St. Joseph and Emperor Leopold I

Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I is shown kneeling before the Child Jesus, Who blesses him from the arms of His foster-father St. Joseph. (Via The World of the Habsburgs.) Leopold is known as the "Baroque Emperor" and was a first cousin of Louis XIV of France, as their mothers were sisters. He was also a former brother-in-law of Louis' Queen, Maria Teresa of Austria (Spain), for he had been married to her younger sister, the Infanta Margarita, painted by Velasquez. Also from The World of the Habsburgs:

Leopold I was a defining figure in the history of the Habsburg dynasty. His reign saw the consolidation of the Monarchy after the Thirty Years’ War and the decisive victories against the Ottoman Empire that enabled the Habsburg Monarchy to become one of the leading Great Powers in Europe.

Leopold himself was however a shy, indecisive character who effaced himself behind his imperial persona. He was not a ‘radiant’ monarch, being almost grotesquely ugly and afflicted with an extreme example of the Habsburg jaw. It is said that he had his physical deficits emphasized in portraits of himself out of humility. The emperor compensated for his personal shortcomings with the nimbus of his sublime office. Leopold’s adversary Louis XIV once remarked that it was not the emperor in person that he feared but his ‘miracle’.

Leopold was steeped in the majesty of imperial office, emphasizing its religious aspect above all else. The victory over the Ottoman Empire which had put a stop to its westward expansion served pro-Habsburg propaganda as an ideal instrument to stylize Emperor Leopold as the protector of Christendom. Thus as the donor of the Plague Column on the Graben in Vienna, Leopold is represented kneeling in humility as he recommends his realm to the heavenly powers. On another occasion the emperor referred to himself as the ‘least and most unworthy servant of the Holy Virgin Mary’.

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One positive aspect of his personality was his pronounced artistic gifts, in particular for music. He was himself an enthusiastic musician and the author of several compositions, the quality of which should not be underestimated. Opera was his great passion. Important occasions at court were staged as allegorical Baroque spectacles with no expense spared. (Read more.)

More on Emperor Leopold's wives and children, HERE.

Marriage of Leopold I to his third wife Eleonore Magdalene of Neuburg

Eleonore Magdalene of Neuburg, Emperor Leopold's third wife, was very devout and had wanted to be a Carmelite nun. Instead she became the mother of seven children and a wife who helped her husband rule a great empire. She had her sons educated by the Jesuits. She was the grandmother of Empress Maria Theresa and great-grandmother of Marie-Antoinette. More about Empress Eleonore, HERE.

Eleonore and Leopold

 

Here is my book, in which I discuss the Habsburg patrimony in the life of Marie-Antoinette.

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A Guide to the Children of James VI and I and Anne of Denmark

The first Prince of Wales from the House of Stuart was named for his grandfather, Lord Darnley. (Yes, the Lord Darnley.) To quote author Linda Root:

Many historians wrongly refer to Henry Frederick Stuart as the Prince of Wales from the time he arrived in England in 1603.  This is incorrect.  He was not invested with that title until 1610.  His predecessor was Edward Tudor, the boy king Edward VI (1537-1553)  Upon Henry Frederick's  birth in Scotland he was given the customary title of a male Scottish heir apparent, Duke of Rothesay, as well as several lesser grants appropriate to the Scottish heir. However, when he arrived in England he was also conferred the English title Duke of Cornwall.  He had to wait seven more years to become Prince of Wales.  Referring to him as Prince of Wales during his early childhood should be a cause of embarrassment to a any historian or historical novelist who refers to him as Wales prior to 1610 and yet, it is a common mistake.  It is the way he is most often remembered although he only lived two years to enjoy the title. (Read more.)

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Mary of Modena: James II's Dazzling Queen

 

There are several cases throughout history of arranged royal marriages in which it was as if God had chosen to favor a particular country by sending a bride who possessed not only virtue but great physical beauty to be the wife of the ruler and the mother of the heir. A few of those alliances ended catastrophically when, for certain reasons, the bride in question was rejected by her adopted people, even when loved by her husband. I am thinking in particular of Henrietta Maria of France, despised for her attachment to her Catholic faith. There is also Marie-Antoinette, hated for her Austrian heritage, made worse by a campaign of vicious slander. The tragic Empress Alexandra, whom Tsar Nicholas married for love, was falsely accused of betraying Russia to her German relatives. Among such consorts, noble and fair to behold, shines Mary Beatrice of Modena, the second wife of James II. Justine Brown, author of The Private Life of James II, has surpassed herself in this comprehensive biography of the last Catholic Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland. I found it engrossing for the detailed descriptions of the pageantry of the final years of the Stuart dynasty before the so-called "Glorious Revolution" in which the true monarch was overthrown by his own daughters. The evidence is compiled to show that James II was driven from his throne not for any tyranny, as is claimed by Whiggish historians, but because his wife had give birth to a Catholic heir. It was hatred of the Faith that disrupted the royal line and led to the weakening of the royal authority, so that in time British sovereigns reigned but no longer ruled.

From the Amazon page:

Mary Beatrice learns governance, defies scandal, and becomes a steadfast beacon for Jacobite resilience amid a turbulent Restoration era.

