#inspired by a post by Wulfhalls

[vulcan-spicetea]

SPIRK: First Meeting

Oscar Wilde/Iain Thomas/Oscar Wilde/F. Scott Fitzgerald/Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

Inspired by this post by Wulfhalls.

[wulfhalls]

tumblr user wulfhalls formerly known as iskarieot i was the post thief (on anon bc that's a side account) im so sorry. i had 0 followers at the time i just thought it was inspired and didnt want to rb your original post onto a rickorty blog . i felt it was bad taste 💔 (bc im at the point in my life where there's tasteful incest and tasteless incest)

SJSJSKAKSKKSJ screm. I'd still appreciate it if you'd delete it 👍

[pastedpast]

A woman in the Tudor History group I'm a member of recently recommended to me what sounded like a very readable book about Catherine Parr, the wife who survived Henry VIII, written by an academic called Dr Elizabeth Norton. I name-checked her only yesterday when posting about the Elfrida book, not realising they were the same author. Turns out she's written several books about queens (link here). I will keep an eye out for her work in charity shop finds and, as she is also a broadcaster, also on TV documentaries. Nice one!

Will have a more in-depth look at the link later and add info re. each book to the 'queens an' tings' blog in more detail.

And talking of Tudor women, I've finally been getting to grips with a few Tudor men (not as exciting as that might sound!). Essentially, working out who's who in the Seymour and Dudley families.

Seymour - the queen Jane Seymour had three brothers:

Edward, 1st Earl of Somerset, a biography about whom I mentioned in a recent post, who became Lord Protector of England during the minority of his nephew Edward VI, who was eventually executed after being accused of treason by John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland.

Thomas, 1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley, who was also executed for treason (and suspected of engaging in sexual relations with Elizabeth I when she was 14 and while she has married to Henry VIII's surviving wife, Catherine Parr).

Sir Henry Seymour - he was actually the second surviving son but I've placed him after Thomas on the list as he led a generally quiet life (although he was an MP at one point) living to a good age in relative obscurity.

The Seymour family lived at a large manor house called Wulfhall or Wolfhall, which was the inspiration for Hilary Mantel's prize-winning masterpiece, 'Wolf Hall'.

Dudley - the father-in-law, husband and brother-in-law of Lady Jane Grey.

John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland. Married his son off to Lady Jane in the hopes of ruling by proxy via the young couple. Executed for high treason when Mary I took the throne. Had several children - so far I've only read about the following two.

Lord Guildford Dudley, husband of the young Jane - I need to read up more about him, I think he was only a year older than her and perhaps also a pawn in his father's plans?? He was too executed for high treason.

Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester - he was older than Guildford and a favourite courtier of Elizabeth I, also sentenced to death for treason, but freed. I will read more about him later. I think he hoped to marry Elizabeth, but married someone else who later died in suspicious circumstances (was he accused of pushing her down a flight of stairs??) I think at one point Elizabeth suggested he marry Mary, Queen of Scots and they all live together - that way Elizabeth could maintain her unmarried status and therefore ensure her sole power, while keeping tighter reins on Mary by controlling her choice of partner, plus stay in close proximity to her favourite man - however, the plan came to nothing. He married many years later to a lady called Lettice Knollys, much to Elizabeth's displeasure. She is one of the subjects of my 'queens an' tings' project I will address in more detail later. [Her son, Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, became another favourite of Elizabeth's later in life, but he was involved in a plot to try to oust her from the throne, for which he was executed by beheading in 1601].

The painting on the front of the book is 'The Cholmondeley Ladies', painted by an unknown artist circa 1600–10. Perhaps a strange choice as a cover seeing as Elizabeth died in 1603 and the throne was brought under the rule of the House of Stuart?