margaret Beaufort: If you cut yourself off from your father, you cut yourself off from the source of your power.
- Prince Harry Tudor: There's an apothecary on Charm Street, and de la Pole is hiding there.
- Margaret Beaufort: You know, sometimes I wonder about you, Harry. Are you ever for England or only for yourself?
- Prince Harry Tudor: You can't come in, Lady Grandmother. Unless you bring more wine.
- Charlie Brandon: My lady.
- [he leaves]
- Margaret Beaufort: The soldiers stormed the shop and found his man, but de la Pole had gone. We questioned the man. In the end, he told us his master had sailed. Perhaps if you'd told us sooner, we'd have caught him.
- Prince Harry Tudor: Perhaps my father brought it on himself.
- Margaret Beaufort: And perhaps your blood will stain the English soil for what you did today. De la Pole would cut your throat in a heartbeat, but you let him slip the net and have safe passage back to the Habsburgs, and all because some foreign girl has pitted you against your father like some commoner in a brawl.
- Prince Harry Tudor: Well, thank you for the visit, Lady Grandmother. Will you ask Charlie to come back in on your way out?
- Margaret Beaufort: What you feel for her is lust. It's of the flesh. It's not of the heart. You're- You're a healthy, strong young man. You've had kingship thrust upon you as a burden on your grief. Perhaps there are some appetites that you've not had free rein to... satisfy.
- Prince Harry Tudor: What?
- [Stafford comes to room with girls]
- Margaret Beaufort: Lord Stafford has some friends for you to meet. While I go to evening prayer.
- Prince Harry Tudor: Thank you but what I feel is of the heart. If she wants my father, I will step aside. But if she wants me, I will fight him to the death, if needs be.
- Prince Harry Tudor: I'm coming in, so don't say no.
- Catherine of Aragon: I have something to say.
- Prince Harry Tudor: But I came to you.
- Catherine of Aragon: You came to tell me you will fight for me. Am I correct?
- Prince Harry Tudor: Yes, I...
- Catherine of Aragon: And you hate your father for stealing me away, and... and you want me to know that if I marry him, I condemn myself to a miserable, loveless life.
- Prince Harry Tudor: That's right, yes.
- Catherine of Aragon: That is what people do. The prisoners begging for their lives and offering contrition, they beg and plead, but their pleas are always met with deafness for one simple reason, that they must go to the block because the king decrees it.
- Prince Harry Tudor: So you're saying you must marry him because he said so.
- Catherine of Aragon: Because he is the king. I am saying there is duty that both of us must cleave to.
- Prince Harry Tudor: You know, I admit that when I first wrote to you in Spain, it- it was a game. But then the more I read of you and knew you, I- Well, I haven't known as many women as you think, Catherine, and those that I have were of the flesh. You are not. I mean, I... I want to... But- But the point is that- the point is that... that I love you. And love exalts us into God's arms. It is his greatest gift to us. It makes us one with him. Catherine, it leaves duty in the shadows. You are a wonder. You make me yearn to be king so that I can be a better man for you.
- Catherine of Aragon: You are a wordsmith. You bend words to your whim.
- Prince Harry Tudor: Well, then feel what I'm saying.
- [they kiss]
- Prince Harry Tudor: And then give me your answer.
- Queen Isabella: A boy kisses you, and everything I've taught you is undone.
- Catherine of Aragon: Leave me, Madre.
- Queen Isabella: He will bring you pain. The betrayal he will deal to you, it will break the world.
- Catherine of Aragon: You are wrong.
- Queen Isabella: Guard yourself! If you do not, the enemy will know just where to strike.
- Catherine of Aragon: My Lady Pole.
- Maggie Pole: Catherine. Lady de Cardones.
- Catherine of Aragon: I have learned you have been banished from the court, because you spoke out for me to Lady Margaret.
- Maggie Pole: I spoke for no one but myself.
- Catherine of Aragon: Still, you have suffered for my benefit. I wish to make amends.
- Maggie Pole: You can do nothing. In fact, the rift has served me well. Perhaps I should be thanking you. We are united in Margaret Beaufort's hatred of us both.
- Catherine of Aragon: May we take refreshment? Lady Pole... I wish to ask you for your guidance.
- Maggie Pole: Ah. The King.
- Catherine of Aragon: He is a decent man.
- Maggie Pole: And he would make you queen.
- Catherine of Aragon: I want you to tell me what kind of husband he would be.
- Maggie Pole: You ask me to petition for a king whose presence I'm not seen fit to stand in? Oh, this family.
- Catherine of Aragon: You prefer his son, then?
- Maggie Pole: It was Arthur I was close to. But Harry... he is clever and has a fevered lust for knowledge. His appetites flood in all directions, wise and foolish. He runs at life, which means he's not always constant in his interests.
- Catherine of Aragon: There is danger in him.
- Maggie Pole: He was not sired to be king. He was mollycoddled by his grandmother. A man with too much power and no discipline is dangerous.
- Catherine of Aragon: I see another side to him. He is passionate and poetic. He is like a knight of Camelot, flawed, but also brave and dedicated. Lancelot.
- Maggie Pole: You clearly know your mind about him, so why ask me? Catherine, if you wish to be queen, then take the King. But I think you rode here not just to ask for forgiveness, but to speak Prince Harry's name aloud. I think you love Harry. May God help you if you do.
