Fanfic / Queen Anne's Legacy

Queen Anne's Legacy by VioletRoseLily. It is an Alternate Universe Tudors fanfic, where Anne Boleyn manages to give birth to a son, named Ambrose by Henry, in 1535 at the cost of her life.

Official Summary: In 1535, Anne Boleyn manages to give birth to her desired son but at the cost of her life. However in death, she is victorious and her legacy lives on in her daughter and son.

Tropes:

• Adaptational Heroism: Mary. She's more easily able to accept the fact that she'll never sit on the throne after the births of Ambrose and Edward. Combined with a happy marriage to Philip, four children of her own, and being officially restored to the succession and re-legitimized means that she never falls into the Catholic fanaticism that characterized her historical counterpart.
• Adaptation Personality Change: As his mother survived his birth and he doesn't have to grow up with the pressure of being the heir, Edward grows up to be significantly more self-centered and spoiled than he was historically since he wasn't trained to rule since birth like his brother was.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul:
  • Mary's relationship with Jane Seymour sours because of Jane's inability to let go of her resentment against Anne, as it causes her to neglect and mistreat Ambrose and Elizabeth, whom Mary adores. By contrast, her relationship with Catherine Parr is much warmer despite the difference in religious beliefs due to Catherine's kind treatment of all of Mary's siblings. Catherine managing to convince Henry to re-legitimize her and restore her to the line of succession solidifies their friendship, and they remain close up until Mary's death.
  • Mary's relationship with her siblings also remains strong thanks to her Adaptational Heroism. Only her relationship with Edward cools, and even then it's no fault of Mary herself but rather Edward's personal problems causing him to lash out at her. Notably, her relationship with Elizabeth is probably the strongest platonic bond in the entire story, with Elizabeth sailing all the way from Denmark just to be with Mary while she's on her deathbed.
  • Henry's relationship with Jane completely goes to the rocks due to Jane's inability to love Ambrose and Elizabeth, with all her attempts to fix their marriage only backfiring. He later admits to Catherine that the only reason he hasn't annulled his marriage to Jane is because it would de-legitimize Edward.
  • Henry never meets Anne of Cleves, and neither Catherine Howard nor Catherine Parr become his wives. The latter instead becomes his mistress, and eventually his wife in all but name after his marriage to Jane falls apart.
• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Once he realizes that he's been played, Charles Brandon goes on his knees and begs Henry for mercy, even going as far as to cite his deceased wife Mary Tudor the Elder and their daughters as a reason Henry should give him some form of clemency. It doesn't work.
• Altar Diplomacy:
  • Mary marries Philip of Bavaria to tie England to Cleves. Later on, her daughter Lizzy marries Archduke Ferdinand so the Holy Roman Empire can have their own claim to Cleves.
  • Ambrose is engaged to and later marries Infanta Juana (anglicized as Joanna when she arrives in England) of Spain, presumably to help smooth over diplomatic relations with the Habsburgs. Despite a very rocky beginning, the relationship gradually smooths out and they end the story Happily Married.
  • Elizabeth is arranged to marry Crown Prince Frederick of Denmark, and it's quite clearly a Perfectly Arranged Marriage from the start, despite some physical/emotional infidelity at the beginning.
  • Edward was originally unattached since keeping him unmarried was in the Boelyn family's best interest. Jane Seymour and Frances Grey subtly try to get him to fall for Jane Grey later in the story, as their marriage will strengthen his claim to the throne. This plan however falls apart after Jane comes to realize she loves Guilford Dudley and sees Edward only as a brother, and goes behind their backs to get Ambrose to engage her to Guilford. Ambrose then tries to marry Edward to Princess Marguerite of France to help him get over Jane and make sure he doesn't interfere with her marriage. Edward balks at this since Marguerite is only a child while he's already a full-grown man. Ultimately, he ends up marrying Mary, Queen of Scots, in order to get Scottish and French support in his rebellion against Ambrose.
