Monday, March 18, 2024

Charles I's Private Life


It is always amazing how certain books come our way at the proper times. In my case, I discovered Mark Turnbull and his extensive writings on the Wars of the Three Kingdoms just as I was  working on Volume 2 of the Henrietta of France Trilogy entitled Generalissima. In Generalissima the Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland finds herself in the midst of a most savage civil war. Not being a military-minded historian, the various accounts of the various battles were running together in my mind. So when I found Mark's biography of Charles I it was like a gift from Heaven for the highly readable prose and clarity in explaining the progression of the War. Plus it offers penetrating insight into the often inscrutable personality of Charles I. Mark is the author of his own trilogy about the Wars of the Three Kingdoms called The Rebellion Series as well as the award-winning novel Allegiance of Blood, also about the English Civil Wars. I find the English Civil Wars and the divided loyalties and the switching of sides much more difficult to follow than even the Wars of the Roses. Therefore I am in awe of an author like Mark who is at ease in explaining the ins and outs of the conflict which devastated the British Isles, leaving almost 200,000 dead

From the Amazon page of Charles I's Private Life by Mark Turnbull:

The execution of King Charles I is one of the well-known facts of British history, and an often-quoted snippet from our past. He lost the civil war and his head. But there is more to Charles than the civil war and his death. To fully appreciate the momentous events that marked the twenty-four years of his reign, and what followed, it’s important to understand the man who was at their epicenter.

Both during his lifetime, and in the centuries since, opinion of Charles is often polarized; he is either Royal Martyr or Man of Blood. Amidst these extremes, what is frequently overshadowed is the man himself. Propaganda still clouds his personality, as do the events of his last seven years of life.

The first half of his life has not been explored in detail. As a sickly second son of the first King of Great Britain, these years shed light on the development of Charles’s character. Key elements of his final days also remain lost to us, such as certain identification of his executioners. Investigating new evidence, an entirely new candidate is proposed. Persistent myths surrounding his health and supposed unwillingness to compromise are also addressed.

There are many biographies, but this most intimate work draws upon fresh viewpoints and contemporary letters, some never before used. Penetrating the veil of monarchy and getting to the heart of the man through his relationships, the reader is brought closer than ever to the real Charles Stewart.

A brave, principled and dutiful man, he was politically flawed and lacked the ruthlessness needed to steer his three kingdoms beyond the crossroads at which they arrived. Above all, he is a character who shares much in common with us all.

"This is the story of the spare who became the heir: what shaped him - and what became of him. Mark Turnbull helps us understand Charles the king as Charles the man" - Leanda de Lisle

Charles I's Private Life takes a fresh look at the primary sources concerning the childhood and youth of Charles Stuart. Some biographies give the impression of Charles being ignored by his parents James I and Anna of Denmark  as he grew up in the shadow of his older brother Henry Prince of Wales. Mark, however, offers examples of Charles being a beloved child of his parents, who saw him as their "jewel." He was a precocious little boy who faced severe health problems which he overcame with the help of his caregivers as well as with his own determination to be fit and strong. His Christian faith was always a strong part of his life as he learned from his father about how the hierarchy of the earthly kingdom should represent the hierarchy of the heavenly kingdom. Like his father he saw the Calvinist creed and its various offshoots, with its lack of bishops and of  ritual, as disrupting the ordered hierarchy of both ecclesiastical and secular government. His insistence on ritual and beauty in liturgical worship was a hill he was prepared to die on.

For those who have viewed the series Mary and George it would be worthwhile to read Mark's take on the rise of the Villiers family at the English court. Whatever James I and the Duke of  Buckingham were or were not doing in their private moments, the Duke attained enormous wealth and power, which continued into the reign of Charles I. As the best friend of Charles I, who called his sovereign the family nickname of "Baby Charles", Buckingham obstructed the relationship between Charles and his bride Henrietta Maria, as is described in my novel My Queen, My Love. Buckingham also brought the kingdoms to the brink of disaster with his encouraging Charles to fight with the Spanish and the French, wars in which the English were humiliated.

