Charlie Fenton > Recent Status Updates

‘The fact that the Virgin Queen visited three times perhaps signals a personal affection for the place. Sudeley maintains that association today, perhaps most splendidly in the form of the exquisite stained glass window in the South Hall. Thought to be Dutch, and brought to Sudeley at some point in the nineteenth century, it dates from c.1600’

‘expense of bringing Sudeley up to the required standard would have been
prodigious, with Sir Nicholas Throckmorton (Katherine's cup-bearer) remarking how Thomas ‘spared no cost his lady to delight, Or to maintain her princely royalty.’ Particular attention was paid to the furnishing of the nursery for Katherine's imminent baby, with Strickland noting how expensive tapestries, silks and taffetas were deployed

(I never knew Katherine was the sister-in-law of Geoffrey Chaucer)

‘Ay, he thought, it would be hard to marry a simple squire, a tradesman’s son and a scribbler, while one’s little sister captured a landed knight. This had not happened yet, of course, but with Katherine, he thought, looking at the graceful violet figure moving ahead between the two knights, anything might happen. There was a mark of destiny on her, quite apart from her beauty.‘

‘My first impression of Sudeley couldn't have been other than to wonder how I was to undress in this freezing cold room without any semblance of a heater and to the sound of Mark's mother's two large standard poodles barking in the next room, as I had disturbed them. Also, the bathroom was down the dark passage with more hanging lights to try and find switches for.‘

‘Agnes de Saxilby had last month spoken her mind to Alice, calling her whore and witch—for it must be witchcraft that would make the King so forget all his former duty and affection for the Queen. Alice, saying nothing, had smiled her sleepy smile, but only yesterday poor Agnes had heard that the King had authorised a ruinous new levy on her father’s manor.’

‘By now a supremely powerfulland wealthy man, Ralph Boteler, Lord Sudeley,
was able to create a magnificent new residence for himself and his family on his
eponymous estate. It was designed to reflect not only his status and seniority as a
leading courtier but also his worldliness and familiarity with some of the grandest
buildings of the day, such as Kenilworth Castle.’

“So be it! I say these crimes are the result of implacable malice, being the malice of a woman. Let us establish what manner of creature is this that stands before us. You who pretend to be goodwife, friend and mother but are truly a whore, a sorcerer, a witch, a bawd, a Papist, a felon and a murderer!”

‘For the rest of that year and into the next, the Court was viler than ever Frankie or I had known it. One moment the King would favour Villiers, the next Carr. With Lord Salisbury and Lord Northampton dead, it seemed the King was trying to rebalance his Court, curbing the power of the Howard family by playing them off against the Essex crew. No business could be transacted; clients did not know whom to follow.’

‘Outside, the brightness of late summer took me by surprise: I had expected darkness. I leant against the warm brick, closed my eyes, and saw a network of tiny lines, a delicate tracery of life. I thought of Sir Thomas Overbury and wondered whether he too saw blood-red lace when he closed his eyes. I prayed fervently that he would die from the illnesses that assailed him and spare us the need to quicken his end.’

‘Elizabeth would do something yet more subversive - with the aid of a doctrine that had itself suborned men's rules. Britain's last medieval monarch would invoke - adopt, adapt - the patterns of a past age to mask the fact that she was doing something revolutionary. And if courtly love had seemed to be coming to the end of its long history, now, on the contrary, it would be reborn.’

‘It is a tired trope to suggest that people didn't eat vegetables in the past. Of course they did (most people ate little but). But cookery books don't contain many recipes for them, and they don't usually appear on menus or table plans. This was partly because they were included in other dishes, and partly because it was taken for granted that people knew how to cook them (boiled, mainly’

‘At the feast which followed the ceremony, Mary Tudor was served on gold plate, and Philip of Spain merely on silver. Philip moved into the rooms once known as the queen's apartments, Mary taking the king's. Two days after his marriage, Philip assured Mary's council that he was available to advise, but that on any question ‘they must consult the Queen, and he would do his best to assist’.’

‘In the morning, the whole Court would know that Sir Thomas Overbury had accused the Countess of Essex of being a base whore. Had Overbury stabbed Frankie, he would not have inflicted greater damage. The only escape from such defamation was to be offered a full and public apology or else for her to kill herself.’

