#(altho interestingly. henry himself in some of these reports is called a 'harlot'. which was generally a very gendered word | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

fideidefenswhore · 5 months ago

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Another strong-voiced subject, Margery Cowpland of Henley on Thames, reportedly called King Henry 'an extortioner and knave' and Queen Anne 'a strong harlot'. When a local official, Richard Heath, warned her that he was the king's servant, she responded, 'the king's servant, the devil's turd!' Margery was in deep trouble, and her case went all the way up to the Privy Council. But it came out that her principal accuser, John Wynbok, was in dispute with her about other matters involving a covenant, a lease, and a mill, raising the possibility that this was a malicious prosecution. Margery, for her part, denied the words, but Sir William Stonor, who reported the matter to Cromwell, believed she had said them.

Cressy, David. 2010. Dangerous Talk : Scandalous, Seditious, and Treasonable Speech in Pre-Modern England. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

#henrician #david cressy #henry viii #this is interesting because it raises questions on how far we can rate the reported opprobrium against them...#i wonder if half of this was true; as in she said those words about anne but not henry #(altho interestingly. henry himself in some of these reports is called a 'harlot'. which was generally a very gendered word #not usually used towards men. much less kings...)#or if it really was a case of slander from someone that wanted his dispute settled via her arrest or worse #but it also raises a question of like. 'actionable' words?#ie she might have said them and might have held those views #but she wasn't going to go to the mat for them #as here we see she denies them #which was not always the case but sometimes one #there's another woman who said something similar and admitted them but blamed it on drunkeness #so one could assume she knew there had been to many witnesses for it to be worth denying

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