Charlie Fenton > Recent Status Updates

Not the easiest read! Goes on a lot about classical literature, what contemporaries believed about paranoia etc.

‘Once the Reformation broke out, conspiracy took on more sinister and far more cosmic proportions, but nevertheless the conviction prevailed that heresy and its even uglier stepsister sedition were the product of tiny groups of conspiring individuals determined upon private profit... More and most of his society continued to view the religious upheaval as the work of a handful of evil men and women‘

‘Most of the inventories of weapons on board the King’s ships include longbows and arrows and it is clear, from the excavation evidence, that fully-evidence archers were alongside gunners when the Mary Rose sank... More than 3,500 arrows and 137 whole longbows were recovered from the ship. Some were with the archers at action stations on the upper decks, but many were in closed boxes in the storage area’

‘Henry VIII inherited the nucleus of a royal fleet from his father, including such great ships as the Regent (1,000 tons) and the Sovereign (800 tons). However, faced with the ever-present threat of the French Navy as well as a strong, potentially hostile, Scottish fleet, he began an intensive programme of naval rearmament soon after he became King of England in 1509.’

‘Botolf and Philpot had operated as minor malcontents outside the gilded focus of power about the sovereign; Dr Parry, whatever the truth of his undertaking - inept and fatal counter-espionage or religiously inspired fanaticism - was a predictable hazard in an era of ideological hypertension. In contrast, Sir Thomas Seymour’s abortive palace revolution.. struck at the aristocratic core of political authority’

‘When Philpot questioned whether he could possibly capture the gate or whether 600 men could take and hold the entire port. Botolf countered with two other pieces of information. First, he explained that ‘we shall have aid, both by sea and by land within a short space’.... Second, money would shortly be made available for Philpot to purchase, ‘even if it cost a thousand marks or more’’

‘His knees gave way, and he realised dimly that he was about to faint. His vision darkened into reddish black, shot with stars and streaks of light - but not even the encroaching dark wild blot out the final sight of Fergus’s hand, that small and deft and clever pickpocket’s hand, lying still in the mud of the track, palm turned upward in supplication.’

I hope Goodreads sort the challenge out soon, as I have no idea where I am with it now. Only realised I'm having problems with it when it suggested I add a book I marked as read in 2018 that I only finished the other day and know I tracked all my progress on here.

‘One of the complete skeletons recovered is of an archer, and he was found in the hold. Both his shoulders have a condition called os acromiale, where the tip of bone, the acromion, on the shoulder-blade has not fused. It usually fuses at the age of 18, but regular strain (such as archery) can prevent this. We can also tell from his tooth enamel that he was either an Englishman or a Welshman.’

“Christ, Claire,” he said. “Couldn’t you fix yourself up a bit? I mean, it’s not as though you have anything else to do, at home all day - couldn’t you take a few minutes for a-“

Ouch. My opinion of Frank has gone down. Certainly not the thing to say to someone who has been awake for 24 hours, dealing with a baby who won’t stop crying with a bad nappy rash and trying to get the heating fixed.

‘Frank irritable and myself terrified, having no idea what might happen between us, with the appearance of Jamie Fraser’s child. But when the nurse had taken Brianna from her bassinet and handed her to Frank, with the words “Here’s Daddy’s little girl,” his face had grown blank, and then - looking down at the tiny face, perfect as a rosebud - gone soft with wonder. Within a week, he had been hers, body and soul.’

‘“You’re the laird of Broch Tuarach, aren’t you? Well, that’s where I’m sending you.”
“I dinna want to go home! I want to be shot!”
The Englishmen exchanged a look.
“Raving,” the Lieutenant said significantly, and Melton nodded.
“I doubt he’ll live through the journey - but his death won’t be on my head, at least.”
The door shut firmly behind the Englishmen, leaving Jamie Fraser quite alone - and still alive.’

‘At 9.03am on 11 October 1982, inch-by-inch, Tog Mor gently raised the Mary Rose, previously secured on her lifting cradle, out of the Solent... Over 60 million people around the world watched the longest television outside broadcast yet undertaken, as the Mary Rose, between the lifting frame and cradle, was carefully lowered on to a barge for the short tow home to Portsmouth.’

‘Two kilometres out from Portsmouth Harbour, cannons blazing, the Mary Rose fired her guns mounted on one side of the ship straight towards them. In readiness to fire again from the guns mounted on the other side, she immediately began to turn. As she turned, King Henry looked in absolute horror as she heeled over too far. Water gushed in through her open lower gun-ports and flooded the decks.’

