Charlie Fenton > Recent Status Updates

‘particularly as Anne’s many conservative enemies began considering their options. Later depositions (taken in an entirely different political crisis) reveal that in February 1536 he made quiet feelers to the Lady Mary about securing a deal in which she could become heir apparent in return for acceptance of her present status. This was the deal Cromwell went on to secure from her the following summer.’

‘it is still inescapable that Cromwell had been in charge of the two prisoners’ fates since the beginning of 1534, and once the King had shown the depth of his malevolence in Fisher’s death, the minister choreographed the judicial procedures which briskly led to More’s execution. The court’s decision was based on evidence from Richard Rich, Solicitor-General and already firmly within Cromwell’s circle of patronage’

‘Five years before, Cromwell had set off from Wolsey at Esher ‘to make or mar’ in the 1529 Parliament. Now Bishop Gardiner was licking his wounds in that same episcopal palace, Thomas More had exchanged the Lord Chancellor’s seat for a cell in the Tower and the conservative bishops who had sneered at Cromwell’s master that autumn were humbled. Out of his will-wishers, there remained Anne Boleyn to deal with’

Took a little while to get going, I think there is too much on Camilla’s ancestors

‘Most likely Anne could only be persuaded to accept something of the reality of Cromwell’s position with good grace once he had triumphantly steered her through to marriage and coronation. It is striking that his next preferment, and that merely the Chancellorship of the Exchequer (not then an exalted office), was finalised on the day the King first showed off Anne as his Queen - Easter Eve 1533‘

‘together with her brother George, to whom she was very close, she was working in the same religious direction as the royal minister. Yet as far as Cromwell was concerned, the great fact which shaped their relations for the rest of her life, and which makes sense of the events which now played out at Court over more than half a decade, was that she was the person most responsible for destroying his dear master’

‘characterise this form of religion... very different from the stentorian public proclamation which marked out the magisterial Reformations of Martin Luther, Huldrych Zwingli and John Calvin. At the time, Cromwell was often called a Lutheran, particularly by those who hated the Reformation. But the reality of his religion is anything but Lutheran. Ultimately, its nearest relative in mainland Europe is Italian.‘

‘In 1523 he entered service with another of England’s greatest men - yet it was not Cardinal Wolsey who first refocused his interests from London and international legal work and commerce, but a different Thomas: Thomas Grey, second Marquess of Dorset, England’s only marquess at the time. It is likely that Cromwell’s Welsh gentleman cousin Morgan Williams, by then in Dorset’s service, was the means of introduction.’

‘in the absence of the king, she proved to me that women can be resilient. It is possible to be strong and stand alone in a world of men. Even if it is a world of enemies. I am determined to bury the part of me that is as fickle as my father, and as impetuous as my mother. If I am to survive in this uncertain world, I see it is Katheryn I must emulate, not my parents.’

‘I have heard it whispered that my mother’s trial was a farce, the charges trumped up by her enemies. I wonder how she felt on the day she had to face them accused of such heinous things. Had she had time to make up a credible story but … the difference between my mother and I is that she was innocent of the charges. I am not.’

‘I have known plenty of stepmothers, but never mourned one as I do her. And I am wracked with guilt for the horrid way I mistreated her. Katheryn offered me everything I had ever missed. She filled the gap in my soul that was carved by the loss of my real mother. I cannot forgive myself. I know I am an ungrateful, undeserving wretch.’

‘We name her Mary, in honour of the princess. I cannot keep away from the nursery. For the first time I have a girl I can worship, one who will love me back, unconditionally. Long years of adulation stretch before me. I see her toddling toward me with outstretched arms; mounted on her first pony; donning her first silk gown.’

‘I grab her wrist, twist it roughly so she falls to her knees with a sharp cry. Ignoring Kate’s shout of protest I fumble for my knife with my other hand and begin to hack at Elizabeth’s skirts. At first she is so astounded, she does not fight back. We are both surprised as the fabric rips in two. And then, as if I am possessed, I find I cannot stop.‘

‘Around the turn of the sixteenth century, a teenaged Thomas shook off the constraints of Surrey, and left for mainland Europe. Rather than a quarrel with his father, the impulse may simply have been the restlessness and original intelligence which characterised his public career, and which had made him a ‘ruffian’ in youth.‘

‘why she, of all people, would encourage another queen of England to actually do what her own sister-in-law had lost her life for allegedly doing. The common speculation that there was no love lost between Jane and the Howards has no factual basis, and in any case it made little sense for Jane to seek to bring them down in this way, since she could not have hoped to keep her own role hidden.’

