Welcome, I hope you will enjoy your stay here â!
I'm Niniane and I'm passionate about women's history. My sideblog is City of Ladies. From queens to warriors and artists, it's the place to learn about the women who made history.
My other hobbies include reading (mainly historical fiction, fantasy and non-fiction), drawing, cooking, journaling...and of course, writing!
I write both original stories and fanfictions and am a proud OC creator.
â§My current speciality is writing about age of sail media (currently Master and Commander and The Terror). But it comes with a twist: I'm adding more women to these stories by taking advantage of all the possibilities history has to offer!
â§Daughter of the dawn is my current WIP. It comes with both English and French versions.
Here are some important tags for navigation:
⧠#my ocs for information about my original characters (#Mary being the heroine of my current WIP.)
⧠#women in history for well...women in history, with special focus on: #warrior women #seawomen and #protofeminists
â§#niniane's drawing journey because I draw things sometimes, for fun and without pretension
"Like most people remembered in memorial brasses, Elizabeth Etchingham and Agnes Oxenbridge were well born, both daughters of gentry families with properties in Sussex, Kent, and beyond. Their homes were close by, and like others of their status, they were probably raised at home until adolescence and then placed for several years in another elite household; they would certainly have known each other in childhood, and they easily could have lived for several years in the same household.
Both would have been expected to marry in their late teens or twenties, although a few well-born daughters (about one in every twenty) did not marry, by choice or happenstance. Only a handful entered nunneries; the rest, supported by modest bequests from their parents, passed their lives as dependents within their families. Usually identified as âmaidensâ or âsinglewomen,â they paid their own way in both coin and family service.
Contemporary records offer no further information about Elizabeth Etchingham and Agnes Oxenbridge, and like other maidens, they were quickly effaced in family memory. Everything we know comes from the memorial itself. The brass offers two clear indications that both were never-married: no husbands are mentioned in their inscriptions, and the uncovered headsâand, in the case of Elizabeth Etchingham, long f lowing hairâof their effigies were conventional signs of maidenhood. Elizabeth Etchingham was likely born in the 1420s and died by her mid-twenties; Agnes Oxenbridge was also likely born in the 1420s and was in her fifties when she died, almost three decades after Elizabeth Etchingham.
Although Elizabeth Etchinghamâs burial in her family church in 1452 was unremarkable, the internment in 1480 of Agnes Oxenbridge next to her, rather than in her family mausoleum at Brede, was exceptional.
The heads of both families must have agreed to the unusual arrangements of 1480âThomas Etchingham II (Elizabethâs brother) accepting the burial of an Oxenbridge woman in his family church, and Robert Oxenbridge III allowing his sister to lie away from their family vault. But it is unlikely that either brother instigated this unusual commemoration; instead, Agnes Oxenbridge herself probably requested it, as was then the custom, in a deathbed will that no longer survives. Of course, Agnes Oxenbridgeâs instructions could have been ignored, modified, or poorly implemented, so the actual execution of the Etchingham-Oxenbridge monument relied on a collaboration involving the man in whose church it was to be laid (Thomas Etchingham II), her survivors (especially Robert Oxenbridge III), and the London workshop that got the commission (denoted as workshop F by students of brass styles). As a product of so much collective effort, this memorial brass to two women must have been a scandal to no one at the time.
It nevertheless presented some creative challenges. First, the designers had to determine how to place the two effigies, given that most joint monuments commemorated married couples. Elizabeth Etchingham was assigned the conventional spot for husbands (the left, as viewed by observers), perhaps because the brass was destined for her family church, because her family was of more ancient origin, or because her smaller effigy presented less insult to husbandly prerogatives. Second, the designers had to distinguish a young, nubile maiden from her middle-aged counterpart. They used hairstyle and height to this end, differentiating the smaller maiden with youthful f lowing hair from her larger, coifed, and middle-aged companion.
