Charlie Fenton > Recent Status Updates

‘The most notable was that of the Great Hall itself. Left clear and relatively bare by Wyatt, it was transformed between 1840 and 1846 into a state that Jesse believed Cardinal Wolsey and Henry VIII would have recognised instantly. The great series of Abraham tapestries, one of the glories to have survived from Henry VIII’s reign, was returned from the King’s State Apartments.’

‘Meanwhile, the palace’s accessibility increased with the building in 1753 of the first bridge across the Thames. It began to attract visitors, who paid the housekeeper a small sum to allow them to enjoy the architectural and artistic splendours. They very first guidebook to Hampton Court Palace was published in 1742, as the second volume of George Bickham’s Deliciae Britannicae.’

‘Their initial thinking was radical: to demolish nearly all of the Tudor palace, retaining only Henry VIII’s Great Hall at the centre of a grand Baroque entrance facing north... It quickly became apparent that such a huge project would be difficult ro finance and slow to build. Asthmatic William was anxious to move quickly. A greater part of the Tudor palace would have to be reused.’

‘Under James I, Hampton Court benefited from a low but continuing level of expenditure on maintenance. The Great Hall was repaired in 1614, the Astronomical Clock was repainted in 1619, and the ceiling of the Paradise Chamber underwent lengthy restoration. The royal court fell into the pattern of an annual autumnal visit to the palace’

‘This entrance is called Anne Boleyn’s Gateway today; and a new stone vault was constructed within it decorated with the initials of Anne Boleyn and Henry (replaced in the nineteenth century with a copy of the original). Anne’s badges and initials also appear next to Henry’s beneath the royal coats of arms decorating the hall’s roof.’

‘Cassandra was the executor of her sister’s estate: the keeper of her flame; the protector of her legacy. In the time that was left to her, she was determined to find and destroy any evidence that might compromise Jane’s reputation. It was simply imperative that those letters did not fall into the wrong hands.’

Animal death, ah I wasn’t ready for that today 😢

‘He had probably met the previous owner, Giles Daubeney, at court. After Daubeney’s death, his son was glad to pass the lease on to Wolsey in 1541 to clear his father’s debts. Wolsey never managed to obtain the freehold of Hampton Court from the Knights Hospitallers; it fell to Henry VIII, the palace’s next owner, to achieve this.’

‘Daubeney tried to acquire the freehold to the manor, but got a ninety-nine-year lease from the Knights Hospitallers instead, with the right to ‘take, alter, transpose, break, change, make and new build’ the house according to his wishes. Daubeney took advantage of this to make great improvements to the manor, and some of his work still survives.’

Had to start this before my interview at Hampton Court Palace tomorrow

‘Death freezes everything. Whatever you did or didn’t do, whatever you said or left unsaid: none of that is ever going to change. You have no more chances to say sorry or make things right. No more chances for anything except regret.’

Excited to start this one, as I love The Scarlet City series by the same author. Like that one, this one is a full Audible production too, so with sound effects, different voice actors etc, which really helps immerse the reader in the story.

‘It’s also vital not to take anything out of the house on New Year’s Eve; that includes rubbish, ashes from the grate, and even potato peelings. You have to wait until you’ve let out the Old Year by opening the back door, and then let in the New by opening the front. Only in this way can you be assured of a good year. Only in this way can you know that the luck of the house has been retained.’

‘From the fourteenth century, a group of Italian scholars, inspired by the poet Petrarch, proposed a new educational syllabus, based on Classical literature, which they called studia humanitatis. This syllabus was to comprise five key subjects: rhetoric, poetry, grammar, history and moral philosophy. Theology played no part, although the humanists... did not go so far as to reject Christian doctrine.’

‘Three weeks after New Year, she lost her faith... It happened quite suddenly. She simply woke up and it was gone. As she lay in bed it occurred to her that between religion and superstition there was no difference, since both were based on unreason. To kill a man to redeem redeem the sins of others was as irrational as tapping a hole in one’s eggshell to stop a witch using it as a boat.’

