Uncovering the Death of Owen Tudor

by Tony Riches

In this post I’d like to focus on the legends surrounding Owen Tudor’s death. For once, we can pinpoint his location at a specific date and time, as his defeat by the forces of Edward IV at the Battle of Mortimer’s cross is well documented. While his son Jasper Tudor managed to escape, Owen was taken prisoner and marched to the nearby market town of Hereford. Probably the most reliable account is in The Chronicle of William Gregory, written soon after the event:

Ande in that jornay was Owyn Tetyr i-take and brought unto Herforde este, an he was be heddyde at the market place, and hys hedde sette a-pone the hygheyste gryce of the market crosse, and a madde woman kembyd hys here and wysche a way the blode of hys face, and she gate candellys and sette a-boute hym brennynge, moo then a C. Thys Owyne Tytyr was fadyr unto the Erle of Penbroke, and hadde weddyd Quene Kateryn, Kyng Harry the VI. ys modyr, wenyng and trustyng all eway that he shulde not be hedyd tylle he sawe the axe and the blocke, and whenn that he was in hys dobelet he trustyd on pardon and grace tylle the coler of hys redde vellvet dobbelet was ryppyd of. Then he sayde, "That hede shalle ly on the stocke that was wonte to ly on Quene Kateryns lappe," and put hys herte and mynde holy unto God, and fulle mekely toke hys dethe.

(Source: British History Online)

There are some intriguing details here, notably the non-linear structure, which we can learn from as we try to envisage the scene. Gregory suggests that right until the end, Owen believed he would be spared. When the collar of his red velvet doublet was ripped off it seems he realised there would be no last minute pardon and submitted to the inevitable and ‘fully meekly took his death.’ The most memorable imagery is of the ‘mad woman’ who combed the hair of his severed head and washed the blood from his face before surrounding it with lit candles. It is not difficult to see her instead as a grieving lover, or at least someone who wished, for whatever reason, for Owen’s body to be shown some respect after his death, despite Edward’s order for his head to be put on public display.

Was the story embellished in the retelling? Gregory was not present, so would have had to rely on secondary sources, and for me, the detail of Owen’s last words seems fanciful. This short account does offer a glimpse into Owen’s character, however. It seems he places more trust in his captors than he should – perhaps because of his royal connections? Sadly he had underestimated the vengeful young Edward IV, whose own father had not been shown any mercy when captured two months before, his severed head displayed on a pike over the Micklegate Bar at York.

Owen was buried in the chapel of the Greyfriars Church in Hereford, later pulled down after the Dissolution of the Monasteries. A plaque marks the spot of his execution in Hereford High Street, his only memorial. I would like to remember Owen, not as a victim of the Wars of the Roses, but as an adventurer, a risk-taker, a man who lived his life to the full and made his mark on the world through his descendants.

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Tony Riches is a UK historical fiction author living in Pembrokeshire, Wales. You can find out more on Tony’s blog ‘The Writing Desk’ at www.tonyriches.co.uk and find him on Twitter @tonyriches.

Owen – Book One of the Tudor Trilogy is now available in eBook and paperback on Amazon and all formats on Smashwords.

The Medieval Irish Religious Women's Community

by Kristin Gleeson

Women religious communities in early Christian Ireland were of a slightly different nature than the nunneries founded across Europe and Britain in the same time period and perhaps more prolific in number as a result.

The basis of women’s religious communities in Ireland was founded on the key concept of kinship and marriage and influenced the relationship to their male religious. The religious women operated as surrogate wives, mothers, and sisters or were directly kinswomen to individual monks.

They performed the same tasks, except reproduction, as secular women. The nuns would be responsible for the men’s clothing, obtaining the wool, weaving the cloth and making the clothes, sometimes embroidering them as well as washing them. They cooked and baked and laboured to feed the men like any good wife. They also fostered young boys, giving them an elementary education before they moved onto the higher learning in the men’s community. The women also provided the friendly companionship found in any community.

In return the religious women expected a partnership in which they paid for what they received, offering their communities and estates in clientage to male religious authorities. Their settlements and communities joined others in a network of subordination and rule. A very few venerable women gained authority and fame like St Bridget, St Ita and a few others. With very few exceptions like Cil Dara (Kildare where St Bridget had her community) very few women’s or genuinely mixed-sex communities (as opposed to men’s communities with separate enclosures or related settlements for women) claimed authority over men’s communities.

