Of Pride and Power - 18. Chapter 18: “Keep others in suspended terror, cultivate an air of unpredictability.”

Mary accepted my submission through an intermediary and greeted the nobles of my territory who awaited us outside her tent.

“Brave men of the West, I am Princess Mary Tudor. It is with great sadness that I must inform you that John Dudley, the Duke of Northumberland, has committed treason against your king and my brother Edward VI. His treasonous crime is the crime of corrupting the laws of the land to enrich him and his allies, corrupting the integrity of our people by accepting Moors as allies against our Christian brethren, and corrupting the teachings of our savior Jesus Christ. I, along with my cousins from Scotland, and allies here in England seek to remove John Dudley and all the foul minions of Satan, who follow him.”

It didn’t bother me that Mary ignored me and went about marshaling the nobles that I brought as if they were in control of my territories. If I thought the area was still run under medieval hierarchies with fiefs and lords, I’d probably ignore the former leader for the people with military and administrative power. Most of these nobles only had nominal control over parcels of lands, so Mary’s entreaties make sense from a Medieval mindset. However, the mining, production, actual defensive fortifications, and populated areas were under the administration of either the Coven members or one of my military officers. Manors and farmlands may make up the majority of the territory, but I am not an agrarian, nor will I ever allow rotten boroughs or compromises like the Electoral Colleges to dictate the direction of a country. The start of all these bad policies began right now at the cusp of modernity, when rulers make compromises to secure power based on exchanges of exclusive rights to lands, hindering progress and causing more harm in the future. Landowners have a specific set of needs, but at the end of the day, they are human beings, no more or less than the person they hire to work on the land. Mary was creating her downfall by relying on these nobles for support because they will never truly be loyal to her, rather they are loyal to their interests tied to their rights.

What bothered me most about Mary was her flare for dramatic demagogic religiosity. She would have fit in with my former parents’ congregation in the modern United States. She started with money issues, which everyone knew was code for “You can get what he got”. Then, she added in a dash of racism and exploitative islamophobia, which was quite common during this era as well due to the threat of the Ottoman Empire. Finally, she capped off her argument by calling your opponents Satanic worshippers and the like. Why have people continued to fall for these three repeated arguments over the last five hundred years?

Wealth disparity isn’t made better by stealing from one another, it only improves when we work and produce things. Racism and Islamophobia feed into a vicious cycle of anger and revenge killings, does hate ever create real peace? Above all else, it makes no sense that satanic believers devote so much of their time attacking Christians, including pretending to be Christians with a different interpretation of faith that doesn’t conform. If people don’t agree with one another, does that automatically make them Satanists, should Apple music users forbid access to Spotify, should brief wearers castrate those who wear boxers, or should people who use salt instead of pepper in eggs be stoned to death?

Still, I followed Mary’s army dutifully as she made her way westward. However instead of directly heading to London as I had presumed, she went further north to the lands of Suffolk. Francis identified the castle that the army surrounded as Wingfield Castle, which I knew was the home of Henry Grey, 1^st Duke of Suffolk and father of Jane Grey. Mary did not waste time parlaying or demanding terms with Duke Grey. She ordered her howitzers to bombard the 14th-century-built castle with high-explosive shells. As the towers of the castle began to crumble, the Grey family’s household began to flee the various gates of the castle. However, Mary ordered her infantry to cut them off and slaughter them without mercy. Francis confirmed the death of Duke Henry Grey as a spray of machine gun bullets went across the eastern gate.

Henry Grey would have been executed in 1554 after the failed Wyatt’s Rebellion. He was a preeminent member of the Protestant movement in England, including being a strong voice in the Privy Council for Protestant reforms. He also was present in Henry VIII's court, when the nobles agreed with Henry VIII to divorce his first wife Catherine of Aragon, Mary’s mother, and declare Mary, a bastard, removing her from her position as Princess and dropping her standing to that of a servant to the next heir. Mary’s current action of butchery was both a demonstration of her military might and revenge.

