#carrolly erickson

[petittrianon]

According to her biographer Carrolly Erickson, shortly after the guillotine sliced its own bloody version of a necklace into the Queen's throat, well-born women in Paris began tying 'thin red ribbons around their necks as reminders of what they might soon suffer.'

Queen of Fashion: What Marie Antoinette Wore to the Revolution, Caroline Weber (Picador, 2006)

[dwellordream]

“There were two false pregnancies in the course of Mary Tudor's five year reign, and one illegitimate heir, Mary's bastard sister Elizabeth. The devoutly Catholic Mary reluctantly and only obliquely acknowledged her heretical half-sister as her successor in a codicil to her will; for a brief time after the 1554 Wyatt rebellion, Elizabeth had even been placed under house arrest as a threat-in-waiting. But Mary was in many ways a mother to a sister seventeen years her junior, planning Elizabeth's engagement, providing her with jewels and a sable hood, insisting on Elizabeth's observance of Catholic ceremonies, and closely monitoring her sister's whereabouts during her five years on the throne. 

Of course, the princess Elizabeth had been especially close to her always affectionate stepmother Katherine Parr (only four years older than Mary), but Parr died giving birth in 1548 when Elizabeth was fifteen years old; the relationship with Mary was more longstanding and demanding. Elizabeth's letters, like the one I have quoted from, always reflect tensions between rivals and heirs bound by history, expectation, and mutual suspicion. If at one point Elizabeth commiserates with her sister about menstrual pains (Collected Works, 37), at another point such intimacies have been pushed aside, and Elizabeth demands a private audience with Mary so as to counteract "the evil persuasions [that] persuade... one sister against the other" (Collected Works, 42). Some of these "evil persuasions" were more widely felt. 

Mary’s awkward mothering was always more or less at issue during her short reign, with "Midwives, Rockers, Nurses,... the Cradle and all,... prepared and in a readiness" for its duration, as one pamphlet entitled Idem iterum, or, The history of Q. Mary's big-belly suggests, elsewhere registering the Queens discomfiture in the gross terms of '"Spanish Hearts being carried in English Bodies" and the Prophet Jonas "safely delivered]" out of the Whales Belly. Mary’s mothering burdened Elizabeth, too, implicating her in a relationship that would continue beyond the grave. As Mary was dying, Carrolly Erickson reports, the Queen sent a servant to Hatfield to give Elizabeth her jewels in return for the promise of three things: "that she would uphold the Catholic faith, take care of Mary’s servants, and pay [Mary's] debts."

When Elizabeth was crowned a few months after Mary’s death in November 1558, she wore the very same robes Mary had worn for her own coronation. I argue that this unusual sartorial decision—especially given their troubled tie (and Elizabeth’s later reputation as a clotheshorse)—is a way for Elizabeth both to reify and obliterate her connection to Mary Tudor, making it crucial and empty all at once. Similar gestures towards mothers are reflected in—and may have shaped—a tradition of women's writing in early modern England and, as I explore in the latter part of this essay, these writings are especially preoccupied with both the importance and fungibility of maternal ties. Of course, Queen Elizabeth's later extravagance was matched by an equally well-known penuriousness, and Mary's regalia was state treasure, to be disposed of by the crown. 

…Scholars like Betty S. Travitsky in her edition of mothers' advice books, maintain that both Renaissance humanists and Protestant reformers accorded early modern mothers more intellectual and spiritual influence over their children than medieval mothers could claim, yet the real nature of this power—who really possesses it, how it's wielded, what it shapes—is less clear, as the many manuals and treatises written by English women during this time indicate, again and again. Lady Macbeth's evocation of the nursing child whose brains she would dash out (1.7.54-59) is an example of the cruel license early modern mothers could take or deep affections they might easily abandon; yet Elizabeth's use of her sister's coronation robes implies that children might reinterpret or relinquish these relations themselves, given the chance. 