The 1688 “Glorious Revolution” that toppled James II and VII also veiled his consort in propaganda. Mary of Modena: James II’s Dazzling Queen reveals the extraordinary woman beneath. Lovely and spirited, Mary Beatrice Isabella d’Este is also England’s sole Italian queen. Her father came from an ancient line, while her mother was one of Cardinal Mazarin’s seven famed nieces (the “Mazarinettes”).

Mary Beatrice learned the rudiments of governance at her widowed mother’s knee, and would one day act as regent of the Stuart court-in-exile—first for King James, then for their son, James Francis Edward. “The Queen over the Water” would shine as a beacon for the Jacobite cause.

Once, Mary Beatrice longed to be a nun. Instead, the young woman had to accept a different mission—marriage to James Duke of York, heir to the thrones of England, Scotland, and Ireland. Although James’s conversion to Catholicism made their marriage possible, it set off a firestorm of controversy in the mysterious northern realm.

The story of the British Isles was romantic, but the reality was jarring. Thrown into the frenzy of Restoration politics, Mary Beatrice met each fresh episode courageously. Charles II adored his sister-in-law, but MPs strove to annul the “Italian match” before it could be consummated. She and James fell in love, but his philandering nearly broke her.

Building on Este tradition, Mary Beatrice won over the common folk, inspired poets and painters, introduced Italian opera, and drew talented ladies to court. She also attracted her flamboyant Mazarinette cousin Hortense Mancini to England, where she joined King Charles’s harem.

Ultimately, James and Mary Beatrice were coronated with great ceremony, but their troubles were only just beginning. For the first time in English history, it looked like the birth of a healthy prince might actually destroy the monarchy instead of strengthening it…(Read more.)

In Justine's account, I found Mary of Modena to be inspiring not only as a brave and steadfast Queen but as a Catholic wife and mother dealing with adversity. As a teenage bride she was shattered to discover that the handsome husband she had fallen in love with was a chronic adulterer with a growing number of illegitimate offspring. And while the children of James' mistresses grew and thrived, Mary's children miscarried, or were stillborn or died young. But Mary, who had originally wanted to be a Visitandine nun, followed the teaching of the founder of the Visitation order, St. Francis de Sales. St. Francis de Sales emphasized a loving acceptance of trials as well as complete trust and confidence in God. Queen Mary's spiritual director was the Jesuit St. Claude La Colombière who brought to England the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, for he had been the confessor of  the Visitation nun who claimed to have visions of the Savior, known to history as St. Margaret Mary. Mary of Modena would help spread the devotion to the Heart of God throughout Europe in her later years of exile. Meanwhile, James II, whose childhood had been disrupted by war, imprisonment and exile, came to learn to live a devout life from his much younger wife, so that he gave up his transgressive lifestyle. I was particularly struck by the happiness of James and Mary when they had lost everything, but had each other and their children. I recommend this biography of a Queen of England who experienced a white martyrdom, yet the more she was diminished, the greater she became.

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The King's Touch

I knew the French and English monarchs prayed over those afflicted with scrofula but I did not know it was done in Scotland. When Charles I was crowned King of Scots in June, 1633, he continued the ancient ceremony. From The Scotsman:

Charles had already been crown by the English in 1626, this was the first coronation in Scotland since that of King James VI in 1567, and more notably, the first time an adult had been crowned as our monarch since that of James IV in 1458, who was 15, not an adult? Okay let’s go further back to King James I, he was 30, happy now? The abbey of Scone, traditional place of coronations up to 1424, had been destroyed, and for this occasion the ceremonial was located in the remains of Holyrood abbey, which had seen the coronation of King James II in 1437.

All that remained of the abbey was the nave, the remainder of the church having been demolished in 1570, and the structure was now restored for the occasion. Charles was baptised in the Chapel Royal at Holyrood Palace in 1600 by David Lindsay, Bishop of Ross, and created Duke of Albany, the traditional title of the second son of the King of Scotland.

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While researching this I found an article about Charles and the “laying on of hands” a ceremony he performed while at Holyrood, a practice said to have been performed by all the Stewart monarchs but discontinued by the Hanoverian’s. Bonnie Prince Charlie though is said to have performed it during the 45. (Read more.) 

This is of particular interest to me since Louis XVI was a direct descendant of Charles I. King Louis treasured the ancient healing ceremony and celebrated it several times a year, not just at his coronation, as described in my book.

More HERE.

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Queenship and Revolution in Early Modern Europe: Henrietta Maria and Marie-Antoinette

Marie-Antoinette de Lorraine d'Autriche

Henriette-Marie de France

From History of Royal Women:

Queen Marie-Antoinette, wife of King Louis XVI of France and Queen Henrietta Maria, wife of King Charles I of England were two of the most notorious queens in European history. They both faced accusations that they had transgressed social, gender and regional norms, and attempted to defend themselves against negative reactions to their behaviour. Each queen engaged with the debates of her time concerning the place of women within their families, religion, politics, the public sphere and court culture and attempted to counter criticism of her foreign origins and political influence. The impeachment of Henrietta Maria in 1643 and trial and execution of Marie Antoinette in 1793 were also trials of monarchical government that shaped the English Civil Wars and French Revolution.