  • Maggie is engaged to Carlos, Prince of Asturias so she can one day be Queen of Spain. Unfortunately, she dies of measles not long after the betrothal is made.
  • When it becomes a serious possibility that he won't be able to sire a legitimate son, Ambrose engages his eldest daughter Joan to Mary's son Philip Tudor in order to bolster her claim to the throne.
• Alternate History: With the Point of Divergence being that Anne successfully gives birth to a second child, in this case a son, at the cost of her life. This snowballs into a timeline where the House of Tudor survives and continues to thrive as the rulers of England, while their rivals and eventual successors, the House of Stuart, end up dying out, plunging Scotland into a civil war.
• Always Second Best: The Seymours to the Boleyns. Most of the conflict of the story is rooted in how the Boleyns are favored over the Seymours by Henry even after his marriage to Jane. This extends to Edward and Ambrose. What drives many of Edward's insecurities is that he can never seem to displace his brother in their father's eyes, simply because he wasn't born first. Elizabeth surmises as much after he finally rebels against Ambrose and begs Elizabeth for her support. Despite Frederick's claims that this is a ploy to slander her name, in reality, he just wants someone, anyone, to choose him over his brother, and she believes that's all he ever really wanted in the end.
• Book Ends: The story begins with Anne Boleyn dying in childbirth, after finally producing Henry's long-awaited son. The story concludes with her granddaughter Joan giving birth to her own son George, the future King of England, and unlike Anne, Joan survives.
• Broken Pedestal: Part of Mary's Character Development during the story is coming to terms with the person her father really is — a selfish man who refuses to take the blame for his actions and is ruthless enough to hurt both enemy and ally alike to get what he wants. Mary eventually comes to the conclusion that while Anne does share a lot of the blame for what happened to Mary and her mother, the person truly at fault for the situation is her father. This is only further enforced when she learns that Anne's Last Request was for Henry to treat his daughters as well as his sons, meaning the kindness her father is showing her is only because of her deceased stepmother's guilt for her previous treatment of her, not any self-reflection from Henry himself.
• Cain and Abel: The driving conflict of the story is the possibility that Ambrose and Edward might become this in the future thanks to Ambrose's questionable legitimacy. While the rest of the royal court is more than happy to pit the two boys against each other, the brothers' immediate family (their father and two older sisters, plus their father's mistress Catherine Parr) are doing everything they can to make sure this doesn't happen. Ultimately, all their efforts come to naught, and Edward does indeed turn against Ambrose, forcing Ambrose to kill him when he refuses to give up his rebellion and yield after their climactic duel.
• Central Theme: Choice. Specifically, to what extent one's choices can be blamed on someone else. A running theme in the story is people such as Jane Seymour and Charles Brandon who constantly try to blame what they perceive to be Henry's poor decision-making on others, usually whatever 'spell' Anne put him under. The reality is that while Henry's grief over Anne's death does play a part in what he does, Anne herself is exerting no external influence since she's, you know, dead. Henry is ultimately making these decisions of his own volition. That's why all their attempts to 'break' Anne's 'hold' over Henry fails, because Henry's inability to let go of his grief is a result of his own personality flaws, not of Anne herself.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: The Earl of Hertford, Edward Seymour. He won't hesitate to sell out his own family if it means he can advance further and ultimately doesn't care about who's king as long as that king grants him titles and prestige. He only starts plotting to put Edward on the throne when it becomes clear that Ambrose doesn't trust him and won't let him displace his uncle George in his confidence. This later turns out to be his Fatal Flaw — he spends most of the story constantly changing sides and trying to gain as much royal favor as possible that he never takes time to properly prepare Edward as a potential successor/usurper to Ambrose as a backup plan in case he can't win the latter's favor when it's his time to be king, leaving him unable to control and properly advise a spoiled and mercurial Edward when they finally begin their rebellion.
