Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of sexual content, illness and death, and gender discrimination.

It is summer 1527. Mary is glad to spend the summer at Hever with her children and to be free from her rivalry with Anne for a time. Anne writes that she is secretly betrothed to the king while Wolsey works to annul Henry’s marriage to Katherine. Anne claims, “I have overturned the order. Nothing will ever be the same for any woman in this country again” (275). Mary has lost her status as a favorite. William, Mary’s husband, intends to take her to Norfolk. He reminds her, “You are my wife. Everything that is yours is mine. Everything that is mine I keep” (280). Mary is relieved when Anne summons them both back to court. Mary promises to try to be a good wife to William.

In autumn 1527, Anne is being treated like a queen but trying to hold off having sex with Henry. Wolsey falls from the king’s favor after he fails to persuade the pope to annul Henry’s marriage to Katherine. Anne, vindictively, is glad to push Wolsey out of power.