Charlie Fenton > Recent Status Updates

‘Since the Assize of Arms of 1181, which was updated by Edward I as the Statute of Winchester in 1285, all the free people of England were required by law to carry weapons commensurate with their wealth. There were six different classes, the wealthiest expected to provide a hauberk, a helmet of iron, a sword, a knife and a horse, whilst the poorest providing a bow and arrows.’

‘This - is the last thing I had from my mum. The only thing. I was given to the Dursleys wrapped in it. I thought it had gone forever and then - when your Great Aunt Petunia died, hidden amongst her possessions, surprisingly, Dudley found this - and he kindly sent it on to me, and ever since then - well, any time I’ve wanted luck I’ve found it and just tried to hold it’

From what I have heard, I’ll probably end up regretting it (and apparently it is much better on stage), but I have never read this before, so have to give it a go.

“‘Another thing I don't want on my tombstone," Shane said.
“You have others?" Claire asked.
He held up one finger. "I thought it wasn't loaded," Shane said. Second finger. "Hand me a match so I can check the gas tank." Third finger. "Killed over ice cream. Basically, any death that requires me to be stupid first.”’

‘Imperial diplomats only heard of violent words being hurled at Winchester and there was no mention of Dudley’s being expelled. Yet, if de Selve’s account is the more accurate, it underlines Gardiner’s high standing with the monarch if, in the aftermath of moves against Askewe and the queen, Gardiner was not also required to absent himself for having provoked Dudley.’

‘Can it truly be a thing of horror that radiates this sound? I remember what Creeda said of the fairies - how they sweep people away to their land flowing with honey and milk - and I think: why resist? Do people really fear being transported from this cold world to one of sunshine and song?’

Love Myrnin, must be one of my favourite characters, especially after he gets Bob, his pet spider. I always imagined him played by David Tenant, as he could act the eccentric scientist really well.

‘The absence of certainty about Bishop Gardiner’s activities in late 1543 does not prevent a clear picture of the politics of that year from emerging. The alliance of Seymour, Dudley, and Paget was ranged in opposition against a Catholic front of Gardiner, Wriothesley, and their friends.’

“See, they get the sickly fairies, ones that are of no use, and they put a charm on them.”
“What kind of charm?”
“One to make then look like us. So you could be gone, taken away underground, but there’d be a fairy in your place, wearing your own face. No one would know,” she added, her voice tight and afraid. “No one would even know to come and find you.”

I was too young when I first read this, but it has just dawned on me that the book is hinting that the computer Ada (well the half-human Frankenstein type computer) is actually Ada Lovelace. That is certainly... interesting?

‘“I don’t want to know anything anymore. I think I’m going crazy.”

“Well, it’s always a possibility.” He shrugged. “Ada is a living mind inside an artificial form. A brilliant woman—a former assistant of mine, actually. This preserved the best parts of her. I have never regretted taking the steps to integrate technology and humanity.”’

Wow, I forgot how much went on in this book. It feels like it hardly stops for breath! Good Halloween read though.

‘This is unknown to me. Always, whatever the circumstances, I find a way in. My first mistress prized me for my ability to seek out the best violet pastilles. To Miss Gillings, I was beloved as the only person who could colour her hair without leaving a trace of grey. That is my purpose: to be indispensable.’

‘It smarted to have all my failures read out before me. Any other master would be delighted with these unimpeachable references, but Sir Arthur was not. From the tone of his voice, I could tell he nursed the same suspicion I did: that I was hexed, an omen of bad luck.’

‘Simply because Stephen Gardiner’s doctrinal sentiment was in close harmony with the king’s should not mislead us into thinking that the bishop called the theological tune. But, as is so often the case, there is reason to suggest that Gardiner did add his own counterpoint to the melody given out by the king. We can see that in the way Winchester reacted to (rather than initiated) events’

‘How little the rich understand. He lay with her twice a week - I knew, for I changed the sheets and sometimes found him asleep next to her when I arrived with the morning chocolate - but he had not noticed the changes to her figure. I do not believe he even comprehended where the blood was coming from until I spoke those words.’

‘Stephen Gardiner has, of course, been credited with being in league with the Howards to do all in his power to fan ‘the flame of Henry’s lust’. Katherine’s advancement has been portrayed as one of the ‘machinations of Cromwell’s enemies’ which were decisive in turning king against minister.’

I am getting through these quickly, I really missed this series. It has been years and is a nice nostalgia trip. I see many are conflicted over this series, unsure as to how they feel but still compelled to continue the rest. I would just say not to over-analyse it and remember this book is aimed at teenagers really.

‘Soon after, Katherine was in the garden with little Susan and her nursemaid when they heard cheers and jeering, as if from a great crowd of people. Only when the plume of black smoke rose into the sky did she realise with horror that they must be burning people as heretics.’

‘In the mid-1530s, though, with the pre-eminence of Thomas Cromwell, among whose friends numbered Archbishop Cranmer and among whose allied could be found the Boleyns, the mood around Henry was, superficially at any rate, evangelical. There was no one to speak up for Stephen Gardiner. His brand of conservatism in religion seemed to offer the king neither glory nor, now that things had gone so far, security’

‘People would always call her duchess, and she would never forget her past life, yet as Katherine Bertie she would have a fresh start. She’d envied Catherine Parr when she married for love, and never imagined she would do the same. For the first time in her life she had no ties, or obligations. God had given her a second chance and she was ready to take it.’

“You would have wasted your time,” Amelie said to Claire. “There are no personnel files of any kind in the Historical Society building. It is purely for show, and the information there is inaccurate, at best. If you want to know the true history of things, little one, come to someone who has lived it.”
“But thats just perspective,” Claire said. “Not fact.”
“All fact is perspective.”

‘The Lamentation of a Sinner, made by the most virtuous Lady Queen Catherine, bewailing the ignorance of her blind life; let forth and put in print at the influence before of the right gracious lady Katherine, Duchess of Suffolk, and the earnest request of the right honourable Lord William Parr, Marquess of Northampton.

She felt such prominent credit was underserved’

‘In Mary’s reign he likened his and the nation’s apostasy to having fallen asleep in the face of painful realities, and even then he was still prepared to admit about the Supremacy that ‘when King Henry was hear perhaps there was something to be said for it.’‘

‘King Henry had told his council that, in all their long friendship, Charles Brandon had never knowingly betrayed a friend or taken advantage of an enemy. Katherine had heard that Henry asked them, ‘Is there any of you who can say as much?’’

‘Their eyes avoided hers, out of respect for her new role of grieving widow and dowager duchess. She had lost more than her husband. The old life she’d known was over and she must prepare for whatever the future might hold. Katherine reached out and touched the coffin, as if to convince herself this wasn’t some awful dream. You are gone too soon, Charles. I shall miss you.’

I loved this book series when I was in high school, it was one of my favourites, and, after a terrible day with having to put down one of my cats, I felt like I needed to listen to something less serious.

‘Gardiner’s legal training in these years profoundly affected his religious views. It consolidated his deep-rooted mistrust of change and alteration. The basis of both canon and civil law was the Roman legal system. The student of Roman law had drummed into his head the notion of the authority of the law-giver, namely the emperor, whose rights and prerogatives had in many ways simply been assumed by the pope’