Matilda, Daughter of Henry I | History Extra

Another great article in History Extra, this time by historian Helen Castor on one of England's more enigmatic pseudo-Queens of England - Matilda, Empress and daughter of King Henry I of England (March 2012).

A little snippet for you - read more here @ History Extra:

Matilda’s story left a complex and ambiguous precedent in English politics. Women could pass on the throne to their male heirs, that much was clear, and no principle had been explicitly established to exclude them from the succession.

All that stood in the way of Matilda’s path to the throne, it transpired, was another coup exactly like the one that had made her father king. The result was civil war. Despite her sex, Matilda’s claim was not dismissed out of hand by the nobles she sought to rule. 

Matilda is a fascinating character - much has been written about her and her times, most notably, “Queen Emma & Queen Edith: Queenship and Women’s Power in Eleventh-Century England” by Pauline Stafford, and “The Empress Matilda: Queen Consort, Queen Mother and Lady of the English” by Majorie Chibnall.

Passive Pawn or Lady Macbeth: Who was Richard III's queen?

Amy Licence talks about her journey to discover more on Anne Neville, wife to King Richard III:

While researching Anne Neville; Richard III’s Tragic Queen, I was forced to seek some answers. This wasn’t easy; dead by the age of 28, Anne didn’t leave much of a paper trail, despite having been married first to a Prince of Wales, then to a King. Reading about Richard’s life, you get a sense of a shadowy figure at his elbow much of the time, who did not commit her feelings to paper and inspired few surviving descriptions. Anne is something of a historical void and it has been customary for romantic fiction to fill it with anachronistic interpretations, designed to suit the sensibilities of a modern audience. This works well in novels but it is no use when it comes to non-fiction, where this caricature is also rearing its one-dimensional head. Because Anne was female and the teenage subject of an arranged marriage, she has been cast as the pawn of great men, the victim of their schemes and the fickle turns of fortune. 

Read More Here @ NewStatesman

Elizabeth I - Virgin Queen? She was a right royal minx!

From Mail Online:

The England that the first Queen Elizabeth reigned over so gloriously for 45 years was obsessed with sex and awash with promiscuity. This unrestrained bawdiness was surprising for a nation that worshipped its head of state as an unblemished virgin.

By the standards of later ages — and even today — society then was especially open in its use of sexual language. Shakespeare’s plays are full of nudge-nudge references to rutting, scrambling, sluicing, ravening and lock-picking.

The playwright’s work mirrored and fed the erotic obsessions of the age. This was a land where prostitutes were known as Winchester geese because the Bishop of Winchester owned much of the property that housed London’s dens of vice.

Monogamy, chastity and celibacy must have been practised by some Elizabethans, but they were hardly the norm. And yet, at the helm of this vibrant and exciting nation — growing, getting richer, reaching out to new worlds — was a woman who suppressed her own desires.

She would not marry or have children, and remained for the 45 years of her reign the unassailable Virgin Queen.

Lost Diary of Queen Victoria's Final Companion

From the Telegraph:

'I am so very fond of him. He is so good and gentle and understanding… and is a real comfort to me.”

These were the words of Queen Victoria speaking to her daughter-in-law, Louise, Duchess of Connaught, on November 3, 1888, at Balmoral. Perhaps surprising, though, is who she was talking about – not her beloved husband, Albert, who had died in 1861. Nor John Brown, her loyal Scottish ghillie, who in many ways filled the void left by Albert, since Brown had died in 1883.

Instead, Queen Victoria was referring to Abdul Karim, her 24-year-old Indian servant.

Her relationship with Karim was one that sent shockwaves through the royal court – and ended up being one of the most scandalous periods of her 64-year reign.

Indeed, such was the ill-feeling that when Victoria died, her son King Edward ordered all records of their relationship, including correspondence and photographs, to be destroyed.

Why We Should Always Give The Crown To A Women.

From the Mail Online:

Given the impatience with which the Coalition has set about reforming everything from local government to the NHS, perhaps it’s not surprising that ministers have now got their teeth into the monarchy.

As the Mail reported earlier this week, it is considering amending the 1701 Act of ­Settlement so that a first-born girl can succeed the throne. Which means that if Prince William and Kate Middleton’s first child is a daughter, that baby would be our future queen.

Constitutional conservatives are up in arms — yet throughout our long royal history, the female of the species has generally proved far more competent than the male.

Treason Against the Queen

From the Perogatives of a Queen Consort of England:

Of Its Being Treason To Plot Against Her - Compassing or imaging the Death of our Lady Queen, violating the King's Companion, is Treason.