I enjoyed reading about the relationship between Charles I and his Queen. Some biographies blame Henrietta Maria for everything that went wrong but Mark's book, being balanced, shows where the mistakes were made and by whom. Henrietta Maria really should not be blamed since she risked her all for her husband's sake and lost husband, home, children, country. While Charles was labelled a "Man of Blood" for making war on his own people, there is plenteous evidence that Charles was left with no other choice, after exhausting every attempt at diplomacy. Even at the Battle of Edge Hill, the first major conflict of the war, Charles did not order a single shot fired until he and his children were fired upon and almost killed.

I encourage everyone interested in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms to read Charles I's Private Life. My own respect for Charles as been deepened by reading it while at the same time I now have a greater sense of his personality and human foibles. I also have a greater sense of the era and of the magnitude of the Civil Wars, the impact of which would shape the centuries to come.

 Please visit Mark Turnbull's website, HERE.


A review of the television series Mary and George from Mark Turnbull at Historia:

But wild fabrication is employed in painting both Mary and George as illegitimate, which is then used as a motive for Mary murdering two men. She also begins a relationship with a female prostitute, Sandie Brooks, despite no evidence of any lesbian liaisons. A particularly ludicrous claim is that the purpose of James’s visit to Scotland in 1617 was to dig up the embalmed heart of his first love, Esme Stewart. George is, surprisingly, a rather passive character; two-dimensional, plain, and naive. One of his later lines is ‘I am the king, I am England’ but his character on screen seems barely a shadow of the real man – who was shrewd and devious, and obtained practically every significant political office.

The real George knew how to manipulate James and was overconfident, overbearing, and all-powerful. The clothes of Nicholas Galitzine (George) were barely adorned, whereas portraits of the real duke record his penchant for ropes of pearls. Instead, Mary is by far the dominant character, though much of what makes this so is based on fiction. That said, Julianne Moore acts the part very well.

 Crucially for me, with the key exception of King James (Tony Curran), it was hard to feel connected to most of the characters. This was partly down to an extremely dark and overtly violent undertone throughout, which made for few endearing scenes. The first four episodes focus on the years 1614–1617. Following Queen Anna’s death in 1619, the series accelerates through the next 11 years, so can’t do enough justice to the Madrid venture or James’s decline.

In 1624, we see George single-handedly turn Parliament to war with Spain. In reality, the duke suffered a bout of illness at the time, and it was Prince Charles (later Charles I) who managed Parliament so adeptly. The twist of irony here is that in the series, Prince Charles is portrayed as a snivelling and immature, emotional wreck. Historical accuracy goes into freefall when George ends the reign of Rex Pacificus (as James liked to be called) in a startling manner — murder. If this blatant falsification is not bad enough, the show powers to a similarly abrupt ending.

Fast forwarding to 1628, George bumps into his assassin at Portsmouth. As if attempting to squeeze in one last sex scene, George ridiculously attempts to seduce John Felton, only to be penetrated by Felton’s cheap dagger – though almost as if it was an afterthought. As a result, this pivotal scene is robbed of gravitas and dramatic effect. (Read more.)

 

Purchase Charles I's Private Life, HERE.

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Tik Tok Picture Becomes Clear

 From L. Todd Wood at The Easton Gazette:

We have been wondering why the Biden regime and Congress suddenly became 'all in' to get Tik Tok assets in the United States sold from the Chinese Communist Party, which in theory is a very good thing. Now we know the answer to our question -- Tik Tok is being sold to a consortium of globalists, who will do the CCP's work for them in an attempt to prevent Trump from getting back to The White House.

Former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is building an investor group to acquire ByteDance’s TikTok, as a bipartisan piece of legislation winding its way through Congress threatens its continued existence in the U.S.The House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a bipartisan bill that if signed into law would force ByteDance to either divest its flagship global app or face an effective ban on TikTok within the U.S, reported CNBC.

