Charlie Fenton > Recent Status Updates

‘In the words of the Earl of Sussex, one of Elizabeth’s most important peers, Philip was ‘the greatest monarch on earth, who was strong enough to wage war on all the world united’, but Drake was uncowed. In the process of his circumnavigation he captured a Spanish treasure galleon, the Nuestra Señora de la Concepción, which made him rich beyond imagining.’

I read this once years ago and remember being a bit bored by it, but I am enjoying it more than I remembered, perhaps due to the fact I am listening to an audiobook version this time? The narrator is really good and certain books are more suited to that, I felt the same about Wolf Hall.

As much as the main character annoys me (yes, we get it, women aren’t allowed to do much, but it is almost like she is from the wrong time period, plus who sulks over not being able to enter a gentlemen’s club), I am curious to find out what the explanation for all this is.

“Am I a fool? Am I blind? Elizabeth... nay, I’ll not call you Your Majesty. To me you are Elizabeth, the only woman in the world who will do for me... who maketh all others of no account so that they tire me and make me run from them to dream, alas, but to dream - of her who torments me and denies me with words the love that shines from her eyes.”

‘He contemplated the future with complacence. No member of his family had risen as he would rise. But there was one obstacle - Amy. The very thought of her angered him. He compared her with Elizabeth. The Queen attracted him apart from her royalty. Had she not been the daughter of Henry the Eighth she would have been his mistress ere this, he was sure.’

I’m getting fed up of the main character complaining about how women are treated, no one back then would have done that

‘Moreover he knew that his lot was cast with the Princess. Her failure would be his; as would her triumph. There comes a time in the life of an ambitious man when he must openly show which side he is on. But if only he could be alone with her, what weapons would be his! How far might he not go at one meeting!’

‘The next morning, Prince Edward participated in a darker ritual of masculine royal authority when he witnessed the summary execution of Henry’s guards, Bonville and Kyriell. Some pro-Yorkist sources even claimed that the seven-year-old Edward condemned the men himself. Margaret’s influence must have lain behind such a decision, for it asserted the prince’s status‘

‘Prince Charles is not a bad man, but in this instance his treatment of his wife, and especially his willingness to allow her to be humiliated virtually in public, was unforgivable. The fact that he and Mrs Parker Bowles had been privately conducting an adulterous affair was irrelevant. What tore the Princess in two, wrecking her emotionally, was their readiness to humble her publicly without apparent remorse.‘

I like reading books by people who actually knew Diana and I’m enjoying this even more as the author himself if narrating it. This one is by one of her bodyguards, who I know in the past has felt guilty about her death, as it wasn’t long after he left and another security team took over.

Audiobook version.

‘The Act of Accord, as this agreement was known, allowed Henry to reign until he died, or when it pleased him to ‘lay down or yield the crown’, but his throne would then be inherited not by Henry’s son, but instead by York or one of his line. In other words, Henry disinherited his own dynasty in favour of York’s. It was a remarkable concession and one it is impossible to imagine Margaret assenting to’

‘Both York and Margaret knew the fundamental fact of Henry’s rule, which was that whoever controlled the king controlled the kingdom. York, denied access to the monarch, had no direct influence but he could at least exercise his military rights as a nobleman. Margaret could not even do that. Her only routes to political influence lay through Henry and her son.‘

‘Before Henry’s first illness Margaret had played the traditional queenly role - intercessor, peacemaker and intermediary - but the anxieties of the past three years, Henry’s continued incapacity and Margaret’s new status as a mother had driven the queen into new territory. Now at the age of twenty-six, Margaret stepped into the space left vacant since Somerset’s death.‘

‘The symptoms of this sudden mental breakdown were horrifying. If there was indeed an initial frenzy, it swiftly passed, transformed into a paralysing physical and mental catatonia. Henry could not talk. He could not walk. He did not recognise his companions, nor respond to their concern. He was barely able to hold up his head, sitting slumped and silent in their presence like a rag doll.’

‘By uniting the lines of his half-brother and the Beaufort heiress, Henry established an alternative line of succession for the crown. Through his infant wife, Edmund Tudor gained a claim to the throne which his half-blood connection to Henry did not provide. The founding of this rival Beaufort dynasty must have had the approval of Margaret’s uncle Somerset’

‘The costs of maintaining Henry and Margaret’s households had been mounting for years, despite ordinances put in place by parliament in 1445 to control their spending. According to these regulations Henry was allowed only 53 knights and esquires of the hall and chamber, but in 1446 he had 254 and by 1451 this figure had risen to over 300.‘

‘The impression of England among Henry’s subjects in 1449 was of a country dragged to the brink of lawlessness by royal indulgence and misplaced mercy. Pardons for wrongdoers and patronage of royal favourites were both expected of a king, but only in moderation and with due discretion. It was also the responsibility of a king to resolve the disputes of his most powerful lords before they turned violent’

“A man’s jealousy is like a child’s, fitful and foolish, without depth. A woman’s jealousy is adult, which is very different.”

‘She would ruin everything. Had she not already done much harm? His brother Guildford was married to the Lady Jane Grey; and at this moment, though few knew it, Jane Grey was Queen of England. He looked at Amy, pretty enough with her hair hanging about her shoulders and her wrap falling open to show those plump shoulders; but he had grown up; he had outgrown the simple country charms of Amy Robsart.’

‘She must have considered it a good sign that during the eleven months between their wedding and their first meeting, Henry showered her with thoughtful, chivalrous gifts. Her wedding band was the same ruby ring that Henry had worn at his French coronation, an item that must have held tremendous significance for him as a symbol of commitment to his French subjects.’

Very gruesome, reminds me of an adult version of Horrible Histories. I like the way the audiobook is narrated - the commentary by one narrator and the primary sources by another.

‘In 1440, what could not be doubted was that Henry was seeking a very different form of kingship from that exercised by his father. Government had remained in stasis since 1422, the will of the dying Henry V maintaining its vice-like grip on the policy of his kinsmen and councillors. Warfare had been its defining characteristic. This was a course that Henry VI could no longer follow.’

‘When he thought of marriage he thought of the redheaded Princess. Was he looking rather high? Robert did not think so. Who could be too high for Robert? Moreover she was a bastard. Yet he did not object to that. He had admired her spirit, the way in which she had commanded the children’

‘On the verge of adolescence, he had been assured that he was intellectually advanced and pushed into coronation years before his council had originally planned, yet he was given no independent authority and when he attempted to exercise his powers of kingship he was warned that he was not yet ready, even that he might make decisions ‘prejudicial, perilous or harmful to him or to his people’.’

‘During Henry’s time in France he had fallen under Beaufort’s influence and their bond had been strengthened rather than weakened by the king’s coronations. It had been the cardinal who crowned Henry king of France, forging a unique religious connection that Beaufort commemorated by giving his great-connection a ruby ring.’

‘Bedford believed that the only way to undermine French confidence was to crown Henry in turn. He had first appealed for Henry to be crowned king in France in April 1429, when the first English forts had started to fall. The English council, alarmed at the projected cost and logistical challenge of escorting their seven-year-old king to France, had prevaricated.’

‘Henry’s recollection of the events at Leicester, impressionistic as a four-year-old’s memory was, must have been of the success of royal reconciliation - how even apparently serious noble quarrels could be resolved with a handshake and professions of love.‘

“If they had not been betrayed, then they would surely have accomplished everything they had planned. Bur now - now all is in ruins.” She shook her head impatiently. “Cecil is like a cat who had cornered a mouse. He relishes the game of tormenting it before he pounces. Fawkes has already confessed; Wintour will soon follow.”