Charlie Fenton > Recent Status Updates

‘London’s physicians stand at the apex of the profession and have, since 1518, been organised as a Royal College, empowered to regulate their number and maintain standards of practice. Admission depends upon performance in examinations which are, naturally, taken in Latin and therefore inevitably exclude women. By an Act of Parliament the cadavers of four executed criminals are provided yearly’

The Plague has arrived and I have never read a novel that has captured the devastation and atmosphere so perfectly. I’m not sure if it is because it is an audio dramatisation, but it is really difficult to listen to, yet I can’t stop listening to it either.

‘It seems that Marin viewed marriage as a ceding of something, whereas so many women - including my own mother, Nella realises - see it as the only possible form of influence a woman may have. Marriage is supposed to harness love, to increase a woman’s power, Nella supposes. But does it? Marin believed herself to be more powerful without it.‘

“No woman can be an apprentice,” Cornelia snaps. “No man is keen to train a woman. No guild except the seamstresses or stinking peat-carriers would have her. And what would be the point? Men are the makers of this world.”

‘Her ministers had questioned her methods - her resistance to change, to war, to marriage, to naming an heir - but Elizabeth’s ambition as queen had been consistent and coherent: wherever possible, to seek security through stillness; to manage the known risks of current circumstances, rather than precipitate unknown dangers through irreversible action. Her strategy itself had been a risk.‘

‘While the mechanisms of court and government aged and Elizabeth passed her sixtieth birthday, the mask of her public persona became more rigidly impermeable, even as its artifice became more apparent. She was still graceful and slender, gorgeously dressed and physically restless. But now her thinning hair was covered by an elaborate auburn wig; she was losing teeth’

‘This time invasion by Spain, revolt in England and Mary’s glorious accession would all be heralded by Elizabeth’s murder. And this time Walsingham knew everything. He held back, watching the plot take shape, until on 19 July got what he wanted: the decoded text of an encrypted letter Mary had dictated two days earlier, signalling her endorsement of Babington’s plan to kill Elizabeth.’

‘Cecil was already with Elizabeth at Hatfield when her sister died. Three days later, at the command of the new queen, he was at the helm of a new, streamlined Privy Council which included politique members of Mary’s government while dispensing with the service of diehard Catholics, and recruiting Protestants who had been excluded or exiled under the old regime.‘

‘It’s my fault, Nella thinks - I carried Jack’s doll inside after Marin threw him out. There he was the next morning, laid out on the front step, an omen of what was to come. If it was the miniaturist who laid him there, a horrid presage of what was to happen in this hall - why would she do that - why insist that this poisonous creature should stay close at all?’

‘There was danger everywhere. In an England ruled by Queen Jane, Elizabeth’s Protestantism would be protected but her person at risk: Mary and Elizabeth’s bypassed claims to their father’s throne would make their continued existence a constant threat to Northumberland’s new world order. In an England ruled by Queen Mary, Elizabeth would be heir presumptive‘

‘Elizabeth, on the other hand, was too young when her mother died to have any memory of her, or of a time when her own position in the world had been anything other than precarious. Instead, she grew up knowing that her mother had been killed on the orders of her father. And yet her father was the one certainty that remained, without whose approval she could not hope to flourish.’

‘Good God, she thinks. What is happening here? For this is further than the miniaturist has ever gone. A little gold key, a rocking cradle, two dogs - these could all arguably constitute the pleasant aspects of life in a merchant’s house. But this - these dolls - are different. How does the miniaturist know what Marin wears against her skin, or that Peebo has flown away?’

‘This possible treatment for Henry’s ulcers includes the metal mercury, but in a different form than was used in many mercury treatments. I make this distinction because many of the scholars studying the health issues of Henry tried to determine if he was troubled by syphilis, and it was shown that mercury used to treat syphilis was never bought by his household, at least not that could be found.’

‘Henry, while jousting at Greenwich, had the second jousting accident of his life. It is said that the King was unseated from his horse and crashed to the ground with the fully-armoured horse landing on top of him. He remained unconscious (‘without speech’) for two hours. His legs were crushed in the fall and he may have sustained fractures.‘

“Do you know what they do to men like my brother?” she says. “They drown them. The holy magistrates put weights on their necks and push them in the water.” A wave of devastation seems to draw down Marin’s body. “But even if they dragged Johannes back up and cut him open,” she says, “they still wouldn’t find what they wanted.”

