Charlie Fenton > Recent Status Updates

‘She knows what it is to be barren; the pain that comes with hope. ‘You will start to show soon. You will carry all before you. Your Grace, you have humbled my husband. Do not grind him into the dust.’ A small white hand is thrust out. Cecily takes it and squeezes. ‘I waited eight long years for my first child. Just as you have. And now look at me. I will pray for you every day’’

‘It’s easy to make Henry do things when you stand by his side. Edmund Beaufort stands there now. And, while Gloucester was childless and old, Richard is a man in his prime and has all the sons the King lacks. Cecily knows that, if Beaufort is looking for reasons for Henry to fear her husband, Jack Cade and his rebels have given him one. But her womb has given him three more.’

‘Ultimately, William Stanley’s loyalty to the Yorkist cause was reserved for Edward IV and his progeny, as shown by his betrayal of Richard III in 1485 and failure to support Lambert Simnel’s Warwick plot in 1487. Once a pretender who had yet to be conclusively ruled out as a son of his former master emerged, Stanley’s head was turned.’

‘Richard looks up, smiling, and a low thrum of laughter rip- ples down the hall. ‘Meet my strong-lunged son!’ he invites them. ‘We have named him for St George, the dragon slayer. He is a son of Ireland. Like his father he will live to be a strong defender of your rights and privileges here under God.’
The people’s cheers threaten the roof.
‘And under England’s king, of course,’ Richard adds‘

‘Considering the boy’s tender age and the timing, the purpose was clear - how could Warbeck across the Channel be given any credence as the duke of York when, right here in England, before all the lords and prelates of the realm, was the duke himself, the present king’s second son? A new duke of York could not, after all, be created if the previous incumbent was believed alive.’

‘Isabella and Ferdinand were unmoved, and the letter did not provoke the response Warbeck and Margaret hoped for. It was instead filed away with the nonchalant, non-committal note, ‘From Richard, who styles himself King of England’, and two years later, on 20 July 1495, it was further noted in official records that Isabella had apparently shown the dowager duchess that the ‘whole affair was an imposture’

‘Leading further credibility to Warbeck’s 1497 confession that he was merely an imposter is the fact that many of his mentioned relations are found in the fifteenth-century archives of Tournai; Pierart Flan, known as Petir Flam in the confession, and Pierart Faron, or Petir Ffaro, are found in municipal records for 1459, whilst in 1474 is a record for Jehan de Werbecque, son of the late Diericq de Werbecque.’

‘Despite the gravity of the act, however, in time Henry proved surprisingly lenient with many of the rebels who survived the Stoke Field campaign. The two Scrope barons, for example, were pardoned in 1489, as were seventy-eight others between August 1487 and August 1489. He also dealt gently with the Irish nobility, although through political necessity as much as magnanimity.’

Getting to the lobotomy, not sure if I can listen to this, it is awful.

‘But the best gift of all is a book given by Isabella, The City of Ladies. In it, Christine de Pisan - that rare creature, the female scholar - argues women to be men’s equals and peoples a world with those of her sex who, across long ages, have proved her right. Within its gilded pages, rich in cobalt and vermillion, women walk untrammelled, knowing their will, speaking it and seeing it done.’

‘If Isabella’s husband was ever disappointed by his third wife’s looks, thirteen years of marriage have taught him to value her mind, which even he would admit is a sharper blade than his own. He married her to get a son. Since that was achieved ten years ago they’ve not shared a bed, but when the duke is out of his domain, fighting wars or getting bastards, she rules in his stead as regent.’

‘this Edward thrives and stays. All the days Cecily lies healing, knitting flesh, she watches him. He feeds so hungrily he needs two wet nurses, sleeps deep, cries fiercely. And grows. The astrologers make much of the virile spring sun he has been born under and the preponderance of fire in his chart. They say it almost burned him up when he entered the world but is banked within him now.’

‘Lambert Simnel has entered the historical record as the curious moniker of the enigmatic young figure credited with impersonating the earl of Warwick, yet in early 1487 the royal authorities had little idea about the true identity of this imposter, other than that he was supposedly the son of an Oxford organ maker. In fact, what little we now know of Simnel only comes from official records produced after’

‘It was not enough for many potential supporters to jeopardise their livelihoods for a cause alone, which history had shown to be no substitute for the personal magnetism of a senior royal capable of persuading even the most reluctant of hearts to flock to his banner. Henry IV and Edward IV were just two examples of usurpers who had been able to attract an abundance of support’

‘It’s deep winter when Cecily and Richard meet again. Eight- een months have passed since they parted. One month since she heard that a smug Jacquetta has been delivered of a daugh- ter. Cecily sent a teething ring in silver, but not the prayers the new mother had petitioned for. It seems to have made little difference: gilt-haired Elizabeth, she is assured, thrives.’

