Charlie Fenton > Recent Status Updates

‘Somewhat ironically, the most prestigiously placed Tudor tomb is that of Henry VIII’s most overlooked wife, Anne of Cleves. Anne’s tomb, erected in her memory by Mary I (probably because Anne was one of the only people who showed the adult Mary affection), is to the right of the thirteenth-century mosaic pavement in front of the High Altar, and befits her wisely adopted status as the ‘King’s sister’.’

‘The silver ornament was a crucifix hanging upside down, with the black ribbon wound and knotted around Jesus’s ankles.
The thought of her baby lying helpless amid sacrilege and horror brought tears to Rosemary’s eyes, and suddenly a longing dragged at her to do nothing but collapse and weep, to surrender completely before such elaborate and unspeakable evil.’

‘Rosemary shut her eyes and could have cried. He believed her. He didn’t think she was mad. She opened her eyes and looked at him, staying calm and composed. He was writing. Did all his patients love him?’

This bit breaks my heart.

‘She flipped through the rest of the book, pausing near the end to read other underlinings. ‘The stubborn fact remains,’ one read, ‘that whether or not we believe, they most assuredly do.’ And a few pages later: ‘the universally held belief in the power of fresh blood’. And ‘surrounded by candles, which needless to say are also black’.‘

“All right, a lot of unpleasant things have happened there. That doesn’t mean that more of them are going to happen. I don’t see why the Bramford is any more of a “danger zone” than any other house in the city. You can flip a coin and get five heads in a row; that doesn’t mean that the next five flips are going to be heads too, and it doesn’t mean that the coin is any different from any other coin.“

‘The Erpingham Gate, which led into the cathedral precinct, was freshly painted with the arms of Anne’s grandfather, Sir William Boleyn, and her great-grandmother, Lady Anne Boleyn. Inside the cathedral, a luxurious new throne had been made, upon which the queen could enjoy the service. This was placed on the north side of the high altar, opposite the Boleyn chantry chapel and the elaborate tomb of Sir William’

The high point of the progress was a five-day visit to the county town of Norwich. On Saturday 16 August, Elizabeth entered the city through a gate emblazoned with her mother’s falcon next to her own royal arms. She then passed through another gate decorated with Anne’s ‘falcon, with crown and sceptre, which is her own badge’, before heading to the magnificent Norman cathedral for a service of thanksgiving

Servant: “He says he has been invited!”
James II : “It is not a bloody picnic!”

James II learning of William of Orange appearing in England to take the throne.

Elizabeth’s ancestors: Henry VII and Elizabeth of York on the lowest tier, Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn on the middle, and Elizabeth seated in majesty at the top. In front of Anne was ‘a white [falcon] and a gold crown on its head and gilt sceptre in its right talon, the other resting on a little hill, and surrounded by small branches with little roses in front, the coat of arms and device of the said Queen’.

‘Although it was only two lines long, the Act provides a touching glimpse of the affection that Elizabeth bore towards her mother. It refers to ‘Her Highness’ . . . *Mother’. The comment at the asterisk is ‘Deest in originali’ (‘Lacking in the original’), which draws attention to the fact that the queen inserted the word ‘dearest’ before ‘Mother’ in the final version of the Act.’

‘parents as: ‘The most excellent and victorious prince Henry VIII’ and ‘The most gracious princess Lady Anne, Marquess of Pembroke, the first wife to King Henry ye Eight was crowned Queen of England and France in Anno 1533.’ Elizabeth is described as ‘the sole daughter and heir to the high and mighty prince king Henry the eight’. The document therefore entirely disregards Catherine of Aragon’

Michiel described the queen-in-waiting as: ‘A young woman believed to be no less beautiful in her soul than in her body, though her face is pretty rather than beautiful, her figure, is however, tall and well-shaped, with good colour, though olive skinned, and beautiful eyes and hands, as she is well aware.’ This echoes the description of Anne when she first made her appearance at court thirty-five years earlier

‘In the space of a year, she gave only a tiny proportion of her income in ‘alms to diverse poor men and women’ (£7. 15s. 8d.). Yet she gave ten times that amount to Edmund Boleyn, ‘her grace’s kinsman’. The identity of this man is not known, but he evidently knew that he could count on the princess’s generosity, thanks to his Boleyn blood.‘

‘Another, more surprising, maternal figure for Elizabeth during this time was her half-sister Mary, who invested a great deal of effort into her upbringing and education. She also showered her with gifts, which was something that Elizabeth had not enjoyed since her mother’s death. Although she had every reason to resent him, Elizabeth also grew close to her half-brother.‘

‘To her credit, rather than pushing home her advantage as the favoured daughter, Mary took pity on Elizabeth and petitioned their father to look kindly on her. Even before her own restoration to court, she had written to him: ‘My sister Elizabeth is well, and such a child toward, as I doubt not but your Highness shall have cause to rejoice of in time coming.’‘

‘The records show that Anne was spending some £40 per month on clothes and accessories for herself and her young daughter (equivalent to around £18,000 today) – a considerable sum compared to her other expenses. The total annual bill for Elizabeth’s household was around £2,000 – far higher than her half-sister Mary’s had been.’