The following article pertains to the curious case of Anne Boleyn:

Poem Dedicated to Adelaide of Louvain

Noble Deeds of Women - Benevolence

Anne Boleyn: Fatal Attractions

From the Guardian:

A new biography of Anne Boleyn is set to claim that, far from being framed for adultery, Henry VIII's second queen may not have been innocent of the affairs for which she was sentenced to death.

Of the conclusions he draws from this latest evidence, Bernard says, "It's a hypothesis – not a proof. In a court of law you might not condemn her for the crime, but I don't think you'd acquit her either."

His biography, Anne Boleyn: Fatal Attractions, due out from Yale University Press in April, also disputes the view that Anne held back from sexual relations with Henry until he agreed to make her his queen, claiming that it is "highly implausible". He believes that it was Henry, not Anne, who held back, on the grounds that he wanted their children to be his legitimate heirs. "He would, I suspect, have been astonished and horrified to discover that later generations have supposed he did not sleep with Anne in those years because she would not let him," Bernard says.

Debunking the Myth of Lady Jane Grey

Excerpt from the article "Debunking the Myth of Lady Jane Grey" by Leanda de Lisle in Intelligent Life:

Lady Jane Grey is mythologised, even festishised, as an innocent girl sacrificed on the altar of her mother's ambition. But behind the popular biographies of the Tudor Queen lies a different story of misogyny and masochism. It seems the much-maligned mother is in fact the victim.

When I began researching for "The Sisters Who Would be Queen", my triple biography of Lady Jane and her sisters, Katherine and Mary Grey, I hoped the well-known life of the iconic teenage Queen, would lend some insight to the younger sisters, the forgotten heirs to Elizabeth Tudor. I assumed there would be little new to day about Jane herself. But as I began my research it became clear that nothing written about Jane could be trusted. The first woman to wield the power of a Tudor monarch had been reduced, over time, to an eroticised image of female helplessness. Meanwhile, her conventional mother became the embodiment of the belief that powerful women are monstrous and mannish.

Review: Queens Consort

From Lesley McDowell @ The Independent:

Probably the most notorious of England's medieval queens was Isabella of France, the wife of Edward II – few of us don't know about the red-hot poker murder that ended his life, a grisly death meant also to signify Edward's homosexual practices. Isabella, who was considered responsible for the murder and the manner of it, largely escaped punishment even though she was, as Hilton notes, a queen who "had managed to do something practically unthinkable: to depose an anointed king". She also dispels another myth: the red-hot poker story may have inspired Derek Jarman and Christopher Marlowe, but it probably wasn't true.

Still, Isabella is a good example of just how much power a medieval queen could wield. Biographies of some of the better-known power-brokers, such as Eleanor of Aquitaine (whose ambitions eventually led to her imprisonment) and Eleanor of Castile, the avaricious wife of Edward I, could have dominated, but the story of Matilda of Flanders, the wife of William the Conqueror, shows a spirited descendant of French kings who initially refused marriage to her illegitimate husband, and might have had a mistress of William's put to death.

Even those women who initially seemed powerless – such as the nine-year-old wife of King John, Isabella of Angoulême, or the commoner, Elizabeth Woodville, wife of Edward IV – found ways either to control their husbands, or take advantage of them. We know from the later actions of Henry VIII just how vulnerable royal wives could be to the caprices of the king, but many of the medieval queens here seem surprisingly secure in comparison. That Adeliza, second wife of Henry I, should be the founder of the family line that produced Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, two of Henry VIII's beheaded wives, shows just how much power slipped from queens between the medieval era and the time of the Tudors. A fascinating
study.

Having read the book myself some months ago, I found that the author was trying to put forward a more "sensationalised" style of book - which I suppose can be very eye catching for the new reader. A nice read nonetheless.

Book Review: Queen Victoria

By Megan Marshall in the NYT Sunday Book Review:

Now Gillian Gill has done it: follow up a distinctive portrait of Florence Nightingale, England’s sainted Lady With the Lamp, with a magisterial treatment of Queen Victoria. It’s the one-two punch of 19th-century British biography.

In “We Two,” Gill aims in the opposite direction: the Queen Victoria she gives us in this closely drawn portrait of a royal marriage is a more ordinary woman than we might have supposed. The longest-ruling monarch in British history suffered greatly under what the queen herself called “the yoke” of matrimony, enduring nine pregnancies in the first two decades of her reign — which left her an outsider at her own court, relegated to the “shadow side” of life ...