‘Cecily watches them go. What lesson should she herself take? she wonders. Only that, if a woman takes up arms, she must be very sure of winning.’

‘With the benefit of hindsight it is possible to say that, short of writing it out in big letters on the school blackboard, Jon could not have made himself plainer. If he was not helped he was going to do something really terrible. At some point, probably sooner rather than later, he would find an outlet for all that suppressed rage and powerless frustration.’

This is one thing I will never understand. I do believe people can be rehabilitated, especially if started at a young age. I mean Robert has kept quiet and by all accounts is married to a man who knows who he is and living a normal life. But it is much harder to rehabilitate someone if you have to give them false identities, so why did the judge choose to disclose it? It hasn’t helped, especially the families.

‘They could change their names, of course, in years to come. As could their families. But how would Ryan, baby Ben, Mark, Michelle and the other members of the two families who had not been convicted of murdering James Bulger be affected by the revelation of their identities, and their innocent association with the notoriety which had been thrust on Bobby and Jon?’

‘It’s a bit of a game, all this, but Brian believes there’s a new mood creeping in. More youngsters showing less respect. The other night a boy of about 15 came up to him and pointed at Brian’s chest. What’s that on your tunic? Brian looked down, and the boy’s hand flicked up, knocking off Brian’s helmet. Hah, got yer officer. What can you do? You can’t give ’em a clip round the earhole.’

‘In the court Bobby and Jon did not once look at each other. Afterwards, they were led to the secure car park at the back of the court to be driven to their respective police stations. Jon was already inside his unmarked car, and Bobby was just walking past. They turned and caught each other’s eye. They both smirked. A look which some of the officers who saw it interpreted as an evil smile.’

‘Cecil had generally found the Scottish lords self-seeking and difficult to deal with, but warmly acknowledged the services of Lord James and Maitland, which only cemented their friendship. He mentioned Maitland with special distinction, reporting to Elizabeth that he ‘was very helpful’ and ‘worth six others’, being ‘of most credit and wit [wisdom],’ bearing ‘all the burden of foresight’’

DOCTOR: Oh Hortense, you’re brilliant!
DONNA: Blimey, didn’t take you long to move on.
DOCTOR: Donna Noble, you’re brilliant too. And now it’s my turn to save the day. A horse! A horse! This kingdom for a horse!

DOCTOR: I said I was fine. Fine about you leaving. And I'm not. So many of you have come and gone. I never get used to it. You think I would have done by now... but no. I never do. Just when I think it's all going well and we'll be together forever, you're wandering off to go save another universe or get married. How do you lot fall in love so quickly?

‘Dormer was clearly aware of Anne’s posthumous reputation and was evidently successful in her attempts to steer The Tudors’ characterisation of Anne away from the femme fatale framework. During the second season of the show, Anne’s intelligence is stressed, and her interest in religious reform is repeatedly emphasised.’

Mention of my Anne Boleyn novel!

‘In her brief author’s note, Gregory attributed her portrait of a homosexual George Boleyn and the birth of a deformed foetus to Retha Warnicke’s 1991 biography The Rise and Fall of Anne Boleyn. However, Warnicke does not claim that Anne slept with her brother, which Gregory does not address.’

‘Lying back against my hospital pillows, I draw in a long, steady breath and close my eyes, remembering this saying my grandmother used to have hanging on our refrigerator: In the end, it’ll all be okay. And if it isn’t okay, it isn’t the end.
I’m quite certain this is the end.’

‘By the end of the sixteenth century, then, much of the texture of Anne’s afterlife was established. She had been compared to figures from Christ to Jezebel, and from Guinevere to Laura. She was either Protestant martyr, working quietly to spread the cause of reform, or the Concubine, the whore who destroyed Catholicism in England. It is the perpetual trap for women: virgin or whore.’

‘I’m convinced somewhere, deep down, that version of me is still in there. I’m still working on digging her out from beneath the pile of psychological rubble and emotional ash. I haven’t given up—it’s just taking longer than I expected.’