queens an' tings

please note: this blog is very much a work in progress!

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In 1544, when the future Elizabeth I was 11 years old, she gave this book as a New Year’s gift to her stepmother, Katherine Parr. It contained Elizabeth’s own handwritten translation of a French meditational poem, with the beautiful binding also thought to have been her handiwork.

Source: History Hit (F'bk).

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The illustration above is of Catherine’s eldest son, Francis II, who became King of France at the age of 15, pictured with his wife Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots. As part of the marriage contract, she had signed a secret clause agreeing that if the royal couple did not have children, Scotland would become part of France. This was not to be because Henry died just over a year after coronation from an ear infection which led to an abscess in his brain and, nine months later, Mary returned to Scotland.

Two of Catherine’s other sons also became kings: Charles IX and Henry III (the latter was also King of Poland). Charles died, aged 23, of tuberculosis and Henry was murdered by a Catholic fanatic when he was 37. His brother-in-law, the King of Navarre, succeeded him as Henry IV, which meant Catherine’s daughter, Margaret of Valois, became Queen of France for the next ten years, until the marriage was annulled.

***Add source of illustration. ***

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Mary I of England.

Antonis Mor, 1554.

On 7th July 1553, Mary Tudor received news that her half-brother, King Edward VI, had died the previous day. [I believe the news was deliberately delayed - check account by Helen Castor].

Mary, the daughter of Henry VIII by his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, had left Hunsdon, a small village in Hertfordshire where she had been staying, on 3rd July after hearing that Edward was dying and that there was a plot against her. [Remember, Mary was Catholic like her Spanish mother, Katherine of Aragon, although the two had been separated by Henry VIII - find out more about this separation]. She set off for her estates in East Anglia, where she had support.

By 7th July, Mary had reached Lady Burgh's home of Euston Hall, near Thetford, and her goldsmith Robert Reyns found her there. He had set off from London in a rush after hearing of Edward’s death. Mary decided to leave immediately for her estate of Kenninghall, in a small village in Norfolk, and the next day, 8th July, she proclaimed herself queen in front of her household. Eleven days later, she was officially proclaimed queen in London.

[ADD INFO RE. LADY JANE GREY WHO WAS QUEEN FROM 10TH TO 19TH JULY].

Source: The Tudor Society - link here.

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Mary Tudor, Duchess of Suffolk and former Queen of France.

Attrib. to Jan Gossaert, date???

Mary Tudor (1496 – 1533) [*not to be confused with Mary I, daughter of Henry VIII, who was also known as Mary Tudor] was the third daughter of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York (their first daughter was the aforementioned Margaret Tudor, and their second daughter Elizabeth sadly died at the age of three, the cause of which has not been recorded).

She was the sister of Henry VIII, to whom she was close during childhood although relations between them later became strained during his attempt to obtain an annulment of his marriage to Katherine of Aragon. Mary had known Katherine for many years and also had a personal dislike of Henry's intended, Anne Boleyn. (Yes, I'm paraphrasing from Wikipedia again - at least I admit it!!). I wonder , however, what she would have thought about Henry's treatment of Anne just three years after he married her - Mary was sadly to die within a month of their marriage.

Mary's first marriage had been to King Louis XII, who was more than 30 years her senior (she was 18, he was 52), but about three months later, she was widowed. Happily, Mary married Brandon for love but they had to wed in secret and then pay a fine when Henry, who disapproved of the match, found out. The couple were together until her death at the age of 37 from some sort of illness.

It is through Mary Tudor that a link was able to be made to Lady Jane Grey, as Jane's mother, Frances Grey, Duchess of Suffolk, was Mary's daughter by her second marriage to Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk.

RE-READ & ADD LINK TO POST RE LADY JANE GREY, QUEEN FOR NINE DAYS.

** Check this post for errors later.

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Posting this as a reminder to read up on the life of Lady Eleanor Talbot (1436-68) who seemingly entered into some type of marriage agreement with Edward IV, which was never publicly declared. When he subsequently went on to marry Elizabeth Woodville (add link to previous post) he was therefore committing bigamy, and after his death his children by Elizabeth were declared illegitimate by Act of Parliament. This in turn led to Richard, Duke of Gloucester, succeeding the throne as Richard III.