I was lucky enough to receive a copy from Palgrave Macmillan of Queenship and Revolution in Early Modern Europe: Henrietta Maria and Marie Antoinette by Carolyn Harris, which is a part of their Queenship and Power series. Marie-Antoinette has had much written about her, while Henrietta Maria seems to have been quite forgotten. I only recently received a new biography about her.

The comparison between Marie-Antoinette and Henrietta Maria is perhaps not one that immediately comes to mind, but both women lived in a time of civil unrest, albeit over 100 years apart. Both women were childless for the first part of their marriage and suffered for it. It’s a rather interesting comparison, and I especially enjoyed reading about Henrietta Maria’s impeachment, about which so little appears to have been written. Henrietta Maria managed to escape to France, but without her husband who was eventually executed in 1649. Marie-Antoinette and her family also attempted to escaped, but they were caught, and both Marie-Antoinette and her husband were executed by guillotine. (Read more.)

  My books on the two Queens available HERE. Share

Portrait of Princess Mary Henrietta Stuart

From Codart:

Charles I of England wanted his eldest daughter, Mary Henrietta Stuart, to marry William II, Prince of Orange. The dynastic marriage was aimed at strengthening the alliance between England and the Netherlands. The ceremony was held on 2 May 1641 but the marriage could not be consummated since Mary Henrietta was nine and William was fourteen years old. (Their child, who would be the English king as William III, was only born nine years later.) In the wedding portrait, the princess has a wedding ring on her left hand, and wears on her dress the large diamond brooch she received as a wedding gift from her husband. In the exhibition, we can see the parents and the husband of the princess in engraved portraits.

Children of rulers were regularly portrayed in European courts. Among the portraits of children displayed in the exhibition, there are several who were somehow connected to Princess Mary Henrietta. Balthasar Charles, Prince of Asturias, two years senior to Mary Henrietta, was one of the princess’ possible husbands-to-be. He was also her cousin, just like the children of “The Winter King”, Frederick V of the Palatinate. (Read more.)

 

Princess Mary is a main character in my novels about her mother, Queen Henrietta Maria.

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The Six Loves of James I

 

 

In the last few decades some really amazing authors have begun writing about the Stuart dynasty. The abundance of Tudor biographies and novels have led to an interest in the family which succeeded them on the throne of England. While the Tudors were wily politicians, they were continually challenged when it came to male heirs. Because Margaret, the oldest daughter of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York, married James IV of Scotland, her Stuart descendants became the heirs of the Three Kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland and of the principality of Wales. James VI of Scotland, son of the murdered Mary Stuart, was de facto heir of the last Tudor, Elizabeth I. He became James I of England. Gareth Russell's fascinating biography of this brilliant and complicated man is a must-read for anyone venturing into the upheavals and achievements of the seventeenth century. Mr. Russell is known for his painstaking research of primary sources as well as for his witty and entertaining prose. This must be at least the tenth work among his several books and plays that I have read.

James I was a series of contradictions. A peaceful man, he was haunted by violence from the womb, when a Scottish lord held a pistol to his mother's pregnant stomach during a palace coup. He survived the violent deaths of both his parents as well as attempts upon his own life, in addition to kidnappings. Yet what damaged him most was the harsh, unloving and even brutal treatment he received as a motherless child from those entrusted with his upbringing. When he finally had a his own wife and family, he loved his Anna, and saw to the thorough education of his children. He was nevertheless constantly becoming infatuated with a series of handsome young men. 

A scholar of Hebrew and Greek, James presided over the translation of the Bible into the English, known as the "King James version." Famous for writing works of theology, he was also notorious for rowdy and boisterous banquets at which he became drunk, while making and laughing at coarse oaths. A persecutor of Catholics, he also insisted on the Anglican liturgy being uniform and dignified, with vestments and candles, which the Calvinists saw as papist. A prosecutor of witches, as a matter of conscience, he would then scandalize the court by showing public affection for his boyfriend of the moment. It was James I's elevation of his favorite, George Villiers, as Duke of Buckingham, while treating him practically as a member of the Royal Family, that prepared the way for Buckingham to be a fixture at the court of James' son, Charles I. Unfortunately, the role Buckingham played in the government of Charles, particularly as perceived by the people, weakened the royal authority.

From Folger Shakespeare Library:

“Elizabeth was king, now James is queen.” So went the joke circulating around London in the 17th century. While Elizabeth I became an icon for transgressing traditional gender roles, her successor is all too often overlooked or even mocked for the same reasons. Yet James I was a multifaceted ruler who led a fascinating life—and his personal relationships only add to that complexity.

For generations, historians avoided labeling the intimate relationships between James and his “favorites” as romantic. But after combing through James’s personal correspondence, historian and author Gareth Russell has uncovered compelling evidence of five significant love affairs with men. His award-winning book, The Six Loves of James I, reveals how these relationships—and his marriage to Queen Anna of Denmark*—guided the course of his life and reign.

