Midsummer

Midsummer is a charged seasonal moment in which the uncertain outcome of Anne Boleyn’s pregnancy exposes the pressure royal childbearing places on marriage, succession, and courtly life. The event remains partly concealed: the women attending the queen do not disclose what, if anything, can be buried, while the court cannot agree whether the lost child was a boy or a girl.

The Queen’s Apartments

At Midsummer, women hurry to the queen’s apartments carrying clean linen. Their shocked, blank expressions and swift passage signal that something has gone wrong, though they offer no explanation. Fires are lit inside the apartments to burn what has bled away; if there is anything to bury, the women keep it secret. Their silence makes the event both a private crisis and an absence around which the court begins to speculate.

An Uncertain Heir

The lords and ladies pay the maids and midwives to say what sex the child was, but their answers differ each time. The uncertainty leaves the court suspended between two painful possibilities: Anne may have conceived another girl, or she may have conceived and miscarried a boy. The question matters beyond the immediate loss, because the sex of the child bears directly on the royal succession.

Henry’s Explanation

That night, Henry tells Thomas Cromwell that he blames Katherine, claiming that she ill-wishes him and has deceived him about her ability to bear a son. He describes her as an obstacle between himself and Anne, interpreting the pregnancy crisis through the bitter conflict over his marriage. His accusations reveal his perspective rather than establish Katherine’s responsibility; the passage places his explanation beside the concealed loss and the conflicting reports from the women who attended Anne.

Public Celebration and Contrast

Across London, bonfires burn through the short nights, while dragons move through the streets, puffing smoke and clattering their mechanical wings. The public spectacle stands in sharp contrast to the private uncertainty inside the queen’s apartments. Midsummer thus joins celebration to concealed grief: the city stages festivity as the royal household confronts an outcome it cannot publicly clarify.