‘The general idea that Christmas tended toward riots and licentiousness wasn't that extreme. But the puritans took it too far, and by attacking Christmas in lurid terms, allowed their opponents to portray them as fun-hating authoritarians, frothing at the mouth in their desire to deny ordinary people a time of respite. Furthermore, Christmas was already seen by many as peculiarly English’

‘Wretchedness and impatience had driven her to ignore my counsel and resort to foolish measures. I wanted to save her from rashness as she had saved me from destitution, but still I thanked my angel guardian that Arthur was to relieve me of dependence on her. Frankie would always be in my soul, but I would soon be free from the scandal and gossip that followed her like begging children.’

‘The meat in mince pies dwindled throughout the eighteenth century. They also got smaller, as cheap tin cutters and trays for tarts came on the market. Tongue continued to be popular, but tripe and calf’s foot were also common meats. By the Victorian era, when the individual round mince pie was the standard form, the ratio of meat to fruit had dropped significantly.’

‘Anne had been speaking to Norris about his dilatory courtship of Madge Shelton, ‘You look for dead men's shoes; for if ought came to the King but good, you would look to have me,’ she told him. Perhaps Anne was losing the lightness of her courtly touch. The anonymous medieval romance Yder has Arthur demanding to know who Guinevere would marry if he died.‘

‘The snow on both the model and full-size sets of Hogsmeade was made from a combination of paper and dendritic salt. Dendritic salt falls and clumps like real snow, and it also squeaks like freshly fallen snow when you walk on it. The art department used two sticks with little feet on them to create footprints coming out of the shop doors and walking up the streets.‘

‘Almost all the actors had lessons for a month before the Yule Ball scenes were shot. Rupert Grint had a short dance with actress Maggie Smith, but because he wasn't scripted to dance at the Ball, he opted out of later lessons. In contrast, Daniel Radcliffe was so busy filming other scenes, he only had four days to learn the Champions' dance before the scene was shot.’

5 stars just for all the pictures of cats and for being about Larry!

‘In 1213 the court of King John took delivery of 24 hogsheads of wine, 200 heads of pork, 50lb of pepper, 2lb of saffron and 15,000 herrings, among a vast array of other things. No foods were exclusive to Christmas, although by the sixteenth century some were certainly associated with it. They were almost all expensive - thus good for showing largesse and status - or seasonal. Most were both.’

‘No wonder, in this emotive climate, that Henry wore Catherine's favours in the lists, allegorically proclaimed his devotion; as well as hastening to share books and musicians with her. Perhaps her role in Henry's games was that of an admiring audience: as much an object as the lady in any courtly lyric. But the entertainments he devised were described in the accounts as being ‘for the Queen's pleasure’.‘

‘But we may indeed see this as a gesture from the realm of fantasy. The prince, in best tradition, rescuing at a stroke the Spanish princess who had spent seven years in penurious uncertainty. There was no reason Catherine would not love the tall, fair young giant who saved her from an uncertain and humiliating future, and whose looks foreign envoys noted in almost erotic terms.‘

‘Elizabeth had always ensured that the old Yorkist establishment was by no means forgotten in the upbringing of her children. Back in spring 1488 when a Lady Mistress was chosen for Prince Arthur (at a sizeable salary of more than £26 a year) the choice fell on Elizabeth Darcy, who had presided over the nursery of Elizabeth's brother Edward V.‘

‘gathered in an orchard, usually around midday, and sprinkled the largest apple tree with cider to cries of ‘huzzah’. This they did to ensure a good crop. Wassailing was also taken door to door, offering good wishes, and a wassail bowl. At its simplest this contained nuts and spiced ale; at its richest, a frothy mixture of mulled ale, curdled cream, roasted apples, eggs, cloves, ginger, nutmeg and sugar.’

‘The 'mincemeat' in a Victorian mince pie was meat mixed with beef suet, dried and fresh fruits, citrus peel, almonds, sugar and spices - plus sherry, brandy or port. Today, the meat has disappeared. Mincemeat was supposed to be made on 1 December; and eating 12 mince pies before Christmas Day was said to bring good luck all year!‘

‘Albert made economies in the Royal Household but there was plenty to enjoy. In 1860, a visitor to Windsor at Christmas recorded 50 turkeys roasting in the kitchen, and a woodcock pie containing 100 birds. Charlotte Canning (a lady-in-waiting) reported a 'great deal of feasting', enormous meats and pies, and 'German trees with sugar plums and presents given to everybody'.’

Audiobook version, not on here

‘The service a lover owed his lady was modelled on the feudal contract that laid down what a villein owed his lord, or a knight his king. C.S. Lewis pointed out that, etymologically, ‘midons’, a lover's address to his courtly lady, meant not ‘my lady’ but ‘my lord’.‘