• Converting for Love: Downplayed and outright defied. Edward converts to Catholicism to marry Mary, Queen of Scots, and to garner the support of the Catholic Church for his rebellion against Ambrose. However, the conversion is purely for political expedience and he has no intentions of remaining Catholic once he gains the throne. Ambrose, knowing full well how fanatical a Protestant his brother is, later uses this against him by making sure all the derogatory remarks Edward made against Catholics while he was in court are spread throughout England, to reinforce to his Catholic subjects that his brother's conversion is not genuine.
• Cool Big Sis:
  • Mary, who strives to make sure her resentment of Anne (and later Jane) does not spill over into her treatment of their children, and succeeds. All of her siblings adore her and are absolutely devastated by her death when they're adults.
  • Elizabeth, who equally adores all her siblings and is the only one who maintains good relationships with all of them throughout the story. When she finds out Ambrose and Edward have finally turned on each other, she outright collapses into a faint and can only cry in her husband's arms when she wakes up.
• Cradling Your Kill: Ambrose cradles the dying Edward in his arms after giving the finishing blow during their climactic duel.
• Death by Childbirth:
  • The story begins with Anne's slow death after giving birth to Ambrose.
  • One of the last scenes in the story is Mary Stuart's own death by childbirth, giving birth to a stillborn son.
• Didn't Think This Through:
  • Charles Brandon, out of anger at how much power the Boleyns are gaining, starts "discreetly" researching the rumors about Anne possibly cuckolding Henry while they were married. It never occurs to him that these rumors may be just rumors and that Anne didn't cheat on Henry (which she didn't), or how angry Henry would be that someone would try to slander his deceased wife and cast doubt on the legitimacy of his oldest son and second oldest daughter. Unsurprisingly, he's caught, deemed a traitor, stripped of his titles, and executed.
  • Edward is effectively the last hope the Catholic faction has of returning England to the flock of Rome, or in the case of others, breaking the power the Boleyns have over the royal court. Many therefore scheme to put him on the throne to make their goals a reality. The problem with their plan, however, is that none of them even bother to prepare Edward to be a ruler that would actually do these things, either being blocked off by the Tudors (who don't want Ambrose and Edward fighting at all), fighting against the Boleyns, or just plain fighting against each other. By the time anyone gets around to putting serious effort into turning Edward against Ambrose, Edward is a fanatical Protestant who flat-out doesn't know how to rule at all, basically making him the very antithesis of what any of them want in a king.
  • Edward's own rebellion is a massive case of this, because it becomes obvious early on that he's severely misjudged the political situation. He has his uncle Hertford arrange things so he has the support of the Catholic Church in hopes of deterring Joanna's relatives from supporting Ambrose on her behalf, but fails to realize that even the pious Habsburgs are willing to defy the Pope to support their family. He also writes to Elizabeth to ask for her support (and by extension, Denmark and Norway's), but, as Frederick points out, there's no benefit to her to do so; challenging her full brother Ambrose's legitimacy and claim to the throne would be challenging her legitimacy as well. Finally, he marries Mary Stuart in hopes of getting the support of France in addition to Scotland's and fails to have his intelligence agents double check their intel, which would've revealed that the current regent of France, Catherine de Medici, hates Mary and wouldn't support her in any way, even if France wasn't dealing with their own problems at the moment. All in all, every misstep proves how ill-fit Edward is for the throne, and dooms his rebellion before it can even begin.
• Excessive Mourning: Henry continues to mourn Anne until the day he dies, always putting her first in his heart since she gave him the son he wanted at the cost of her life. This eventually kills his marriage with Jane, because Jane genuinely loves him and finds herself constantly having to compete with Anne's ghost. By contrast, his mistress Cate isn't in love with Henry at all and doesn't mind being second to Anne, so she's able to keep his favor.
• Everyone Has Standards: As much as Mary dislikes Jane Seymour, even she thinks Henry taking away their daughter from her banished mother a mere two weeks after the child's birth and forbidding the woman from visiting her children is too cruel. She takes it as proof that he was the one responsible for keeping her away from her mother, not Anne.