It wasn’t unusual to have actual kinship relationships between the men’s and women’s community. A mother might live with her daughters in a religious community adjacent to her son’s. Property laws often influenced that arrangement. A woman might have her own parcel of land as a bride gift from her tuath (extended family/clan), and she would choose to use that to establish a religious community later in life. When she and her kin died, however, the property reverted back to the tuath and the community would dissolve in this situation.

My latest novel took me to the fascinating world of 6th century Ireland in which a woman with appalling wounds and no memory is taken to a religious community of women to recover while around her a political storm is being waged. The novel weaves in the powerful story of St Gobnait, the patron saint of bees and of the community in which I live. There are many legends and traditions surrounding St Gobnait who came to Ballyvourney, probably around the late 6th or early 7th century and established a community of religious women after seeing nine white deer.

During the course of her life in Gort na Tiobratan St Gobnait became known for her healing, using the honey the bees produced. She also performed many miracles, including sending a swarm of bees after cattle rustlers, throwing a bulla or heavy ball to raze a stone structure built by intruders, and catching the gadai dubh, the robber who tried to steal her horse and the stone mason’s tools (the robber’s image is inscribed on a stone in the church ruins at St Gobnait’s shrine).

Unlike many of the other women’s religious communities in Ireland St Gobnait’s community was established independently of any kinship ties and the community continued after her death, at least until the late middle ages. The site was recognized by the Pope in the late 13th century as place of devotion and healing, and the power and reverence given to the site of her burial and the community is still recognized today. A late medieval wooden statue of St Gobnait is displayed in the church on her feast day in February, and the parishioners visit and ‘take her measure,’ wrapping a ribbon around her breadth and length. The ribbon is kept or given to someone who is sick. And many people come from all over to recite prayers in a stipulated pattern of ‘rounds’ to ask for healing for themselves or for others. In these ways and others the site that once held this community of women still lives on.

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Originally from Philadelphia, Kristin Gleeson lives in Ireland, in the West Cork Gaeltacht, where she teaches art classes, plays harp, sings in an Irish choir and runs two book clubs for the village library.
She holds a Masters in Library Science and a Ph.D. in history, and for a time was an administrator of a national archives, library and museum in America.
    Kristin is also a part of Famelton Writing Services giving manuscript critiques, copyediting, proofreading and other services for writers.
For more information go to: http://www.fameltonwritingservices.com

My Website
Book links:
http://hyperurl.co/reuo9u
https://store.kobobooks.com/search?Query=In+Praise+of+the+Bees

Giveaway: Mercenary by R.J. Connor

R.J. Connor is giving away a print copy of Mercenary. You can read about the book HERE. Please leave a comment on this post to enter the drawing, and be sure to leave your contact information.

Abbots and Kings – A brief history of West Hertfordshire

by R.J. Connor

St. Alban's Abbey

Hertfordshire has a rich history that stretches back thousands of years. It is no surprise considering its links to the capital. But despite its closeness with London, the county boasts an abundance of beautiful countryside. So it can be said, Herts has seen the best of both worlds. Among its jewels are an array of monasteries, castles and palaces, an abbey and even a town built by Templar Knights.

In past times, Hertfordshire was considered a gateway to the north. One of the main Roman roads passed through Hertfordshire. Starting in London, it enters the county to the west, passing through Bushey and Watford before entering the Chiltern Hills. Two important destinations lie on this road north, the first being Kings Langley Palace just to the south of the Hills and the second Berkhampstead Castle, nestled in the Hills themselves.

The palace was built by Queen Elinor wife of Edward I, the self-proclaimed 'Hammer of the Scots'. It was built on top, or around, what was an existing manor house that had been built many years before, probably dating back to the Roman times. Nothing of the palace remains today except a lone building that belonged to Kings Langley Priory. The priory was built by Edward II who grew up in Kings Langley in the gardens of the palace. It is here that he reburied his favourite, Piers Gaveston, who was executed on Blacklow Hill in 1312. His son Edward III moved his court there in 1349 when the Black Death was rife in London, and his son Edmund of Langley was born there; Edmund's body was later entombed in the Langley chapel at the church of All Saints situated at the bottom of the Hill.