Understanding Bloody Mary

Article by Christopher Howse @ the Telegraph:

Executions were in the spirit of the age. Henry VIII had burnt Lutherans for heresy, and his daughter did the same in greater numbers. In less than four years her judges sent 280 Protestants to the stake. It was "the most intense religious persecution of its kind anywhere in Europe" writes Eamon Duffy in his new book Fires of Faith (Yale, £19.99). But he argues that the "received perception of the campaign of burnings, as manifestly unsuccessful and self-defeating, is quite mistaken".

Professor Duffy is our leading expert on religion in the Tudor period, and his account of the reign of Mary (1553-58) is an expansion of a chapter in The Stripping of the Altars (1994). That book was a lastingly influential picture of the vitality of traditional belief in England between 1400 and 1580. Now he has done for the policy of Mary Tudor (below) what Henry Kamen did in 1998 for the Spanish Inquisition in a book of his own – exploding myths and explaining thinking of the time.

Anne Boleyn - A Scandalous Life

From the Telegraph:

Salacious details of how Anne Boleyn was said to have cheated on Henry VIII with her own brother are contained in documents which have been put on the internet for the first time.

An official account of her trial in 1536, including graphic claims of incest, features in an online exhibition to mark the 500th anniversary of the Tudor monarch's accession to the throne.

Anne's relationship with Henry set the course of British history, triggering England's split with Rome amid his divorce from his first wife Catherine of Aragon.

 

The collection also includes a court document relating to that divorce and a letter dealing with his later plans to cut ties with his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves, because of disappointment in the bedroom.

There is also a section of Valor Ecclesiasticus, the valuation of church lands before the dissolution of the monasteries, which has been described as Henry VIII's equivalent to the Domesday Book.

They have been digitised as part of an online exhibition showcasing parchments from Henry's reign which are held by National Archives to mark the anniversary of his accession in 1509.

History: too "feminized"

From the Telegraph
"..... Dr Starkey said he found it "bizarre" that so much historical effort was now focused on the monarch's wives.

"But it's what you expect from feminised history, the fact that so many of the writers who write about this are women and so much of their audience is a female audience. Unhappy marriages are big box office."

Dr Starkey went further, by saying that modern attempts to paint many women in history as "power players" was to falsify the facts. "

So, its okay for men to write about men but not okay for women to write about women?? And we should now not delve into history and write about women who had both power and influence because its all about the male ego and the male achievements. Nor should we womenfolk concern ourselves with the marital goings-on of our historical monarchs, much less write about such flights of fancy (ala Mills & Boon). Do I detect the rantings of a man still stuck in the pages of history himself????

Maybe Dr Starkey should direct his attention to Dr John Knox for his next book - they have so much in common!

The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women
Letter to the Queen Dowager, Regent of Scotland

Queen Victoria's Diaries

From the Blog of History Today Magazine:

"Extracts from Queen Victoria’s journal describing her three-day visit to Arundel Castle with Prince Albert in December 1846, as the guests of the Duke and Duchess of Norfolk, have recently been discovered in the castle’s archives. The extracts, which are copied from the original manuscripts in the royal archives at Windsor Castle, were unearthed by Penny Horsfield, Arundel Castle’s Head Guide, whilst looking through a collection of long-forgotten papers in the archives. They provide detailed descriptions of the couple’s stay, from the entertainment organised in the evenings to their daily activities, walks in the castle grounds and excursions to the surrounding countryside, and offer a fascinating insight into the personal views of the queen."

Romancing the Queen

Where do you go when you want to woo your Queen - why, to the "Glory of England" of course.

The "Glory of England" was created by Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester at a time when he hoped to persuade Elizabeth I to marry him. ".. the garden was designed with romance in mind and includes a bejewelled aviary, and 18-foot-high fountain carved from dazzling Carrara marble as well as flowers, fruits and trees.

The lost, one-acre garden, which was discovered during excavation work at the Castle, will present the most complete picture of an Elizabethan courtly garden anywhere in the world."

According to John Watkins, English Heritage's Head of Gardens and Landscape: "The 16th century garden was highly sensual. Perfume was an essential part of the garden experience and the clove-scented carnation was an important high status plant, crucial in the heady summer cocktail of strawberries, roses, stocks, peonies and pinks."

Plans are now underway to re-create this Elizabethan pleasure-spot - however, public help is needed in tracking down varieties of carnation that would have been available in the 16th Century.

