Welcome to Litsy!

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?

WHAT A SENTENCE:

“Margaret had formerly expressed her disapproval and concern at her granddaughter being married too young, but as the Queen of Scots was approaching her fourteenth birthday—generally considered to be a more acceptable age for consummation—there is no evidence that she was unhappy at the king‘s decision to send his daughter north at this time.“

(That's the granddaughter in the image, roughly 13 at the time of the portrait.)

In today's installment of the adventures of Margaret Beaufort, her son becomes king and she promptly has herself declared “femme sole“ and later takes a vow of chastity and sets up her own household, all while still being married to her fourth husband. She also starts signing her name “Margaret R,“ which supposedly stands for “Richmond“ but could be interpreted as “Regina.“

Halfway through this biography of Margaret Beaufort, she is 29 years old and has just married her fourth husband. Granted, she was seven at her first wedding, so it's taken her longer to get to husband number four than it seems like it should have.