• Face Death with Dignity: After her Heel Realization, Jane Seymour goes to her death with her head held high and spends her last moments apologizing for her treatment of Ambrose and Elizabeth and pleading for mercy on the behalf of her son Edward.
• Fainting: The usually strong-hearted Elizabeth collapses after receiving letters from Ambrose and Edward confirming that they've finally turned on each other.
• Foil: Mary's relationship with Elizabeth is deliberately contrasted with the relationship between Ambrose and Edward. Like the latter, the former are two same-gendered half-siblings, where one sibling is legitimate in the eyes of both Catholics and Protestants, while the other sibling is only legitimate in the eyes of Protestants (and even then, not all of them). However, the direction the two relationships go into diverge drastically:
  • Mary was absolutely convinced she was going to hate Elizabeth at first, only to fall in love with her the first time her sister was placed into her arms. Ambrose, meanwhile, was absolutely delighted at the idea of having another sibling right from the beginning, and his relationship with Edward only started falling apart in adulthood.
  • Mary and Elizabeth have major theological differences but never let religion get in between them. Ambrose and Edward are of the same faith but begin to chafe in part because Edward thinks Ambrose isn't trying hard enough to spread Protestantism throughout England.
  • Mary and Elizabeth are both cognizant of the political situation in Court and resolve to do everything they can to keep their family together. Ambrose and Edward spend most of the story blind to how people in Court are constantly trying to pit them against each other, which ironically is one of the reasons why their relationship begins to fracture, as it makes the latter easier to manipulate.
  • The biggest difference of all is that Mary and Elizabeth never grow apart and remain close to the very end. Ambrose and Edward, meanwhile, eventually turn on each other at the end of the story, with Ambrose forced to kill his brother to maintain his claim on the throne and protect his family.
• Generation Xerox:
  • Edward does indeed grow up to be just like his father, just in all the wrong ways. He inherits his father's ruthlessness, obsessive tendencies, arrogance, and overall penchant for making decisions in regard to his personal desires rather than duty or politics. By the time any of his supporters realize how unfit he is to be king, the damage is already done and they're forced to stick with him.
  • Much like his father, Ambrose struggles to sire a legitimate son, as his wife Joanna keeps giving birth to daughters. Unlike his father, Ambrose refuses to set Joanna aside because of this and is committed to making his eldest daughter his heir if he never has a son.
• The Good King: Ambrose. While by no means perfect, he's generally a good and merciful king who is less selfish and more politically astute than his father was, and the English people are quite happy under his reign. Which is why very few of them flock to Edward's side when he finally rebels against Ambrose.
• Good Stepmother: In contrast to Jane Seymour, Catherine Parr serves as a good mother figure to all of Henry's children, despite never officially marrying Henry herself. Even Edward, Jane's son, can't find it in himself to dislike his father's mistress.
• Heel Realization: After she's slated for execution, a remorseful Jane Seymour reflects on her past actions and comes to regret them, acknowledging that her resentment and her decision to take it out on two innocent children resulted in the incoming civil war and thousands of deaths sure to follow (including, ultimately, her own son's). On the execution stand, she makes a speech apologizing for this and a final plea for Ambrose to spare her son's life before going to her death.
• Heir Club for Men:
  • Henry. While he loves all his children and is committed to treating all of them well due to his promise to Anne, he clearly prefers his sons over his daughters. After their marriage falls apart during her second pregnancy, Jane believes that she'll be able to win him back if she gives him another son, something neither Anne nor Katherine were able to do. Her hopes are dashed when she ends up giving birth to a daughter whom she names Margaret (called Maggie for short).
  • Ironically subverted with Ambrose. While he recognizes the importance of having a legitimate son to secure the succession, he ultimately doesn't mind if his daughter Joan ends up succeeding him. This is later revealed to stem from his guilt over his own mother's death, which he blames on the pressure everyone was putting on her to have a son. In the end, Joanna ends up giving him six daughters before being rendered barren by a last miscarriage, so Joan is named his undisputed heir. Not long after, Joan gives birth to her own son George by her husband Philip Tudor, securing the succession by assuring the people a king will follow her reign.