Berkhampstead Castle

If Hertfordshire was a gateway, than Berkhampstead Castle was the key. This Norman motte and bailey castle was built by William the Conqueror, who considered it a strategic location after his victory at the Battle of Hastings. It was here that the Archbishop of York surrendered to him, and it was not long before it became the country’s administrative centre. Several Kings lived here, with many passing it on to their chancellors, and Edward III gave it to his son, the famed Black Prince. It was besieged by the French who later captured it during the Baronial wars in the reign of King John. But it was soon retaken by royal forces. The castle was known for its expansive hunting grounds.

To the east of the Roman road lied St Albans, a town dependent on its abbey, which has since received cathedral status. The abbey was built by the Normans on top of an earlier Saxon church which was destroyed in 586 and held a shrine and the remains of the great Roman martyr St Alban. The site is believed to be the spot where Alban was executed. The abbey has changed much over the years from a Norman to gothic style and has seen in its time 40 different abbots, the last of which was in 1539 when Henry VIII brought about the dissolution of the monasteries. But despite its unceremonious downfall, at its height the lands belonging to the abbey far outstretched that of its own borders and most of the Hundred of Cashio belonged to the abbey.

Kings Langley Priory

The Liberty of St Albans, as the abbots’ land was often referred to, held the laws and customs of any other independent state and was for greater purposes a county within a county. In fact all we need do is look at the village of Langley. Split in two long ago, the west side of the village became known as Kings Langley, thanks to the presence of the royal palace. The east side however, which fell into the domain of the abbot, became known as Abbots Langley. So much was the rivalry between king and abbot that both had churches built facing each other on adjacent hills.

Despite this dual of ecclesiastical and royal power, the county seat of Hertfordshire, the town of Hertford, actually lay to the east of the shire. It had its own castle, but it was very rare that an earl of Hertford would reside here. In truth the Earl of Hertford was usually a subsidiary title for other earls, including at times the earls of Essex. But with half the land belonging to church and palace, there wasn’t much left for the earl. It was common knowledge where the power in Hertfordshire lay, and since the time of the Normans, it was reserved for abbots and kings.

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R.J. Connor is a researcher, writer and historian. He has a degree in Writing Contemporary Fiction which he obtained from Southampton Solent University and since his graduation, he has spent his time writing Historical Fiction. He has a sincere fondness for all things historical but what really enchants him is the barbaric yet romantic period known as the Middle Ages. He is the author of the medieval fiction novel Mercenary, and he lives in Hertfordshire, UK


Richard Longsword is a Mercenary, but this time it’s not for money, this time it’s for revenge.

By day he works the desolate orange groves but by night he is in the paid servitude of the Grand Duke of Gandia, serving as captain of the Guardians of Guadalest, an elite group of warrior knights who defend the fortress of Guadalest.

When the fort is attacked by men who claim to be enemies of Richard's father, it threatens to spiral into a whirlwind of events that will change his life forever. He is left with no choice but to embark on a perilous journey to not only uncover the truth but to save the lives of his family.

A tale of love, loss and ultimate betrayal.

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Double Cream & Strychnine

by A.J.Griffiths-Jones

Courtesy of Wellcome Images
Creative Commons

Strychnine. A colourless, highly toxic, bitter crystalline alkaloid most commonly used as a pesticide for killing rodents.

However, in the late 19th and early 20th century, this potentially fatal poison was used by those in search of a recreational stimulant and became popular amongst men seeking a drug that would both invigorate them and calm the nervous system. It was added to tonics and remedies across Europe and America, gaining a reputation for aiding neurological disorders and acute constipation. It was also known to remedy alcohol poisoning. However, there was a much more sinister use for strychnine, one that would etch it's memory upon the criminal court cases for decades to come. That of lethal poison for the seasoned murderer.

To understand how one might subdue a victim with a dose of strychnine, we must first understand what it is. The most common source of strychnine comes from small seeds, obtained from the 'Strychnos Nux Vomica' tree. It can be introduced into the body orally or may be administered by injection. It is a bitter substance to the taste buds, therefore was most commonly dispensed by mixing with some sweet tasting liquid or by concealment inside a capsule. The subsequent poisoning results in muscular convulsions and a torturous progression of symptoms, causing a long and agonising death, in some cases lasting up to two hours. The victim may first present with nausea or vomiting, which is closely followed by convulsions caused by the muscles contorting in a series of spasms. The facial features would become rigid, set in a grimace, and frothing at the mouth would occur. Eventually the victim would die of asphyxiation as the muscles in the stomach and throat inhibited breathing. To imagine the severity of such a prolonged and harrowing death, must cause one to wonder at the mind of a criminal who would choose such a drug as their 'Modus Operandi'.