"400 years ago the carnation was considered one of the most beautiful flowers around. It is hoped they will provide the finishing touches to the garden at Kenilworth Castle, Warwicks, where the Queen was romanced by Robert Dudley, the Earl of Leicester."

Source: The Telegraph
Website: English Heritage
Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester - The Luminarium Encyclopedia
Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester - National Portrait Gallery

Margaret of Anjou

Queen of England

Queen of Henry VI of England. Margaret was born (23/3/1429) at Pont-a-Mousson, Lorraine. She was the daughter of Duke Rene of Anjou (King of Naples and Sicily) by his first wife Isabelle, Duchess of Lorraine. She was also the niece of Charles VII of France. Margaret was promised to Henry when she was still young - they were married by proxy (24 May 1444) . Aged 15yo, Margaret was married to 24yo Henry (22/4/1445) at Titchfield Abbey. Then she was crowned at Westminster Abbey (30/5/1445).

Margaret had been educated at the French court, and was an intelligent, pretty, and strongminded young woman. As a result, Margaret tended to dominate Henry and was very determined to keep him on throne (remembering that this was the period in English history known as the War of the Roses between the Lancastrians and Yorkists). As Queen of England, Margaret headed the Lancastrian forces. She also controlled the government of England and husband during his fits of insanity (1445 - 1453). After many years of childlessness, Margaret gave birth to a son, Edward of Lancaster (1453) - to whom she was devoted. Henry was deposed by Yorkists (1461): after the Lancastrians defeated Warwick at St. Albans, they hesitated and lost chance. The Yorkist won a victory at Towton, which put Edward IV on the throne of England.

Margaret, with her young son in tow, fled to Scotland and thence to France (1461). She was not long there when she returned to England and invaded Northumbria (1462). But this did not achieve anything so Margaret once again returned to France. Gathering her forces, Margaret again landed in England (1470); this time she was strong enough, her army prevailed and Henry was replaced on the throne of England. But her success was shortlived and the Lancastrian forces were defeated by Yorkists at Tewkesbury. It was in the battle that Margaret's son was killed.

When Edward IV regained the throne, Henry VI was soon put to death in Tower of London - said he was killed whilst at prayer (21/5/1471). Margaret herself was captured and imprisoned in Tower. Edward IV eventually ransomed her to King Louis XI and she was allowed to return to France. Margaret spent rest of her life in seclusion. She died (25/8/1482) at Chateaude Dampiere, near Saumur, and was buried in Angers Cathedral.

Eleanor of Aquitaine and Peter of Blois

How many of you have read Peter of Blois' "Letter to Eleanor of Aquitaine" (1173)??? You can find a translation by M.Markowski at the Internet Medieval Sourcebook. It makes for very interesting reading.

Essentially, in 1173 Peter of Blois wrote a rather misogynist letter to Eleanor of Aquitaine, chastising her for creating dissent between herself and her husband, Henry II, and between her sons and their father. Peter was requested to write this letter on behalf of Archbishop Rotrou of Rouen, whom it is alleged was prompted to do so by Henry II of England.

The Church in the medieval period was still blaming the woes of mankind upon the sins of Eve - she who took the apple from the serpent must still be held accountable for all that follows. At no stage must Man himself take responsibility for his actions.

In this extraordinary letter, Peter lays the blame for all of Henry II’s “ills” firmly at the door of Eleanor, who dared to remove herself from Henry’s household. She alone is held to blame for the civil strife that permeated throughout Henry’s Kingdom - both in England and on the Continent.

“So the woman is at fault who leaves her husband and fails to keep the trust of this social bond.” And “We know that unless you return to your husband, you will be the cause of widespread disaster. While you alone are now the delinquent one, your actions will result in ruin for everyone in the kingdom.”

At no stage is Henry himself called upon to be held accountable for his own actions - no blame his wife. And as long as Eleanor returns to her husband - peace will be restored.

“In your reconciliation, peace will be restored from distress, and in your return, joy may return to all."

A rather interesting take on the situation. Was Peter so blind that he could not see the forest for the trees? Surely, this is an overly simplistic solution to a problem that had been brewing for years.

And then this bit:
“We are certain that he will show you every possible kindness and the surest guarantee of safety.”

So, all will be forgiven upon Eleanor's return to the marital fold. And just where did Eleanor spend the next ten years of her life - oh, that’s right - imprisoned by Henry. This is the "kindness" Henry shows all who come to seek his forgiveness.

But what of Henry - how is he coping with the absence of his rebellious wife and brood:
“He has suffered many anxieties, offenses and grievances.”