The outlying castle town was pillaged and burned to the ground as well, leaving no survivors. Medieval warfare was by nature brutal and during this period in history, where Christian sects did not recognize one another, there were no rules of engagement between various parties. Modern movies imagine negotiations, gentle debates, and some sense of noble dignity, but it was far from reality during the 15^th and 16^th centuries. Few military commanders were honorable men, who never sacked a town, raped their inhabitants, or committed what would be called war crimes under the various international conventions of my time. My own experiences of battle were tame compared to what Mary’s soldiers did in the lands held by Henry Grey, especially against the clergy and the local nobles, who served the Grey family. Women and children were not exempt from horror, either. Yet, all of the barbarity was merely a movie trailer of what she would do as Queen. It is the greatest regret of my life that I did not just order one of my people to kill her there, after seeing what she did.

After the mayhem, Mary’s army relocated to a loyalist castle in East Anglia opposite the main eastern road to London. Her army waited there for the next two weeks until several columns of troops came from northern England. The military banners were from the Stuarts, the Percy, and even the Dudley noble families. Unlike me, Mary greeted her conspirators warmly and personally invited them to feast with her. I caught a glance at the Dudley contingent and noticed Robert was among his mother’s escorts. When my eyes caught sight of Robert, we both gave each other knowing nods. The same Catholic priest, who I now knew was the infamous Stephen Gardiner and Mary’s most trusted aide, ushered them all to meet Mary, except Robert. Stephen Gardiner denied him entry and gave him a derisive remark regarding the liaisons he kept.

Robert wandered over to my group, but we did not speak to one another. Instead, we grabbed each other’s hands and began making innocuous motions with our fingers. Two years of living together had afforded us subtler methods of communication, which we developed in case of situations like this. While most modern people are familiar with the hand gestures of American Sign Language from interpreters and translators at major events, tactile hand signs or hands-on signing is a specialized sign language used by those affected by both blindness and deafness. Robert placed his hand over mine, the standard receiver position, and I began to sign.

“What happened?”

We switched our hand positions, so I could receive, and he could sign. It is a quiet and efficient form of communication as Francis remarked upon mastering it, a year before. Its benefit compared to standard audio, visual, or traditional sign language was the output and receipt channels, meaning no one else could be part of our conversation. One of its weaknesses is that tactile sign language cannot be used to easily identify complex concepts or names since some words do not exist in tactile sign language, so you must spell them out.

“My mother had sent messages to my father’s men. I was locked away. I could not warn you. I told my mother I would support her. She allowed me to come. I hoped to help you and my brother in London.”

After a moment of thought, we switched.

“You are an idiot. It is not safe here. You would have been better at your mother’s place. They will kill your father and brother. They could kill you, too.”

He responded, “No, history said she would only kill one brother. I am trying to save…” he spelled out a name as there was no tactile sign for it, “A-M-B-R-O-S-E.”

Ambrose did not get out of London in time, which is why Robert came. Despite his faults, Ambrose was a good friend to me and brother to Robert. He has given us a lot of little kindnesses over the years, plus I have noticed the hot-cold relationship he has with Puck, who was non-committal on settling with Ambrose, but I knew he would run off to London to rescue Ambrose. A long-term relationship without labels is still love by any other name.

Sighing, I signed, “I will help you.”

Instead of waiting for his reply, I pulled him in for a kiss. Several people averted their gazes from us in disgust. Let them feel disgusted, it doesn’t bother either of us to show such an open sign of affection. Mary’s spies probably have already gotten more than a fair amount of reports about the PDA. Historically chastity and reserve were the natural signs of leadership and purity during the late Tudor era, which Elizabeth I demonstrated with a flair. My actions seem to harm my image and reputation. Thus, all of this was beneficial to the narrative that I wanted Mary and her allies to believe that I was not like my historical counterpart. A weak and lascivious sibling, who openly displays lustful passion is far less dangerous than a calculating reserved rival. Elizabeth I was able to play the unambitious quiet sister for five years during Mary’s reign, but the same trick cannot work twice.