Our first strychnine murderer was Christina Edmunds, the daughter of a well-known architect, from Margate, England. Edmunds was known simply as the 'Chocolate Cream Poisoner', due to her chosen method of concealing the strychnine. The second criminal that we will look at is Dr. Thomas Neill Cream, a medical man of Scottish-Canadian origins, who earned himself the moniker 'The Lambeth Poisoner" after the area of London in which he sought his prey.

Both criminals opted to use the same lethal toxin to eliminate their victims, but methods of administration and motive were far from comparable. Edmunds was an amateur poisoner, unsure of dosage and effects, whilst Dr. Cream had been using carefully measured doses of strychnine in both his personal and professional life for many years. However, the instigating factor in the cases of Edmunds and Cream was that their criminal activities began with the intention of poisoning just one victim but then escalated into a killing spree, resulting in both murderers receiving the death penalty. Additionally, in each circumstance, adultery was a key factor.

Christina Edmunds began her villainous career in the summer of 1870 by attempting to poison the wife of her lover, Doctor Charles Beard, by lacing a box of chocolates with doses of strychnine. It is reported that the affair was extremely one-sided and that Dr.Beard, not reciprocating Edmunds’ feelings, tried to end the relationship, which then resulted in the woman trying to do away with his wife. Unfortunately for Edmunds, the lady became violently ill but eventually recovered and therefore the cause of her sickness was not immediately discovered.

 In a similar tryst, over a decade later in Chicago, Illinois, Dr. Thomas Neill Cream wrote the prescription for an epilepsy tonic which was in turn administered by his lover to her elderly husband. The ensuing trial of both parties resulted in Julia Stott, Cream's paramour, turning state's evidence which guaranteed her acquittal whilst Cream languished in Joliet State Penitentiary for the next ten years. Eventually his sentence was commuted, after much petitioning, but by the time he was released in July 1891, Julia Stott was nowhere to be found.

Several months after her unsuccessful attempt to eliminate Mrs. Beard, Christina Edmunds began buying boxes of chocolate creams, which she took home and laced with strychnine, afterwards returning them to the shop for unwitting customers to purchase. She then began sending parcels of the confectionery to prominent people, including Mrs. Beard, which in turn caused the police to connect the large number of illnesses with the chocolate gifts. Naturally, the local shopkeeper became suspicious of the quantity of chocolates that Edmunds was buying, forcing her to travel to different vendors to avoid detection. Although only one death by strychnine poisoning was recorded, four-year old Sidney Barker, Edmunds was arrested and not only charged with his murder but also the attempted murder of Mrs. Beard. It seems that in hindsight, Doctor Beard had eventually informed the authorities of his suspicions.

In Cream's case, a decade spent inside Joliet did nothing but fuel his desire for retribution and after a brief detour to collect a rather healthy inheritance left to him by his father, he boarded a passenger ship to England where he would spend the next twelve months on a poisoning spree. Whereas we have seen that Edmunds was perhaps incited to act upon her instincts as a woman scorned, Cream's motives for vengeance were interspersed with the gradual onset of syphillis, which had become a constant source of debilitation during his incarceration. Both felons suffered varying degrees of insanity, however the causes were dissimilar. At Christina Edmunds' trial her mother testified that both sides of their family had a history of mental illness and this attributed to her original sentence of death being substituted with a life sentence in Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum.

Dr. Thomas Neill Cream had suffered a decade of nightmares, migraines and drug withdrawal symptoms during his years behind bars and, coupled with his desire to seek revenge upon womankind, had spent his entire sentence plotting how and to whom he would administer his lethal concoction. Initially he administered the strychnine together with a white liquid mixture of brocine, telling his victims that the tonic would help to clear up pimpled skin and give them a healthier complexion. However, after the girls complained that the medicine was too bitter, Cream ordered a box of gelatin capsules from a local chemist in which to mask the taste of the poison and make it more palatable.

Dr. Cream chose his London victims carefully; they were all streetwalkers living within the Lambeth area, a place that Cream knew well should he need to flee to his lodging house or lose the trail of ensuing police officers. In the case of each victim, Cream waited for opportunity to present itself and prepared the drugs in advance, whereas Christina Edmunds was actually unaware of the number of people she had poisoned until the time of her arrest.

