Charlie Fenton > Recent Status Updates

'Anne. Anna. My beloved. My dark lady. Now the anointed Queen of all England. Queen Consort to King Henry. The die was cast, she had once said. Aye, the game, for the moment, was won. All she needed now was to have the Prince all England prayed for and the game would be forever won.'

'After a brief infatuation in which she had been sexually attracted to Darnley and for a moment believed she had found love, she had come to realise that her marriage was purely one of convenience. Darnley, she knew, was unpopular. But her own popularity could counter this, and as a married Queen with every likelihood of producing heirs, her position was more secure than at any time since her return'

'When the English Queen had claimed the right of veto over Mary's marriage and named Dudley as the most favoured suitor for her hand, it was clearly understood that compliance would be rewarded by recognition as Elizabeth's heir. Now the goalposts had been moved and everything hinged on Elizabeth's decision on her own marriage, something that would most likely never happen.'

'a priest who had celebrated mass in her private chapel in her absence was threatened by two Calvinists. When they were imprisoned for defying Mary's proclamation on religion, Knox summoned 'a convocation of the brethren' to free them. His letter, an implicit incitement to acts of violence, was shown to Mary, who consulter the Privy Council, a majority of whom thought it treasonable.'

'control the noble factions by creating a broad coalition of advisers, which would enable her to take a tougher line with Elizabeth and Cecil, since she would have wider support throughout the country than before. To help create this coalition, she asked Maitland to recommend some new appointments to the court and Privy Council. They included Catholics like Atholl as well as Protestants like Lord Ruthven'

'Her summer progress was taking on a sinister aspect. Huntly was in grave disfavour for opposing Mary's proposed interview with Elizabeth. Like many of the Catholic Lords, he deeply resented the policy of conciliation towards England, which he saw as a Trojan horse for Lord James and his allies. He was also sulking because he felt he had been cheated.'

'awkward celebration, an expression of genuine joy and delight on the part of the vast majority of the nobles and people at their Queen's return, but also a blatant attempt by a Calvinist minority to dictate her religious policy. Mary reacted prudently. She could see things in perspective. The Calvinists claimed the mass was 'terrible in all men's eyes'. But this was hyperbole. 'All men' were not Protestant.'

'When Wolsey returned from France in the summer of 1527, Anne had titled the power balance completely over in her favour. No longer would Henry sign Wolsey's charters without first reading them for himself. No longer would the King receive Wolsey into his company without first acquiring the approval of that upstart Anne Boleyn. Clearly, the writing, for the Great Cardinal, was on the wall!'

'swallowed her distaste for the time being and allied with the rebels. The negotiations, directed on the Scottish side by Lord James, led on 27 February to the treaty of Berwick. She committed England to protect the 'ancient rights and liberties' of the kingdom of Scotland and defend the 'just freedom' of the crown from conquest, and the pact was to last for one year longer than Mary was Queen of France.'

'Mary and the Dauphin watched day and night with the rest of the royal family at the foot of Henry's bed. He died on 10 July of a massive stroke... Francis was proclaimed King of France, after which the court went into mourning. Then everyone dispersed. The new King was taken by Mary's relatives to Meudon, the Guise château near Paris. She herself went straight to the royal apartments at St-Germain.'

'King Henry had taken great notice of the girl who sang and played the lute to his Queen like an angel. Too much notice. For now our King wished to make her his latest quarry, having tired of Mary Boleyn and wanting to replace one sister with another. But Anne and Hal were so caught up in their innocent world of young love both of them were completely unaware of the lustful gleam in the King's eye'

'In Paris, Elizabeth's accession was greeted with unconcealed scorn. The Guises swiftly proclaimed their niece to be 'Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland', challenging Elizabeth's right to succeed her elder sister on the grounds of bastardy and Protestantism.'