James I’s story is a turbulent one, filled with assassination attempts, kidnapping, and witch hunts. It’s also a story of a man who loved “indiscreetly and obstinately,” for better or for worse. In this episode, Gareth Russell explores the untold history of a complicated king through the lens of the great loves of his life. (Read more.)

 

The Six Loves is available HERE.

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My Guest Post for Tony Riches

 My thanks to Tony for such a wonderful opportunity! From The Writing Desk:

Wife of the ill-fated Charles I, the colony named for her was intended to be a refuge for Roman Catholics, the Catholic religion being forbidden in the Three Kingdoms. In my room as a teenager there was a print of the Van Dyck portrait of Henrietta Maria, the original of which is in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Called “Mary” by her subjects, the second Stuart queen of England peers down from the portrait with her black eyes, which contemporaries described as large, sparkling and beautiful. Her dark curls with auburn highlights contrast against the deep marine blue shimmer of a silk dress, with the salmon-pink bows and elaborate white cuffs and high starched collar. A wide-brimmed plumed black hat was of the type made famous by the cavaliers who later fought for her husband in the English Civil Wars. 

The white plumes are reminiscent of the one made famous by her father Henri IV of France, which he wore into battle so that his men could always find him. Like her father, Henrietta Maria was not afraid to stand out, remaining a devoted Catholic in a land where her faith was banned, becoming the number one lawbreaker, while also striving to be a traditionally obedient wife, as was expected. But the expectations placed upon her made her life a tightrope walk which almost broke her.

The life of Henrietta Maria of France (1609-1669) was turbulent from the beginning. Half-Bourbon and half-Medici, her father, the famous Henri IV, was assassinated when she was an infant. Brought up by her mother, the Queen Regent Marie de’ Medici, to be a devout Catholic, she also mastered ballet, singing, and acting, skills which she would use in masques to entertain the Bourbon Court and later the Stuart Court. At fifteen she was sent to marry Charles Stuart, grandson of Mary Queen of Scots, who had just succeeded his father James I to the throne of the Three Kingdoms. 

While Charles I never converted to Catholicism, as had been hoped by many, his relationship with his wife was profoundly spiritual, enhancing the intense physical passion between them. After the initial clashing of cultures and personalities, theirs became one of the most devoted in the history of royal marriages, and was blessed with nine children. During the troubles which led to the English Civil War, Henrietta Maria became a liability to Charles because of her religion and her meddling, both perceived and actual. But her courage and her devotion fuelled the royalist cause, as she sold her jewels to raise money for arms and led soldiers to aid her husband. 

The challenges the royal couple faced in their early years of marriage are told in Book 1 of the Henrietta of France trilogy, My Queen, My Love. Book 2 will deal with the Civil Wars and Book 3 will be about the Queen’s widowhood as well as the adventures of her surviving children.

My view of historical fiction is that the author attempts to paint a portrait of the past with words. A historical novel is like a portrait come to life, allowing the reader to step into the past. Authenticity is vital, and that comes only from thorough research. While it is not always possible to visit the historical places that play a part in the novel, it helps. 

The internet has been a gift to historical fiction writers, making accessible old documents, manuscripts, pictures and books that one once had to travel far to find. I found the original program of the 1623 masque performed by Anne of Austria and Henrietta of France at the Louvre during Shrovetide. It was at the rehearsal of the masque that Charles Stuart first saw Henrietta during his incognito visit to Paris. Such primary sources, like the Queen’s letters, are indispensable for creating a living portrait.

So much of what people think they know about Henrietta Maria has been filtered secondhand through multiple writers, some of whom view her as a frothy but tiresome fanatic who led her husband into ruin. This is often accompanied by the perception of the Queen as a dangerous seductress, who used her French wiles in the boudoir to subject Charles to her will. 

And others decide that Charles was not enough for her but she had lovers such as Henry Jermyn who actually told her what to do, while fathering her children. Just as her enemies called her the “popish brat of France,” she has been portrayed erroneously either as a sex fiend soaked with crazed religiosity, or as a shy, pious pawn. (Read more.)

Novel available HERE.

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"A Lush, Passionate Portrait"

  From BookLife:

In the first of her Henrietta of France trilogy, Vidal (Marie-Antoinette, Daughter of the Caesars) paints a lush, passionate portrait of the life of Henriette-Marie, a seventeenth century French princess descended from the Bourbons and Medicis. Wed to King Charles I of England at the tender age of fifteen, Henriette is determined to bring Catholicism back to England, despite her Protestant husband and the country’s “hatred of Catholicism.” Often buffeted by political and social forces beyond her control, Henriette, known in England as Queen Mary, faces the challenges she encounters with the courage and resolve that she draws from her deep Catholic faith.

Firmly grounded in real historical events and settings, Vidal breathes life into Henriette’s era through extensive, evocative descriptions of its clothing, food, and palaces. This attention to detail offers a tantalizing immersion in this royal world, from the elaborately-costumed “masques” she and courtiers create to entertain the King at holiday celebrations to her beloved spaniel, Hebe. Vidal also illustrates the complexity of royal life through her careful elaboration of the complicated web of marriages, kinships, and associations. Some readers will be overwhelmed by the many branches of the royal family tree, but the text’s clear exposition and strong narrative arc offer clarity and guidance.

