Historian and author, Leanda de Lisle will be discussing the Grey sisters at the Market Bosworth Festival. On Monday 15th June, Leanda along with Jeff Hawksworth will take part in ‘A literary evening with two local authors.’
(c) Harper Collins
Monday 15th June
7.30pm-9.45pm
Bosworth Hall Hotel
For more information and to book tickets:
(c) Haper Press
On 30th May 1553, Jehan Scheyfe reported to Charles V that King Edward VI was wasting away and was unlikely to recover. He also mentioned the three marriages (including Jane’s) that had taken place on 25th May. Scheyfe believes that Northumberland will not allow Princess Mary to succeed to the throne and could find some way of also excluding Princess Elizabeth. He repeats the rumour that Northumberland may make his eldest son divorce his wife, so the Earl of Warwick could marry Elizabeth. Or that Northumberland may get divorced to marry Elizabeth himself and claim the crown as a descendant of the House of Lancaster.
‘Sire: The King of England is wasting away daily, and there is no sign or likelihood of any improvement. Some are of opinion that he may last two months more, but he cannot possibly live beyond that time. He cannot rest except by means of medicines and external applications; and his body has begun to swell, especially his head and feet. His hair is to be shaved off and plasters are going to be put on his head. The illness is judged to be the same as that which killed the late Earl of Richmond.
On the 25th of this month were celebrated the weddings of my Lord Guilford, son of the Duke of Northumberland, to the eldest daughter of the Duke of Suffolk; of the Earl of Pembroke’s son to the second daughter; and of the Earl of Huntingdon’s son to the daughter of the Duke of Northumberland. The weddings were celebrated with great magnificence and feasting at the Duke of Northumberland’s house in town. The Order of the Garter was not called together on Whit Sunday; the meeting has only been postponed.
During the Whitsuntide holidays, M. de L’Aubespine, First Secretary to the King of France, who, as I hear, besides occupying this high position, enjoys the full confidence of the King and Constable, arrived here in a coach drawn by four horses. He went to Court with M. de Boisdauphin on the 28th. They were very honourably received and entertained; almost all the members of the Council were present, even to the Duke of Northumberland, who had been absent from Court for a few days. L’Aubespine’s mission is surrounded with the greatest mystery; so much so that the English ambassadors in France have written to say that he was believed to have gone towards Italy. All I can find out here is a report that the Queen of France has given birth to a daughter and that the commission was sent to ask the Lady Elizabeth to hold her at the font. Some say that M. de L’Aubespine has been sent to visit the King and take the same opportunity to offer the King of France’s services to the Duke of Northumberland in the event of the King’s death; so that the French may know what to look for and how to conduct themselves, and whether it would not be possible to make some close alliance with England by means of a marriage with the said Elizabeth. The Duke’s and his party’s designs to deprive the Lady Mary of the succession to the crown are only too plain. They are evidently resolved to resort to arms against her, with the excuse of religion, among others; it is believed that they would rather give up Ireland to the French, or at least hold out hopes of it, than allow the Princess to mount the throne. As to the said Elizabeth, they are not too particular about her, and reasons for excluding her from the succession might easily be found. It is said that if the Duke of Northumberland felt himself well supported, he would find means to marry his eldest son, the Earl of Warwick, to the Lady Elizabeth, after causing him to divorce his wife, daughter of the late Duke of Somerset; or else that he might find it expedient to get rid of his own wife and marry the said Elizabeth himself, and claim the crown for the house of Warwick as descendants of the House of Lancaster.
The said gentlemen, Boisdauphin and L’Aubespine, took their leave of the King and Council on the date mentioned, the 28th, and they are to go away in a day or two. They will cross, it is said, from Dover to Calais, under escort of four English pinnaces. Boisdauphin has received a present of 1,000l. and gold plate to a higher value. Courtpennick’s (fn. 37) son, twenty to twenty-two years old, arrived here recently. He is a gentleman of the Duke of Northumberland’s suite. It is affirmed here that the King of France is collecting men in great numbers to go to the assistance of Thérouanne.
London, 30 May, 1553.’
‘Spain: May 1553’, in Calendar of State Papers, Spain, Volume 11, 1553, ed. Royall Tyler (London, 1916), pp. 37-48 http://www.british-history.ac.uk/cal-state-papers/spain/vol11/pp37-48 [accessed 29 May 2015].