Both criminals only ceased their toxic misdemeanors when they were arrested and charged. We can therefore assume that without the timely intervention of law enforcement, there may have been many more victims for both Edmunds and Cream.

Cream was tried and hanged at Newgate in November 1892, while Edmunds lived on inside Broadmoor until 1907.

It is worth noting that the hangman, James Billington, swore to his dying day that Cream confessed to being the notorious ‘Jack the Ripper’ as he stood upon the gallows. However, there is little evidence to prove the likelihood of this.

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For further reading on Cream, the author of this article has released a book named Prisoner 4374, an autobiographical account of the Lambeth Poisoner.

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Publisher's Site

Famous Redheads in History

by Jeanna Ellsworth

I just released Inspired by Grace in May, where the main character, Grace, is a redhead. Many of us have predisposed opinions of typical personality traits of redheads. Many would say that redheads are smart, strong-willed, defiant, tender-hearted, loud, and a lot of fun! I decided to do some research in famous redheads in history and I was surprised to find out that many of these people really influenced history. With such a strong impact on history, it makes me wonder if there really is something that makes a redhead touch the lives of those around them. Here are twelve famous redheads in history.

Judas Iscariot - One of the twelve apostles to Jesus Christ who betrayed him and handed him over to the Romans for 30 pieces of silver. Judas betrayal set in motion the crucifixion and therefor the salvation of man.

Napoleon Bonaparte (1761-1829) A French politician and military figure who led the French Revolution until he was defeated in 1815. His campaigns are studied worldwide, and he is still celebrated as a controversial political and military figure.

Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658) An English military man who mounted a brutal campaign to subdue the Irish. He was nicknamed “Old Ironsides” in the New Model Army. He has been described as a regicidal dictator, military dictator, hero of liberty, and a class revolutionary.

Cleopatra (69 BC -30 BC) An Egyptian leader who supposedly had an affair with Julius Caesar. She was the last pharaoh before Egypt became a province in the Roman Empire.

Emily Dickenson (1830-1886) An American poet who was reclusive but quite talented. She wrote almost 1800 poems, most of which were not published in her lifetime.

Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) A famous composer in the Baroque era of several operas and violin concertos but especially the Four Seasons.

Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890) An Impressionist painter who was never recognized for his talents in his life. He painted over 2100 paintings in his lifetime and is also known for his bouts of mental illness and anxiety. Even today his paintings are top sellers at auctions.

Mark Twain (1835-1910) An American author of Adventures of Top Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. His real name was Samuel Langehorn Clemens and he has been called the “Father of American Literature”.

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) The third U.S. President; considered the chief author of the Declaration of Independence. He was also very talented and interested in architecture, science, philosophy and religion.

Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) An Italian astronomer and physicist known for the law of motion. He is known as the “Father of observational astronomy” and “Father of modern physics” and “Father of modern science”.

Elizabeth I (1533-1603) English Queen in the Tudor period. She served for 44 years, and England had great success during this time when playwright William Shakespeare wrote his plays.

Winston Churchill (1874-1965) A British politician during WW II. He was a successful author and won the Nobel Prize.

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Jeanna is a mother of three daughters, all whom are well versed in Pride and Prejudice; they are her best friends and the inspiration for her writing. She also proudly states she is the eighth of thirteen children. When she isn’t blogging, gardening, cooking, or raising chickens—or more realistically, writing—she is thoroughly ignoring her house for a few hours at a time in order to read yet another romance novel. Somewhere between being a mom, sister, writer, and cook, she squeezes in three 12-hour shifts each week as a Registered Nurse in a Neurological ICU. She finds great joy in her writing and claims she has never been happier.

Jeanna fell in love again with Jane Austen when she was introduced to the incredible world of Jane Austen inspired fiction. She can never adequately thank the fellow authors who mentored her and encouraged her to write her first novel. Through writing, Jeanna has gained something that no one can take away from her: hope for her own Mr. Darcy. More than anything, she hopes to prepare her three best friends to look for their own Mr. Darcy and to settle for nothing less.