Third, the designers had to express the relationship that caused these two women to be remembered together, and their decisions here are especially revealing. The design suggests that no oneânot Agnes Oxenbridge in pre-mortem requests, not Thomas Etchingham II and Robert Oxenbridge III acting on her behalf, and not the artisans in the workshopâshied away from representing the two women as an intimate couple. Indeed, the monument seems to have been designed with special emphasis on their warm affection. This affection was suggested, of course, by the simple fact of their joint brass, for most brasses with multiple figures remembered married personsâa motif generally understood as celebrating the closeness and fidelity of marriage. But the designers of this brass pushed beyond mere joint commemoration in stressing intimacy, for Elizabeth Etchingham and Agnes Oxenbridge were also deliberately shown facing each other, moving towards each other, and looking directly into each otherâs eyes.
Most contemporary joint effigies showed couples facing the front, much like bodies laid in tombs, but Elizabeth Etchingham and Agnes Oxenbridge were portrayed in semi-profile, turned towards each other. New and not yet standard, this pose derives partly from design developments extraneous to the specifics of this 1480 monumentâparticularly the patterns favored by workshop F and a desire to show in effigies the complex headdresses of the time. But the pose had an affective purpose too, for as Paul Binski has noted of other brasses, âthe turning of figures on their axis enabled the intimacy of marriage to be expressed.â The designers of the Etchingham-Oxenbridge brass evoked intimacy by adopting this inward turn, and they emphasized it even more by eschewing two features common in other brasses of workshop Fâa so-called âjauntyâ leaning of the figures away from each other and a draping of womenâs gowns in deep, immobilizing folds.Â
The effigies of Elizabeth Etchingham and Agnes Oxenbridge lack these distancing features and show, instead, the two women moving towards one another. As if to seal the affective power of the composition, the designers show Elizabeth Etchingham and Agnes Oxenbridge gazing directly into each otherâs eyes, even though most married couples in contemporary brasses stare past each other into the distance. Their brass unmistakably evokes more intimacy and mutual affection than do most contemporary monuments of husbands and wives."
Bennett Judith M., "Remembering Elizabeth Etchingham and Agnes Oxenbridge", in: The Lesbian Premodern
irritating as fuck when people get mad at Black people existing in premodern historical fiction/fantasy media. like first of all, you're racist. and second of all, you are acting as though Black people didn't exist in premodern Europe which is simply false. especially when we're talking about the Mediterranean, like what the fuck do you people think is along the southern half of the Mediterranean Ocean?? everyone's on boats, there are GOING to be interactions with Black people in Northern Africa, and there are GOING to be Black people in Mediterranean Europe. stop being stupid. your imagined homogeneous white European past is not historical reality, get over it you massive losers
The same with Arab and Asian people of all sorts. Because it turns out that those continents were all connected and people moved over them and traded and had wars and what not. And at times people who came to a place because of war or because of trade or just because they were curious just stayed in those other places, because it turns out that is a thing that humans do. And we have historical documents that proof all of this.
Though I will also add: anyone who whines about anything in regards to fantasy media being "not realistic" for featuring really any minority, I wish an amazing "shut the fuck up, real historical setting X did not feature elves, dragons, or magic, so you taking offense with Black people is just about your racism and not about realism in the first place, because DRAGON."
one thing that i find interesting is that even though we never get to interact with Marika directly, only knowing her via obscure cutscenes and other characters' dialogue... she actually displays a wide range of emotions as much as any other NPCs.
her statues depict her as having a warm, gentle smile:
the Mimic veil description points to her playful, mischievous side:
(it's a popular theory in the JP/Asian side of the fandom that it's sth from her childhood - hence the "Marika's Mischief", not "Queen Marika's", and she used it to escape the grisly fate befalling her family.
additionally, its equivalence in Dark Souls is also something described as "the mischief of a young girl who sought relief from the solitude of the woods at dusk", aka Princess Dusk who hails from "Oolacile, land of ancient golden sorceries", but i digress)
her portrait, the story trailer's "Queen Marika was driven to the brink" and Gideon's dialogue after the player defeated Malenia pointed out her sorrow:
(back when i first played the base game, this is the portrait that drove my eyes most in Roundtable Hold. i kept gazing at her - the Queen with permanently lowered eyes, and thought "there is a girl in there")
The bat lady's song, Messmer's entire Crusade, all those conflicts to establish the Erdtree, shows her anger, and the cruelty she's capable of:
Then there's Shaman's village, the clinic underneath Shadow Keep, the golden braid, the Minor Erdtree, the sealing of Death - that points to grief, trauma, survivor guilt, kindness, and the ruinous drive for revenge that results in the above path down hell:
(there's also a theory for the Crusade's headless statue being a reminder for the Hornsent of what they put Marika's mother through, but it's not concrete canon so here is the link if you want to check it out)
The fact that all of Erdtree's incantations are heal and protection spells (with only one exception of Wrath of Gold spell which was found after the Elden Ring was shattered), the Capitol's Perfumers originally being blessed healers, and that all Erdtree blessings come in the shape of tears give the picture of Marika's gentle wish at the beginning: to heal everything and everyone.