• Illegal Religion: Subverted. Much like his sister historically, Ambrose is Protestant and supports the Church of England as a matter of policy (mainly because it's the only way he can be considered legally legitimate in England and maintain his claim to the throne). However, he doesn't care about what religion his subjects follow and promotes religious tolerance instead, to the point that several of his closest family members, including his older sister Mary and his wife Joanna, are openly Catholic. This becomes one of the major sticking points in Ambrose and Edward's fracturing relationship, because Edward is a Protestant Fundamentalist who openly wants to eradicate Catholicism from England.
• Irony:
  • Charles Brandon's downfall comes about because he is unable to let go of his hatred of Anne Boleyn and tries to find the (non-existent) proof she cheated on Henry. His eldest son, Henry Brandon, later ends up marrying George's daughter — Anne Boleyn.
  • The Catholic faction hopes to prop up the more legitimate Edward as Henry's successor instead of Ambrose, hoping that doing so will finally allow England to return to the flock of Rome. By the time anyone gets around to successfully pushing the idea onto Edward, he's a Protestant Fundamentalist who's likely to turn on his Catholic allies the moment he actually claims the throne.
• Jerkass Has a Point:
  • While it's true Henry is being cruel in separating Edward and Maggie from their mother Jane, he's correct to fear that Jane might try to turn Edward against Ambrose due to her jealousy of Anne. Indeed, Edward's relationship with Ambrose doesn't even begin to fray until after Henry is dead and Ambrose allows Jane to start visiting court more often as a favor to his brother.
  • When Ambrose decides to name his daughter Joan his heir after Joanna continues to give him daughters, Edward protests, declaring he's Ambrose's heir — and by the laws of the time, he would be correct. While England did not follow Salic law, they still followed male-preferred cognatic primogeniture, meaning that Edward, as Ambrose's younger brother, should be ahead of Joan in the line of succession. It's only because of Ambrose's appeals to Parliament that a new Act of Succession goes through.
• Karmic Jackpot: Mary's absolute refusal to resent Elizabeth and Ambrose for their mother's crimes ultimately works out for her in the end. She finds love and has a happy marriage with Philip, has four children of her own, is re-legitimized and restored to the succession, and one of her daughters even marries Archduke Ferdinand. When she dies, she isn't remembered as a fanatical tyrant but as a beloved figure throughout England, with everyone heavily mourning her death. And in the end, her own claim to the throne is vindicated, when her son Philip Tudor marries Ambrose's eldest daughter and heir Joan, ensuring that Mary's descendants will one day rule England.
• Kissing Cousins: An Arranged Marriage version for Mary's son Philip and Ambrose's daughter Joan so as to keep the Tudor bloodline on the throne when Ambrose is unable to sire a legitimate son.
• Let No Crisis Go to Waste: When Ambrose unwittingly foils her plan to bolster Edward's claim by having him marry Jane Grey via having Jane marry Guilford instead, Jane Seymour instead uses it to further her agenda of estranging the brothers by trying to convince Edward that Ambrose did it to ensure that his younger brother couldn't usurp him.
• Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: Unlike Elizabeth, Ambrose heavily resembles Anne, with only his eye color indicating he's Henry's son. This casts even more doubt of his legitimacy in some factions of the court, because of the unsubstantiated rumors that Anne cheated on Henry during their marriage.
• Misplaced Retribution: When Mary does not attend court for several months, even missing Ambrose's first birthday, people quickly blame the Boleyns. Mary, upon her return, reveals that her absence had nothing to do with the Boleyns; her father in fact had invited her to attend court several times, but she refused his invitations due to still mourning her mother's death.
