Charlie Fenton > Recent Status Updates

‘In the camp, divisions of opinion began to appear. Some said that perhaps, after all, a pardon should be sought; yet another proclamation from the Protector had pardoned all those guilty of ‘riotous assembly’ who made ‘humble submission’. Others said the size of our camp, the possibility of new risings, and the Protector’s obsession with the Scottish war, meant that if we held on, our demands would be met.’

“When I was growing up, we still had the old Catholic faith, and believe it or not, for a little while I believed I had a vocation. Then all the changes came, and under King Henry we were ordered to believe one thing one year, another the next. And now we have the Protestant radicals. Why should your aunt’s church have the truth of it any more than any of the others?”

‘The important point is that Duke Borivoj (appearing under the name of Goriwei in the Latin annals of the Fulda monastery in 872) decided to erect the burg of Prague not in the solitude of wild forests but in the elevated middle of a Czech settlement close to the river... The new fortifications sat nearly astride an old route from Germany to Russia, which long-distance commercial travellers increasingly used’

‘Each year, the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh send approximately 750 Christmas cards featuring a family photograph taken in the course of the year. The card is signed ‘Elizabeth R’ and ‘Philip’ and features their official cyphers. The official recipients of the royal Christmas card may include British and Commonwealth prime ministers, governors-general and high commissioners’

‘It was in the reign of Henry VIII that the formal court ceremony of giving New Year’s gifts developed. On the morning of New Year’s Day, gifts were presented to the King by the donor or their representative in the Presence Chamber in order of precedence, with the highest-ranking donor offering their gift first.‘

‘Prince Albert is often credited with having introduced the Christmas tree to Britain from Germany following his marriage to Queen Victoria in 1840. However, Christmas trees had been part of royal festive celebrations since the late eighteenth century, when the first Christmas trees were set up by Queen Charlotte, consort of George III.’

‘While many demands looked to the restoration of rights as they had been in the time of old King Henry VII, much was new. I heartily agreed with all of it. But the most radical demand was a prayer to the King to allow the commons a say in choosing local commissioners to implement laws and proclamations’

“What do you think of Captain Kett?”
“I think he’s the most remarkable man I’ve met since Lord Cromwell. He has Cromwell’s force, his negotiating skills - he’s been a local politician and guildsman for years - and his confidence. But none of Cromwell’s cruelty, or bullying. Charisma too, practical organising skills, and from the way he’s shaping this camp, a genuine belief in equality.”

‘The census of 1871 records 24,000 female farmers in their own right and 187,000 wives of farmers working on their husbands’ farms, and a further 92,000 daughters and other female relatives also at work on farms owned by relatives. In 1891 ‘agriculture’, as defined by the census, still employed 16 per cent of all employed women.’

‘Mince pies in late-Tudor recipes use hot water crust pastry - like that used for pork pies - and contain minced meat as well as the suet, dried fruit and spices that we are used to. Gradually over time the amount of meat in the recipes diminished and the amount of fruit increased. Victorian recipes vary, some have as much as 50 per cent meat and others have none at all.’

‘For rural children the highlight of the year was often May Day. In many parts of the country children were spared from school and work for the day to celebrate. They spent the morning gathering flowers and branches from the hedgerows and making garlands out of them. Early in the afternoon they got together and paraded around the village showing off their handiwork to everyone’

“It is we who are loyal to the King and you who milk his lands and ours for your profit.” He shook his head. “You have no idea what is happening, have you? Honest workin’ men are setting up camps all over the country, in Suffolk and Essex, Kent and Oxfordshire. We are sending petitions to the Protector, whose commissioners will soon arrive.”

‘She [Mary] was as I remembered, small and thin yet with an air of iron will, though there were new lines of strain around her small mouth. Her dark auburn hair was covered by a jewelled French hood, and I noticed that her magnificent dress, like the one I had seen her wearing three years before, was embroidered with pomegranates, the emblem of her mother, Catherine of Aragon.’

‘The Lady Elizabeth obviously had the bit firmly between her teeth. She would be making Parry’s life difficult - hence perhaps the tone of his letter. Her final sentence also seemed to carry a veiled warning, that if I was wrong about John Boleyn, the blame might be shifted onto me. Elizabeth, I thought, is becoming a politician.’

Getting through this book so quickly. It is such a sweet story and the narrator is excellent, really capturing the innocence and amazement of the children.

