France

France emerges as England's key diplomatic partner across the Channel, a kingdom ripe for marriage alliances that secure thrones. Anne Boleyn sends Cromwell there to negotiate Princess Elizabeth's betrothal to a French prince, countering imperial threats and cementing her daughter's legitimacy amid postpartum paranoia in Greenwich's chambers. Previously, Wolsey eyed it for a cardinals' council to sway Pope Clement VII and resolve Henry's annulment; it later swallowed his exiled train, wagons ferrying the fallen cardinal to uncertain shores as Cromwell witnessed the rout.