• The Mistress:
  • Both Catherine "Cate" Parr and Catherine "Kitty" Howard end up becoming this to Henry as his marriage to Jane gradually begins to break down. Cate is the one who wins out, due to Kitty falling for Thomas Culpeper and eloping with him; ironically enough, Cate had no interest in becoming Henry's mistress but decided to accept his advances in order to protect Kitty (whom she had befriended) from his wrath after she eloped with her husband.
  • Ambrose himself has several mistresses during the beginning of his marriage to Joanna, though he eventually gets rid of them after their relationship begins to improve.
• Momma's Boy: Jane Seymour constantly dotes upon her son Edward, as a way of coping with how she can never seem to eclipse Anne in Henry's eyes. This has the unfortunate side effect of causing Edward to grow up spoiled.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Ambrose began allowing Jane to visit Edward more often after Henry's death out of wanting his younger half-brother to have a relationship with his estranged mother. Jane increasingly turns Edward against Ambrose during these visits.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: After Ambrose and Edward turn on each other, a brokenhearted Elizabeth expresses relief that her older sister Mary is dead, so she won't have to live through the coming conflict. Considering Elizabeth is the person who was crushed the most by Mary's death, that goes to show how devastated she is about the situation.
• Parental Favoritism: While Henry does love all his children (and indeed, they may be the only people he truly loves besides himself), it's clear to everyone watching that his children by Anne are his favorites, especially Ambrose as his first legitimate son.
• Parents as People: Henry is portrayed as this. While he loves his children, his duties as king and his own faults mean that he's not really the best parent for them. By the time of his death, the only two children who haven't stopped idolizing him are Edward (which is rooted in his inferiority complex), and Maggie (who never got the chance to really know him).
• Present Absence: Fittingly for the title, Queen Anne Boleyn. Henry's inability to get over Anne's death is one of the driving forces of the story, and the fate of her legacy is constantly at risk. Her allies are doing their best to uphold it, while her enemies constantly try to slander her memory in hopes of breaking whatever 'spell' she has over Henry.
• The Promise: After realizing how factionalized the royal court has become, Mary makes a promise with a child Elizabeth to do whatever it takes to make sure their brothers are never turned against each other. When Elizabeth brings the promise up again to a dying Mary after Ambrose and Edward enter adulthood and their brotherly relationship begins to sour, the heartbroken older sister sadly notes it's a promise neither of them could keep forever.
• Royally Screwed Up: Infante Carlos of Spain, Philip II's son and heir. Joanna does her best to hide this from Ambrose to allow the betrothal between Carlos and Maggie to go through, despite the guilt she feels for it. By the time Ambrose finds out, however, Maggie is already dead so it becomes a moot point.
• Selective Obliviousness: After Jane chooses Guilford over him, Edward refuses to acknowledge all the signs that she's Happily Married and uselessly pines after her.
• Shipper with an Agenda: Jane Seymour and Frances Grey try to push Edward and Jane Grey together in order to bolster Edward's claim to the throne^note Jane Grey has her own claim to the throne due to being the granddaughter of Mary Tudor the elder, the younger sister of Henry. Unfortunately for them, it only works halfway — while Edward falls for Jane, Jane only comes to care for him as a friend/brother, and ends up falling for Guilford Dudley instead.
• Sins of Our Fathers: Many people, even those who didn't like Anne, think slandering or otherwise trying to harm her children for her crimes is wrong. One of the reasons Jane Seymour's reputation at court begins to drop is because she is quite obviously taking her resentment of Anne against her stepchildren.
• Spare to the Throne: While many see Edward as the rightful heir, officially he's the second son and thus the spare to the throne, being behind Ambrose in the line of succession. This even plays a part in Edward's Adaptational Personality Change - while Edward still had a top-class education, Henry never made the active effort to train him on how to rule, making him wholly unsuited for taking the throne as an adult, which is one of the reasons Ambrose decides to make his daughter Joan his heir instead.
• Speak Ill of the Dead: Even though she's dead by the end of the first chapter, many can't help but keep slandering Anne, usually out of resentment for how much Henry still cares for her. Naturally, Henry does not react well whenever those words reach his ears.
