The King's Damsel (38 page)

4. Discuss the role of those who provided special services to the royal court, such as the royal silkwoman. In
The King’s Damsel,
a silkwoman’s son delivers secret messages. The mini-biography of Joan Wilkinson in the Who’s Who section reveals that she helped smuggle forbidden religious books into England. What other possibilities can you think of?

5. Rafe surprises Thomasine when he doesn’t condemn her for having been the king’s mistress. Keeping in mind that the mindset of the times was very different from our own, why do you think he wasn’t more judgmental?

6. How does the way Henry VIII is portrayed in this novel mesh with interpretations of his character in movies and on television? Which seems most believable to you?

7. Did the details about baths and bathing included in
The King’s Damsel
surprise you? Henry VIII really was sensitive to smells and was an early advocate of cleanliness as a means of preventing illness. The baths and bathrooms in his palaces have been studied by archaeologists. What we don’t know is how often he bathed or how many of his subjects followed his example.

8. Why do you think Anne Boleyn was able to hold King Henry’s attention for so many years? By all reports she was not a great beauty. She had a temper and was subject to hysterical outbursts, at least during the last year of her life. Was it sorcery? Charisma? Or something else?

9. In an age when even university-trained physicians didn’t know much about the causes of disease, people often put their trust in herbal remedies. Several “cures” and “preventives” are mentioned in
The King’s Damsel,
as well as an antidote for arsenic poisoning. Discuss why some of these may actually have worked and why others probably did more harm than good.

10. Early in the novel, Thomasine learns that she has a niece, her late brother’s illegitimate daughter by Griselda Wynn. In keeping with the times, the child, Winifred, is left with her mother and we hear no more about her, although Griselda later takes up with Thomasine’s guardian. What do you think Thomasine might do once she reclaims her inheritance? Is she more likely to want to play a role in the little girl’s future, or banish the entire family from Hartlake Manor?

1. If you haven’t already, read Kate Emerson’s previous novels set at the Tudor court:
The Pleasure Palace, Between Two Queens, By Royal Decree,
and
At the King’s Pleasure.

2. Locate ornamental gardens near you that are open to the public and pay a visit. Look for typical Tudor features, such as knots, arbors, bowers, topiary work, and bridges over streams. Also seek out flowers and plants that were used to make perfumes in the sixteenth century, such as roses and sweet marjoram. As you smell them, think also of how they were used in pomander balls to block out less pleasant odors.

3. Read a biography of one of the real people Thomasine encounters. There are recommendations in the Who’s Who section. Three more Kate Emerson suggests are Beverly A. Murphy’s
Bastard Prince: Henry VIII’s Lost Son,
Julia Fox’s
Jane Boleyn, The True Story of the Infamous Lady Rochford,
and
Mary Boleyn: The Mistress of Kings
by Alison Weir.

4. Try telling each other stories without a script or notes, the way Thomasine would have done for the ladies of the court.