Charlie Fenton > Recent Status Updates

‘Uncertainty pervades every aspect of life. People do not know whether the Sun goes around the Earth or the Earth goes round the Sun; the doctrines of the Church contradict the claims of Copernicus. The rich merchants of London do not know if their ships will be stranded in a North African port, with the crews massacred by Barbary pirates and their cargo stolen.’

‘She herself had been endowed with the qualities of leadership but Louis had not been so fortunate. Louis was a food man and - so rare a quality - a faithful husband and a loving father. His children adored him as he did them. If he had been a minor nobleman, his castle situated in some quiet part of the country where he need not trouble to defend himself... he could have been a happy man.’

‘She had a husband of two years standing. Alexander. He was not unkind and he had made her a queen. He was twelve years older than she was, an experienced warrior at the time of their marriage; he had frightened her a little at first, with his rather sharp features and the tawny tinge in his eyes and hair. But she was beautiful, she knew; and seemed to grow more so when her mother was far away.’

‘had the new rules been applied, might have created a different history in England. Imagine if Henry VIII had not succeeded his father, Henry VII, since his sister Margaret Tudor was older than he was. There might have been no break with Rome over Henry VIII’s divorce, Catherine of Aragon would have been just another widow (from her marriage to Arthur), and Anne Boleyn might have lived to be an old woman!’

‘She was determined to bring up her sons herself so that when the time came for them to take the throne, they would be prepared. Had Philip faltered with Louis? Perhaps. That obsession with his health and safety was understandable, for he was the only legitimate son, but such coddling care was bound to have its effect. Louis was no coward but he was not strategist either.’

I really wish this book had proper references so I could look them up and see whether their argument makes sense. It is clear they have all done a lot of work, but it means that I have to rule out using books like this for university, despite their being some quite interesting points made, as it is not academic.

I’m not entirely convinced by idea that Mary wasn’t involved in Darnley’s murder. It is too convenient and there are many problems with that theory - Why wasn’t the killer punished? Why did she marry the prime suspect (Bothwell)? She seemed to put her head in the sand as to any involvement on his part, when it is fairly certain that it was him who did it.

‘Naturally, when Henry VIII was informed that the Scottish Parliament had formally broken the Treaty of Greenwich and that the Dauphin of France, rather than his son, was to marry Mary, he was furious. With the treaty in tatters, there was no chance of him uniting the two crowns or gaining enough control over Mary or Scotland to get them to break their ancient alliance with France.’

‘affection between her and Louis did not wane as it grew more mature. Louis took after his grandfather, that other Louis, and he never looked at other women, which was very rare. Philip himself had had many loves in his life - not all women, but Louis was a serious young man; anxious to rule well, and with the aid of Blanche to win glory for his country, it never occurred to him to be other than a faithful husband.’

“It is not an easy matter to decide,” he granted her. “John is the son of the late King of England, Arthur his grandson. Of course if Geoffrey had been King, there would have been no doubt that Arthur was next. But Geoffrey was never King and died before his elder brother Richard came to the throne. It is therefore difficult to give a ruling. But father has no difficulty.”

‘He tells us he cannot unsee the bloody truth of that sunny day in May. But the poem is not just a reaction to his own narrow escape... There is an underlying sense of guilt; perhaps an unwritten acknowledgement that he should have died with them. Today, there is a condition known as ‘Survivor’s Syndrome’ in which sole survivors of a traumatic incident cannot come to terms with being the only one spared.’

“The French King will welcome my granddaughter to France to marry his son. There is no stipulation as to which granddaughter. The girl’s name is of no importance... yet in a manner it is of the utmost importance. That is my point. The French will never accept Urraca. What can they call her? With a name like that she is doomed to remain a foreigner all her life. Blanca. That is different.”