If Mary's robes illustrate the vaguely maternal authority she possessed and how it might continue after Mary's death on the one hand, they also tell us how this authority might be reconstituted by Elizabeth herself in her very first act as monarch, on the other hand, with the help of a court tailor. Painted more than forty years after the fact, the 1600 "Coronation Portrait" of Queen Elizabeth I shows the queen wearing the same ermine trimmed robes at her 1559 coronation that Mary had worn five-and-a-half years earlier. Janet Arnold, who has produced an exhaustive inventory of Elizabeth's clothing during the years of her long reign, briefly comments on this borrowing and the feelings it symbolizes, suggesting that "the robes of clothe of gold and silver tissue which [Elizabeth] had watched her sister wear in 1553, must have seemed like a triumphant and tangible symbol of safety and freedom" ("Coronation," 728).

Their symbolism is still more ambitious, however: identical dress would seem to untangle the complicated relationship between the sisters by making Mary's ambiguous legacy appear ready-made for Elizabeth, something that she might appropriately recycle—or at least easily remake. Mary Tudor's will was similarly equivocal, revealing a twinned discomfort with and confidence in her successor's natural abilities: "my said heyre and Successour," Mary writes “will supplye the Imperfection of my said will and testament therein, & accomplishe and fynishe the same accordynge to my true mynde and intente." The suggestion is that Elizabeth would not only adhere to but realize Mary's best designs. And what better way to appropriate Mary’s own iconography than to wear it on one’s back? 

Elizabeth had many mothers to "think back through," as Virginia Woolf describes the work of daughters, and we might view her long career as organized, at least in part, by this rethinking of her history. Still, why risk the specter of Mary’s ghost at the coronation festivities— designed, at least in part, according to contemporary accounts, to exorcise that ghost? Elizabeth's royal apparel conjures up other magical dresses, too. Whether early modern spectators were reminded of the transformed Cinderella and her evil stepmother (stories of whom were being codified in print at the time)—or even of the beloved Creusa and spurned Medea (whose stories are reflected in contemporary maternal legacies)—the effect of the dress is almost the same—that of a fairy tale gone awry, or unsettling bad dream.

There are other drawbacks to imperial hoarding, as Shakespeare often notes, the widespread practice sometimes regarded as an example of bad taste: "Thrift, thrift, Horatio," the sardonic Hamlet tells his friend, explaining why the "funeral bak'd meats" served after a burial "Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables" of his mother and uncle (1.2.180-81). Shakespeare's reading of royal economy is rendered with less irony in Macbeth, where the king's men complain that Macbeth's stolen tide hangs loosely about him, "like a giant's robe / Upon a dwarfish thief" (5.2.21-22). Women's clothing—even that of a queen—belongs to a more complicated category, however, since their property was typically under a husband or father's supervision. 

A more practical question, then, is why Mary's robes were taken possession of by Elizabeth after Mary's death rather than by Mary's husband Philip, to whom were returned many of the jewels he had given her during their marriage. There were, however, an assortment of loopholes in the laws and practices governing women's goods, and recent studies have not only helped us trace where these possessions might go, but also how extensive and significant were women's goods at the time, their distribution not only informing coronation ceremonies but the very structure of society.

Women's material objects, scholars tell us, substantiate families, underpin affections, and organize households; and that these treasures are so easily lost or traded or resewn makes them more rather than less valuable, more easy to circulate. Taking stock of the "houshold stuff" or "paraphernalia" that by rights belonged to women and was care fully recorded in wills and account books—"stuff" that includes candle sticks, jewels, furniture, pots, combs, stockings, ribbons, linens, chairs, pillows, glassware, gloves, masks, fans and baskets—can also help us grasp an emerging women's literary culture shaped—and often preoccupied—by similar "vagaries of transmission."”

- Elizabeth Mazzola, “Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Ermine: Elizabeth I's Coronation Robes and Mothers' Legacies in Early Modern England.” in Early Modern Women

[mistresstrevelyan]

Since I'm currently in a Ryder mood, how about Tess?