(and to me personally, there's a kind of vulnerability and honesty in showing your tears to the world and let it be your power to heal at the same time.)
the eye she blessed Messmer with (i do think the Eng translation at some part lost the sentiment of the JP text - that the eye is always referred to as a blessing)
the blessing flask that - unlike its Dark Souls equivalent (which ranges from 6-13 flasks), only have 4 available to us player, heal all ailments and status effect, and specified as sth made for Messmer.
the Marika's soreseal in the Haligtree + the waterfall near Godwyn's final resting place
the Regal Omen Bairn (that was fashioned after the Jizo statue - sth made by grieving parents wishing for protection for their deceased child in the afterlife)
the blessing, gifts, equipment that Messmer and Godwyn's personal knights all get
the fact that Marika's bedchamber and the Impaler's Catacomb (which is the only catacomb in the base game to have the spike trap mechanic used in catacombs in the DLC) remain the proof of Messmer's existence in the base game
how Godwyn's ending is the only ending where the mending rune is placed on the position of Marika's womb (the lower arc or the Elden Ring - also referred to as the basin in which its blessings pool)
that's a whole barrage of motherhood. the love, the fear, the postpartum depression, the guilt and anxiety, (the occasional scheming for revenge with her son). and despite how flawed and tragic that love ends up being for all of them, it is there.
(there's a whole subplot about how Messmer is the only demigod to be called ugly in-game (Hornsent npc dialogue) while Boc's questline is about how his mother being the only one to always assure him he's beautiful, despite everyone else calling him ugly. and how each NPCs questline does reflect a wider theme seen in Marika and her children. but again, i digress)
every time i think of her, Marika is a constantly shifting kaleidoscope, holding everything from within (the beauty and the malign, light and dark, birth and death, she's warm and gentle, she's cruel and unjust, she's strong and kind, she's weak and resentful, she's sweet and she's bitterness made flesh)... and i could only stand there and admire it all.
Maker: Herter Brothers (German, active New York, 1864â1906) Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â
Date:1879â82 Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Geography: Made in New York, New York, United StatesÂ
on june and doing it scared (or; I went to my first pride.)
!! PLEASE REBLOG !!
margaret atwood // jeremy miranda // disney, tangled // unknown // i saw the tv glow // @/girls4losers // mahmoud darwish // X // unknown // next to normal // stray // kafka // misun holdorf // susan jeffers // ana-laura sullivan // susan jeffers again // a-ha // unknown // ocean vuong
Okay, if you are tired then you won't be able to read. There I say it. No one else want to say it. It is strange. If you are tired, if you cannot finish a book that's a given. That's why you need to read...at work. You need to steal your reading time from your employers.
I feel like I need to share this because idk if Europeans are familiar with the presence of Aldi in the US, but at least especially in my area theyâve been growing a lot recently. Like Aldi bought out some local failing grocery chains where I live (Louisiana) and have opened Aldis in all these somewhat rural communities and small towns, which for the record Iâm fine with
But as a result of this they are advertising a lot more in my area and also in many cases, the people in these areas have never been confronted with Aldi or any European grocery store. So the ads that Aldi is pushing out to its new US customer base feature a cowboy shopping at Aldi who is explaining to new Aldi customers how Aldi works. Like this cowboy is explaining you gotta put a quarter in the shopping cart and why there are very little name brands. A cowboy is how they want to reach their American customer base. They gave us a cowboy
However, I recently read an interesting historical fact. Bashkir and Russian Cossacks (not ethnic Russians, but subjects of the Russian Empire - I must add this important note!) used to wear earrings.