'This metamorphosis influenced Mary after her flight into exile in England. She would reinvent herself in the 1580s as a good Catholic woman persecuted for her religion alone. But in the 1550s, the Guises were politiques or moderates, equally opposed to Protestant or Catholic extremism. Where religion mattered most to them was in relation to their dynastic project'

'A few weeks before Mary reached Carrières, Diane sent a memo to Humières specifying the King's decision on protocol. It granted precedence over all except the Dauphin to Mary, who was to share the best room in the house with Princess Elizabeth. Moreover, she was to walk ahead of my daughters because her marriage to my son is agreed, and on top of that she is a crowned Queen'.'

"Have you not heard a word I have said? Boleyn does not think a Wyatt's good enough to kiss his feet, despite our kinship to his wife. Why do you insist in believing he would even begin to listen to a suggestion of joining our bloodlines with his? He has his sights set higher than what he can see at Allington... you have as much chance of gaining Anne Boleyn as a dog has of gaining the moon."

'Her voyage was the beginning of an adventure, and yet she must have felt some apprehension. She was unsure if she would ever see her mother again. And although from here onwards she was fêted wherever she went as 'la petite Royne' (the little Queen), it was not just because she was royal, but because she was pledged to marry the Dauphin of France.'

'Henry VIII issued an ultimatum. If Arran refused the English dynastic plan, he would face outright war. Henry's bullying was deeply resented. On 1 July 1543, however, he was minimally rewarded by the terms of the treaty of Greenwich. Ostensibly, he got what he wanted. Mary was to stay in Scotland until she was ten, at which age she was to marry Prince Edward in England.'

'James V died of natural causes, unlike his father, who had perished at Flodden in the murkiest of circumstances. Although seemingly killed by the English in the battle... His son had succeeded him at the age of seventeen months. Now history had repeated itself. His granddaughter, Mary Stuart, was Queen at the age of six days.'

'In death as in life, Mary always aroused the strongest feelings. To her apologists, she was an innocent victim. She was mishandled and traduced: a political pawn in the hands of those perfidious Scottish Lords and ambitious French and English politicians who found her inconvenient and in their way. To her critics, she was fatally flawed. She was far too much affected by her emotions.'

'Fourteen years later, the Tudors returned to Wales at the head of an army that included Henry's cousin Charles Somerset, the illegitimate son of Henry Beaufort, the 2nd Duke killed at Hexham in 1464. Although not Beaufort by name, the pair were Beaufort by blood, and at Bosworth Field on 22 August 1485, the Portcullis and Yale standards once again fluttered proudly in the English breeze.'

'Edmund Beaufort, the last remaining Beaufort descended in the male line, was charged with having 'provoked and continuyd the great rebellyon that so long had endured in the land'. Accordingly, he was 'judged to deathe' alongside around a dozen other supporters. With one swift swing of an executioner's ace in the crowded Tewkesbury marketplace, the House of Beaufort was no more.'

'observed Somerset 'loggyr whythe the kynge in hys owne bedde many nyghtys, and sum tyme rode a huntynge behynde the kynge', while Edward commemorated the duke's defection with a great joust at Westminster, in which Somerset 'ranne fulle justely'. To share the royal bed, in a non-sexual manner, was a significant political statement on Edward's behalf and emphasised his genuine desire for reconcliliation'

'For Somerset and his Beaufort kin, including his younger brothers Edmund and John, this was a disastrous development, for which their Beaufort-blooded Neville relations were largely responsible. The family had always depended on the patronage of a friendly Lancastrian king, and with that support about to be withdrawn they stood at the mercy of a hostile Yorkist regime led by the eponymous duke himself'

'Without any doubt, Anne and the King had a love of music in common. Many, many years later, when our lives began to be deeply shadowed by what the fates had in store for us, Anne told me this. The King first became interested in her when he stood outside Queen Catherine's door and heard a lovely voice accompanied by a skilful lute player.'

'Nonetheless, it was extremely difficult for my cousins to grow up as children of my uncle... He was also an extremely ambitious man, a man who planned to step higher in the society in which he lived via the use of his three young children. And they were intelligent enough to realise, from an early age, what his purposes and ambitions were. His children also knew that they had to strive very hard indeed'