• Succession Crisis: The overarching plot of the story is the brewing succession crisis between Henry's two sons by Anne and Jane: Ambrose, Anne's son, is the oldest but is only legitimate by the auspices of the Church of England. Edward, Jane's son, is younger but considered legitimate by both Catholic and Protestant denominations, as his mother married Henry after Katherine of Aragon's death. Many support Edward's claim, either out of hatred for the Boleyns or because they believe Edward will return England to Catholicism, but Henry refuses to acknowledge Ambrose as illegitimate and considers him his primary heir. The situation only worsens after Henry dies and Ambrose marries, as his wife keeps giving birth to daughters instead of sons. Things finally reach a breaking point after Ambrose chooses to make his eldest daughter Joan his heir ahead of Edward, causing Edward to finally turn on him. Edward later marries Mary Stuart, the Queen of Scots, in order to bolster his claim and gain Scottish support for the upcoming Civil War. In the end, the crisis is only resolved when Edward and Mary both die without heirs, and Ambrose electing to have Joan marry Philip Tudor, the only son of his older sister Mary Tudor, combining their claims and reconciling the two remaining bloodlines of Henry's children. This allows Joan's son, George Tudor, to be considered the undisputed rightful heir to the English throne.
• Superior Successor: Ambrose is this to his father. While not without his own faults, he's overall a more dutiful and merciful king, allowing his subjects to worship whatever religion they wish as long as they remain loyal to him and always keeping the state of the realm in mind when making his decisions. Such as, you know, not plunging England into further chaos by trying to get rid of his wife just because she seems unable to give him a son.
• Tragic Keepsake: While she's on her deathbed, Mary gives her wedding ring to her younger sister Elizabeth so the latter can always remember her.
• Tragic Villain: Jane Seymour. As the author notes, she's not intentionally malicious, and originally intended to be a good, loving stepmother to Ambrose and Elizabeth. But being constantly forced to compete with Anne's ghost for Henry's love caused her to resent them instead, eventually driving her into trying to turn Edward against Ambrose. It's only after she's set to be executed does she finally recognize how wrong her actions were, but by then it's already too late.
• Unrequited Love Lasts Forever: Edward remains in love with Jane Grey even after she chooses to marry Guilford over him.
• Wicked Stepmother: A downplayed example. While Jane is never outwardly cruel to Anne's children, she is certainly neglectful and dismissive of them due to her resentment of Anne. It's not until this treatment begins to poison her marriage to Henry that she begins to treat them with any sort of hostility, and even then she's not around often enough for it to matter. Ironically, this doesn't even really become an issue until after Henry is dead and Ambrose becomes king, as his fondness for Edward causes him to loosen the restrictions on Jane, allowing her to work towards turning her son against his brother.
• Women Are Wiser: With the exception of Jane Seymour (who is more consumed by jealousy than anything else), the women in the story are generally portrayed to be wiser than their male counterparts. Elizabeth is frequently the voice of reason among the siblings and Mary is smart enough to keep her head about the factional disputes of the royal court and focus on ensuring her family remains united. Notably, it's only after Elizabeth permanently moves to Denmark to marry Frederick and Mary's death that Ambrose and Edward's relationship goes through its final, fatal collapse.
• The Wrongful Heir to the Throne: To Catholics and many Protestants, Edward has a more legitimate claim to England's throne than his older half-brother Ambrose, and is Henry VIII's true heir. Unfortunately for those people, a combination of his mother's smothering, Henry's favoritism of his older brother, and a overall sheltered upbringing means Edward grows up to be something of a self-centered Royal Brat who is completely unprepared to deal with the realities and sacrifices of rulership, on top of being a fervent Protestant that is obsessed with destroying all Catholicism in England. All in all, someone who no one with a lick of sense would ever want to be king, regardless of religion. When Edward finally decides to rebel against Ambrose, he struggles to find support in part because of this.

---