Jeanna’s works include: Mr. Darcy’s Promise, Pride and Persistence, To Refine Like Silver, Hope For Mr. Darcy, Hope For Fitzwilliam, Hope For Georgiana, and Inspired by Grace. For more information on these books, please visit her website, www.HeyLadyPublications.com

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The Taming of Katherine Parr

by Danielle Marchant

This month sees the release of Philippa Gregory’s latest historical novel The Taming of the Queen, which is about Henry VIII’s sixth wife, Katherine Parr. As with all historical novels and dramas, there’s always anticipation on how the character is going to be portrayed and how their story will be told. In some cases, the historical fiction version of the characters tends to be a lot more exciting and dangerous than the real life characters. The various portrayals of Anne Boleyn is a good example of this, where in fiction she is often portrayed as a home-wrecking, man-eating Sex Goddess with a sixth finger, whereas in reality it has been argued that she was probably far more sober and God- fearing. The fictional portrayals of Katherine Parr, however, tend to buck the trend.

Katherine, as the famous nursery rhyme told us, was the one that survived. She was the sober nursemaid, the much-needed mother figure for Edward, Elizabeth and Mary who liked nothing more than to change Henry’s bandages for his putrid leg wound. However, in an interesting reversal – and of course, with the exception of the “The Tudors” TV drama series - it was actually the real Katherine that lived a far more interesting, exciting and even dangerous life compared to her fictional portrayals. It’s almost like the image of the real Katherine has been straitened to nothing more than a boring nursemaid, skulking in the shadows of the far more famous of Henry VIII’s wives. The real Katherine has been tamed. However, the real Katherine, who is possibly the least famous of all of Henry VIII’s wives, not only narrowly escaped facing the same tragic fate as that of two of Henry’s other wives, but she also was a major influence on the future Queen Elizabeth I.

In March 1543, thirty-year-old Katherine was widowed for the second time after the death of her husband Lord Latimer, but financially she was comfortable. She found herself in a position of freedom and was able to think about what she wanted to do with her life. There were two things that were certain for Katherine. She knew that she definitely wanted to stay at court, and she wanted to remarry. She had also fallen in love. The man that had stolen her heart was Thomas Seymour, the King’s brother-in-law. Four years later, she had told Seymour: “As truly as God is God, my mind was fully bent the other time I was at liberty to marry you before any man I know.”

This is quite a passionate image of Katherine, an image we don’t often associate with the real Katherine. However, Katherine had to forget about Thomas. There was another man who wanted her hand in marriage – it was the King. Despite already going down the aisle five times before, it didn’t deter him from a sixth trip. This time he was looking for an attractive woman without a reputation (Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard would have come to mind on the latter point). Lady Latimer ticked these boxes, so the King popped the question and, forgetting all about Thomas Seymour, she wisely accepted. They were married on the 12th July at Hampton Court Palace in the Queen’s Closet. This does show another quality that isn’t emphasised that much when referring to Katherine – bravery. She was brave in the sense that she was about to marry a man who had executed two of his previous wives.

In addition, she showed bravery in her religious beliefs. She wasn’t afraid to talk about her beliefs later on in the marriage. This was incredibly risky because it later nearly led to her being put in the Tower. Henry caused some confusion with his religious beliefs. When Katherine first married the King, we don’t really know what Katherine’s religious beliefs were at the time. However, even though the King had embraced the Reformation and the break with Rome, on the other hand, he was not a Lutheran and still very much believed in the presence of the body and blood of Christ in the bread and wine at mass. Katherine, however, did seem to demonstrate reformist – even Calvinist – beliefs, which became more apparent as the years went by. Henry and Katherine would often have religious debates, but at this stage it didn’t cause any particular concern to Henry. She collected books such as a 1542 English translation of A Sermon of St Chrysostome by the Oxford Scholar John Lupset. Katherine also wrote books for her ladies and friends. They were books of prayers, beautifully bound in gilt and leather, sold at 16 shillings, or £250 a copy in today’s money. Katherine was particularly in awe of the Great Bible, printed in Paris, which then emerged in England in April 1540. The Great Bible showed the word of God in the English language – it spoke directly to the people, including Katherine, without any additional interpretations from Priests. This encouraged Katherine to become more involved in the great religious debates. Her enthusiasm reached a peak in 1545, when Katherine went on to write the “Lamentation of a Sinner”. Based on St. Paul’s teachings and the epistles, it was the first work of its kind written by a woman. So, not only was the real Katherine brave, passionate and religious, she was also creative. These are qualities that are not often associated with Katherine.