‘There are no studies that show the effectiveness of borage flower on pain, other than a possible use for rheumatoid arthritis, but the plant contains gamma-linolenic acid which may be an anti-inflammatory and it is used modernly as an astringent. Violets are used for some skin conditions by herbalists today, but it seems to have no uses for pain.‘

‘Based on this passage the first thing to do is to bring the joint back to its natural position, then you must with all thoroughness keep the joint from moving again. Then you should anoint the joint with oil of roses and then a fine and old linen cloth, also soaked with oil of roses, shall be applied to the member. Then apply cloths dampened with egg whites to the joint.‘

‘There is nothing else in the package - no note, no explanation, just the strange motto of defiance and this flurry of gifts. Cornelia swore she delivered the letter telling the miniaturist to desist. So why didn’t he obey me? ...But as she looks at these pieces - their extraordinary beauty, their unreachable purpose, Nella wonders if she really wants the miniaturist to cease.’

‘This follows with the Tudor belief that many illnesses were caused by bad air that entered the body through the nose or mouth. As we already know, Henry VIII had an attack of smallpox only a few years into his reign. In 1521, his phobia was cemented into place when the king contracted a series of fevers that recurred, today this illness is known as malaria.’

‘Someone has peered into Nella’s life and thrown her off centre. If these items aren’t sent in error, then the cradle is a mock to her unvisited marriage bed and what’s beginning to feel as though it’s an eternal virginity. What sort of person would dare such impertinence? The dogs, so particular; the chairs, so exact - the cradle, so suggestive - it’s like the miniaturist has a perfect, private view.’

‘The accuracy of the cabinet is eerie, as if the real house has been shrunk, its body sliced in two and its organs revealed. The nine rooms, from the working kitchen, the salon, up to the loft where the peat and firewood are stored away from damp, are perfect replicas. “It’s got a hidden cellar too,” Johannes says, lifting the floor up between the working and best kitchens, to reveal a concealed empty space.’

‘The treatment for fevers says to take barley, hulled and cleaned, and make a drink, called a tisane. To make the tisane, Bullein said to put ten pounds of clean warm or hot water into a stone or tinned vessel pot, and add enough barley to take up half the water, let stand until it’s cold, and then strain, and drink. This passage implies that the humour that is out of balance is yellow bile, for it is hot and dry‘

‘It was not within the scope of this project to include every health issue Henry experienced; the last months of his life, alone, could provide for a lifetime of research. Instead, I decided to include one major accident, two minor accidents, five major illnesses and one minor illness. For these nine ailments, I have included seventeen treatments.’

‘For two years, Nella practised being a lady. She walked with new poise - though there was nowhere to walk to, she complained, feeling for the first time a desire to escape her village, ignoring the enormous skies, seeing only a bucolic prison already developing fine layers of dust.’

‘Bess, Countess of Shrewsbury - better known as Bess of Hardwick - had seen a sickly youth and three queens sitting on the throne of England: Jane Grey, Mary Tudor and Elizabeth Tudor... Elizabeth Tudor had been a lifelong friend and confidant who had entrusted Bess with the responsibility of guarding her rival, Mary Queen of Scots... Four queens, and the countess had known them all‘

‘As Arbella reached the age of twenty-seven, she had been cooped up at Hardwick for more than thirteen years. She had no reason yo be grateful to the queen for her solitary and introspected life, but now she felt betrayed by those she thought she could trust. She had become a prisoner, and life was passing her by.’

‘At Rufford Abbey... Elizabeth Cavendish and Charles Stuart, Earl of Lennox, met and married... placed under house arrest at King’s Place, Hackney. It was there that Elizabeth gave birth to their daughter - no doubt a great disappointment when all their hopes were centred on a son who could inherit the English throne. They called the baby Anabella after her fourteenth century ancestor Anabella Drummond’

‘Mary agreed to be divorced from Bothwell, who had escaped to Denmark, believing that her new marital status would lead to her restoration to the Scottish throne. She was wrong. At the Perth Convention in July 1569 this idea was rejected forty votes to nine. Even worse, when news of this and Mary’s plans to marry Norfolk reached Elizabeth six weeks later, she was furious.’

‘In the early days of her captivity Mary had a very good relationship with Bess. They spent many hours together, sharing needlework projects. Despite their twenty-year age difference, Bess and Mary were both gifted needlewomen and spent time together embroidering in Bess’s own chamber.’