- Sir Richard Pole: What did she want?
- Maggie Pole: To ease her heart. Do you know I've realized I admire her? She's brave, and she's certain she's right. I wish I'd been more like her when I was younger.
- Sir Richard Pole: Maggie.
- Maggie Pole: Whatever my life has thrown at me, I'm glad you're in it, Richard, that we have each other, our love.
- Catherine of Aragon: Lina, do you think me selfish?
- Lina de Cardonnes: You are trained to be a queen. You ask others to make sacrifices. It is the way of kings and queens.
- Catherine of Aragon: You have been my closest friend and confidante since we came to England. I cannot think of living here without you by my side, but I will not be the cause of your unhappiness. You're right. You've done too much for me. And if you wish to marry Oviedo, then you will find support from me.
- Lina de Cardonnes: I...
- Catherine of Aragon: I cannot promise you will stay within my household, as that may not be within my gift, but you will have a dowry from me, three gold plates. You may melt them down, and that will be a start, at least, if you should have to make your own way.
- Lina de Cardonnes: Thank you. Thank you, Highness.
- Catherine of Aragon: Catherine. We are friend, I hope.
- Lina de Cardonnes: Yes. Yes, we are friends.
- Catherine of Aragon: Sisters.
- De Fuensalida: The queen, your mother, she sends word to the King.
- Catherine of Aragon: What does she say?
- De Fuensalida: I think she writes the same to you.
- Queen Isabella: [letter] "Are you to have two husbands? I received two letters, each about a different man. You want to wed Prince Harry. Then the King writes that he will take you for himself. Take the bird in hand and be grateful at your luck. You're lucky now to even make a queen."
- De Fuensalida: You have permission for your marriage to the King.
- Queen Isabella: [letter] "Your sister can find no luck of her own. She stayed with me in Spain for the birth of her child, but it made her very sick. None of us had sleep for months until she sailed back to her husband and took the child with her."
- De Fuensalida: She writes to me that she is troubled by your sister, Lady Joanna. She helped her with the baby. It left her very tired.
- Catherine of Aragon: Tell me, Ambassador... whose eyes are these? Are they the eyes of queen consort to King Henry? Please inform the Prince of Wales that I would like to see him.
- Prince Harry Tudor: I was glad to get your message.
- Catherine of Aragon: God has placed this moment in my lap. He means to make me see myself... and listen to my heart. He means for us to be together.
- Prince Harry Tudor: Oh. But- But what has changed? Did your mother refuse my father?
- Catherine of Aragon: No. She wrote and gave permission.
- Prince Harry Tudor: Then how- how are we to...
- Catherine of Aragon: Trust your God. And trust in me.
- [they kiss]
- Catherine of Aragon: Your Grace.
- King Henry Tudor: We received a letter from your mother.
- Catherine of Aragon: I am aware of it, Your Grace.
- King Henry Tudor: And do you give consent?
- Catherine of Aragon: Would I make you happy? Would I make you as happy as your wife did?
- King Henry Tudor: As you know, Catherine, I, um- I loved my wife. I still do, but, I would try to be a husband to you. I would be respectful and considerate, and I would not bother you too much. It was her dying wish.
- Catherine of Aragon: If she knew you could not love me, then she did it for the safety of your country, for the alliance between Spain and England.
- King Henry Tudor: Yes.
- Catherine of Aragon: But marrying me does not secure that. In fact, it does the opposite. If we wed, our children won't succeed us.
- King Henry Tudor: Of course not. Harry's will, as Lizzie's son. The throne belongs to Harry, then his son, and then his grandson.
- Catherine of Aragon: So how long would your treaty hold with Spain? Only until, God forbid, you pass away and Harry takes the throne. And then, just when he needs it the most, there will be no protection. I would be the widow to his father. I could not command my country to his side. He would be alone in all of Europe and whoever then rules Spain would make treaties with your enemies.
- King Henry Tudor: Or else they would renew their pact with England. There are many benefits. You wish to marry Harry. My wife had many gifts, and she said if you married him, then there would be no sons. She saw this.
- Catherine of Aragon: You don't think your wife saw in your eyes how lonely you would be? And in pain for you, perhaps she was confused. Because the first time I met her, she told me she'd do anything to save her sons. She'd kill for them. Don't take the risk. Give Harry the alliance. Keep him safe, for her.
- [Henry kisses her forehead and leaves]
- King Henry Tudor: Lady Catherine of Aragon and Castile, I withdraw my proposal of marriage to you. You will instead be betrothed to my son Henry, Prince of Wales. Your heir will ensure the continued peace between our two kingdoms.
- Prince Harry Tudor: Thank you, Father.
- Margaret Beaufort: Henry...
- King Henry Tudor: I will send my letter to the Pope, requesting his dispensation.
- Catherine of Aragon: Thank you, Your Grace.
- King Henry Tudor: If he grants it, you may be married... only when your mother sends the dowry. Your future hangs upon Castile.
- Margaret Beaufort: The two men who may wed you will be waiting in the Great Hall. They will look at you at you pass by. It may aid the path of love if you were to wipe the vomit from your chin.