So, the disaffection of Eleanor and her sons was starting to cause Henry II to receive some “bad press”.

“…you provoke disaster for the lord king, to whom powerful kings bow the neck”

All the other rulers were laughing and calling him names behind his back! Yes, poor Henry - he suffered so much - with all this dissent,how could he be expected to rule in a calm and rational manner - how could he decide which prelate to cause to be murdered, which of his son’s fiancés to take to his bed, or how many towns to over-tax to support his military campaigns.

But Eleanor is not exhorted to merely return to Henry, so that all can return to normal. No, she must “come back to [her] senses, with sorrow and tears” - in other words, it is Eleanor who must repent, on bended knees, begging to be allowed to return to her husband - fully contrite for her sins in daring to leave him. There is no indication of Henry repenting his sins, or accepting to take some of the blame for the obvious breakdown of the marriage, nor is Henry required to show remorse. No - the blame is solely Eleanor’s to bear - and she alone must take full responsibility not only for the reconciliation but the contrition and penance.

Career of Peter and its context with the history of England.
And what of the man who wrote this letter to Eleanor - let us look at a little of his history and career.

Peter of Blois was a student of Law at Bologna and studied Theology in Paris. In the same year that Becket was appointed Papal Legate to England, Peter accompanied Stephen de Perche (relative of Archbishop Rotrou of Rouen) to Sicily (1166). Stephen became Archbishop of Palermo and Chancellor to the Dowager Queen, Margaret of Navarre. Peter became tutor to Margaret’s son, King William II of Sicily the following year (1167). In this year, Eleanor left England for Aquitaine.

When the Sicilians led a rebellion against Stephen, the French contingent left Sicily (1169) - Stephen went on to Jerusalem, whilst Peter of Blois returned to France. The following year (January 1170), the Pope demands that Henry II become reconciled with Becket, who returns to England (December 1st 1170) and is murdered (December 29th 1170).

Three years later (1173) we find Peter of Blois has entered the service of Henry II of England as a diplomat. Despite the rift between Henry and his sons (March 1173) there is an attempted reconciliation. Peter will advance in the service of Henry II, becoming Chancellor to the new Archbishop of Canterbury and Chief Counsellor to Henry II himself.

Henry II attacks Eleanor’s court at Poitiers (1174) and Eleanor finds herself exiled or “imprisoned” in England (June 1174). Henry II wants to divorce Eleanor - she refuses (October 1175) and even the Papal Curia refuse Henry’s request (1177). That same year, Henry and Eleanor’s daughter marries King William II of Sicily (1177) - Peter’s former pupil. Peter travels to Rome (1177) and Verona (1187) on diplomatic business for Henry II.

However, with the death of Henry II (1189), Peter finds himself in disgrace - he does not attain a position at the court of Richard I. Where does Peter eventually find a position - as Latin Secretary to the widowed Dowager Queen Eleanor!

But what is equally ironic is that despite this letter written to Eleanor (1173) chastising her on her behaviour and exhorting her to return, upon pain of ecclesiastical action, to her husband and put a stop to her opposition, Peter wrote a number of letters which directly addressed the status of women in his day. In fact many of the letters openly encourage women to take authority over their own lives and promoted gender equality, based on Biblical teachings.

So, whilst promoting the modern-day feminist ideals of equality of the sexes on the one hand, on the other Peter is preaching the subservience of one sex to another. What is a medieval woman supposed to think???

(full article: Women of History - Eleanor of Aquitaine and Peter of Blois)

Death Warrant of Mary Queen of Scots

A copy of the warrant for the execution of Mary Queen of Scots "has been acquired by the library of the Archbishop of Canterbury at Lambeth Palace for £72,485, with the help of heritage bodies' donations."

According to a BBC News article dated 19th February 2008:
"The Catholic Queen was executed on 8 February 1587 at Fotheringhay Castle in Northamptonshire. Her cousin, Elizabeth I, signed the warrant but later claimed she had given no instruction for its enactment. The original warrant disappeared in the recriminations which followed.

Robert Beale, principal clerk to the Privy Council, was responsible for bearing the warrant to the commissioners.

They were instructed to "repair to our Castell of Fotheringhaye where the said queene of Scottes is in custodie and cause by your commaundement execution to be don uppon her person".

The document, which includes Beale's annotation, was delivered by him to Henry Grey, 6th Earl of Kent - one of the two commissioners who organised the execution. "

From a BBC News August 2006 article ~~~ Mary Queen of Scots Death Mask