What it feels like to be the SO of a famous tumblr history blogger*
It feels a little like being the wife of Oliver Cromwell, Elizabeth Bourchier.
Wikipedia** says that, "Setting aside mere assertion and party invective, it is not difficult to ascertain the real character of the Protectress. She may have had petty meannesses as well as private virtues, but there seem to have been no marked features in her character, nothing in fact which raised her above any ordinary woman. Lilburne evidently implies that she possessed a certain influence over her husband, since he accuses her of having disposed of military appointments during the generalship of Cromwell. Granger also appears to be of the same opinion. — " It has been asserted," he says, " that she was as deeply interested herself in steering the helm, as she had often done in turning the spit; and that she was as constant a spur to her husband in the career of his ambition, as she had been to her servants in their culinary employments." All that we know, however, of the life and character of the Protectress would tend to liberate her from these charges. She seems to have laudably confined herself to the details of domestic life, nor is there any authenticated instance of her having exercised the slightest political influence over her husband. Cromwell was himself too stern in his nature to be much influenced by women, and too cautious to entrust them with his intrigues. He appears, therefore, to have been by no means forward in making her a sharer in that power, a portion of which a strong-minded woman might nevertheless have contrived to obtain. Besides, not one of her relations were partakers of her greatness, and Cromwell's behaviour to her appears throughout to have been rather that of a man who respects his wife as the mother of his children, than for any mental or personal qualifications of her own."
^^^ i.e. PPL ASSUMIN SHIT
BBC News, on the other hand, describes Elizabeth's life as "a special mystery" — which sounds a lot sexier and appealing — and reveals some of her love letters to Oliver. I mean Old Noll and Lizzy had like 250 (9) kids so you know dat bitch was horny af.
Overall, Elizabeth gets the short end of the stick and is generally either overlooked, villainized, or assumed uninfluential in the Lord Protector's reign just because people can't see what happens behind the dashboard... I mean, there are still even some people who be assumin Cromwell is ymca....***
* Relatively famous
** Yes, I sited wikifuckinpedia i aint puttin real effort into dis shit i got brains to dissect
*** You know who you are