Vidal highlights the most important characters through her vivid depiction of their personalities and motivations. Antagonist George Villiers, the Duke of Buckingham, creates a true sense of menace as he threatens Henriette and works to disempower her. Although she is pure and steadfast in her intentions, Henriette’s struggles to balance her devotion to her husband and to her faith will earn readers’ respect and sympathy, even if they do not share her allegiance to the Catholic church. Offering insight into the passions behind the protocols, My Queen, My Love infuses these historical figures with humanity.

Takeaway: Readers of historical fiction will appreciate the depth and nuance Vidal brings to this often overlooked historical figure. (Read more.)

"Elena Maria Vidal brings history to life again with the story of Queen Henriette Marie, complete with an unlikely but true love story of the Queen and King Charles I of England, a formidable personal enemy in the menacing Duke of Buckingham, lots of well-researched period details, and the matters of Christian faith behind many of the conflicts. An antidote to the Whiggish story that is often passed off as history in America, with its anti-monarchical bias. Though Henriette Marie is not nearly as well known as another maligned consort, Marie Antoinette, Americans should learn her story because, coming after Jamestown's founding, she was their queen." —John Beeler, A Conservative Blog for Peace

 

Available HERE.

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Henrietta Maria: Number One Lawbreaker

Henrietta Maria holding a butterfly

 My guest post at an amazing site called Novels Alive.

In the lone tent, waiting for victory,
She stands with eyes marred by the mists of pain,
Like some wan lily overdrenched with rain:
The clamorous clang of arms, the ensanguined sky,
War’s ruin, and the wreck of chivalry
To her proud soul no common fear can bring:
Bravely she tarrieth for her Lord the King,
Her soul a-flame with passionate ecstasy.
~from “Henrietta Maria” by Oscar Wilde

Henriette-Marie of France, or “Henrietta Maria,” is the protagonist of my new novel My Queen, My Love (Mayapple Books, November 25, 2021), the first of the Henrietta of France Trilogy. It is the story of the fifteen-year-old princess Henriette-Marie who is mandated by the Pope and by her brother the King of France to convert the English back to Catholicism by marrying their King, Charles I. Meanwhile, the Catholic Faith is outlawed in the British Isles, so as Queen she becomes the number one lawbreaker. The powerful Duke of Buckingham tries to thwart her growing influence with her husband. And England has become known as a place where queens lose their heads. 

[...]

As Regent, Queen Marie chose to avoid war by making peace with the other Catholic powers of Spain and the Holy Roman Empire. She believed that Catholic monarchies should unite to keep Protestantism at bay. She sent her youngest daughter Henriette to marry in England because she believed there was a chance of bringing Charles I into Catholicism. So at fifteen years old Henriette-Marie aka Henrietta Maria was sent to marry Charles Stuart, who was a decade or so older. The royal couple initially clashed over culture and religion. They quarreled whenever together and so avoided each other for weeks at a time. When they finally did fall in love, theirs became one of the most devoted in the history of royal marriages, and was blessed with nine children. (Read more.)

A review from Gwendalyn's Books:

Henrietta is one to root for as we see the very young bride overcome so many obstacles. Particularly because she is a devout Catholic, and by the actions of the villainess character, George Villiers.

The author take great care to include a vast amount of characters, which made for a more rewarding read for me. A book to catapult its readers into the turbulent era of England in the 1600’s. From the beginning I was hooked and read this one in a day.

Historical fiction at its finest. This was an exceptional portrait of a the wife of Charles I. Brought stunningly to life, with seamless narration and three dimensional characters, a true treasure piece of historical fiction.

E.M. Vidal meticulous research and descriptive writing, has brought one of England’s most tragic queens, Henrietta Maria, vividly to life. (Read more.)

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Childhood of Mary Stuart

From English Historical Fiction Writers: 

Although historians often cast the dismissal of her playmates in a harsh light, Poissy was only a few miles from Saint Germain.  The Four Maries often visited the palace on weekends and holidays. They had not been exiled to an austere convent in a backwater location. The convent school at Saint Louis Priory provided a high-quality liberal education to its aristocratic students. Even religious policies were flexible to a degree. Marie Livingston, whose family embraced the new learning, was encouraged but not forced to attend Mass. By the time the Four Maries reached puberty, they were well educated and highly polished French girls, ready to be integrated into the life at the French court.  Nevertheless, their place in the life of the Queen had been taken by the Princesses Elisabeth and Claude, and their brother Francois, the Dauphin.

By the time she was eleven, the Queen of Scots might well have been homesick for her mother, but there is no reason to think she missed or even remembered the land of which she was sovereign. (Read more.)

