Catherine of Aragon Part II

Catherine stated that her marriage to Arthur had not been consummated.  She and he were quite young and as she was a young woman of great integrity, it is likely that she was telling the truth.  This made the case for a dispensation easier, as it was easier to annul an unconsummated marriage.   Consummation was regarded as validating a marriage.  However because she and Arthur had lived as man and wife and been recognised as such, there was a need for a dispensation…

Henry was attracted to Catherine, who had been living a difficult and depressing life, from the time of her widowhood, and he probably regarded himself as a gallant, rescuing his lady from the problems of her poverty and being all but kept a prisoner by Henry VII.   When his father died in 1509, he wanted to marry her.  The Pope had given a dispensation covering the possibility that the marriage to Arthur had been consummated, and allowing a marriage to her former brother in law.

The young couple had a lot in common.  Henry VIII had been under his father’s thumb and had become King at the age of 18, and he was now free to do what he wanted and enjoy himself.  He shared Catherine’s interests in music and literature and theology… and they seemed to enjoy each other’s company.

The couple were married and crowned, and were very popular with the ordinary people.  Henry was a fine handsome young man who was flamboyant and free spending unlike his miserly father.  Catherine was still young and attractive and the English people felt sorry for her and loved her.   Within a year of her marriage she had her first child but it was a stillborn daughter.  Then she had another pregnancy, which ended in the birth of a son, but the boy died at the age of 6 weeks.  It was far from uncommon to lose children so the couple were not too discouraged.   She had 2 more stillborn children but then in 1516, gave birth to a daughter.  Henry was relieved to have a child who survived…but he hoped that a son would follow.   The baby was called Mary.  As the daughter of a reigning Queen, Catherine did not feel that women were incapable of ruling.  She wished to ensure that her daughter had a good education to prepare her for the possibility of becoming Queen.

She herself acted as Regent when Henry was away at war.  She was well liked by the people – However, the English people had only had one Queen regnant, Mathilda or Maud... who had been involved in a bitter civil war with a rival claimant… so that their memory of having a queen ruling them was not a happy one.

Catherine became more religious as she grew older, praying intensely, and doing penances.  This began to create some distance between her and Henry.  He was a devout man but he was almost 6 years Catherine’s junior.  He had never had much of a period of bachelor freedom and he wanted to enjoy life, so a wife who was increasingly serious, may have seemed difficult for him to understand.  Unlike many Princes and Kings; he was in love with his wife and was by and large faithful to her.  He had an affair with a lady in waiting, Elizabeth Blount, who became his mistress in 1516 and gave birth to a son, Henry Fitzroy in 1519.  He may have had a few other brief affairs but there are only 2 women of whom we can be certain that there was a relationship.  Catherine was frequently pregnant during their first years of marriage.  This meant that Henry might well look elsewhere for sex for a time... But there does not seem to have been a serious rift between him and his wife, nor do we have more than 2 named women. 

After Mary’s birth Catherine had 2 more pregnancies but she was growing older and her chance of producing a male heir were slipping away.  She had a miscarriage, and a daughter who died at birth.

Henry must have been disappointed.  His wife was aging and less attractive and she was more absorbed in religious duties. He had no male heir.. But he had proved that he could father a son with Elizabeth Blount.

He started an affair with Mary Boleyn, who had come from the French court and seems to have been the mistress of Francis I. In 1520 Mary was married to William Carey, a courtier, and this was probably a cover for her affair with Henry….She had 2 children but it seems likely that they were born after her affair with Henry, and when she and her husband started marital relations.

Although Henry was not a particularly promiscuous husband, the age difference and the lack of a male heir began to damage the fabric of his marriage to Catherine.

Catherine of Aragon Part I

Catherine of Aragon was an unusual queen in that she was married twice...  But her second marriage ended in a bitter dispute and an annulment which she refused to accept.   She was born in Spain in 1485, and her parents were the co monarchs of Spain Ferdinand and Isabella.   She had some English ancestry, from an earlier marriage between the Spanish royal family and the Lancaster family…so she was a distant cousin of the Tudors.   Her mother was a reigning monarch, who was an intelligent woman and gave her daughter a good education.  She saw no reason why women should not be trained to be good rulers.  Catherine learned languages and loved literature...and she was also taught womanly skills of sewing and housekeeping, and learned music and dancing and the lighter arts.  From a very Catholic house, she studied theology and was very devout.

At an early age, she was considered as a wife for Arthur, eldest son of Henry VII... Her English blood was a factor which led her to be accepted.  The Tudors were a new dynasty and were considered upstarts by many English, so a marriage to a prestigious foreign princess like Catherine was important to them.