“I think the legislation should pass and I think it should be sold,” Mnuchin, who leads Liberty Strategic Capital, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Thursday. “It’s a great business and I’m going to put together a group to buy TikTok.” Mnuchin was called out by Trump as a globalist, unconcerned with the American working class and populist movement, who worked to subvert Trump's agenda. When we say 'globalist', part of what we mean is the America 'three letter agencies'. Now we know, the matrix wants Tik Tok to use for itself. It's like getting a 'nuclear bomb' to use in an information war. (Read more.)


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Catholicism and Slavery

 From Samuel Gregg at  The Acton Institute:

On the level of formal teaching, the Church’s record, Kengor illustrates, is one of consistent opposition to slavery. Very quickly, slavery was understood to be sinful by the Church. The position emerged more or less directly from the Gospels and the writings of Saint Paul. It was also considered universal in its application.

This last point matters because a few scholars have argued that the Church was opposed only to the enslavement of Christians, whether by Christians or non-Christians, the implication being it was acceptable to enslave non-Christians. Certainly, some statements by popes and councils refer explicitly to Christians, but the omission of references to non-Christians is not intentional. For one thing, most church documents on slavery refer to the wrongness of enslaving anyone. It is also the case that statements about enslaving Christians by popes like Eugene IV were accompanied by other documents composed by the same popes “that addressed the welfare of all people.”

In making his argument, Kengor analyzes a formidable amount of material to demonstrate the consistency of official Catholic magisterial teaching on the inherently evil nature of slavery. Especially concise statements were issued by the Holy Office (today’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith) in the 17th century. These spelled out in question-and-answer format not only the wrongness of slavery itself but also the obligation of captors, buyers, and owners of slaves to free and compensate them. There is no mention of the guilt and responsibility of anyone involved in the slave business being diminished by cultural, psychological, or sociological factors that might affect their personal culpability for their actions.

Catholic teaching on slavery, Kengor also illustrates, was “far ahead of the world.” Though it is politically incorrect to say so, Kengor underscores that slavery simply was not questioned in any meaningful way in pagan Europe or pre-Christian cultures in North America, Latin America, Africa, and Asia. At a time in which there are tendencies to idealize such cultures—or even deny that brutal things like mass slavery and human sacrifice occurred in Mesoamerican cultures—these truths bear repeating. (Read more.)
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Sunday, March 17, 2024

Croagh Patrick


We often forget, when partying on Saint Patrick's day, everything that he endured to bring the faith to Ireland. The Irish had such a reputation for fierceness and piracy that most missionaries were afraid to go there. Saint Patrick had suffered as a slave in Ireland (he would make a great patron of the enslaved) after being kidnapped from his home. That he would have the courage to return to the place of his degradation is amazingly heroic in itself. Once in Ireland as a missionary, Saint Patrick had many ordeals. The druids hated him and tried to kill him at least once; he was often hunted like an animal. In order to recollect himself and gain strength and grace for his apostolic endeavors, he would retreat to a mountain called "Croagh Patrick."

According to New Advent:
A mountain looking out on the Atlantic ocean from the southern shore of Clew Bay, in the County Mayo, and called "the Sinai of Ireland." In pagan times it was known as Cruachan Aigli. It rises in a perfect cone to a height of 2510 feet. The account given below is taken from sources that post-date the saint's death by three hundred years. There are, however, good reasons to believe that the traditions they embody are genuine, St. Patrick was careworn and fatigued when he came to this remote part of the country. He longed to retire for a while to refresh his soul in solitude, and for that purpose on the Saturday before Ash Wednesday in the year 441, he betook himself to the mountain top. Here he spent the days of Lent, chastising his body with fasts, pouring out his heart to God, and entreating Him with prolonged importunity and with tears that the Faith may not fail in the land of Erin. The "Book of Armagh" mentions that God summoned all the saints of Erin, past, present and future, to appear before their father in the Faith to comfort him with a vision of the teeming harvest his labours would produce, and to join him in blessing their kinsmen and their country.
It is good to know that even the great saints had times when they had to fight discouragement. They rejuvenated themselves by being alone with God. Croagh Patrick is still a place of pilgrimage.