Full Name: Theresa Chiara RyderGender and Sexuality: Cis Female, PansexualPronouns: She/Her/HersEthnicity/Species: Irish/Austrian/Italian Human Birthplace and Birthdate: The Citadel, 11.8.2163Guilty Pleasures: Tudor novels. She actually devours biographies, journals and articles on medieval/Renaissance history but Tudor novels are her weakness. However she will not read the likes of Philippa Gregory, Virginia Henley or Carrolly Erickson. They make her blood boil. She’ll also give most of Alison Weir’s scholarly stuff a pass (Because she hates Weir’s bad habit of never providing sources to back up her theories) but she enjoys her novels. She loves Rosalind Miles, Susan Kay and Robin Maxwell.Phobias: Going down steep stairs. She can do it but it’s not easy. Getting the jumpjet in Andromeda was partly because of that btwWhat They Would Be Famous For: Had she not become Pathfinder, she would have quit the Alliance after completing her service and focused on designing period costumes for movies/shows/fairs and rich patrons. What They Would Get Arrested For: Tessa’s my only Lawful Good OC, so I suppose it’d take some digging but……. Tann was really angry with her for saving Drack’s scouts instead of the Salarian Pathfinder. Does that count?OC You Ship Them With: Colette Lavellan, Muirnara Caelion and Tara Surana.OC Most Likely To Murder Them: Darth Tertullia. She’d view Tessa as a weak, spineless fool who picks ideals over sense. (She’s not ENTIRELY wrong either)Favorite Movie/Book Genre: See Guilty Pleasures. For fave shows, lemmie add the BBC’s Tudor Trilogy. :PLeast Favorite Movie/Book Cliche: The Philippa Gregory approach to historical fiction. Shows like “The White Princess”, “Reign” etc. are purged from her SSDs preserving any- and everything Tudor.Talents and/or Powers: Tessa is an extremely powerful biotic, using one of her mother’s prototype implants. (SAM also boosts her abilities) Due to her sewing she has incredibly nimble fingers, making her extremely steady when it comes to tech matters and development. (Peebee and Tessa work on projects together A LOT) Why Someone Might Love Them: Tessa is just about the warmest, kindest, most loving person you’ll ever meet. She’ll make you pretty dresses/clothes and fancy tech stuff and brew some amazing Irish Cider while she’s at it. She also gives the BEST hugs!Why Someone Might Hate Them: Tessa can be a bit overbearing and when she’s stressed/anxious, she’ll stumble over her words and need some time to collect herself. Tessa requires patience when she is in a broody mood (Unlike Rhia her brooding is more against herself than her surroundings) She’ll also go into super nerd mode a lot, which might be a bit facepalm inducing. She also makes bad puns and cringy jokes. How They Change: Tessa actually changes a lot after her arrival in Andromeda. I really liked that, even though she got the title Pathfinder rather early, she was doubted, questioned, tested and challenged left, right and centre. Both by the initiative AND the Angara. BioWare has used the Chosen One Narrative since BG, its most prominent examples being Shepard (Literally Space Christ), The Warden, The Inquisitor, The Spirit Monk, Revan….. the only exception so far was Hawke. And now we have Ryder who doesn’t start established and supported like Shepard (The only doubters they have are villains and the Council. Whom…they….can kill in revenge) but has to earn their position, their Command, their crew’s loyalty & trust, the Initiative’s approval, the alliance with the Angara ETC. ETC. And that is maybe why it feels a little draining at first. How does Tessa change? She grows a more steely spine while keeping her kind heart, she grows as a friend, a Pathfinder, a lover and as a person. Tessa’s greatest personal struggle is dealing with losing both her parents, her guilt over Alec’s sacrifice and her brother’s coma. And she makes great progress there. But it’s far from over. ME:A’s ending is a beginning to Tessa, a new page for a new chapter. And I can’t wait for more.Why You Love Them: I love Tessa because of how relatable she is. She is approachable, fun to be with and extremely kind. Tessa is an extremely personal OC to me, she is my dedication to my baby sister Theresa (Who died March 11th ‘87) and my grown baby sister Clara (Chiara). Tessa/Ryder feels like BioWare’s most human AND humane lead character to date because they aren’t a Chosen One but also proactively pursue their goals. (Unlike Hawke who was a bit TOO tethered to inevitable fate) I also love her because I am sensing a LOT of development in store for her. (Something that made me sad about DAI/Trespasser was very likely never getting to play as Colette Lavellan again).