‘little doubt that Elizabeth was a bitter and vengeful woman. In denying herself a marriage for love and children, she did not see why anybody else should have those things. Her own family members in particular might produce male heirs to challenge her position. This is borne out in the case of the queen’s cousin, Katherine Grey... Once Elizabeth discovered that Katherine was pregnant, she had her imprisoned’

‘The Church had laid down that the age of consent for a boy was fourteen and a girl, twelve. By that time, boys were men in the economic world; it was also the usual age for entry to the universities. Girls were arguably able to conceive, but everyone knew the risks of early pregnancies... In practice, Tudor marriages usually took place when the partners were in their later teens or even twenties.‘

‘Marie was the daughter of Eleanor of Aquitaine, and the great-granddaughter of William IX of Aquitaine, the earliest troubadour whose work is still in existence. From her court at Troyes, she had a hand in commissioning Chrétien de Troyes’ work, notably the Lancelot-Guinevere romance, The Knight of the Cart, and her conversations with Andreas Capellanus resulted in his writing De Amore’

‘Peter des Roches, addressing the assembly, declared that he was no traitor and nor were those who stood with him. They had deployed the rising of the citizens of London who had been ready to invite the French into the land... Their grievance was this: the King was never allowed to act unless one man was always at his elbow. It was not Henry III who reigned, it was Hubert de Burgh.’

‘Edgar’s love-life was certainly complicated. Most history books have it that he had two wives and one concubine. He might have been doing the same as many kings before him had done, and putting aside a concubine for a wife; Harold Godwinson did the same thing when he became king in 1066... Edgar might simply have been following an accepted pattern, which would have gone unremarked upon in different circumstances.‘

‘There had been great consternation when the news arrived of Queen Isabella’s marriage to Hugh de Lusignan. Both the Archbishop and Hubert were angry. That the marriage between Joan and Hugh had been cursorily set aside might not in the circumstances be such a bad thing because now the country was settled, she might prove a good bargaining counter and a better match be found for her’

‘Godiva’s name appearing within the Domesday Book is one of only three English names to appear in the 1086 listings. Even though she was likely to have been dead by this point, she is still listed as the tenant in chief to three groups of land, Coventry being one of them. To think that such a figure of legend walked in such circles and at such a tumultuous time and yet she is only known only for a naked ride’

‘Joan was ten years old. Sometimes she wondered when the change would come. If Hugh did not return there would be no reason why they would stay here. A new husband would be found for her. She was filled with apprehension and realised then that she had grown to accept Hugh as her prospective husband and that she was half in love already with the image they had presented to her.’

‘she suited the King. Her sensuality was immediately apparent. She wore it like a gleaming ornament and every man must be aware of it. John had been completely ensnared on that first meeting in the woods when she had been only a child. Hugh de Lusignan had remained a bachelor because, it was said, after having been betrothed to her, he could take no other woman.’

‘Setting a suitable day is by no means straightforward. You may not marry in Lent. Or during Rogationtide. Or Trinity. Or Advent. Unless, of course, you can pay for a special licence of dispensation to do so. There are also another 144 days on which you may not get married. There is no scriptural basis for this whatsoever, but it is custom and zealously enforced by the Church of England.’

‘the local systems of weights and measures - which vary according to the product being sold... A penny will always buy a loaf - but the weight of a penny loaf varies with the price of grain. English-made cloth is usually sold by the ell. To Flemish visitors this means the equivalent of 27 English inches, to the Scot a shade over 10 inches longer than that. For the English, however, an ell equals 45 inches.’

‘The ban on meat-eating should apply 156 days a year, but is strictly enforced only in Lent. Breaking the Lenten ban means a hefty fine or six hours in the pillory, or a night in the stocks or ten days in a lock-up. In fact, ‘meatless’ days are not so hard to put up with because poultry, puffins, veal and game all count as ‘fish’. Eggs, however, are forbidden in Lent, even as an ingredient.’

‘Most Londoners were born in the city and are immensely proud of the fact. But though Londoners may be slow to acknowledge it, the city is not the healthiest of places. Every year more die than are born and at least 5,000 newcomers are needed annually just to make up the shortfall. For the city to increase in numbers, thousands more must arrive. And, except in years of plague, they do.’

‘A royal courier might post from London to Edinburgh in five days; a normal traveller should reckon on taking three times as long. The 70 miles between Dover and London should take two days for the ordinary traveller, one for a strong man riding flat out. Completing the journey in one day, rather than two, will save the expense of a night’s stay at an inn.’

‘There is a moment - one split-hair second of time - when the chamber falls out of Nella’s reach. Free of a body, of a mind, she grapples with the air, trying to stop her crashing world. Then, as Johannes collapses to the floor, the plain Nella had tried to keep at bay floods through her. The chamber becomes shrill with noise, swamping her, pushing her under. She tries to resist, forcing herself past the people’