In Kirkus Top 20 for 2014! And #1 in Kindle Historical Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Fiction
"In every Eden, there dwells a serpent . . . ."
"An Irish immigrant builds a new life in Canada, the decades marked by marriage, children and the odd otherworldly encounter. Vidal (Madame Royale, 2010, etc.) successfully transforms family stories into a historical novel that chronicles the life of her great-great-great-grandfather, Daniel O'Connor, who established a homestead in Ontario in the 19th century. O'Connor, a blacksmith living in County Cork, Ireland, is frustrated in his desire to train as a doctor because of English laws restricting Catholics' religious freedom and economic chances. When the political activities of his wild younger brother Owen cast suspicion on O'Connor, he flees Ireland, carrying just two mementos of his homeland--a white rosebush uprooted by his mother and a "paradise tree," a wooden crucifix so called because it represents a ladder of suffering to climb to heaven. Nine years later he has carved Long Point farm out of the wilderness, creating a home despite the new continent's own anti-Catholic prejudice. He marries Brigit, a girl 18 years younger than he is, then almost loses her to Owen, who arrives at the farm after his own midnight departure from Eire. But when a vision of his mother appears to him, hands on hips, he finds the will to throw his brother out of the house and confront his bride. She sobs and swears she will die of shame, insisting, " 'Oh, yes, I will die. I will,' she choked. 'But fret not....I'll be getting over it.' " And she does, bearing 11 children. The novel follows them as they grow to adulthood, marry and have children of their own, with each section of the book told through the eyes of a different character. Though the story unwinds slowly, it never drags. An imaginative, meticulously told history that will especially appeal to those with Irish roots" ~from Kirkus Reviews

Order your free Kindle copy of The Paradise Tree, HERE.
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Are Climate Lockdowns Next?

 From The Stream:

Was it only four years ago? In one way, it feels like decades ago. In another, it’s as if it had never ended. But it was mid-March in 2020 that we saw the first nation locked down, imprisoned, subject to martial law, as part of the COVID panic. It started in Italy.

That nightmarish, useless imprisonment of the people by their elites lasted for more than a year in many countries (and U.S. blue states). The Orwellian farce burned trillions of dollars, drove millions into desperate poverty, and starved tens of thousands of the world’s poorest to death. The intentional seeding of nursing homes with COVID patients by Democrat governors killed thousands more right here at home, who died without benefit of clergy or Christian burial, instead being bagged and incinerated like euthanized shelter pets. Or aborted babies, like the ones whose tissue got used to develop the COVID vaccine.

That horror movie has a sequel. It’s premiering soon thanks to a government near you. Officials from globalist powerbrokers such as the United Nations and the World Economic Forum (WEF) are contemplating COVID-style lockdowns again. They’re just waiting for the pretext. Or planning for it.

The WEF’s Great Reset Program aims to grab huge swathes of power over citizens’ access to a functioning economy, nutritious diet, and reliable energy sources — all in the guise of addressing climate change. (Read more.)
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C.S. Lewis and the Apocalypse of Gender

 From The Acton Institute:

Lewis, a master of Renaissance literature (and through it, of the late medieval period and antiquity), allowed his imagination to be formed not by the convulsions of his era but by the slow developments of millennia. He writes from deep within a realm many of us struggle even to enter, let alone explore: that of the Christian imagination, in which every single element of reality is at once itself and also a profound sign of God’s nature.

I have hesitated for a long time before writing about gender from a Lewisian perspective. It is perilous to bring a past thinker into discussion of a contemporary issue. As Lewis himself knew, these topics are best approached through the imagination. Rather than this essay, it would be more effective to write a poem or a song or a story about gender and the Christian imagination. That, after all, is what Lewis didBut elucidating an imaginative vision, as Michael Ward does for Lewis’ thought in Planet Narnia, can be helpfulFor many of us, the landscape of the Christian imagination is so far away that we need guides to point even to the trailhead. I hope here to point the way to that trailhead, where Lewis himself is waiting to lead us into the foothills of a realm in which physical realities, like our bodies, are signs revealing the nature of God. In Lewis’ imagination, there is no such thing as an “abstract idea.” In Planet Narnia, Michael Ward writes that Lewis believed that “to prefer abstractions is not to be more rational; it is simply to be less fully human.” An idea must have an associated “sign,” a body or a word or a relation, something we apprehend through our senses. We know reality through these signs, which come through our senses into our imaginations and shape how we live. (Read more.)