‘in selecting her daughter’s attendants from among her own kin, she had at least ensured that Elizabeth would have regular – and positive – reminders of her mother. Anne also strengthened her ties with her infant daughter by sending regular tokens to Hatfield. From the moment of Elizabeth’s birth, she had lavished expensive presents upon her. Anne had always had a great sense of style’

‘What we can be sure of is that two of these Hardouyn books were owned by members of the upper echelons of the English court: one by Henry VIlI's queen, Catherine of Aragon, and a second by his queen-in-waiting, Anne Boleyn. We now suggest that a third copy of Hardouyn's printing was owned by Thomas Cromwell, ironically the man who brought both Catherine and Anne down.‘

‘In this will, Cromwell stated: "I give and bequeath to Ralph Sadler my servant, 200 marks (132 pounds) of lawful English money, my best second gown, jacket and doublet, and all my books." So, if Cromwell's wishes remained unchanged by the time of his death, the gilt-bound book from his portrait was bequeathed, amongst all of his others, to his trusted friend and former protégé, Ralph Sadler.’

‘Due to Anne's connections to the production and importing of French books, alongside her many years spent at the royal court in Blois where Mangot was rising to prominence, an attractive, although as yet unproven, possibility is that Anne herself may have been involved in the commissioning of Mangot's gilt binding of the Wren's book, for Cromwell.’

‘Books of Hours are most succinctly described as 'scriptural prayerbooks’. Written mainly in Latin, but containing the odd vernacular prayer cycle, they were traditionally Catholic texts that were popularised and widespread in the medieval era. The name ‘Book of Hours’ was drawn from their purpose, which was to provide an accessible daily routine of psalms and prayers said at specific hours of the day.’

Although ultra-processed foods are easier to overeat when someone is left to their own devices, it doesn't look like they are inherently more fattening, at least to any huge magnitude, just that they are easier to consume more of. With this knowledge, and looking strictly from a body composition standpoint, is it fair to say that ultra-processed foods absolutely need to be avoided if you want to lose body fat? No.

‘Where is the line between junk' and everything else? If fries (chips for most people not in America) are "junk' food, what about homemade fries that are just slices of potato, a splash of olive oil and some salt? While there are some foods most people would unanimously describe as 'junk' foods, it isn't actually an easy thing to classify and this is important from a health perspective’

‘If you live on your own in an area with a high crime rate you may be less inclined to go outside full stop, let alone when it is dark after you return home from work. The point is, while it is easy for one person to say just go outside for a run', there are other factors that can get in the way of someone making that decision.’

‘when I went to prom with the sweetest, nerdiest kid. His big sister asked Nicky to go with him, and she didn’t want to because she had a boyfriend, but I was like, “Yaasss!” I was twenty-three and wasn’t completely over the fact that I never got to go to prom. We did the whole thing—corsage, limo, mom taking pictures in the backyard—and when we showed up at the dance, everybody lost their minds.’

‘kept asking me, “Have you ever had a Harvey Weinstein thing?”
And I said, “Nope.”
I was embarrassed by it, and I have a pathological fear of embarrassment. I was afraid that if I shared that story, the next question would be, “Why didn’t you speak up at the time?” and I had no answer for that. That’s one of those questions that shifts blame onto someone who shouldn’t have to own it.’

“And then I was back in that dank cement cell. Or running through the woods where the dead children were buried. Or staring at a wall, paralyzed by fear, aching to wake up, trying to force myself to scream, and when the screaming finally came out of me for real, it jolted me wide awake. Heart pounding. Cold sweat tickling the back of my neck. I sat up in bed, and I knew I would have to stay there”

“My love-hate relationship with sleep kept me going. No matter how exhausted I was—literally nodding off in the cab at three in the morning—as soon as I lay down in bed, I was wide awake. I couldn’t sleep with the lights on, and I couldn’t turn the lights off. Because in the dark, they came for me.”

‘trend at the time was the whole “heroin chic” thing—stick-thin body, sunken cheeks, and big, hungry eyes. After seventeen months of malnutrition, I was as thin as a blade of grass. I wasn’t trying to be a size zero; I was a kid who’d been living in a state of near starvation. After several months of that, food was an afterthought. When I needed sustenance, I drank a Red Bull and kept on dancing.’

by Charles' own admission the roles of King and Prince of Wales are very different. In an interview in 2018 he said that as monarch he would have to act within 'constitutional parameters' that would not allow him to be as opinionated and vocal as in the past. He emphasised the point in his first public address as King, saying that he would no longer be able to give as much time and energy to the charities and issues