At the age of 15, she was sent to England to marry. She met Arthur and they seemed to get on well though they had to converse in Latin... Catherine was a pretty girl, and it is likely he found her attractive.  They were married in November 1501.   They were sent to Wales, to begin learning the business of ruling and running a court, but within a few months the young couple both became ill possibly with “sweating sickness” which was a mysterious illness that often attacked people and was frequently fatal.  Catherine recovered but Arthur died, and she was now a very young widow.  There were disputes with her father about her dowry, half of which had been paid... and the Tudors did not want her to leave England... because they didn’t want to repay it.

In 1503 Elizabeth of York died, and Henry VII considered a marriage to Catherine, so he could keep the dowry but it was a complicated issue for her to marry her father in law.  Catherine’s mother died, and Castile, her kingdom, was inherited by her older sister Juana or Joanna...

It was then suggested that Catherine could marry Henry, Arthur’s younger brother, but he was almost 6 years her junior and too young to marry…  A dispensation would also have to be received from the Pope, as she had been married to a brother of her future groom thus creating an affinity... so negotiations went on to acquire the dispensation.   Catherine was living in London, on a small income and very isolated.  She must have wondered if she would ever find a royal husband….She was more intelligent  and determined than people gave her credit for though…..

Marie Walewska Part II

Marie spent time with Napoleon as his mistress, but tried to keep their affair discreet... however it soon became an open secret.   When in 1809, he went to Vienna; she followed and moved into a house near Schonnbrunn palace where he was staying. Napoleon seems to have loved her as much as someone so dominated by ambition was capable of loving...and when she became pregnant, he was delighted. He had had a son with a mistress,  a lady in waiting called Eleonore Deneulle, but he had been unsure if the child was indeed his…  But he knew that Marie loved him and was virtuous and he could be certain that this time, the child was his own.  It drove him to consider divorce from Josephine. He had wanted a legitimate son to be his heir... since none of his family had shown any gift for ruling…

But he had never fathered any children on any of his many mistresses so he had been wary of getting rid of Josephine when he could to be sure of having an heir.   
Marie returned to Poland to have her baby, a son Alexandre and the child was accepted as the son of her husband Count Walewski, to give him legitimacy.   
In 1810, Marie came to Paris, leaving her husband, to be with Napoleon, though there are claims that their affair had ended by then…. Napoleon was divorcing Josephine and planning to marry Marie Louise of Austria, so Marie may have accepted that the physical side of their affair was over.  However he made financial provision for her and their son… and retained a respect for her.  She had sacrificed a lot to become his mistress. She was seen by many as the “only woman Napoleon loved” (though he had certainly loved Josephine)... and the Emperors “Polish wife…”  However, she never was able to secure Polish independence…though her producing a son, did give Napoleon the confidence to remarry.. and father a legitimate son...

  She was considered a good hearted woman and well liked...

 In 1812 Marie got a divorce from her elderly husband, on the grounds that she had been forced and pressured into it by her family…

When Napoleon’s empire collapsed in 1814 and he was exiled to Elba, Marie visited him, with their child, briefly... But he was too depressed to pay much attention to her at the time.  In 1816, after he had been exiled further, to St Helena, Marie married a cousin of Napoleon’s Philippe D’Ornano, a Corsican soldier and follower of the Emperor.   They lived a quiet life, but within a year Marie gave birth to another son, Rudolph D’ornano and due to a kidney disease, her health began to fail after childbirth.  She died in 1817 aged only 31..  Her son by Napoleon, Count Alexandre Walewski, became a naturalised Frenchman and was an important figure in French politics in the 19^th century

Marie Countess Walewska Part I

Marie Walewska was born in Poland in 1786, and was most famous as one of Napoleon’s best known mistresses.  
Her father was a Polish nobleman, Count Mathieu (Mateusz) Łączyński, a landowner.   He was a soldier... and he participated in the Battle of Maciejowice, where he was seriously, mortally wounded.  A year later, their part of Poland was incorporated into Russia.  Poland was a tragic country which had often been fought over, over the centuries, but the Poles were usually fanatic patriots and did not relish becoming part of the Russian Empire, harsh treatment by Russia, and their country disappearing off the map which was what happened…

Marie grew up in this atmosphere, and was an ardent patriot. 

She was very beautiful, and in 1805 at the age of 18 she married Athenasius, Count Colonna-Walewski.  He was a wealthy man but much older than his bride.   
They had a son, Antoni Rudolf Bazyli Colonna-Walewski.  About a year after her marriage she met Napoleon when he was travelling to Warsaw.  He was struck by her beauty.  She claimed later, that her only interest in meeting with him was patriotic... that he could restore the independence of Poland.   They met again at a ball in Warsaw and Napoleon tried to seduce her, hinting that he would think more favourably of her country, if she were to return his love and become his mistress.  Marie claimed that she was pressured by Polish aristocrats who hoped they could use her to secure promises from Napoleon, and also by Napoleon’s aide General Duroc.   She was a virtuous young woman and although she had probably not chosen to marry her elderly husband, she wanted to be faithful to him.   However she did allow Napoleon to be become her lover though she did portray it as at first a virtually forced affair.   
This was probably due to the public morals of the time... that she could not admit to taking a lover because she loved or desired him nor could she admit to doing so because of any kind of ambitious or pecuniary reasons.  She was not a courtesan; she was a young woman of noble birth, who had had a very religious upbringing. But it is probably nearer the truth that she genuinely fell in love with Napoleon...Albeit she did hope to influence him about the fate of Poland.  He was a charismatic and intriguing figure... and admired as a great soldier and statesman.