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Deeply Moving Story That Brings History to Life

 

A review of Generalissima from "Silver Rose":

I had previously read the first volume of this trilogy a few years ago and was captivated by the romance of King Charles I and Queen Henriette-Marie. In Book 2, they spend more time apart, but it remains romantic, leading to very poignant and memorable moments when either reuniting, departing, or, for example, attempting to read one another's encoded letters with frustration and yearning. Overall, there is much more focus on their children also in this novel. Elena Maria Vidal's superpower is her ability to vividly depict characters based on real-life historical figures so that your emotional investment and curiosity lead you to look them up. After doing so in some cases before finishing GENERALISSIMA, I actually ended up noticing foreshadowing when returning to the book. (Of course, it may be more prudent to wait to avoid spoilers. ;) ) There are other key figures that likewise warranted that Google search, among them Jeffrey the Dwarf. He had a unique personality, but I found myself intrigued in general:

While referring to their short stature rather than any sort of fantasy context, the mention of dwarfs—and even, while not seen, a giant—allowed, when coupled with beautifully lyrical references to Arthurian legend, a splash of a fairy-tale essence amidst a grittier plot. That isn't to say that fairy tales are without danger or the real within the fantastical, for they are, but, rather, that the overall tone is different here and more intense than in the first book. Nevertheless, beauty, love, and faith shine through, and there are moments of joy and Light. There is a dance scene set to "Greensleeves" that may be envisioned as one of merry yet almost ethereal times past. There are moments of prayer and Confession in even the most dismal of circumstances. While I don't wish to give spoilers, I must also mention a particular scene on the beach that is stirring in its mixture of intensity, hope, and, in other respects, overwhelming emotion. The courage of the principal characters is truly noteworthy. Of course, it is quite a moment when the title of the book comes into play. (Read more.)

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The Many Marriages of Bess of Hardwick

  

From History...the Interesting Bits:

Bess was born around 1527, one of four daughters and a son born to John Hardwick of Hardwick, Derbyshire. It was a moderately prosperous gentry family. When her father died in 1528, When her father died in 1528, most of the family lands were taken into royal wardship until her brother James came of age. Bess’s mother, Elizabeth Leeke, remarried around 1529, to Ralph Leche of nearby Chatsworth, and had three more children, stretching the family finances even tighter. Leche’s constant problems with money meant that Leche spent the years from 1538 to 1544 in the Fleet Prison for debt and in 1545 he was committed to the debtors’ prison in Derby

With no dowry to attract a husband, 11-year-old Bess was sent into service in the household of Sir George and Lady Anne Zouche of Codnor Castle, a neighbouring family. Lady Zouche was a distant cousin of both of Bess’s parents and a friend and lady-in-waiting to Queen Anne Boleyn; following the queen’s downfall, she served her successor, Jane Seymour. Sir George was a gentleman pensioner to the king. It was in this household that Bess would have learned the ways of the aristocracy, whilst acting as a lady-in-waiting. Bess would have also made connections with various families through the other young people of the household.

It was while she was living in the Zouche’s household that Bess met her first husband, Robert Barlow. The Barlows were acquainted with Bess’s stepfather, who was owed money on a land deal by Robert’s father, Arthur Barlow. It may well be that Arthur offered his oldest son and heir in marriage to Bess, with the amount owing from the court case written off in lieu of Bess’s dowry. Bess and Robert were married in the spring of 1543, with Bess being about fifteen and Robert a couple of months short of his fourteenth birthday.

The marriage was short-lived and possibly unconsummated, given their ages. Robert fell ill and died within eighteen months of their wedding day, on Christmas Eve 1544. When Bess applied to the Barlows for her widow’s dower, one-third of the income in rents and revenues from her husband’s estates, she was refused and a lengthy court battle ensued. A settlement was finally in 1546. It did not make her rich, but the annual income of £30 gave Bess a measure of independence when she was only 17 years of age. (Read more.)

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Mary Henrietta of England

The daughter of Charles I and mother of William III.

Wishing to imitate the French tradition of the firstborn daughter of the King being known as Madame Royale, the French-born Queen consort wanted to do something similar for her own daughter. So, in 1642 King Charles I gave Princess Mary the title of Princess Royal, establishing a new tradition in the British Royal Family. Even as a tiny child, the new Princess Royal was immediately the center of marriage negotiations. Originally, King Charles had wished his daughter to marry into the Spanish Royal Family to secure a long-lasting alliance between Britain and Spain. His own father had tried to see him married to a Spanish princess as King James had hoped that Britain could act as the great peace-maker between the Catholic and Protestant powers as the wars between the two sides were tearing Europe apart. This was a long-standing ambition of the House of Stuart, to emerge as the monarchy that restored peace, if not unity, to Christendom. (Read entire post.)

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The Spell of Posey Rings

Mary of Great Britain and Ireland

From Country Life:

Gold rings with poesies (‘little poems’) — poésie being the Old French for ‘poetry’ — quickly became the single most popular type of jewellery in the country. They were exchanged by lovers, would-be lovers, family members and best friends, but their most common use was as a betrothal or wedding ring. Henry VIII gave a posy ring to Anne of Cleves inscribed: ‘God send me well to kepe.’ William of Orange gave one to Princess Mary inscribed: ‘I’le win and wear you if I can.’ Jewellers used to keep a stock of blank rings, and booksellers promoted inspirational handbooks, such as Loves Garland or Poſies for Rings, which was published in 1624.

