Charlie Fenton > Recent Status Updates

‘Nobody can say with absolute certainty what happened to the relationship between the king and the queen in the final twelve months of Henry’s reign. The highly coloured accounts of plots, hysterics and reconciliations described by the martyrologist John Foxe are not precisely contemporary, though they may have been partly based on recollections of people close to Queen Katherine at the time.'

“Madam,” the physician says, and again his beak swings towards them, “you may trust that I know much more about these matters than you do. A dried toad, applied to the abdomen for several days, has proven to have great efficacy in cases such as these. If your daughter is suffering from the pestilence, I regret to say that there is very little that may-“

‘Katherine and the regency council moved to Hampton Court in late July, to escape the threat of plague. All three of Henry’s children soon joined her. Their company was welcome and it was during this period that Elizabeth observed her stepmother as a ruler, absorbing the realisation that a queen could handle the mass of papers, participate in discussions with advisers and take decisions as well as any man.’

‘“I want you to know,” I whispered, “that I am broken and healing, but every piece of my heart belongs to you. And I am honored - honored to be your mate.”’

I am getting through this series too fast, don’t want this book to end. Been a long time since I felt this way about a fantasy series and can see why people love it.

How it took several years for this to be relabelled from young adult to adult is beyond me, never read anything like this scene in the hotel in any young adult books. But really enjoying this one, even more than the last. Getting through it quickly!

‘It seems safe to say that when she married Henry there was nothing about Katherine that set alarm bells ringing with him or with conservatives like Stephen Gardiner. But she may, or course, have been good at concealing her hand, a trait that would present her as a conniving woman and not an entirely appealing one. She was certainly seen as pious but that was entirely proper in a woman of her class and background

‘What she has always dreaded is here. It has come. The moment she has feared most, the event she has thought about, mulled over, turned this way and that, rehearsed and re-rehearsed in her mind, during the dark of sleepless nights, at moments of idleness, when she is alone. The pestilence has reached her house. It has made its mark around her child’s neck.’

‘It is impossible to say when she first became aware of this compelling attraction - perhaps she did not know herself - but, as soon as Lord Latimer was laid to rest, Katherine was more than willing to be wooed. As she told Seymour four years later: ‘as truly as God is God, my mind was fully bent the other time I was at liberty to marry you before any man I know’. Nothing could be plainer.’

‘Yet Latimer had many positive attributes. He was neither cruel nor vindictive - he was no wife-beater, like the duke of Norfolk - and he was not controlling or unfaithful. He strove to be a good provider, even if he was not always a valiant protector. And in fairness to Latimer, his life was very far from straightforward. He was the eldest of fifteen children’

Giving Feyre PTSD after the events of the first book was a good move on the author’s part. So often in fantasy books the characters do horrific things and yet remain unscathed, at least mentally.

‘The indirect evidence is contradictory but what can be said is that her subsequent husbands all seem to have believed that she could bear children. Whether this was based on optimism as opposed to her past history we cannot know, but it is, of course, indisputable that almost two decades after she and Edward Borough were married, she bore a healthy child.’

I’ve heard people say this before but this is definitely leading to a retelling of the Hades and Persephone myth.

‘If the plague comes to London, he can be back with them for months. The playhouses are all shut, by order of the Queen, and no one is allowed to gather in public. It is wrong to wish for plague, her mother has said, but Susanna has done this a few times under her breath, at night, after she has said her prayers. She always crosses herself afterwards. But still she wishes it.’

‘While her husband used his charm and courtier’s training, Maud became a lady-in-waiting to Queen Katherine and served her faithfully for the rest of her life... between 1512 and 1515, three healthy children came in close succession. The oldest of these was a girl. She was christened Katherine, after the queen, who may also have been her godmother.’

The Waterstones exclusive edition, which doesn’t seem to be on here, but includes a great section at the back about where they lived, including the author’s drawings of the floor plans, pictures etc.

