Charlie Fenton > Recent Status Updates

‘It was so unexpected. Could I love him? I asked myself, rapidly trying to collect my thoughts. He was the King, and he had always been good to me, but I knew there was a cruel side to him. He was a man too, a man who was no longer young and who was growing stout. Yet I hesitated no longer.’

The name is wrong but ISBN is right. Reading this before visiting the exhibition at the V&A at the end of this month, can’t wait!

‘shared in the general rejoicing in the news that Queen Jane was with child, and soon, Mother learned from one of her correspondents that the Queen had developed a craving for quail. There are more quail in the marshlands surrounding Calais than we knew what to do with, and they were often served at our table. Mother seized this golden opportunity to win favour with the Queen by sending her a generous supply.’

‘After the funeral, my father came out of seclusion and took up the reins of everyday life once more, but the joy had gone out of him and he had put on an alarming amount of weight, for grief and the sores on his legs had prevented him from taking his usual exercise. He sat alone, brooding and wearing deepest black, when he and my stepmother should have been rejoicing in their child.’

‘the king paid 16l. 13s. 4d. to his chaplain, William Franklyn, Dean of Windsor, “for certain oraisons, suffrages and masses to be said for the soul’s health of th’ erle of Wilts, late deceased”, which is hard evidence that Thomas was back in favour at his death. Thomas was laid to rest at Hever’s Church of St Peter’

‘Although George’s marriage was an arranged one and was childless, we do not have any evidence that it was an unhappy one. Several authors and historians have successfully challenged the idea that Jane Boleyn helped bring down the Boleyn siblings in 1536 out of hatred and jealousy.’

Great to see my book cited in this!

‘Hever was situated at the epicentre of the social worlds of the Boleyns, and the evidence points to Thomas and Elizabeth’s family often frequently the property. It was their closest property to London. Geoffrey Boleyn had created a family seat for the Boleyns at Blickling Manor. Thomas Boleyn made Hever the Boleyn family headquarters.’

‘He came home a broken man. They were both broken, paralysed with grief and horror. I remember Elizabeth sitting in her chair, rocking in her misery, and her hysterical cries when word came that the dread sentence had been carried out. Thomas uttered no word of protest or sorrow, but you had only to look at him to know that he was suffering. They were never the same afterwards, either of them.’

‘Her mirror showed her the same dark-haired woman with the same high cheekbones and pointed chin, and yet there was a knowing quality to her gaze these days, for she had learned that the way a woman used her eyes, to invite conversation or convey a promise of hidden passion, had the power to command the allegiance of many a man.’

‘Violet Bridgerton had never wanted for anything, but her true wealth lay in her wisdom and her love, and it occurred to Eloise, as she watched Violet turn back to the door, that she was more than just her mother—she was everything that Eloise aspired to be.’

‘Essex was becoming close to the queen but at this stage he held no political sway nor influence over her. Elizabeth was happy to receive his attentions. He was one of a new generation of men including Walter Raleigh and Charles Blount who gave her pleasure. Her original favourites Leicester and Hatton were now ageing and these younger men brought life to the court.’

‘We will never know whether Robert was truly Walter’s son. The facts certainly point to his mother having an affair with Leicester but yet more evidence shows that Walter was more likely Robert’s father. However as he grew older, the queen would definitely see something in him that spoke to her of her one true love, the Earl of Leicester.’

No idea if this even counts, but hoping to learn how to drive! Have my provisional but can only work on the theory right now, as I had a seizure back in June (first and only one hopefully, which they think was due to hypoglycemia). Would be great to be able to visit all these historic places I love without having to rely on parents or public transport.

‘In 1519, the Venetian ambassador, Sebastian Guistinian, had described him as ‘the best dressed sovereign in the world’. The king’s dress represented the affluence of the country and any monarch who underspent would be considered lacking. An inventory of Henry’s wardrobe in 1521 estimates its value at £10,380, which equates to almost £4 million today.’

