Charlie Fenton > Recent Status Updates

‘The move to Chatsworth may have been for reasons of security too. In September, Bess had received a letter from Burghley warning her of the discovery of a Catholic plot to abduct Arbella. It was Arbella’s curse to be the focus of Catholic plots to depose Elizabeth, and later James I.‘

‘Our cause is lost. Our peaceful mission to bring England back to the true church has failed; doomed by the promises of a false king. In the lightening dawn, the slack-limbed, sightless bodies of those who aided us sway as we pass by. The voiceless, lifeless men, women and children who dared to share our questioning of the king’s wisdom gape blindly at our passing.’

‘Of Bess’s feelings on Shrewsbury’s death we have no record. Theirs had been a marriage of more than twenty years, but one that had been over in all but name for the last five. Bess could not have had much sense of loss in November 1590; indeed, there must have been more relief than regret. She was now free from marital harassment. Free to enjoy Chatsworth.’

“Before I left Arden, I never knew there was so much... so much world outside the cloister. I’ve met so many different people. I hadn’t realised before that there was such a variety of faces or so many differing opinions, so many shades of right and wrong... At Arden, it was unchanging; the people I saw, the chores I carried out, the prayers I heard”

‘The breakdown of the Shrewsbury marriage, played out over four long years, grew out of resentments and jealousies, escalated into an ugly battle over money and property - the issues on which both Shrewsburys sharpened their knives - and ended mired in pettiness and trivia... Much hinged on the terms of the marriage settlement - now lost to us - and the 1572 deed of gift.’

‘Rumour runs across the country like a plague, reaching even the cloisters. We hear that parish churches have been robbed of plate and taxed heavily, unaffordable levies for marriages, christenings and burials. Wilder rumours circulate of a new tariff placed upon white bread, goose and capon, and every man in the realm forced to give account of his property and income.’

‘From Margaret came Mary, Queen of Scots, her son James VI of Scotland - whose Scottish birth by rights nullified his claim - and Charles Stuart, who thus stood third in line to the throne. This of course was precisely why a match between Charles and Elizabeth Cavendish would not find favour with the Queen; indeed it would feel a threat.’

‘The custodianship of the Queen of Scots would have seemed an honour to the Shrewsburys in 1569, a mark of Elizabeth’s regard and trust. The Earl would never have imagined that his charge would continue for fifteen years, to the detriment of his fortune, his health, his peace of mind and his marriage.’

‘It’s hard to fault William St Loe as a husband, a model of generosity and forbearance, happy to bend before the greater will of his wife, prepared to base himself in Bess’s home county rather than his own. In Derbyshire, he became both a justice of the peace and a member of Parliament. He didn’t add to Bess’s Derbyshire estates, but he funded the building work at Chatsworth.’

‘Our lack of beneficiaries is bringing our house down, stone by stone; our fields and outbuildings cry out for maintenance and our tiny church is almost empty of plate. There is far too much work for the three remaining able-bodied woman to carry out, so we pray and bide our time in the faith that, one day soon, God will notice our plight and send salvation.’

‘However, where the Queen’s unique position was largely defined by her unmarried state - marriage was a trap to be avoided, a curtailment to independence - Bess’s ascent was only made possible through marriage. And where Bess, though by no means averse to scheming, was decisive and forthright, Elizabeth was the mistress of vacillation and equivocation, supremely artful and subtle in her dealings with others.‘

‘A new breed of builder and a new kind of house. The fortified courtyard homes of medieval England began to make way for more compact, outward-looking houses, houses that experimented with new ideas about design and decorative detail coming from Europe, houses that were more about comfort than security, but which also pleased and intrigued the eye.’

‘in December 1550 Bess gave birth to her first son, Henry - ‘my bad son Henry’ as he was destined to become, the source of much trouble and disappointment. This time the Cavendishes set their sights a little higher in the godparent stakes, choosing Princess Elizabeth (the beginning of a long if occasionally strained association between Bess and the future Queen), the Earl of Warwick, now Lord President‘

‘According to the Duchess of Newcastle, Sir William, ‘being somewhat advanced in years’, married Bess ‘chiefly for her beauty’. Bess was in fact no great beauty, but she was spirited, vital and determined. It’s a measure of her powers of attraction that Cavendish, a man on the make, chose a wife with little to recommend her in terms of social or material gain.’

‘A brief marriage had provided Bess with an income, small to be sure, but bringing a measure of independence. These early years of loss and financial insecurity help explain her drive to fortify herself with land, assets and cash, though for Bess the process of acquisition became compulsive, not merely a question of security, but of power and control.‘

‘She reread the letters the King had sent her, and cried over them. She got out the jewels he had given her, and pressed her lips to their cold surfaces. She could not believe he had gone from her - and from England. What would become of her adopted land now that a boy king ruled over it? Would it turn Protestant, as the Lady Mary had feared? And would young Edward be as good a friend to her as Henry had been?’