I was still in my teens when a friend of my mother’s showed me his collection of posy rings. I was transfixed by their beauty — the soft, almost pure yellow gold, the finely wrought decoration (flowers, leaves, hearts and other symbols) and the elegant script, but what really fascinated me were the inscriptions. ‘I like my choyce.’ ‘True love appears/In midst of tears.’ ‘God has brought to pass that which unlikely was.’ It was as if I were listening to the voices of the long-dead givers and receivers. 

The physical appearance of posy rings changed over time. Lombardic script was replaced by Gothic script, which, in turn, gave way to Roman capitals and then italics. Earlier rings carried much more decoration, too. Niello — a hard black paste — was used to fill in the letters and the costlier rings were enamelled in bright colours. The language of courtly love was, of course, Norman French (‘sans de partier’ or ‘without parting’) although some poesies were in Latin (‘Non Auri Sed Amor’ or ‘not gold but love’) and others in a sort of proto-franglais (‘Autre ne wile and evere you best’, which hardly needs translating). Later, they were almost all in English. (Read more.)

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The Execution of Mary Queen of Scots

February 8 is the anniversary of the execution of Mary Stuart in 1587. The Queen of Scots, having been unjustly imprisoned by her cousin Queen Elizabeth of England for twenty years, was beheaded after a sham trial. According to an eye-witness account:

Then she, being stripped of all her apparel saving her petticoat and kirtle, her two women beholding her made great lamentation, and crying and crossing themselves prayed in Latin. She, turning herself to them, embracing them, said these words in French, 'Ne crie vous, j'ay prome pour vous', and so crossing and kissing them, bad them pray for her and rejoice and not weep, for that now they should see an end of all their mistress's troubles.

Then she, with a smiling countenance, turning to her men servants, as Melvin and the rest, standing upon a bench nigh the scaffold, who sometime weeping, sometime crying out aloud, and continually crossing themselves, prayed in Latin, crossing them with her hand bade them farewell, and wishing them to pray for her even until the last hour.

This done, one of the women have a Corpus Christi cloth lapped up three-corner-ways, kissing it, put it over the Queen of Scots' face, and pinned it fast to the caule of her head. Then the two women departed from her, and she kneeling down upon the cushion most resolutely, and without any token or fear of death, she spake aloud this Psalm in Latin, In Te Domine confido, non confundar in eternam, etc. Then, groping for the block, she laid down her head, putting her chin over the block with both her hands, which, holding there still, had been cut off had they not been espied. Then lying upon the block most quietly, and stretching out her arms cried, In manus tuas, Domine, etc., three or four times. Then she, lying very still upon the block, one of the executioners holding her slightly with one of his hands, she endured two strokes of the other executioner with an axe, she making very small noise or none at all, and not stirring any part of her from the place where she lay: and so the executioner cut off her head, saving one little gristle, which being cut asunder, he lift up her head to the view of all the assembly and bade God save the Queen. Then, her dress of lawn [i.e. wig] from off her head, it appeared as grey as one of threescore and ten years old, polled very short, her face in a moment being so much altered from the form she had when she was alive, as few could remember her by her dead face. Her lips stirred up and a down a quarter of an hour after her head was cut off.

There is a great deal of similarity between Mary of Scotland and her descendant, Marie-Antoinette. Both possessed immense beauty, charm, and joie de vivre, along with the ability of inspiring either great love or great hatred. Both are icons of romance and passion, when, in all probability, they had very little actual romance or passion in their personal lives, especially when compared to the sorrows they had to bear. Mary and her first husband, Francis II of France, seemed to have a deep and genuine affection for each other, in spite of the fact that he was afflicted with health problems (like many of the Valois.) Her other two husbands, however, were total and complete wretches, who made Mary's life a living hell. Antonia Fraser, in her stellar biography of Mary, conjectures that the Scottish queen fell in love with her cousin Darnley, before she found out what he was. Other biographers, such as Alison Weir and John Guy, believe that she married Darnley not out of love but to solidify her claim to the English throne, since Henry Stewart was also an heir. At any rate, Darnley was abusive in every way, and unfaithful. He plotted against her, threatening to declare her child illegitimate, telling the Pope and the King of France that she was a bad Catholic, while participating in the murder of her secretary David Rizzio before her eyes. (I might have been tempted to put gun powder under his bed, too.) However, there is overwhelming proof that Mary had nothing to do with Darnley's death, as Fraser, Guy, and Weir all describe in detail. I would especially recommend Alison Weir's excellent Mary Queen of Scots and the Murder of Lord Darnley, in which the events of Kirk o'Field are retraced with precision, exonerating Mary beyond all doubt. Weir shows how Mary was planning to reconcile with Darnley and live with him again, for their son's sake, when the Scottish lords had Darnley strangled, before blowing up his house. As for the marriage with Bothwell, all three biographers mentioned above believe that Mary was kidnapped and raped by him; when she discovered that she was pregnant she assented to a wedding. There was no great romance. She later tried to have the marriage annulled. 