On the next day, the Scottish army and its Spanish contingent of “light tanks”, or, in my assessment, more appropriately labeled armored cars, rolled into the camp. It was my first sight of the armored phalanx that would be the most powerful tool of my foes. These light tanks were armored with a single gun barrel attached to a turret and several openings on the sides for firearms. While the use of continuous tracks with steel plates would have been far more useful for the rugged terrain of England, I could see why it was not possible. The rubber and steel quality were extremely poor, compared to even early 20th-century standards. The materials lacked durability and flexibility, so even the tires would not be able to sustain more than ten miles per hour, which was unlikely due to the weak combustion engine output. Based on what I could see, these machines could at best move around five to six miles per hour. However, they had good fuel efficiency due to the frame design and low power needs, so it was possible to achieve the breathtaking 100-miles-per-gallon benchmark that cars in my time targeted. These vehicles can outlast most human beings. Very few armies in this era could succeed against a group of these vehicles without some extreme luck and good planning. The Spanish Empire in this timeline was a formidable foe.

In addition to the armored vehicles, several large pieces of fixed weapons were being guarded by yellow and red colored uniformed Spanish troops. These were heavy machine guns and howitzers, close-range butchers for melee combatants. Medieval armies and early modern armies engaged in predominantly melee or hand-to-hand combat often, but these engagements were phased out due to the introduction of field artillery and machine guns, which only the nimble armored and air units could counter. Armored knights would be mowed down in seconds by withering fire from these weapons.

All of this did not frighten me. I had heard enough stories about the Catholic Church’s war in the Holy Roman Empire, so I knew Spain being its primary ally and likely co-conspirator due to their expansive empire at this point in history would be armed with such weapons. By extension, as Mary will be married to Phillip II of Spain shortly, she would possess such military assets at her disposal. However, those unfamiliar with modern weapons among the nobility and peasantry would be scared by these forces.

Of course, Mary of Guise was at the head of the Scottish army and had the backing of French arms through her family, adding another major European Catholic power among Mary Tudor’s allies. She had heavy weapons such as howitzers and machine guns under her control, so the distribution of arms and technologies was distributed across various Catholic states.

At the time, France was ruled by Henry II, who was married to Catherine de Medici, cousin of the sitting Pope, who had the bulk of these military assets and an air force. Beyond my historical counterpart, Catherine de Medici would be considered the most powerful female ruler in Europe at this time. More widely, the Medici family’s power was no idle boast even in my history, their family ruled through military, economic, and political power that Niccolò Machiavelli honored in his book, The Prince. Based on the scant amount of intelligence from continental Europe, the assessment was that the Medici family was at the heart of the current power dynamics in Europe, such as marriage alliances with Henry II, king of France, and Charles V, Emperor Holy Roman Empire and King of Spain. You don’t need any special abilities to look for time travelers with that kind of neon signpost.

The good and bad thing about distributing technology and weapons is that each group can operate independently for common goals, such as Catholic hegemony, or individual goals, such as the succession to the throne of a nation. Mary of Guise wanted to demonstrate that she also had forces to take over if Mary Tudor could not.

Mary Tudor was no fool, nor was her chief advisor, Stephen Gardiner, to the obvious demonstration of force by their Scottish allies. The Spanish mechanized units were assigned to lead formations of the 50,000-men army towards London with English Catholic loyalists taking flank and Scottish allies forming in the rear. Mary wanted to make sure her forces and Spain’s revolutionary mechanized units would be at the forefront, while the Scottish would merely be an afterthought. As a symbolic gesture, I rode on horseback behind Mary en route to London to show my acceptance of her leadership. She never spoke to me, nor did any of her advisors throughout the short journey.

Unexpectedly, when we reached the city, there was no order to begin a siege or blockade the roads. Instead, Mary had everyone practice parade marching for her triumphant entrance into London. It was a foregone conclusion that she would win a battle to take the entire city of London with the weapons and units at her disposal. John Dudley may have artillery and stores of gunpowder, but against field artillery, it was outclassed. The handguns and rifles would be able to take out any resistance within the city or the royal residences. Mary did not order any assault at all for weeks as the 50,000-men army, including me and my entourage, practiced parading in formation until July 6^th, 1553.