‘I rub a bit of the silk between my fingers, trying to figure out President Snow’s reasoning. I suppose since I was the greatest offender, my pain and loss and humiliation should be in the brightest spotlight. This, he thinks, will make that clear. It’s so barbaric, the president turning my bridal gown into my shroud, that the blow strikes home, leaving me with a dull ache inside.’

‘And that Fisher did indeed believe he was encountering a divinely inspired seeress is beyond all doubt. Lawrence, in fact, suggests that the stern old bishop ‘wept for joy’ when he heard of the Maid’s revelations, ‘saying that he did give to them the more credence because that she had been with the King divers times and reproved him for his sins’.’

I have been told that I should read this so many times, so finally giving in, as the audiobook was on sale a while ago.

‘I can’t help catching glimpses of us on the huge screens along the route, and we are not just beautiful, we are dark and powerful. No, more. We star-crossed lovers from District 12, who suffered so much and enjoyed so little the rewards of our victory, do not seek the fans’ favour, grace them with our smiles, or catch their kisses. We are unforgiving.’

’Known variously as the Holy Maid of Kent, the Holy Nun of Kent, and the Nun of Canterbury, Elizabeth Barton was born - if Dom Edward Bocking, the man who was to become her spiritual mentor, is to be relied upon - in 1506. But her birthplace is unrecorded and we have only local tradition to tell us that it was the village of Aldington, about 12 miles from Canterbury.’

‘All I can think of is the emaciated bodies of the children on our kitchen table as my mother prescribed what the parents can’t give. More food. Now that we’re rich, she’ll send some home with them. But often in the old days, there was nothing to give and the child was past saving, anyway. And here in the Capitol they’re vomiting for the pleasure of filling their bellies again and again.’

‘Francis Bacon, too, would note in his history of Henry VII’s rule how proceedings against heretics were ‘rare in this king’s reign’, observing that where action was taken at all, it was in most cases ‘rather by penance than fire’ - as, indeed, in 1498 when Henry himself converted a Canterbury heretic at the stake’

‘Protocol dictated that only married women could wear a tiara. As Isobel, Edith and Mary are now all married, Anna Robbins was able to give them all tiaras in the movie. The ones worn by Violet, Cora and Edith at the ball were all authentic diamond tiaras on loan from London jewellers Bentley & Skinner.’

“Even if you pull it off, they’ll be back in another few months to take us all to the Games. You and Peeta, you’ll be mentors now, every year from here on out. And every year they’ll revisit the romance and broadcast the details of your private life, and you’ll never, ever be able to do anything but live happily ever after with that boy.”

‘Many women were keen to work in offices, factories or shops rather than the rigidly controlled environment of service. Despite this, servants were the largest occupational group in 1927 and in 1931 there were still some 1.4 million indoor domestic servants, 1.2 million of whom were women.’

‘Geraldine was aware that George and Mary knew exactly how to play the role of King and Queen, a thought that struck her when she was sitting in the Daimler and giving the royal wave. ‘In a sense you are being what people expect you to be. They don’t necessarily want to see the inner person, they just want you to be King and Queen, smiling, accepting little gifts, and the like.’’

‘Food is served and cleared from the left, starting with the King and Queen, and drinks come in from the right. During a meal, guests would speak to their neighbour on one side for the first course, and on the other side for the second, after which the rules would be more relaxed. Ladies at the table had to observe which way the most senior woman - in this case Queen Mary - turned first and follow suit’

‘When the girl makes to leave, Katherine says as an afterthought, “Be careful whom you agree to marry, Elizabeth, for once the ring is on your finger you lose everything. And you are a girl who likes to hold the reins.”’

‘In 1927, waistlines had dropped right down to the hip - it was all about long lines and free movement; corsets had gone, a reflection of the emancipation of women. Clothing was softer and more comfortable - women were more active so their clothing needed to be practical.’

‘When we first started the series, we were all in corsets, with so many layers you could barely walk. To travel from that Edwardian style to the kind of thing we’re wearing now has been amazing. In the first season I needed dressers to help me get in and out of my costumes, whereas now I can just throw my costumes on in the morning.’ - Michelle Dockery