‘Nurse burst in and slapped her till she stopped. Nurse said the blood was Maud’s ‘courses’. They would happen every month and while Maud had them she must stay out of the kitchen or she’d spoil the meat and turn the wine sour. Also she mustn’t ever wash while she had her courses or she would surely die.’

I know they actually believed this but I just have no words for this.

‘Maud heard Daisy and Valerie discussing an old country cure which they called the Dead Hand. Valerie said it turned her stomach. Daisy said yes but it was a proper good way of blighting a woman’s parts. Suddenly Maud remembered Maman clasping the dead carter’s hand. She hadn’t been holding it to her breast, but to her belly. She’d been trying to blight her parts, so that she wouldn’t have babies.’

‘There were frequent slave revolts, the most famous being that of the Thracian-born Spartacus, who was enslaved for desertion from the army and became a gladiator before leading a major uprising in 73 BCE. He built up a large army, possibly 90,000 strong’

‘rise of Rome, initially a small settlement in the lower Tiber valley. Allegedly founded in 753 BCE by Romulus and Remus, descendants of Aeneas, a royal refugee from the fall of Troy, there is evidence of a village on the Palatine Hill by 850 BCE and suggestions of earlier settlements. Rome was ruled by the Tarquins, kings who were Corinthian by origin, until the last, Tarquin, was driven out by Latin nobles’

‘“How’s it my fault if he don’t like his own childer?”
Cook sniggered. “He likes making en, though, don’t ee?”
Nurse snorted one of her rare laughs. “Gah! You terror!”
Maud felt uneasy and confused. Surely it was God who sent the babies. What did Father have to do with it?’

Thought I would read this before going to Florence and Rome late next month

‘During the evening Henry asked the poet to use his skills and prophesise about his future. In particular he wanted to know whether or not he would be victorious in the coming battle. Dafydd, nervous and unsure about what to say, asked to sleep on the matter. During the night his wife advised him to proclaim a victory for the Tudor earl‘

This is actually quite funny and interesting

‘With the placing of the crown over Richard’s head I had been deemed King’s Mother. This was my metier. This was why I was born, it seemed. Not to be Princess in distant Aquitaine. Not even to be Queen of England. This was my fate, to mould and guide a new king to further England’s greatness.’

‘Who would want a royal heir of only nine years old when King Edward would so obviously follow his son into his grave within the year? Sometimes it was difficult to decide who would die first, King or Prince. King Edward waned before our eyes despite the firm hand of Alice Perrers, whom I had been driven through necessity to accept after her triumphant return to the court.’

‘Jasper had always sensed the viability of Wales as a base for an invasion. He knew the country well and was regarded as something of a hero by the populace. He knew the feelings of the ordinary Welsh people as well as the noblemen and landed gentry. They had no love for England or for Richard. Henry, having been born in Pembroke, was one of them, not one of the hated ‘Sais’ (English).’

“Your face is as fair as your repute, my lady, but you lack the propriety due to your position, and I have no hesitation in telling you so. If you wish to be honoured as Lady of Aquitaine then you will not do it by this show of excess. Tunics slit from neck to hem. Closefitting garments that reveal what only a husband should see. Hair all but naked.”

‘But when did an English prince marry a woman with a questionable marital history and a dark shadow of lasciviousness hanging over her? When did the future King of England not marry a woman of status and rank and European connection to enhance his own prestige, a girl who was a virgin cosseted since childhood in the ways of a princess consort?’

‘Isabella had fought for her rights as an anointed queen of England. She had shown - albeit for a brief moment - that female leadership could represent the legitimacy of the crown forcefully enough to depose an anointed king. And her political legacy to her son lay most powerfully in the lessons he learned about the nature of that legitimacy as he watched her do so.’

‘But a public platform suited Isabella’s purposes perfectly. ‘I feel that marriage is a joining together of man and woman...’ the Vita has her declare, ‘and someone has come between my husband and myself trying to break this bond. I protest that I will not return until this intruder is removed, but, discarding my marriage garment, shall assume the robes of widowhood and mourning’’