‘She left Hampton Court on a blazing-hot August day, weeping in her litter because some intuitive instinct told her she would not see Henry again. He had sent for her to bid her farewell. She had found him in a reflective mood, and suspected he too had an inkling that his time was short, for he had held her tight in their last embrace, and there had been tears in his eyes as he looked into her face.’

Goes a lot into the details that are seldom known about Anne’s life after she became ‘the King’s sister’, such as the investigation into the rumour that she had been ‘delivered of a fair boy’ by the King, while he was still very much infatuated with Katherine Howard.

‘“If my honour is being slandered, I have a right to know what is being said about me.”
Sir Richard looked at Sir Anthony and indicated he should speak.
“A few days ago, Madam, we had word of an abominable slander: that your Highness had been delivered of a fair boy, and that it was the King’s Majesty’s, begotten back in January when you were at Hampton Court.”’

I know some will disagree but I actually like the fictional events that have been added to Anne’s story, especially as Weir admits it is all fiction in her notes (I don’t mind fictional events, especially ones as big as this, being added if it is admitted to). I think the twist in this has kept the book from becoming boring and isn’t too jarring as we know little about her anyway.

‘Elizabeth was shocked that Mary had arrived in England. Her vague promises of help had never been intended to lead to this. But, as Elizabeth knew, a bad king is simply a bad king, a rotten egg who has no bearing on all the others, but a bad queen makes all women rulers look bad. If a woman was too weak to rule Scotland, then what did it say of Elizabeth?’

‘Within a day or so, she realised she was miscarrying. Her secretary later said she had been carrying twins - if she was miscarrying at only eight weeks, this would have been difficult to see although, perhaps if identical, two sacs might have been visible, but it was probably more likely that Mary was further along, perhaps even around the three-month mark’

‘Anna did not want to hear all this. It made her feel even more unwanted, and not a little jealous of her former maid-of-honour, to whom - she realised - she must from now on bend the knee. Now she had an inkling of how Queen Katherine and Queen Anne had felt when they, in their turn, were supplanted. She could have shaken Henry for his insensitivity. Yet she would not let it matter; she must not let it matter.’

‘To her surprise, she felt a burgeoning sense of well-being. For the first time since meeting Henry, she knew where she stood. The worst that could happen had not happened. From a humiliating bondage, she had suddenly been liberated to a life of luxurious freedom; she was, for the first time, her own mistress. She had not lost the King’s goodwill: he was still her friend - and brother!‘

‘When Elizabeth impulsively took Anna’s hand and squeezed it, then gently touched her face, as if she was hardly able to believe that this new stepmother was real, Anna felt choked. The child clearly needed a mother’s love and stability in her life. Mary, with her enduring hatred of Elizabeth’s mother, was perhaps not the best mentor, although it was plain she loved her half-sister.’

‘Bothwell raped Mary to attempt to reduce her into marrying him, to gain power over her, to show her that despite her riches and authority and God-given crown, she was nothing more than a body and reducible to subservience by a man’s act on her. Most of all, he wanted to impregnate her so she had no choice but to marry him. And once Mary was married and pregnant, everyone would forget the method.‘

‘Surely it was nothing! The King, everyone knew, had always had an eye for the ladies. Why should he not find Katheryn appealing? Smiling at her did not mean he was pursuing her. But what was it someone had said, in Anna’s hearing? When he takes a fancy for a person or a thing, he goes he whole way. Now she really was running away with her imagination. Stop it! she admonished herself. It was a passing flirtation.’

‘She would have liked to correct Henry on his pronunciation of Kleve, but did not dare. Most English people called it Cleves, to rhyme with ‘sleeves’, rather than Kleve, to rhyme with ‘waver’. In time, perhaps, she would herself.’

‘Out of the gentlemen, a tall, massively fat man with thinning red hair, ruddy cheeks, a Roman nose and a prim little mouth, was appraising her intently. Without warning, he stepped forward and, to her shock, embraced and kissed her. She was outraged. How dare he treat her so familiarly! The King would hear of this! Recoiling away from the sour, sickly smell of sweat and something worse, she pulled away’

‘Here, the Mayor of Calais bowed low and gave her another heavy purse of gold coins, and a jewel in the shape of the letter C.
“It is for Calais, ja?” she asked.
“No, Madam,” the interpreter said, “it stands for Cleves, in honour of your Grace.”
She smiled her gratitude. Now was not the time to point out the correct spelling.’