‘1797
Haberdasher John Hetherington is arrested for disturbing the peace after he leaves his shop in the Strand, London, wearing a silk top hat. He is charged for wearing a ‘tall structure having a shiny luster calculated to frighten timid people’. Not long after, he is inundated with others.’

‘Only six of over thirty portraits produced in the 1540s and hanging today in the National Portrait Gallery in London, could possibly be attributed to English artists. While the reason for searching out foreign artists could be put down to fashion, it is also fair to say that the work produced by émigré artists at this time was more accomplished than that of native artists.’

‘Portrait miniatures saw a substantial growth in popularity throughout the Tudor period. Twenty-two miniatures have been attributed to Horenbout from the time of his employment at the court of Henry VIII. They were easily portable and were sought out by soldiers, sailors and merchants who desired an image of their loved one that could be held close to them as they travelled the world.‘

‘She’d been so melancholy following their birth. Marina had always seemed fragile and overly pensive, but it was only after Oliver and Amanda had arrived that she’d sunk into her own world of sorrow and despair. It had been horrifying for Phillip, watching the life behind her eyes slip away, day by day, until all that was left was an eerie flatness, the barest shadow of the woman who had once existed.’

“Miss Bridgerton," he said, then corrected himself with, "Eloise. I’m going to be honest with you, because, to be frank, I have neither the energy nor the patience for fancy romantic words or cleverly constructed stories. I need a wife. My children need a mother. I invited you here to see if you would be willing to assume such a role, and indeed, if you and I would suit.”

‘St George was patron saint of England and on of the three saints of the Order of the Garter, a group of honourable knights. Tudor roses abound in this composition, and the resemblance between St George, protector of England, and King Henry VII, defender of his land and people, would not have been missed by the contemporary viewer.’

‘In a century rife with theological dispute, pictures of people tended to survive where overtly religious works did not, but even a conservative estimate assumes that 40 per cent of the portraits produced in the reign of Henry VIII are lost. We should therefore be aware that we are judging the genre on what we have left, rather than on what was produced within its time.’

Proof copy

‘Warwick’s head was not spiked upon London Bridge as Warbeck’s had been and left to rot in the winter cold, but rather taken by boat along with his body to Bisham Abbey for burial. At the king’s own considerable expense of £12 18s 2d, the earl was interred near his kingmaking grandfather and other relations.’

‘It’s a relief to lie with her husband and not wonder, for days after, whether this time she has caught; not to shield her heart, as her belly grows, lest this child finds bet- ter rest in a tomb than a cradle. She has borne twelve children. Seven of them live. She’s thankful for each of them, and glad to be done with it.’

‘When considering the available evidence together, that is Warbeck’s confession, the letter to his mother, and then inquiries made by the Spanish authorities of the Portuguese merchants, there are solid grounds to believe the man of the English called Perkin Warbeck was indeed a son of Tournai and not a reborn prince of York.’

A bit surprised to hear Wolf Hall mentioned, but did laugh at this bit:
‘Nothing particularly lovely about the life of Thomas Cromwell’

‘I remember seeing that picture and realizing that photographs weren’t real. There’s no context, just the illusion that you’re showing a snapshot of a life, but life isn’t snapshots, it’s fluid. So photos are like fictions. I loved that about them. Everyone thinks photography is truth, but it’s just a very convincing lie.’

Have to say I am really enjoying this so far. Not read anything else by the author, so this was just a random find, but I love it. I do think the narrator contributes to my enjoyment of it quite a bit too though.

‘In the circumstances, a daughter of a veteran Scottish earl was a reasonable match for Warbeck in lieu of other royal candidates, but hardly a match which alone can be taken to confirm his Yorkist credentials, as some historians have striven to claim. It was, however, an act designed to provoke the English king and further impair Anglo-Scottish relations - precisely what James IV intended.’

‘And so the story comes out. Of how the King, arriving at his royal palace of Clarendon, fell senseless to the floor and did not rise. Not couldn’t. Not wouldn’t. Just didn’t. Since then he’s not spoken, knows no one, notices nothing. Only smiles sometimes at things he alone seems to see and weeps on occasion, silently and without cause.’