This tradition had a specific military meaning. An earring in the left ear meant the man was the only son of a single mother. An earring in the right ear meant he was the last surviving son and the sole breadwinner in the family. This clear marker helped commanders protect them and keep them out of the deadliest parts of a battle. Today, this custom is considered a legacy of the steppe nomadic culture.
It's truly fascinating! I first noticed this while reading updates about the Salavat Yulaev monument. Sadly, the news makes it sound as if the monument might never be returned to the people.
Trying to explain to a Bridgerton fan that the show choosing to characterize their one female character who does not desire marriage or children, who wants to go to college, and who is frustrated because all of her female peers buy into the system and she cannot find a companion who shares her desires as being selfish, and childish, and telling the audience that this is a phase she will soon outgrow when she unlocks her true 'maternal' side at the expense of a black woman's life is actually really problematic, but then they start speaking and you realize they're lowkey racist, misogynistic, tradwife ideologists, who don't see the issue with this stuff because they genuinely believe in it
Eloise and Benedict's dynamic is both so important and so, so sad to me because like, here are two siblings, both second-born, both have great passion, and both want something greater than the conventional life their society is offering them, they are the only two people that truly seem to understand each other, and so they really only have each other to confide in
But the thing is that Benedict is ultimately allowed to have what he wants, he gets to study art, he gets to be a rake, and explore his sexuality, he gets to marry below his station, and he gets to explore who he is, and what he wants, and nobody stops him
And then you have Eloise, who gets... none of that
While the show allows Benedict to explore who he is outside of the confines of the ton, the showâand the fandomâpunishes Eloise anytime she tries to do anything that is not expected of her
She enjoys writing? Violet belittles her interests and the show absolutely refuses to allow her to pursue this
She attends political rallies? She is outed to the ton, and her entire political plotline is dropped
She falls in love with a working class man, who is literally the only person in the show who actually cares to hear what she thinks? Penelope sabotages that relationship to stop Eloise from finding out her Whistledown secret
Eloise doesn't want to get married? Violet is going to punish her for it, and when Eloise is upset about it, the show is going to demonize her, and make her apologize for not loving the tradwife lessons being forced on her
Eloise wants to be a spinster? Violet is going to punish her, and the show is going to make it seem as though what Eloise wants is ridiculous, isolating, and lonely, as if there weren't societies for spinsters as 25% of noble women in that era remained unmarried
The show lets Benedict be different, it lets Benedict explore who he is, and it rewards his unconventionality
But Eloise? She is insulted, and belittled, and constantly beaten down by everyone around her, so that when becomes a man's live-in bangmaid and stepmother to children she never wanted, the audience sees it as plausible because she's now a shell of the woman she once was
This isn't character development, this is literally a twisted alt-right fantasy of leftist/childfree women being 'fixed' by a man and conforming to societal norms, becoming tradwives because their feminism and independence was really just a byproduct of how lonely they really were or some bullshit like that
The fact that the show used essentially the same archetype for two of its main characters, but the man is rewarded for the very same traits that his female counterpart is consistently punished and humiliated by the narrative for displaying is very telling of the writers mentality, and how they view feminist/childfree women
They made Eloise apologize for not loving the patriarchy or being interested in the tradwife lessons she was being forced to attend as punishment for being unmarried, and then degraded a prominent early feminist author for not 'valuing love' enough...
I am going to kill everyone in that writers room and then myself, genuinely what the fuck was that
1. Eloise didnât âapologize for not loving the patriarchyâ, she apologized for not taking her sisterâs interests seriously. Eloise attended Hyacinthâs finishing lessonsâan endeavor that she took very seriouslyâand spent the entire time cracking jokes and taking none of it seriously. It would be akin to your sister coming to your wedding just to make fun of the decorations and spend the whole time talking about how stupid marriage is.
2. And Violet asked Eloise to attend Hyacinthâs finishing lessons because she had declared herself âon the shelfâ and Violet wanted Eloise to still be a productive member of her family; if Eloise was not going to pursue marriage then she could at least relieve Violet of some of her chaperoning duties so she doesnât have to attend finishing lessons for the fourth child in a row. And mind you, Eloise pure herself in this position by declaring that she was âon the shelfâ.