‘I don’t think it is love; I am not given to sentiment. It is more a case of finishing what was begun all those years ago. I have never forgotten that hour in her bed. She was a widow when I took her for the first time; she is a widow now, and close to the young king. If I can possess the queen, I will stand a better chance of gaining control of the boy.’

‘Nevertheless one has to wonder whether the King’s annulment created an atmosphere in which ‘divorce’ of one kind or another was seen as more viable than previously. Surely Norfolk would not have asked Elizabeth to divorce had he not had the example of the King in front of him; surely Elizabeth might have been more amenable if she had not seen the Queen’s demise’

‘I know Henry intends me no slight in commissioning a portrait of himself and his wife, Jane, with their children meekly beside them. It is the epitome of family unity and it hurts to be left out. More than I’d thought possible. They are my children. I’ve welcomed them, without hesitation, into my heart, into my household. His dead wife should stay in her grave where she belongs.’

‘One could only obtain a separation from bed and board by pleading cruelty, adultery, or heresy. Pleas of heresy were rare, and in any case hardly worth attempting in the troubled atmosphere of the 1530s. Pleas of adultery were almost exclusively made by men against women, and pleas of cruelty by women against men. For both, proof was required’

‘However, material culture, most notably the production of objects, allowed them to publicly proclaim their own understanding of their identity at times when that identity was threatened, as Elizabeth Stafford/Howard, Duchess of Norfolk, did by embroidering bed textiles for herself and her husband in the face of their failing relationship. Kinship relations could therefore be played out materially’

‘My mother always stressed that when one sets oneself a task, one should attend to it with the best of one’s ability. Since I am queen I have decided to be the best, and hopefully the last, of Henry’s wives. My chosen motto is ‘To be useful in what I do,’ and I am determined to be more than wife. More than queen. I will be his consort.‘

‘she [Mary] never did remarry, despite him once again attempting the alliance with Thomas Seymour in 1546. Norfolk’s position of paterfamilias was ignored and even jeopardised by his own daughter, whom he could not control, and who exhibited a strong tendency to act independently, counter to what he perceived as the dynasty’s interests and counter to his own authority.‘

‘The immediate dispute, Chapuys tells us, was resolved by the Queen in favour of the dowager Duchess. The offence taken by Elizabeth, the junior Duchess, and her husband the Duke, had annoyed the Queen, as well it might, and Chapuys feared that she would not now be keen to see Norfolk’s son marry her daughter, Princess Mary. A seemingly minor fracas may therefore have cost the Howards a royal marriage.‘

‘“That is good to hear, Your Majesty. You need a young woman to cheer you and fill your nursery with princes.”
“NO.” The word is short, harsh and cutting. “Not a young woman. I made that mistake last time … with her, with Katherine.” I look at my lap, my throat closing in panic at the intimate turn of the conversation. “Lady Latimer, I have it in mind to marry you.”’

‘She throws her head back, her laughter a welcome return after so many weeks of forced solemnity. I know she mourns Father as is her duty but, after witnessing her ecstatic joy when in the company of Sir Thomas Seymour, it is obvious to me that she never loved him. I find myself, in idle moments, wondering how long she has known Seymour and if there is anything between them.’

‘London is plunged into mourning for the queen. Women weep in the streets for the pitiable motherless prince and his poor bereaved father. Forgetting the harsh rule of the last few years, the populace overlook the burnings, the disembowelling, the murdered monks, and their hearts fill with grief for their unlucky monarch. As Queen Jane’s body is carried to Windsor, the crowd stand silent in the rain.‘

‘House of Commons petitioned Queen Mary to marry within the realm. In her reply she made it clear that she was determined to stand by her decision to marry Philip of Spain. A conspiracy was then formed by a group of gentry who aimed to persuade Elizabeth to marry Edward Courtenay, a weak and unstable man who was a great-grandson of Edward IV. The intention was to put her on the throne in Mary’s place.’

‘The division of west-country society in 1549 undoubtedly ran deep. It seems very likely that family alliances and political memories played a part in sustaining this curiously perplexing rebellion. But there seems little doubt also that it drew its popular strength from people’s fears that the government was deliberately destroying traditional spiritual ways and from rumours about new taxes‘

‘The first insurrections of Cornishmen against the Edwardian Reformation, in 1547 and 1548, sprang from fear of the loss of church goods and the intense unpopularity of the government’s agent, William Body. Body was an unscrupulous and avaricious careerist. He had obtained the archdeaconry of Cornwall in 1537 from Thomas Winter’