During this weeks-long interlude, the sky was overcast with gray clouds that seemed to be preparing to unleash a torrential downpour. Francis told me that Edward was still alive as he could not detect his death despite the lack of information about his whereabouts. Additionally, we gathered intelligence through the taverns and inns that I had set up two years earlier on the outskirts of London that connected the main routes. These places were gathering spots for merchants, low-ranking nobles, courtesans without a brothel or establishment, and foreigners with coins to spare. Merchants were the most important among these peoples, they had access to households and servants of nobles, which in turn allowed information to flow freely out of the city and into the city for certain coded messages. Among the coded messages, our most reliable informant was still the musical genius, Thomas Tallis.

Thomas Tallis’ role within the royal court without peerage made him an ideal source of information about what was happening within the halls of power. Through his notes, we learned John Dudley had sealed off the city of London and began to levy a militia from the city’s population. Nobles and servants, who had sympathies for Mary or Catholicism were removed from their positions. The Parliament and Privy Council were suspended by royal decree via John Dudley’s orders without a public appearance of Edward to support his actions. These actions demonstrated that there was a rift inside the royal court between John Dudley and Edward. Most people believed John Dudley was acting without royal assent. Many nobles were openly questioning the orders of John Dudley due to his weakening power with many of his forces unavailable and Mary’s larger army en route. John Dudley in response had begun to centralize his power base and supporters around Whitehall and neighboring palaces for easy administrative management, while sending out the majority of his army through the city. I had ordered Thomas and all the civilians he could save to leave any locations housing John Dudley’s troops. If Mary’s forces operated under modern warfare bombardment techniques, then despite the location of troops in civilian areas, they would be targeted indiscriminately.

Among the household servants and commoners, we gained other interesting intelligence. As part of English common law, every household in the county must provide able-bodied men to serve in defense of their area. This concept was originally set up to create a defensive force against raids from barbarians like Vikings during the Middle Ages, but commoner armies continued to play important roles in world history for centuries to come. In this era, the justices of the peace, equivalent to modern government bureaucrats, would muster the men from their homes to a designated location, where they would form regiments for training or staging points for combat. These regiments had minimal training in most rural areas, but in a city like London, more specialized training was given to militia units regularly, so their discipline was comparable to expeditionary forces at Mary’s command. With a population of over a hundred thousand in London, the potential pool of militia forces was probably around 30,000-40,000 additional forces. However, many of the justices of the peace and other magistrates, who served as officers, were only mustering the militia, then disbanding them in an act of rebellion against John Dudley’s orders as well. Essentially, he had no support to raise additional troops without a true royal order.

Several visitors came to the camp outside London to declare their allegiances to Mary’s forces. Among them, William Cecil and William Paulet offered unconditional aid to her ascension to the throne, which I knew they would do just as their historical counterparts. However, Mary did not seem moved by their vows of allegiance, though she smiled at William Cecil’s list of John Dudley allies for future prosecution and he was welcomed by Stephen Gardiner into private meetings. I ordered William Cecil to ingratiate himself to Mary, so all those people he named and who would suffer at her hands were indirectly my responsibility as well. I felt a tinge of guilt when he delivered the lists to Mary and Stephen Gardiner, which has only become heartache in the decades that have followed. William Paulet in contrast offered a full accounting of the national treasury, along with a census for England and Wales. William Paulet was always going to be an operational minister under any ruler, which was a valuable role in its own right and safer in general from purges.

On July 6^th, the gray skies broke, and light began to pierce the clouds. A herald from Whitehall Palace was sent to Mary’s camp in the morning. He delivered news of Edward VI’s death and his will that Jane Grey, cousin to Edward, would become his heir. As Jane Grey was married to Guilford Dudley, John Dudley had instantly become part of the Royal family by extension. I knew Edward was still alive based on a short conversation with Francis, so the declaration of Jane being the new Queen was unexpected. If Edward wasn’t killed, then he must be outside the reach of John Dudley. I had no idea that Edward was at that moment on his way to Hatch Beauchamp Manor. Though, I knew he had escaped John Dudley’s clutches.

