THE BOY'S TALE

Author's Note

Concerning the scandalous relationship -- possibly marriage, possibly not -- between Queen Katherine, princess of France and widow of King Henry V, and Owen Tudor, who was a commoner and, worse, Welsh, it is unknown now who knew what and when they knew it. But to judge by the official reaction when it did become openly known, it was a secret worth keeping. After it came out, Tudor was several times imprisoned, and Queen Katherine, when she died in the January following this story, was in a nunnery.

Their surviving children, though, were taken into the care and favor of their half-brother King Henry VI and eventually became -- by fatherhood, chance, and loyalty -- founders of the Tudor dynasty.