Charlie Fenton > Recent Status Updates

‘But, in her silence, she had learned a great deal: that her understanding of politics was sometimes wilfully obtuse, sometimes hopefully naïve; and that his nobles were men to be reckoned with. Isabella was still young, but she had a shrewd intellect and a forceful will of her own. And now, with her son in her arms, she held the key that would transform her power as queen.’

“The Lady Joan is my wife, as she will affirm. Joan and I took oaths per verba de praesenti.” How easily the Latin fell from his tongue. “There were witnesses to that oath-taking who are still alive to speak of it, and there was a physical consummation. Our marriage is as lawful as your own, my lord. Joan’s marriage to the Earl of Salisbury is not a legal one, it never was, and never will be.”

‘And, perversely, the long imprisonment that had been her punishment for rebelling against her husband had turned her into a figurehead for loyalty and unity. The only part she had played in fifteen years of bitter conflict between her sons and their father was to make possible the transient peace settlement of 1185.’

Studying palaeography and archives has made this section on the library at the monastery much easier to understand and much more interesting. So much research must have gone into this book.

‘Here we were trapped, in a complex spider’s web of our own making. It might be better if I resigned myself to life with William which would not be unpleasant, but if would not have that spark of exhilaration that had brought me from my bed this morning in anticipation of seeing Thomas, even for a handful of minutes.’

‘Her status as the mother of girls has usually been seen as a position of weakness; it was mothers of boys, so the assumption goes, who could hope to assert their own power in their sons’ names. But, for Eleanor in 1152, the exact reverse was true. If she still wanted to escape her husband... it was essential that she should not give birth to a son.’

‘The implications of that decision are clear in the Latin verses later inscribed on her grave: ‘Great by birth, greater by marriage, greatest in her offspring, here lies the daughter, wife, and mother of Henry.’ Her son’s triumph was the vindication of everything she had done; but the price to be paid for that victory was her disappearance between the lines of her own epitaph’

‘The truth of the matter was that Matilda found herself trapped. She urgently needed to show that she was a credible ruler... But when she sought to emulate her formidable father and her first husband, the two great kings whose rule she knew best, she encountered not awestruck obedience, but resentment of a ‘haughtiness and insolence’ that was deemed unnatural and unfeminine.’

‘Though Matilda was not explicitly barred from inheriting her father’s throne, then, the idea of what it meant to be a monarch remained inescapably male. That assumption was embedded even in the language of regality: a queen’s very title, from the Anglo-Saxon word cwén, meant the wife of a king, not his female equivalent.’

Now I did not see that one coming!

This is interesting, is the second time recently that someone has had liver disease (the other being in a TV show I watch). As someone who has had liver disease since I was 7 years old, I am glad it is being covered more and shown that it isn’t just caused by drinking. So many people assume it is down to drinking, but it can be caused by so many things - too much iron in your system, insulin problems, genes etc.

And I’m shouting at Katheryn to confess her pre-contract with Dereham, she would be saved then

‘Lust weighed little now in the scales against fear and shame, exposing her love for Tom as the tawdry, sinful thing it was. She could not imagine how Henry must be feeling, especially if he had discovered what had been going on - and so soon after he had publicly thanked God for blessing him with so virtuous a wife! What a fool she had made of him!’

‘The historian Maria Hayward has shown that at the time of her death Margaret owned plate and jewels worth a staggering £4,213 4s 3 1/2d (£2,805,820), in addition to numerous household items that were worth another fortune; at her death, the total value of her goods was believed to be an eye-watering £15,000 (£10,000,000).’

‘Having herself declared femme sole marked a hugely significant moment for Margaret. From now on, despite having a husband still living, she would stake her independence. She had no need of a husband. With her son’s support, she was able to break free of the ties with which society had bound her, and establish herself as an authority in her own right.’

‘She had thought herself happy, married to Henry, and in many ways she was. But he was old and she was young, with the clamorous blood of youth coursing through her veins - and she had known passion. Seeing Tom, talking to Tom, had awakened something in her, something she thought had died.’

I am actually quite enjoying this, Katheryn is growing on me. I feel like she is maturing throughout the book, she actually seems to care for Henry. She isn’t in love with him, but she does feel some guilt for having deceived him and is quite happy with him at this point. I never really thought about that possibility, but I guess she was pretty much being doted on and being given whatever she wanted.

Audiobook version (not on here). I know bits about Greek mythology by have really been into Assassin’s Creed Odyssey again recently, so decided to finally listen to this.

‘“I have never seen such honour, purity and maidenly behaviour in a young lady.”
A great lump of guilt rose in Katheryn’s throat. They had, all of them, colluded to deceive him - and there was nothing to be done about it. Too many hopes rested on her. Well, from now on, she would be all those things he admired. What had happened in the past did not matter.’

‘Practicalities aside, it makes no sense that Margaret would have wished them dead when mere months earlier she may have been involved in a plot to free them. Quite simply, she had no motive. On the other hand, Richard, as the popular phrase goes, had both motive and opportunity.‘

Don’t like the portrayal of Jane Boleyn in general, as there is no proof she had an unhappy marriage and wanted her husband and sister-in-law dead, but did not expect this to change, as Weir portrayed her like this in the second book. One of the first things she says in this is that she is glad they are dead and that they deserved it. However, she does seem friendly and like a mother-figure to Katheryn at least.

‘She felt sorry for the poor Queen. Had Anne of Cleves any idea what awaited her at the end of her journey? King or no, this ageing, obese man had little to offer a young woman. She even found herself feeling pity for him because of what he had once been and what he was now.’

‘Contrary to the dour image conveyed in most of her portraits, Margaret was fond of fashion and took a great interest in her appearance. Later in her life, her inventories reveal the extent of her love of clothes and jewels, but earlier evidence also shows that she was purchasing expensive materials and was conscious of creating an outward impression of splendour as her rank demanded.’

Audiobook version

I know too much about Greek mythology and know this won’t go well, it will be heartbreaking.

I am loving this book, no idea why it took me so long to read it. I loved Circe too and hope the author writes another book soon.

‘She had been asking herself again why she should not have a lover. Some of the girls here passed from one gallant to another. She was fed up with being virtuous. There was no marriage on the horizon for her, nor ever would be if the Duchess went on forgetting to bestir herself. Why should she not enjoy the pleasures of love here and now? She would never want any man as much as she wanted Francis.’

I’m not sure they would have thought of Manox as being in a ‘position of trust’ back then, that is more of a modern idea

‘This was more what Katheryn expected to hear, the kind of response that suitors gave in love stories, in which the heroine was always aloof and unattainable, or might just condescend to giving a kind look or a gentle caress. Clearly, Mr Manox understood this, even if he had got carried away to begin with. And, she had to admit, so had she, until she came to her senses.’

‘it is hardly surprising that childbirth left Margaret emotionally scarred - so much so that it is possible she made a conscious decision not to become pregnant again. Such a prospect can only ever be speculative, but there is evidence in her later life, in particular as regards her choice of third husband, that gives us good reason to consider such a possibility seriously.’