history, vintage and retro blog

mainblog: @thatvixenisbloody FF.Net | AO3 | Blue Sky | Ko-Fi I follow back as @thatvixenisbloody

[the-shattered-crown]

What Ifs

My what ifs works

What If Jane Seymour Survived?

Thomas Boleyn Survives to See Elizabeth Getting Crowned

[vintageeveryday]

Mugshot of a teenage girl arrested for protesting segregation, Mississippi, 1961.

[attackoftheskydancers]

Her name is Joan Trumpauer Mulholland. Her family disowned her for her activism. After her first arrest, she was tested for mental illness, because Virginia law enforcement couldn’t think of any other reason why a white Virginian girl would want to fight for civil rights. She also created the Joan Trumpauer Mullholland Foundation. Most recently, she was interviewed on Samatha Bee’s Full Frontal on February 15 for their segment on Black History Month. Don’t reduce civil rights heroes to “teenage girl”.

[perioddramasource]

Princess Mary Tudor remembering her mother Queen Catherine of Aragon in Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light

[infamoushistory]

Agnes Waterhouse: The First Woman Executed for Witchcraft in England

On July 29, 1566, Agnes Waterhouse was hanged at Chelmsford, becoming the first woman in England known to have been executed for witchcraft under the Witchcraft Act of 1563. Her trial marked a turning point in English history, as fears of magic, superstition, and dealings with the devil began to influence the courts more than ever before.

During her trial, Waterhouse confessed to using a familiar spirit—a cat named Satan—which she claimed carried out harmful acts at her command. While some of her testimony may have been shaped by pressure from interrogators and the beliefs of the time, the court accepted it as proof of witchcraft. She was convicted and sentenced to death, while others accused alongside her received different punishments.

Today, historians view Agnes Waterhouse's case as a stark reminder of how fear, religious tension, and superstition could lead to tragic miscarriages of justice. Her execution was one of many that foreshadowed the witch hunts that would sweep across Britain and Europe over the following century.

[elizabethboleyn]

𓅃 ANNE BOLEYN APPRECIATION WEEK 𓅃

Day Five - Favourite Family Dynamic: Anne and her brother George Boleyn The pair were close and similar in temperament, sharing the same intellectual and aesthetic interests, and developing a passion for ‘new learning’ – the liberation from the old dominant way of thinking – that was inspired by the Renaissance. Perhaps the strongest evidence of their bond can be found in two religious texts by the French humanist Jacques Lefèvre d’Étaples, which Anne asked her brother to translate. These beautifully bound works from George to Anne still survive in the British Library, and not only suggest was a man capable of deep spirituality, but also a devoted brother. In his dedication, George wrote: “I have been so bold to send unto you, not jewels or gold, whereof you have plenty, not pearl or rich stones, whereof you have enough, but a rude translation of a wellwiller, a goodly matter meanly handled, most humbly desiring you with favour to weigh the weakness of my dull wit.” — Lauren McKay

[chaos-of-the-abyss]

what does philippa gregory have against margaret beaufort 😭😭😭

[jezabelofthenorth]

After decades of estrangement from her son, it was little wonder that Margaret now sought to live close to him, but her constant presence within the royal court presented a difficulty. When Elizabeth became queen, what would Margaret’s status be? And how could she reconcile her identity as the mother of a king but not a queen dowager – not even a widow? Her situation as married royal mother was unprecedented, and potentially troubling. Henry and Margaret must have discussed her status as royal matriarch and married woman. They did not want to alienate the Stanleys, but it would not do for the king’s mother to be legally in the power of a husband when that could contradict her loyalty to the crown. Yet, despite all her years at court, Margaret was in uncharted territory. There had been surviving dowager queens before, like Elizabeth Woodville – even surviving princesses who were mothers of kings, like Richard II’s mother, the dowager Princess of Wales, Joan of Kent § – but there had never been a king’s mother who did not herself have a royal title.

Margaret Beaufort: Survivor, Rebel, Kingmaker, Lauren Johnson

[jezabelofthenorth]

All these sources, of course, were male and there is a powerful strand of misogyny running through them. At the very least, these observers seemed incapable of understanding that two powerful women could not only co-exist, but cooperate. The evidence of Margaret and of Elizabeth and Henry’s own interactions and words – few though the surviving examples are – testify to profound mutual respect and affection. Margaret had never enjoyed a normal maternal relationship, having been deprived of Henry’s company for most of his life and never having had any more children. Now, when she was offered a second chance to play the role of mother, she made considerable efforts to forge a bond not only with Henry but also with his wife and children. Elizabeth soon became almost a second child to her, and the Tudor grandchildren would be a source of profound solace to Margaret. This connection is clear in royal documents from the earliest moments of Henry’s reign: time and again injunctions from Henry or his officers refer, virtually in one breath, to ‘the Queen and King’s Mother’.

Margaret Beaufort: Survivor, Rebel, Kingmaker, Lauren Johnson

[ghostwithacup]

Wars of the Roses Opinions (hot takes?)

[brilliantsun]

At times, Margaret’s generosity put her at odds with prevailing social norms, and even with Henry himself. Collyweston was often host to Margaret’s friends, particularly women, whom she personally defended when they fell into distress. In 1499, her niece Anne St John fled her unhappy marriage to the eccentric and adulterous Lord Henry Clifford and sought refuge at Margaret’s residence. Daughter of Margaret’s half-brother John, Anne arrived at Collyweston with her two daughters and three servants. She stayed with Margaret for eight months while negotiations over a separation took place. Though Anne eventually returned to Lord Clifford, she and Margaret remained in contact through letters and exchanged gifts.

