How It All Goes Down
Christmas 1529
- Favor in the court changes faster than the weather.
- At Christmastime, the queen is back in, and Anne is out.
- The Boleyns commiserate about their misfortunes, George, Anne, and Mary all grousing together in one big bed.
- George's wife, Jane Parker, sees them in bed together and thinks they're engaged in some sort of incestuous threesome.
- George tells Jane that's ridiculous.
- Anne discovers that the king is keeping her away because he wants Campeggio, the Italian cardinal, to believe that he is "putting the queen aside for the purest of reasons" (26.49)—that is, not because of that hussy Anne Boleyn.
- Anne's still miffed and jealous, unable to put her emotions aside.
- Mary, though, is happy to have the queen back, and the queen welcomes her back into the court.
- The queen reminds Mary that "Anne is only one of a line" (26.66). The king's parade of hussies never ends.