The Lady of Misrule by Suzannah Dunn
(c) Little Brown
‘I saw her file it away: a good Catholic girl come to supervise her in her detention. Every girl in England, now, under the circumstances, made sure to be a good Catholic girl. Except her, of course. And, if only she knew it, me.
Escorting ‘nine days queen’ Lady Jane Grey across the Tower of London from throne room into imprisonment is Elizabeth Tilney, who surprised even herself by volunteering for the job. All Elizabeth knows is she’s keen to be away from home, she could do with some breathing space. And anyway, it won’t be for long: everyone knows Jane will go free as soon as the victorious new queen is crowned. Which is a good thing because the two sixteen-year-olds, cooped up together in a room in the Gentleman Gaoler’s house, couldn’t be less compatible. Protestant Jane is an icily self-composed idealist, and catholic Elizabeth is… well, anything but.
They are united though by their disdain for the seventeen-year-old to whom Jane has recently been married off: petulant, noisily-aggrieved Guildford Dudley, held prisoner in a neighbouring tower and keen to pursue his perogative of a daily walk with his wife.
As Jane’s captivity extends into the increasingly turbulent last months of 1553, the two girls learn to live with each other, but Elizabeth finds herself drawn into the difficult relationship between the newlyweds. And when, at the turn of the year, events take an unexpected and dangerous direction, her newfound loyalties are put to the test.
Further details – Amazon.co.uk
Further details – Suzannah Dunn
Helen Castor’s TV programme based on her book about Joan of Arc, will be broadcast this evening on BBC2.
(c) BBC
‘Writer and historian Dr Helen Castor explores the life – and death – of Joan of Arc. Joan was an extraordinary figure – a female warrior in an age that believed women couldn’t fight, let alone lead an army. But Joan was driven by faith, and today more than ever we are acutely aware of the power of faith to drive actions for good or ill.
Since her death, Joan has become an icon for almost everyone – the left and the right, Catholics and Protestants, traditionalists and feminists. But where in all of this is the real Joan – the experiences of a teenage peasant girl who achieved the seemingly impossible? Through an astonishing manuscript, we can hear Joan’s own words at her trial, and as Helen unpicks Joan’s story and places her back in the world that she inhabited, the real human Joan emerges.’
From: BBC website
The programme is the ‘Pick of the Day’ in The Culture (Sunday Times).
‘Reviews of Helen Castor’s recent book on Joan pointed to a radically austere approach that stuck to 15th-century evidence and renounced hindsight to depict “a life led forwards”. The same austerity is discernible in her television version, in the historian’s lack of interests in the transvestite teenager warrior’s afterlife – as saint, as subject of plays, films and songs, and as poster girl for feminism and France’s far right.
Thus, this is a conventional affair, displaying the same lucidity as Castor’s other TV series, She-Wolves, as it recounts the heroine’s initial successes – victory at Orleans, the dauphin’s coronation – and her subsequent defeats, capture, trial and execution. Throughout, Castor situates Joan within a medieval world view obsessed with identifying the divine will: she was at first accepted as God’s emissary, but it later appeared that he had disowned her and that her “voices” were the devil instead.’
John Dugdale, p.52, The Culture (Sunday Times, 24th May 2015)
Weekend (Daily Mail) gives it 4 out of 5 stars.
‘ This pleasingly straightforward documentary tells the always astonishing story of Joan of Arc, the 15th-century French peasant girl who became a warrior, leading a victorious army against the English. Historian Helen Castor, a relaxed and unfussy presenter, explores Joan’s life with the help of a remarkable manuscript account of her trial for heresy. Joan’s own words, quoted verbatim in the transcript, place her in the world she inhabited, a world where anything was possible to those doing God’s will – as Joan clearly believed she was: ‘In truth, I am sent from God.’
p.45, Weekend (Daily Mail, 23rd May 2015)
You can view clips from the programme here:
BBC2 – Joan of Arc: God’s Warrior
(c) Faber & Faber
Further details – Helen Castor
Further details – Amazon.co.uk
Today is the 462nd anniversary of the marriage of Jane Grey to Guildford Dudley at Durham House in London.
Events by Place – Durham House – 25th May 1553
Was Guildford Dudley a good husband to Jane Grey by Leanda de Lisle
Another look at the wedding of Lady Jane