 

 Mary should have returned to France after the defeat at Carberry Hill and her subsequent escape from her initial captivity. In France, she had lands as Dowager Queen, and her grandmother was still alive. Instead, she chose England and throwing herself upon Elizabeth's mercy. Big mistake. But I think she did not want to be too far from her infant son James, with whom she hoped to be reunited, as only a mother can hope. Mary, like Marie-Antoinette, is often dismissed as being stupid. She did make some imprudent choices, that's for certain. John Guy's biography carefully offers proofs that, in spite of everything, Mary often showed herself to be an astute politician, who successfully played her enemies against each other, avoiding some potential disasters early in her rule. The fact that her personal reign lasted as long as it did, in the turbulent era of the Scottish Reformation, when she was surrounded by those who believed she was Jezebel just because she was Catholic, is remarkable. She would have had to have been more ruthless and cruel, less merciful and tolerant, to have been a successful monarch in that particular time and place. Her abdication, and many of the disastrous decisions she made in those fateful months, happened when she was recovering from assault and a miscarriage/stillbirth. She was obviously going through some kind of breakdown. Almost half of Mary's life was spent as a prisoner, separated from her only surviving child, who was taught to despise his mother as a harlot. When accused of plotting Elizabeth's murder, forged letters were used against her, and she was deprived of counsel. As she declared at her trial:

I do not recognize the laws of England nor do I understand them, as I have often asserted. I am alone without counsel or anyone to speak on my behalf. My papers and notes have been taken from me, so that I am destitute of all aid, taken at a disadvantage.

Before her execution, Mary was told that her life would be the death of the Protestant religion, but her death would be its life. The ultimate reason for her demise was the fact that she was a Catholic queen. With that in mind, she approached the scaffold.

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"Dramatic and Compelling"

 

From the Historical Novel Society:

Generalissima is the second volume in Vidal’s trilogy on Queen Henrietta Maria, wife of King Charles I of England and sister to Louis XIII of France. This installment traces her life from the unrest that sparked the civil wars of the Three Kingdoms to her dramatic flight to France in 1644.

The novel is divided into two parts. The first centres on the queen’s twin obsessions: converting Charles and their family to Roman Catholicism and preventing the marriage of their eldest daughter to the Prince of Orange. But as the Puritans gain strength, Charles refuses decisive action and Henrietta departs with their older children, carrying her jewels and valuables to sell for arms and munitions in Europe. The second part follows Henrietta in her role as Generalissima, revealing a resolve and strategic boldness that Charles lacks. She is willing to take the risks that might have preserved the monarchy, yet as a French, Catholic woman, she is not heeded. By 1644, after a series of dramatic events, the stage is set for the trilogy’s final volume. (Read more.)

 

Generalissima available, HERE.

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Execution of Charles I

From author Grace Elliot:

He conducted himself with composure and gave his cloak to Dr Juxon, the Bishop of London, saying,“I go from to corruptible to an incorruptible crown where no disturbance can be.” He lay full length, placed his head on a low block and with one strike the executioner severed his head from his body.When he died a great groan went through the crowd.“Such a groan by thousands then present, as I never heard before and I desire I may never hear again.” (Read more.)

More HERE. 

On Charles' widow, HERE. My novel on the royal couple, HERE. Share

Pius VI: Quare Lacrymae

Louis XVI by Johann Heinrich Schmidt

The Sovereign Pontiff explains why both Louis XVI and his ancestress Mary Queen of Scots can be considered Catholic martyrs, for ultimately they were killed out of hatred for the Faith. From The Josias:

Quare Lacrymae is mainly concerned with showing that King Louis XVI’s death was a martyrdom. Pius VI can appeal to Louis XVI’s moving last will and testament, but in order to prove the point he has to show that the cause of his death was odium fidei. In order to prove this, Pope Pius argues that the main thrust of the revolution was against the Catholic religion. In the course of his argument he makes a bold claim about the connection between Calvinism and Enlightenment philosophy—anticipating in certain respects recent arguments by the likes of Brad Gregory. (Read more.)

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"Generalissima"--Queen Henrietta Maria and the English Civil War

From author Stephanie Mann:

This is the second volume in a trilogy of historical novels about Queen Henrietta Maria, the wife of King Charles I; mother of Kings Charles II and James II and therefore grandmother of the Old Pretender and great-grandmother of the Young Pretender and the Cardinal Pretender.

In this book the author traces the lives of the Queen and her family from 1640 to 1644, from the Royal palaces of Saint James, Wimbledon, Whitehall, Hampton Court, to The Hague in the Netherlands, the battlefields of the English Civil War, through betrayals--especially by Lucy Fairfax, one of her ladies-in-waiting--and attacks on Henriette (as she is called throughout the book) because she is a Catholic; storms and battles at sea, the death of her mother, pregnancies, separations, her efforts and love for her husband and her disappointments that he has not always fulfilled the promises of their marriage contract, times in York, Oxford, Cornwall, and France!

Throughout all these conflicts, dangers, and adventures, Vidal's narration, use of dialogue, and description are vivid, personal, and often poignant. (Read more.)

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