‘In 1848, the Illustrated London News published a woodcut of the young Royal Family gathered around their magnificent Christmas tree at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight. This is the image (with suitable amendments to make them look like an ordinary family) that crossed the Atlantic in 1850 and appeared in the very popular American magazine Godey’s Lady’s Book.’

“Well, I do not know what the Protector will say about the Last Elizabeth involving herself in scandal. Again. In Mary’s country, too. However,” he picked up the request and tapped it on the desk, “as you will know, all requests for a pardon have to be approved by the judge. Some I do not allow to go forward but, where money and influence are concerned - what can I do?”

‘People who relied on farming for their livelihood always made sure they didn’t forget their animals during the New Year celebrations. In the north of England it was once traditional to feed your Christmas bunch of mistletoe to the first cow that calves after New Year’s Day, to guard against witchcraft. This is because witches were notorious for turning milk sour’

“My work in London, helping the solicitors gather evidence, it’s all like rats fighting in a sack. As for the Assize work, I see every day how the legal system only helps those with power. Three days devoted to civil cases, rich litigants spitting against each other, and one day to hear all the criminal cases before hanging day. I’m sick of it.”

‘Sir Henry Cole was a Victorian businessman and inventor who was responsible for the development of several things that we now take for granted. These include Christmas cards. Until the 1840s, some people liked to send cards to their family and friends at the New Year but Christmas wasn’t marked in the same way. All that changed in 1843.’

‘In medieval and Tudor times, the Christmas activities at court, universities and in the great houses of the nobility were organised by the Lord of Misrule. He was elected specially for the purpose and he had a host of helpers. The general idea was for the Lord of Misrule to create as much merriment as possible, and often to whip up some enjoyable festive chaos at the same time.’

‘lay face down on the filthy floor, next to the pit with two planks on bricks over it. I grasped at the lantern and held it over him. There was blood on the back of his head. I touched the pulse on his neck. To my relief it was throbbing. I saw a paper had been placed on his back, and raised the lantern to it. In scrawled capitals I read: DEATH TO ALL GENTLEMEN.’

I am really enjoying this book. It is a nice and easy read for Christmas, one of those heartwarming stories you would expect. It really invokes the feeling of a Wartime Christmas and the narrator is excellent, especially with the different accents.

‘“What were you doing in Hatfield?”
“Visiting the Lady Elizabeth.”
He smiled wryly. “Ah, the Protestant Princess. But no, she is still just the Lady, like her sister Mary. Both their mothers’ marriages annulled. Unlike Jane Seymour’s. I wonder if her brother the Protector is making a point by denying them the title of Princess.”’

“I know what marriage can mean, for women of royal station. I saw what happened to Catherine Parr. How the papists plotted to blacken her good name with my father, and have him do away with her. As you well known. And then, her marriage to Thomas Seymour.” She coloured, the blood rising into her pale face. “He married her for her position, and behaved without honour, so that she cursed him on her deathbed.”

“As it is a criminal trial, Boleyn cannot have representation by counsel because, the burden of proof being guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, the law considers the facts should be so plain that counsel is not needed. Nonsense, of course, but there it is.”

“Elizabeth is fifteen, but you deal with her as with an adult. She has never known a secure childhood.” I smiled sadly. “She is extraordinarily clever, though, quick with words, and she can use them sharply. When I was first appointed to work under Master Parry, she told me that her dogs would wear her collars. And so she expects.”

‘The Tudor monarchs also gave gifts, usually items of plate, such as cups and bowls chased with the royal cipher, each weighted according to rank. Every person at court, even the most menial members of the royal household, got something. In one year, 1511, Henry VIII spent over £800 (over £400,000 today) on New Year’s presents.’

‘Henry VIII passed a law banning all sports on Christmas Day except archery. He also enacted that artificers, husbandmen, labourers, mariners, fishermen, watermen, craftsmen, servants and apprentices could play cards, dice, football, bowls, tennis, quoits, ninepins and shove groat only at Christmas. Small wonder that people threw themselves into the revelry with gusto’

‘The wooden wassail bowl, decorated with ribbons, contained hot ale, beer or cider, apples, sugar, spices, rosemary and a crust of bread at the bottom. People would pass the bowl, crying, ‘Wassail!’ and each recipient would take a drink and pass it on, saying, ‘Drinkhail!’ The crust of bread at the bottom of the wassail bowl was reserved for the most important person in the room’