⁴⁸ Beyond offering shelter to these women and other long-term residents in her household, Margaret also secured legal assistance for them when needed. In 1502, Lady Elizabeth Scrope, a permanent resident of Collyweston, was barred by her stepson from claiming her rightful lands. Margaret set up an arbitration panel headed by her steward, Sir Roger Ormeston, who imposed substantial financial liabilities on Elizabeth’s stepson to compel him to abide by the panel’s ruling.

Yet it was not only the nobility who received aid at Collyweston. In December 1504, Margaret made provisions for an unknown woman who had borne a child to Hugh Latimer, one of her servants. Margaret took the woman in during her confinement and for the subsequent two weeks after childbirth. She also arranged and funded travel for the woman and her newborn infant to Stamford. What became of the mother and child thereafter is unrecorded. At the start of the New Year in 1504, a destitute infant was abandoned at Margaret’s doorstep. She paid for the child’s care and sent a servant to search for its mother, but the effort proved fruitless.

In an era marked by unprecedented bloodshed over political allegiances and stark public posturing on morality, Margaret demonstrated a remarkable ability to navigate moral grey areas. “She bore no grudge and was never cruel,” wrote John Fisher, “but was ever ready to forget and forgive wrongs done to her, even over the slightest slight or offence against her will or conduct.”⁵³ Both Lady Scrope and Henry Parker were staunch Yorkists, as was Ralph Bigod, Margaret’s carver, who notoriously refused to countenance any condemnation of his former master, King Richard III. Nonetheless, all of them found protection under Margaret’s roof. She even commended Bigod for remaining a “loyal servant” to the late king.

[elizabethboleyn]

♚ @dailytudors: TUDOR WEEK 2025 ♚

day one | favourite forgotten Tudor

Margaret Douglas was the only child born to Margaret, Dowager Queen of Scotland and Princess of England and her second husband Archibald Douglas, 6th Earl of Angus. Through her mother she was the half-sister of the sitting King of Scotland, James V, also through her mother, she was the niece of the sitting King of England, Henry VIII and the granddaughter of Henry VII, King of England and Elizabeth of York, Queen of England. She grew up in her Uncle's court and was close in age to the King's eldest daughter, the future Mary I and Frances Brandon, the future Duchess of Suffolk. Margaret is best known in history as the Countess of Lennox by her marriage to Matthew, 4th Earl of Lennox, and being the mother of Henry, Lord Darnley, King Consort of Scotland, making her the mother-in-law of her half-niece Mary, Queen Regnant of Scotland (commonly known as Mary, Queen of Scots) and grandmother of James VI of Scotland and I of England. She is the ancestress of all monarchs from then on of England, Scotland and then Britain.

2/3: MARGARET STEWART, NEE DOUGLAS, COUNTESS OF LENNOX

[edmundtudor]

TUDOR WEEK 2021 | DAY 3

Favourite Familial Relationships: the Tudor cousins; Mary I, Margaret Douglas and Frances Brandon.

There were then in England three pregnant Queens: the Queen consort of King Henry; his sister, the Queen widow of France, at present wife to the Duke of Suffolk; and thirdly, the Queen widow of Scotland: so that three cousins of royal blood would be born well nigh at the same time. (x)

MARGARET DOUGLAS, COUNTESS OF LENNOX was born 7 October 1515, the only child of Archibald Douglas, 6th Earl of Angus, and Margaret Tudor, dowager Queen of Scotland.

MARY TUDOR, QUEEN OF ENGLAND was born 18 February 1516, the only surviving child of King Henry VIII of England and Queen Katherine of Aragon.

FRANCES BRANDON, DUCHESS OF SUFFOLK was born 16 July 1517, the eldest surviving child of Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk, and Mary Tudor, dowager Queen of France. (Note: the above quote refers to Mary's pregnancy with her son Henry, who died in childhood.)

Margaret Douglas grew up in the household of Cardinal Wolsey; after his downfall, she became a part of Princess Mary's household at the Palace of Beaulieu.

During the reign of Mary I, Margaret Douglas, as a Catholic and close kin to Mary, was seen as a possible heir. Margaret had rooms at Westminster Palace during her cousin's reign, and was the chief mourner at her funeral.

Bound to her family, Mary was persuaded by Frances to not arrest her husband, Henry Grey, and daughter, Jane Grey, in the conspiracy to put Jane on the throne. The pair would however be executed following Wyatt's Rebellion in 1554.

Disgraced after the execution of her husband, Frances was fortunate enough to remain in Mary's favour, however was left in near poverty until her death in 1559.

[catherinesboleyn]

Natalie Dormer as Anne Boleyn, Jonathan Rhys Meyers as Henry VIII

The Tudors 2.05

[catherinesboleyn]

Natalie Dormer as Anne Boleyn, Jonathan Rhys Meyers as Henry VIII

The Tudors 2.06

[ymabdarogan]

Witnessing the ‘Jane Seymour boring nothing woman with no identifiable motivations or abilities who also bore special culpability for her husbands crimes for some reason versus fascinating powerful erudite Anne Boleyn who despite this supposed overwhelming influence also somehow had 0 blood on her hands’ era in the 2000s was a formative experience honestly like I didn’t know you could hate women so artistically

[catherinesboleyn]

Natalie Dormer as Anne Boleyn, Pádraic Delaney as George Boleyn

The Tudors 2.07

[canirove]

The Tudors (2007-2010) | s02e07 | 74/?