However, Katherine's involvement in religious discussions and the views she expressed in her writing began to cause suspicion to the King, and this provided ammunition to the conservative faction at court. Bishop Gardiner and his cronies looked at everything that could be used against her – the books she wrote, the books she read and even her ladies-in-waiting were held with suspicion. There were three ladies in particular that became a focus of this campaign – Lady Herbert (Katherine’s sister), Lady Lane (Katherine’s cousin) and Lady Tyrwhit. John Foxe recalled the events later in the Elizabethan period:

It was devised that these three should first of all have been accused and brought to answer to the six articles (the act passed in 1539) and upon their apprehension in court, their closets and coffers should have been searched, that somewhat might have been found by which the Queen might be charged; which being found, the Queen herself presently should have been taken, and likewise carried by night by barge to the Tower.

However, fate intervened. The King revealed to one of his physicians, Dr. Wendy, what he was going to do, but the bill of articles against Katherine, signed by the King himself, had been accidently dropped by an anonymous councillor. It was then found and brought to the Queen. As you could imagine, Katherine flew into panic mode – she “fell immediately into a great agony, bewailing and talking on in such sort”. Dr. Wendy was summoned to the Queen and advised her that she should “shew her humble submission to the King”.

Katherine took on board this advice, and one night she went to the King’s Bedchamber. The King decided to launch a debate on religion, a topic they were always guaranteed to have a debate on. However, instead of speaking her mind on religious matters, she instead said to him: “God has appointed such a natural difference between man and woman, and your majesty being so excellent in gifts and ornaments of wisdom, and I a silly poor woman, so much inferior in all aspects of nature to you”.

Katherine was now playing the part of a submissive wife. She said that she only debated with him on religion to distract him from the pain caused by his ill health. She said it was ridiculous, the thought of a woman trying to teach her husband. Both made peace with each other, and all was well. When Chancellor Thomas Wriothesely arrived with his armed guards of forty men to arrest the Queen, Henry sent him away, shouting “Knave, arrant knave, beast and fool”. Katherine had lived to see another day. This does show a very clever and witty side to Katherine as well – she certainly knew how to turn a negative situation into a positive one.

Wriothesely’s involvement is interesting as it refers to another unknown side to the real Katherine. Katherine was not one to give in to self-pity. Wriothesely’s wife, Jane, who was also Katherine’s lady-in-waiting, had lost her baby son. Katherine wrote a letter to her in March 1545, and even though this was written in an age when child mortality was common, its tone still seems very cold and harsh:

It have pleased God of late to disinherit your son of this world, of intent he should become partner and chosen heir of the everlasting inheritance, which calling and happy vocation ye may rejoice. If you lament your son’s death, you do him great wrong and show yourself to sorrow for the happiest thing there ever came to him.

Even though this was written in an age of religious fervour, Katherine’s tone in this letter still comes across as very cruel to a grieving mother who has just lost her child. With the exception of being a step-mother, Katherine at the time of writing this was not a mother herself, so would not have related to the pain that Jane was experiencing. Katherine, based on her own personal experiences, was a woman who kept a lid on her emotions and didn’t dwell on the past, and probably felt that in her own way, she was trying to help Jane. However, this would have provided little comfort to Jane and her husband. Their reaction to the letter is not known, however, it’s very possible that this may have caused so much upset that it fuelled Wriothesley’s anger towards Katherine later on.

As part of the campaign to put Katherine in the Tower, Wriothesley tried to link Katherine to Anne Askew, a heretic who became a martyr for her reformist beliefs and was burnt at the stake in July 1546. The torture Anne endured while being interrogated was particularly shocking as they resorted to putting her on the rack in a desperate attempt to get her to blurt out the names of members of Katherine’s privy chamber. Even Wriothesley himself turned the rack. Was this his revenge for the hurt Katherine had caused him and his wife before with her letter about their son? Anne Askew described her torture:

Then they put me on the rack, because I confessed no ladies or gentlewomen to be of my opinion; and there they kept me a long time, and because I lay still and did not cry, my lord chancellor and Master Rich took pains to rack me with their own hands till I was nigh dead.

The incident was also particularly shocking to her contemporaries as Anne was born into the gentry, and the gentry were never tortured. Even more disturbing, it is possible that the King himself gave them permission to torture her.