3. A core theme of Eloiseâs character is her fear of love, whether it be familial, platonic, or romantic. She specifically fears romantic love because she fears losing herself in those relationships. Eloise has goals and ambitions and dreamsâmaybe more than any other female character on the showâand she is surrounded by a society and group of men who value none of that. But as she opens herself up to the love of her friends and family in these past three season, she learns that true, unconditional love does not force you to hide, it allows you to act freely and love openly.
All respect to the OP, they are completely entitled to their feelings about Eloiseâs arc over the whole show as well as this season specifically. I just wanted present a different, more positive perspective on her behavior.
1. Eloise did not want to be at those lessons, and Hyacinth was well aware that Eloise had no interest in being there, she even insulted her over them ("You might learn something from the lesson on posture") but nobody cares about how little regard Hyacinth shows her there. And when has Hyacinth ever taken any of Eloise's interests seriously? When has anybody? Nobody cares about what Eloise has to say, or think, yet the only character that ever needs to apologize is Eloise because she doesn't want to engage in a discussion about the lessons on table setting that she was already subjected to. Not to mention, Hyacinth has literally a ton full of women who share these interests because they're the only thing women are allowed to like, whilst Eloise is the only one who actually thinks outside the confines of the ton and is constantly ridiculed for it, I'm so sorry, but I really fail to see how Hyacinth, of all people, is the victim here
2. Violet did not ask Eloise, that would imply Eloise was there willingly, she told Eloise she could either be forced to talk to suitors again, or she could go to the lessons, that's hardly a choice, and it wasn't because she wanted Eloise to be productive, it was because Violet knew Eloise hated those lessons and was hoping it would be enough to force Eloise back on the market, because Violet is a controlling, selfish, manipulative, absolutely awful excuse of a mother, if this was the modern era, Eloise would've gone at least low-contact with her, and I would cheer. And I'm not going to respond to the comment on how Eloise "put herself in this position" because... yikes
3. Eloise is not afraid of familial or platonic love?? I don't know where that is coming from, she is so open with her love towards her friends and family, I genuinely don't know where this interpretation is coming from. And Eloise's aversion to marriage is way deeper than just being 'afraid of losing herself', it genuinely bugs me when people boil it down to that, because Eloise detests that marriage turns women into property of their husbands, who can do whatever they like to their wives and face no consequences, that's not fear of losing herself, that's basic self-preservation. She also detests that marriage is the only thing women are allowed to have, she wants to go to university, she wants to travel the world, she wants to study, and explore more of who she is and what the world has to offerâbut the fandom has to boil it down to "she just doesn't understand the power of TRUE LOVE" because if they actually listened to what she said, they couldn't ignore how tone-deaf that argument is. Also, Eloise has been open to the love of her family and friends all these seasons, it is her family and friends that continue to ignore, sideline, and diminish her interests, and beat her into submission until she fits the tradwife mold. I don't understand how Eloise's arc could be read as being about about learning "that true, unconditional love does not force you to hide, it allows you to act freely and love openly" seeing as everything that has happened to Eloise has been... the exact opposite of that. She wasn't allowed to go to political rallies, she isn't allowed to just be a spinster in peace, like 25% of noble women in that eraâbecause her mom's a bitchâshe can't focus on writing in her journalâbecause her mom's a bitchâshe can't read in peaceâbecause her mom's a bitchâshe can't even choose to remain impartial to the presence of a childâbecause her mom's a bitch.
I completely understand what you're trying to say, and this is no hate to you, but Eloise's arc cannot be about how 'true love allows you to be yourself' when every aspect of Eloise is being degraded and belittled so that she can realistically become P*ilip's stepford wife. The show and characters do not let Eloise act freely and openly, they actively punish her whenever she tries, so her arc is more "women who are feminists are just stupid, whiny, privileged girls who do not understand love, and childfree women are just selfish, but it's okay, they just need a man to come and fix them and unlock their true maternal side, then they'll give up their desire for education, equal opportunity, and rights, because they'll have a husband and a family, and that's all that any woman needs!!"
(Evident by how they spoke of Mary Wollstonecraft and how Violet said she didn't need to be rebellious because she had TrUe LoVe)
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