Anne, Duchess of Brittany and Queen of England was definitely in a good mood: the journey to England had been good, the kingdom of her new husband had given her a great welcome, the fifteen years old Prince of Wales had not looked to displeased in meeting her, likely relived to have a stepmother who had no ambition to see her children on the throne of England and her new mother-in-law, lady Margaret, in a couple of days had made her valuations of Anne and left her the first place, offering suggestions, information and explanations any time she needed. Anne appreciated the efforts made by her mother-in-law, who had been used to take preeminence over Elizabeth of York, Henry’s first wife, but Margaret had quickly recognised the stronger will of Anne and understood who her new daughter-in-law had no intention to submit herself to anyone now. Everything was good, if not for the fact who Henry’s young daughter, Mary, ten years old, was unwilling to accept Anne as stepmother, but Anne could understand the little girl reluctance, specially as she had noted who the little girl was extremely spoiled. The open hostility of the Dowager Princess of Wales, Catherine of Aragon, was more troublesome as the girl had a lot of influence over her brother-in-law (to which she had been engaged for some time) but Anne had not expected anything different from the daughter of Ferdinand of Aragon.
Still Catherine was in the household of Lady Margaret now, far away from prince Henry, and Anne was free to concentrate on the things who mattered most, starting with her own pregnancy and her hope to have a strong boy who would inherit Brittany instead of Claude.
Anne doubted who her old rival, Louise of Savoy, would care too much about that, as she had other things about which worry at the moment as Louis XII’s death had been followed by a lot of other complications for France and her wedding to the English King was far from being the worst event happened for them in the last year: the Duke of Milan had escaped from his French prison shortly after the death of Louis, finding refuge in the lands of the King of the Romans, husband of his niece, before his escape was discovered and had started a successful campaign for reconquering his lands. And Anne was sure who Louise would count also the news just arrived from Castile, of the death of King Philip, among the ones worst than her remarriage and pregnancy as Philip head been a loyal ally and vassal of Louis. Sure he would not show the same respect to Louise, specially not after his wife had inherit Castile at the death of her mother, making him a King, but still Philip’s death ended any conflict in the Spanish peninsula (and with them any interest of Ferdinand of Aragon in remarrying, confirming the fact who she had made the right choice in choosing Henry over him), specially as he had been able to be universally hated by the Castilians in only few months.