Check and add more info.

NOT READ THIS YET: https://royalcentral.co.uk/features/the-long-dead-widow-used-by-richard-iii-to-banish-the-princes-in-the-tower-2-190670/

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'Margaret Tudor - The Life of Henry VIII's Sister' by Melanie Clegg, (2018). WHO PAINTED THE PORTRAIT ON FRONT COVER???

Book review here.

Brief biog:

Margaret Tudor (1489 - 1541) was the eldest daughter and second child of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York. She married King James IV of Scotland at the age of 13 (he was about 30) and delivered her first child four years later. Out of six children, only one, the future James V, reached adulthood.

She served as Queen of Scotland from her marriage in 1503 until 1513 when James was killed by her brother Henry's army at the Battle of Flodden. As regent for her son during his minority, Margaret had power and influence in Scotland and she successfully fought to extend her regency, yet political intrigue and martial entanglements were to be her undoing.

Sounds intriguing - must find out more!!

Margaret Tudor, Queen of Scotland, as painted by Daniel Mytens, c.1620–1638. A lovely portrait, but it was painted about 80 - 100 years after her death!!!

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Notes from BBC History magazine (January 2019 edition):

Mary had the misfortune to ascend the Scottish throne at the very moment when the kings of England and France were eyeing her nation greedily - seeing in it an opportunity to extend their own power. And so, from the moment she was born, Mary was exploited by two powerful Kings- and her own family.

She was proclaimed queen at just six days old, on the death of her father, King James V. Immediately, Henry VIII declared his intention for Mary to marry his son, Edward, but as this was a means of gaining control over Scotland, the prospect was unpalatable to Mary's mother, Mary of Guise, who was acting as queen regent. So, Mary was packed off to France to be brought up as the future wife of the dauphin, Francis, son of the French king, Henry II. Meanwhile, the Guise family hoped that, through Mary, they would attain more influence at the French court.

The French king, Henry II, planned to absorb Scotland into France and even encouraged Mary to proclaim that she and her husband were the monarchs of England, which infuriated Elizabeth I and was to have fateful consequences. However, his plans fell apart when Francis died, aged 16, in 1560. Now a widow, she was unwanted at the French court and so she returned to Scotland. But unlike Elizabeth, who had grown up on the outskirts of her country's court and developed a firm group of loyal men around her, Mary returned to be a queen of a country she had not seen since she was five. [How fluent was her English?] [ Also note that Scotland at the time was riven by warring clans and factions, it would have been difficult for anyone to bring them all peacefully together].

Acc. to the article, Mary had been advised to return to Scotland by her half-brother, James Stewart, Earl of Moray, who had accompanied her to France when she was a child (he was around 11 years her senior) and who appeared to be her greatest supporter. His motives, however, were dubious. He wanted power for himself, but his claim to the throne was weak due to him being born illegitimate (his mother was Lady Margaret Erskine, mistress to James V of Scotland). To cut a longer story short, Moray took Mary captive, locked her in Lochleven Castle and forced her to abdicate. She was able to escape and fled to England, while Moray took up the regency for her son, James, until he was shot in 1570.

The article is by Kate Williams, a historian I've seen on TV a few times and I'm not very keen on. I think she's the one who fauns over the modern day royals a lot. It's interesting that she doesn't mention any possibility of Mary being implicated in the murder of Darnley; she also states that Mary was raped by the man who was to become her third husband, Bothwell, whereas I was of the understanding that while this has been suggested there is no evidence of Mary having made an accusation or informing anyone that he committed such a crime against her. But Williams writes it as though it is pure fact. I will have to dig out my book my Jenny Wormald and see what she thought.

It is Williams' view that Mary's biggest mistake was to flee to England after she lost her throne. She was convinced that her cousin Elizabeth I would help her, but that support never materialised. She was locked up, spending most of her imprisonment in Sheffield Castle and Sheffield Manor with no prospect of release, which is what prompted her involvement in the 'Babington Plot', the plan to assassinate the English queen. It was this betrayal which finally led Elizabeth to sanction Mary's execution at Fotheringhay Castle, Northamptonshire, at the time a state prison, in 1587. She was only 44. She had spent nearly half of her life in captivity.