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Saturday, March 16, 2024

Tower House Castles of Medieval Europe

From the Freelance History Writer:
In the later Middle Ages, feudal obligations became obsolete. Men-at-arms and knights became expensive to maintain. Consequently, more mercenary soldiers were used. Castles in England were less important during what later came to be known as the Wars of the Roses when warfare changed to pitched battles in open fields rather than sieges. The ranks of barons were reduced and were replaced politically and socially by the peerage who grew richer as a consequence.

The gentry and some knights started to gain wealth by trade, profits from war or public office or marrying into rich families. This was a time of ambition and social emulation. They began to build semi-fortified manor houses with square tower keeps, crenellations and a gatehouse. A tower house as one’s home was a symbol of status, power and rank, denoting the owner could look after himself and protect his valuable possessions.

The tower house was the simplest, most functional and most cost effective approach for defense against neighbors and enemies. Tower houses began to be built in cities, along the coast and in the Marches and Borders. They were never conceived as a means for planned defense and if there were more in some areas than in others, it was only because the dangers were more apparent in those areas. (Read more.)

 My own ancestors lived in and around the Togher Tower House in Dunmanway, County Cork as told in The Paradise Tree. Share

America Approaches the Crisis

 From GPF:

We have recently discussed China’s problems, Russia’s ability to defeat Ukraine, the economic condition of Europe and the wars of the Middle East. All of these are extremely important, but none are as crucial as the United States, the country with the largest economy in the world and a military that, if fully deployed, can be decisive.

Some of you may recall our model of cycles, which is now signaling increasingly intense political, social and economic problems that will last until the election of 2028, when a new president will be elected and, regardless of his wishes, will dramatically shift the country’s direction. A few months ago, I thought we would not have to wait until 2028, but that the 2024 election might signal the shift. That isn’t happening. Or, to be precise, the historical model of change every 50 years is continuing. The last transitional moment was the Reagan presidency, which started 43 years ago.

To understand the coming changes, it is useful to think of the last cycle in the 1970s. That decade was marked by a war with significant impact on the American economy, combined with an oil embargo. President Richard Nixon ended the link between the dollar and gold, and massive unemployment, dramatic inflation and staggeringly high interest rates ensued. Exports from Japan shocked domestic auto manufacturers. Anger at the Vietnam War led to social conflict in the United States, with racial conflict turning into riots in Detroit in the late 1960s, and in 1970, campus riots at Kent State turned deadly when students were shot by the National Guard. In the end, the president resigned to avoid impeachment and possibly prison.

The chaos grew through the 1970s, but it was the economic situation that drove it and in which the chaos was rooted, with the president trying to use the last cycle’s model to solve the problems. During the Depression, President Franklin Roosevelt tried to increase taxes on the rich and corporations and attempted to funnel money to the poor. That, plus World War II and the jobs it created, ended the crisis. Continuing that model into the 1970s, however, created a new problem: a shortage of investment capital. The only solution was transformation, shifting the tax burden from the investing class to the middle and lower classes, which increased corporate sales and demand for workers. President Jimmy Carter and the Democratic Party opposed this reversal of the Roosevelt model – which is normal for those linked to the last cycle – and in 1980 Ronald Reagan became president. Reagan pursued the only option: transforming the tax code. That worked well, but now that cycle is done. Nearly 50 years have passed, and a transition to a new model is inevitable.

Just as the economic crisis culminated in the latter half of the 1970s, along with all the other battles, the same thing is shaping up now in the 2020s and will become most intense by the elections of 2028. (Read more.)

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