‘the king still had great respect and love for the reverence of the Virgin Mary. Also, naming a ship after his sister and not his wife, who he was very much in lobe with, would have been a strange decision. Indeed, Katherine did eventually get a ship named after her, the Katherine Pleasance, but not until 1518. Whichever Mary she was named after, there is no doubt that the rose refers to the Tudor rose.’

Not quite as good as her last book How to be a Tudor but still an interesting read nonetheless.

‘People shouted one set of insults at their female foes and another, quite different set of words at their male enemies; there were rude gestures employed by both sexes but others that were used primarily by men, such as thigh slapping, or the hands-on-hips stance and finger wagging that were the preserve of women. Fighting, as we have seen, was also highly gender specific’

‘Cleanliness and control were never more valued than when eating. Before you even entered the room it was considered polite to spend a few moment tidying yourself up and adjusting your attire - and washing your hands was absolutely essential. Attention to the cleanliness of fingernails was required and hair was to be combed. Those clean hands were to be kept as clean and grease-free as possible throughout‘

‘Primarily, they observed the stricture that fighting was a man thing; women who fought were rare birds who largely stuck to scratching faces and pulling hair. When men fought, they did so in styles and with weapons that were considered appropriate to their social position, that emphasised their bravery and manliness. Rapiers were for gentlemen, staffs and agricultural implements for commoners’

‘He could always be seen among his companions because he was so much taller than they were and his bright flaxen hair was readily recognisable. His parents called him affectionately, Edward Longshanks, and they marvelled at his healthy good looks while they were terrified of that childhood fever which had been the bogy to haunt their lives.’

‘Imagine the scene then: a young man full of martial pride, striding along, head held high, shoulders back, with a wife swaggering gait, turning heads as he goes, tailed at a distance by a woman with a wooden spoon and a gang of boys all wagging their hips from side to side, almost falling backwards from the extremity of their lean, elbows as pointy as can be, gales of laughter echoing down the street.’

‘Another added advantage was that lack of legal redress we mentioned earlier. Calling someone a cuckold verbally could provoke a case for slander, but following them around making the gesture for all to see was perfectly legal, and if they tried to thump you for it, why, that was assault!’

‘wondered then if there might come a day when the barons decided they would rise once more in England as they had under King John, when they would tire of a King on whom they could not rely. How would Henry stand the strain? And Eleanor? Did she realise that the people were murmuring against her, that they could not forgive her for bringing her family and friends to England and keeping their pockets well filled?’

‘Richard bowed his head. He was beginning to wonder whether the royal marriage was as beneficial as he had thought it would be. True, Eleanor was a lovely girl, but she was exercising too much power over the King and her family was becoming a nuisance. The fact was, she was too strong-minded and the King was too besotted.’

‘She could not entirely believe it. It was like a dream coming true. It was too neat. Marguerite Queen of France. Herself Queen of England. And largely because of the clever juggling of Romeo de Villeneuve. If she had not written that poem... if she had not - on Romeo’s advice - sent it to the Duke of Cornwall... No, it was too much to believe. It was what she had wanted more than anything.’

‘Sanchia was watching Eleanor for her case. Beatrice was clearly miserable at the thought of her sister’s leaving them. Eleanor kept her eyes to the ground. This was the greatest honour which could befall them and it had come to Marguerite, not because she was more clever or more beautiful - she was neither - but simply because she was the eldest.’

‘Laura Gowing found 2,224 defamation cases that were brought to court in and around London between 1572 and 1640. In a city with around 100,000 inhabitants this represents a steady trickle of around 30-40 a year... Using language offensive enough to provoke legal retaliation, spoken where there were witnesses sufficient to support a case, was clearly not a rare occurrence in Renaissance Britain.’

‘Mary Goatee and Alice Flavell were arguing in the London street outside their respective houses when Mary went for ‘kiss my arse’; quick as a flash, Alice retorted: ‘Nay, I will leave that for John Carre’ - implying not only that Mary had an illicit lover, but that he was a subservient and perverted one, and Mary was a low-value whore.’

Very few history books make me laugh, I certainly wasn’t expecting this

‘Some have assumed that the attempt on the queen took place after Anne’s death because they wanted to make a connection between the queen took place after Anne’s death because they wanted to make a connection between the queen and a woman who was, beyond any shadow of doubt, a heretic upon whom sentence had been carried out in accordance with the king’s justice.’