Band story Rough Music

It is a story set in the USA, in the late 1970s.    It is a story about work and life, as well as love.   It doesn't have a happy ending.   Its more about finding a satisfying life, than about love or marriage... 

I’ve based it on what I’ve read about country and rock singers in the days when touring was a constant part of their lives.  It was hard work and took its toll on the marriages of many singers.   Women were just beginning to look for more in their lives than marriage.
I especially I love the music of the 1960s and 70’s.  I love country pop, people like Glen Campbell... and I also love the Williamses… especially Hank Junior.  I enjoy Lynrd Skynrd.  So my story is all about that sort of life…   

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rough-Music-Nadine-Sutton-ebook/dp/B01AEQS0G0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1452977780&sr=8-1&keywords=nadine+sutton

Maria Spartali Stillman

Maria is an unusual figure among the Pre Raphaelites in that she used her own artistic talents - as well as functioning as a Muse or model to the male artists.  
Other wives and mistresses of the artists were more likely to be assistants rather than active  in the artistic world.  Georgiana Burne Jones had some  talent and studied painting and etching but she found that her role as mother and housekeeper and social hostess for her family took up more of her time -and although it upset her, she ended up abandoning her attempts to work for herself. Jane Morris was a skilled embroideress and her daughters who were the next generation of women learned “arts and crafts” also and worked in that field… but Jane herself did not paint…

However Maria Spartali was a working painter.  She was the cousin of Maria Zambaco who was Edward Burne Jones’s great love and mistress.  She was born in London in 1844, the daughter of a wealthy Greek merchant… Michael Spartali and his wife, Euphrosyne, who was also of Greek descent.

  He had artistic tastes and liked to mingle with writers and painters.  He had a large house in Clapham just outside London.   Maria and her other cousins were noted beauties with the sort of unusual striking looks that Pre Raphaelite painters liked and found interesting.  She was very tall, with rich brown hair and a commanding presence. She wanted to paint herself as well as being a model for artists and began to take lessons from the painter Ford Madox Brown.  He was already teaching his own 2 daughters Lucy and Catherine (Lucy would later marry William Rossetti, the brother of Gabriel and Christina).   She began training with Madox Brown in 1864 and took her studies very seriously.  She also began to model for Burne Jones and Gabriel Rossetti, sitting for pictures such as The Bower Meadow and a study of Dante…

1n 1871 she married William Stillman an American Journalist who also painted.  Her parents were against the marriage but they went ahead and spend time in England, in Florence and also America.   She painted seriously and produced a large body of work, in spite of having 3 children and 3 step children

Like all Pre Raphaelites, Maria  painted scenes form literature including Dante and Shakespeare. ...her work also included portraits and self-portraits.  One of her best known paintings is Loves Messenger, a study of a medieval lady, receiving a message form a lover carried by a dove.

She died in Kensington in 1927.. having left behind a large body of work and a reputation as a beauty and the most “intellectual” of artist’s models…

Because of the Lockwoods Part III

As Thea is on the verge of leaving school, planning to go to University if possible, she learns that the three Lockwood girls and some other well to do girls they know are all going to France for a year to learn French.   She desperately want to go, and learns that she can go as an “au pair” at the school that she will teach English, in  exchange for board and French lessons.   She wont be paid, but she will not have to pay school fees.
The Lockwoods are not pleased that one of the Hunters is going with them...and when they all travel to France they treat her with their usual haughtiness, though Claire, the youngest girl is nicer, but desperately preoccupied with her own homesickness… 

Thea feels guilty that she has managed to have this opportunity of travel and further education when Molly and Martin are both stuck in jobs they dislike and her mother is still living in a modest house and managing on a small annuity…

However when they get there, they all have a shock.  The school is shabby and not very comfortable.  The English girls are surprised by the very basic facilities in the school, and want to go home.   Thea finds that her new employer has no intention of giving her French lessons and is determined to get as much work out of her as possible.  Like Charlotte Bronte, with whom she identifies, Thea finds the headmistress unkind and harsh, and is annoyed to see that the Lockwoods and their friends are permitted to live within the school but do very little studying. The Headmistress does not want to lose them, so she lets them ignore lessons and hopes they will stay out the year... Thea realises that with the problems of trying to teach unruly French girls and keep within the restrictions that are imposed on young girls in provincial France, she has lost much of her old obsessive dislike of the Lockwoods….