Morning Glow

What follows is an account of Kathryn Howard's typical morning routine. Forgive the terrible grammar and lack of punctuation. Kathryn is a sweet but poorly educated girl.
Hearts,
Nicole/Kathryn Howard

Waking up is lonely. It has been even worse because I keep dreaming of TC wishing he was with me. That would be wonderful would it not? Opening my eyes and seeing him right there with the curtains of the bed still closed maybe a little bit of light peeking through the curtains but still mostly dark. Perhaps he would be watching me sleep with that look in his eyes that he sometimes gets when we are together. They are already quite green but when he looks at me like that they turn into a different color almost like a forest at night but with more light somehow. I usually just think about that for a good five minutes after I wake up. Well first I wish I was back asleep because then I could dream some more. Plus being a queen is such hard work and I like to stay up late doing whatever so yeah I am usually pretty tired. So I just sort of lie there with the curtains closed trying to roll over as quietly as possible so that none of my ladies know I am awake. Cause as soon as they do they want to talk or help me dress or get me breakfast. Which is really great cause I do not have to do those things myself but some of them are a little bit annoying you know? I mean I totally like being with all my ladies but I cannot really talk to them about what I really want to talk to them about :)

Here's a picture of my bed:

So yeah I lie there for a while cause it takes me a while to really wake up. Sometimes I braid my hair just so it doesn’t get in my face later while I am eating and stuff. When I finally do get up I put on my dressing gown and pray the rosary a little bit. I am not as religious as some of the girls at court but I really do want to make my family proud by being a good Catholic queen. Sometimes I add a little prayer thanking God and Jesus Christ for giving me my queenship and letting me be so happy as I am right now. I sometimes wonder and even ask them if I could maybe be a little bit happier perhaps if the king died and then I married TC. I absolutely cannot say that out loud so really I can only talk to God about it…

Then I have a little breakfast with my ladies. Sometimes the king likes to break his fast with me but usually he’s been up for a little bit at least before me doing kingly things that mostly don’t concern me. We eat eggs usually and some kind of fruit whatever is in season but my favorite are berries and also anything exotic that comes into the palace from ambassadors and other foreign people. We all gossip as we eat and talk about what we will do that day and what we will wear. I think my ladies like me. I like all of them. They are all very sweet and we do get along quite well. We laugh a lot and dance a lot and talk about most everything.

Then I start to ready myself for the day. I splash a little water on my face and have my ladies comb my hair. This doesn’t take really long for me. Everyone always tells me how pretty I am and I have to agree so usually I look well enough without doing very much washing or combing or pinching or face-painting as some ladies have to.

Then I dress. Well my ladies dress me. This is one of my favorite parts of being queen because not only are my dresses really really nice but there is more than just some random maid helping me put my clothes on and I really like the attention. I know I should not say that because we ladies are supposed to be humble and not really supposed to like attention but this is a journal so who’s really going to read it really? So I can talk about secret things like what I pray about and how I really like all the attention of being queen and of course TC. These are absolutely not the things that I talk to my ladies about as I get dressed even though we usually find plenty to talk about.

Here are some of my dresses:

I am really fond of the blue dress.  It goes very nicely with my hair and eyes.  Really anything blue or purple.  I also like the metal colors like gold and silver.

And that is pretty much it. I either go out into the palace after that or maybe spend some more time with my ladies. It really all goes around what Henry is doing that day. Sometimes we go riding together or sit together while he holds court which is probably the most boring for me. It is different everyday. Being Queen of England is exciting like that! Different things everyday never knowing what to expect. I really do love being queen. Henry loves me very much and treats me very well and even if his leg does stink sometime I get so many lovely things and meet so many lovely people and go so many lovely places that it really is all worth it. I hope.

Hearts and smiles,

Kathryn