you're too young & eager to love

Fandom: The Tudors
Lyrics: Damien Rice


I know I left you in places of despair.
I know that I loved you.


You usurped a Spanish Queen and now your throne is full of thorns.

You are unable to give the King a son.

In a country where flaxen hair was desirable, your exoticism came in the darkness of your complexion, the deep set of your eyes and the shadowy fall of your hair. Now, he calls it a sign of the curse which is you.

You beat your fists against your belly. Claw at your arms in your grief. There is no child. There is only blood, for the second time. There is only an ache and an emptiness and his uncaring, blaming eyes. Your Ladies circle and coo and stroke your hair away from your face, and you push them away for the heavy taste of English wine. Madame, they call you. Majesty. But you were not born to this position and now you wish that you had not risen so high, because the fall looks dreadful.

The bed has been cleaned. The sheets are pristine and soft, but you can still smell the acrid scent of loss. Your boy that they took away, wrapped in linens, without letting you touch him. George comes and however inappropriate it is for another man to touch your royal skin he holds you while you cry. Kisses your temple and touches you with his thick hands. Hands that you held as a little girl when the hardest obstacle you faced was whether or not you were fast enough to run away. There is nowhere to run now. No place to hide.

You are not as strong as you supposed. Your ambitions blinded you, while your father turned deaf to your concerns. You have a marriage that can be dissolved if the King so wills it. A womb that will not hold a child. You are failing as a woman when that single trait was once your strongest characteristic. So, your husband finds enjoyment with Jane Seymour. Mark plays his violin. Thomas writes his satires, his poetry, and watches you with a desire born from familiarity.

The world continues on, neither golden nor silver.
You cry in the hold of your brother and your insides twist.