Mary wasn’t shocked by John Dudley's brazen declaration and coup attempt, though. John Dudley had no real choice except to create a puppet monarch, so he could levy forces and improve his chances of survival. The declaration of Edward’s death did shock many soldiers, who expected to remove John Dudley from office by force, and then force a “legal” abdication by Edward. What shocked everyone was not what was said by the herald, but what appeared in the afternoon.

In the distant skies, there was a black object shaped like a cross with a pointed head. My first thought at seeing the object was that it was one of the rumored airplanes, but the size was a visual illusion due to its distance from the ground. I did not gauge its true dimensions until it got closer. When I used my abilities on it, I realized it was no ordinary plane. The lightweight material used was treated wood and plastic composites, similar to what I was producing at a lower quality. Nearly a hundred jet engines produced lift and propulsion for the aircraft.

The flying object belonged in a Marvel cinematic universe movie, similar to a S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier. I knew there were aircraft in this era due to intervention from my era, but I had no idea they had built a flying object that could cover half the length of Tudor-era London. Even in my own time, such a feat was unachievable due to various engineering, power, and logistical issues. Nuclear power at best could be used to power aircraft carriers like USS Gerald Ford, which measured only about 337 meters, far from 2400 meters for this craft. Impressively, the bottom of the aircraft shined with brilliant white lights to form a pure white cross.

Seeing the Catholic Church’s sky fortress for the first time over London made me doubt myself because that was something beyond the means of human technology. It was the embodiment of the power that allowed the impossible like special abilities and time travel, fantasy elements that I knew coexisted with the realistic human issues in front of me that I ignored. I had considered that the level of technology and industrial refinement based on my opponents’ military assets were troublesome, but they were not unmatchable. I knew with my ability to analyze objects the flying fortress was armed with only one weapon, which appeared to be a mile-long magnetic railgun. I was shocked that the fortress had continuous yottawatts worth of energy output, which is considered the baseline of a type II Kardashev civilization. Such a civilization had an energy output equivalent to our Sun in theory. In observable terms, the Tsar Bomba thermonuclear weapon, the largest man-made explosion in history, detonated by the Soviet Union in 1961 generated 1 yottawatts worth of power for a second, compared to 382 yottawatts generated by the sun. With that kind of power output, making a huge object fly wouldn’t be too difficult with adequate engineering knowledge and material even with inefficient power systems. Beyond the incredible appearance, the presence of such a power source demonstrated that I couldn’t win against them even if I gained the throne of England. None of the knowledge that I had access to beyond theoretical human concepts could explain it. I knew there was missing knowledge, but such a leap of technology was like Cro-Magnon humans going from hunter-gatherers to nuclear submarines.

Mary and her entourage left their tent when the sky fortress hovered over our location. William Cecil looked grim and solemn.

Mary’s voice was amplified to be heard by all the stunned soldiers and nobles that had come to this camp, “God has granted me his great sword. I shall unleash his might on the false Queen and her minions.”

A brilliant flash of light burst from the sky fortress to form a bolt of lightning that jetted towards London. For three minutes, a stream of sixty bolts were fired at London with booming sounds of destruction being heard at the camp. I learned that John Dudley, Guilford Dudley, and Jane Grey were killed in the first hit on Whitehall Palace. Luckily, Thomas Tallis and many of our informants were not killed in the surrounding buildings that collapsed due to the bombardment. Though Whitehall Palace would have been destroyed in 1691 due to a fire, the additional destruction of Hampton Court Palace and Saint James Palace along with several historical buildings were major divergences from history as Royal residences. However, Mary did not target the Tower of London, used by William the Conqueror as an administrative palace, or Westminster Palace, where Parliament regularly met, so she had retained a semblance of national administration. Such things were little comfort to the thousands of men, women, and children the bombardment had killed within minutes.

The swift destruction of John Dudley and all those who followed him frightened me and everyone around me. Winston Churchill noted this truth about air power, “For good or for ill, air mastery is today the supreme expression of military power, and fleets and armies, however vital and important, must accept a subordinate rank.” Mary through her allies had achieved mastery of the air in an age of horse and sail.