Welcome to Litsy!

Jessie Childs draws Henry Howard for us, complete with his strengths as and weaknesses, neither hero nor villain. And in so doing she illustrates the terrifying times of Henrican England. Henry VIII‘s tyranny, paranoia, megalomania, and hubris are all too familiar in our age. An appropriate read just prior to the upcoming inauguration.#bookedintime @Cuilin

Who knew that Henry, Earl of Surrey, invented the “Shakespearean Sonnet!

I picked this up because I heard the author on a panel about the Tudor era, and so far it doesn‘t disappoint.

Catherine Howard has been portrayed as a #dramaqueen in history…youthful, flamboyant, a massive flirt, and supposedly “broke” Henry VIII‘s heart with her affairs. Also, she‘s a distant relation to Anne Boleyn.

The tagged book has been on my tbr, and it‘s about time to read it!

Confession: I love Matchbox Twenty - talk about ‘90s alt music. She‘s So Mean is from about 10 years ago. Definite drama queen. The video is a riot. #TitlesAndTunes

I‘m having a harder time with this than I expected to; it feels really slow-going. 😬 Hopefully it picks up a little bit. #katherineofaragon #catalinadearagonycastile #thetruequeen #alisonweir #henryviii #sixwivesofhenryviii #sixtudorqueens #tudorhistory #divorced

“Commissioned by the New York businessman Lumen Reed, George Whiting Flagg set out to paint Mary Queen of Scots Preparing for Execution, only to change to Jane when he discovered that Mary was ‘too old at the time of her execution to make an interesting picture‘.“

Mary was 44 when she was beheaded; Jane was 16. And just based on this painting I could not have told you before I read this quote how old the subject was.

Two thoughts:

I'm genuinely impressed that Gareth Russell managed to squeeze 650 pages out of a not-that-interesting woman who died while she was still in her teens.

I cannot get over the sheer number of people whose lives were ruined because a flighty teenager got bored with her middle-aged husband and started a flirtmance with an ex-boyfriend.

Late gifts from a dear friend. A Green Gate mug and the tagged eBook.

#BookMail #BooksAndTea

AMONG the relics of Henry VIII‘s daughter Mary is a book of prayers where the page devoted to intercessions for women with child is said to be stained with tears. In the later twentieth century the problem of childlessness attracts considerable attention in the Western world, but no pressure on the would-be mother today can match the peculiar strain on a sixteenth-century queen.

Eric Ives calls Anne Boleyn “the most controversial woman ever to have been queen consort of England,“ and I'm really curious about whether he stands by that. Yes, Anne Boleyn was beheaded, but was she called a Rottweiler on the front page of the Sun?