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I don't recall the source of this clipping, unfortunately. The caption reads:

CAT AND MOUSE BY THE CAPTIVE QUEEN OF SCOTS

In Queen Mary's bedroom at the Palace of Holyroodhouse are two embroidered panels worked by Mary, Queen of Scots, while she was a prisoner in England. One of the panels depicts a ginger cat, which may represent Queen Elizabeth, and a mouse, perhaps Mary herself, under the cat's gaze. To the right of the cat the queen has worked the monogram MA, a common contraction of Mary.

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I'm writing from memory here about this book I part-read a few years ago when I was running the History Circle. What I recall is that the author, Jenny Wormald, put across an alternative view of Mary, Queen of Scots, who has often been designated to history as a victim, because she was beheaded at the behest of her cousin Elizabeth I (in 1587, aged 44). Wormald made a convincing argument that Mary was the architect of her own downfall - for two of her three marriages in which she was able to choose her suitor, she chose unwisely (Lord Darnley and the Earl of Bothwell were both rotters, the latter suspected of having murdered the former, possibly with Mary's collusion). What's more, Mary imprudently participated in Catholic plots to oust her Protestant cousin in a vain attempt to seize the English throne for herself.

Elizabeth had been advised to execute Mary much earlier than she did, but held off because she feared what divine retribution may be delivered upon her by God for killing another queen. Note that Wormald appears in the documentary posted below (though I haven't watched it recently since the time of the History Circle - 2018 - I should do really, to refresh my memory).

The two women never actually met in person but communicated over the decades by letter, and it is these primary sources which the programme draws upon. A film was released around the same time as my initial interest in the subject, but I refused to watch it because I heard that it portrays the two queens meeting. I can't stand films which divert from the historical facts! What is the effing point of them??!!!

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Portrait of Mariana of Austria.

Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez, 1652-53.

Mariana of Austria was 19 years old when this portrait was painted. She was to become Queen Consort and Queen Regent of Spain and she dominated the political life in Spain until her death in 1696.

The beautiful little child with the captivating eyes, staring out from the centre of Velázquez's most famous painting, 'Las Meninas' (1656), is her daughter, the Infanta Margaret Theresa (pictured below).

Source: the usual.

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ADD INFO.

Livia Drusilla, (59 BC – AD 29), enjoyed a long tenure of just over 40 years as Roman empress while wife of emperor Augustus (formerly known as Octavian). Her son from her first marriage, Tiberius, succeeded Augustus after his death. ADD MORE INFO.

I remember her character portrayed by Siân Phillips in the 1970s BBC TV series 'I, Claudius' (with Derek Jacobi in the title role): a really scheming woman, adept at using poison to eliminate her son's rivals. ADD MORE INFO

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Margaret of Anjou (1430-1482) was Queen of England and nominally Queen of France by marriage to King Henry VI from 1445 to 1461 and again from 1470 to 1471.

Acc. to the usual source:

Owing to her husband's frequent bouts of insanity, Margaret ruled the kingdom in his place. She was one of the principal figures in the series of dynastic civil wars known as the 'Wars of the Roses' and at times personally led the Lancastrian faction. Some of her contemporaries, such as the Duke of Suffolk, praised "Her valiant courage and undaunted spirit" and the 16th-century historian Edward Hall described her personality in these terms: "This woman excelled all other, as well in beauty and favour, as in wit and policy, and was of stomach and courage, more like to a man, than a woman."

Margaret was taken prisoner by the victorious Yorkists after the Lancastrian defeat at Tewkesbury. In 1475, she was ransomed by her cousin, King Louis XI of France. She went to live in France as a poor relation of the French king, and she died there at the age of 52.

ADD MORE INFO.

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'She-Wolves: Medieval Queens', written and presented by Dr. Helen Castor.

I love Helen Castor!

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The extraordinary vocalist, Amy Winehouse, depicted on a playing card as the Queen of Broken Hearts.

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The Queen of Hearts, a central character in the children's story 'Alice in Wonderland' by Lewis Carroll.

Ceramic tile by CFA Voysey designed for Minton Tiles, now stored at the British Museum.

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Marjorie Knowles, crowned Burnley Cotton Queen in 1932.