The fate of Anne, along with the attempt to put Katherine in the Tower, was evidence of a move against reformist belief in the last two years’ of the King’s reign. The campaign had begun in April 1546 – coincidently, soon after the conservative Bishop Gardiner’s return from Europe. In a sense, it was probably a blessing that Katherine did have this side to her where she could keep her emotions in check – it may have caused anger to the Wriothesleys, but at the same time, it ultimately helped her to face the King when she was interrogated herself over religion and come out of the situation calmly and unscathed.

Another fascinating but little-known fact about the real Katherine was how well she got on with her step-daughter, Mary Tudor. We’ve always been given the impression in fiction that the two simply did not get along due to their religious differences - Protestant Katherine vs Catholic Mary. This image, however, was created later on. We do know that when Mary became Queen, she did ban Katherine’s book The Lamentation of a Sinner. However, Mary did accept the changes her father had made, and the Mass was just as important to her as it was to her father and Katherine. Mary even helped Katherine to translate Erasmus’s Paraphrases of the New Testament, where she translated St. John’s Gospel. Due to illness, Mary was unable to finish her part of the project, but Katherine’s chaplain, Francis Mallet, intervened to finish Mary’s work. It has been suggested that the illness was an excuse to not finish the work, but this is unlikely as later on, Mary became uncomfortable with the idea of gaining credit for work that was not entirely her work. Katherine, however, reassured her:

All the world knows that you have toiled and laboured much in this business, I do not see why you should repudiate that praise which all men justly confer on you. However, I leave this whole matter to your discretion, and whatever resolution you may adopt, that will meet my fullest approbation.

This shows how very supportive and encouraging Katherine was as a step-mother to Mary and had helped her to become a published author.

Katherine also had a pleasure-loving side. She fully embraced the role of Queen. Her household ate, drank, were merry, sung, danced and took part in sports. Katherine kept hounds and hawks for hunting, parrots for entertainment, and she loved dogs. Katherine’s spaniel, Rig, owned an impressive collar of crimson velvet embroidered with damask gold and it had rings made of silver gilt to attach its lead.

Katherine loved clothes and her wardrobe was full of beautiful and expensive items. Crimson was her favourite colour and she even dressed her footman and pages in Crimson. Even her own lavatory had a crimson velvet canopy, cushions covered in cloth of gold and a seat of crimson velvet. A removable commode was covered in red silk and ribbons, attached with gilt nails. She chose luxurious, expensive fabrics, such as cloth of gold and silver (silver being her favourite), damasks, taffetas, silks, satins and velvets. In the three years that she spent being Henry’s sixth wife, she had bought 315 yards of black velvet, 95 yards of black satin and 35 yards of orange damask. Katherine also had a thing for shoes – she owned no less than an impressive 117 pairs of shoes, although this number did eventually drop to 47 pairs.

What is possibly the most important but little-known fact of the whole Tudor period was that Katherine was a huge influence on the future Queen Elizabeth I. The many little ways that Katherine had helped to mould the young Elizabeth would emerge later on and help to make her the kind of Queen that she became.

Katherine was meticulous in her choice of clothes and jewels for portraits. She wanted to show the world that she was Queen, that she was a regal figure in her own right. Even more interesting, these portraits were not ordered by the King; the Queen had requested these herself. There were more portraits of Katherine than there were of any other Queen of England in this period – but, with the exception of Elizabeth I.

Queen Elizabeth has been seen in many portraits, bedecked with jewellery and fine fabrics, giving a clear message to those looking at her portrait that she was Queen and was so in her right - in very much the same way as Katherine had done once before. Therefore, the young Elizabeth had definitely watched her step-mother and took notes. The image that Katherine gave to the public would have no doubt made a lasting impression on Elizabeth, teaching her the art of being a Queen.

The young Elizabeth and Katherine also shared a love of studying, and Elizabeth became aware of Katherine’s religious interests. As a New Year’s gift in 1544, Elizabeth endeavoured to impress Katherine with a translation of Margaret of Navarre’s Le miroir de l'âme pécheresse. Elizabeth called it The Mirror or Glass of the Sinful Soul. While accomplishing this, Elizabeth learned that the writer “can do nothing that good is or prevaileth for her salvation, unless it be through the grace of God”. This was the earliest statement of Elizabeth’s religious views and was evidence of how possibly Katherine’s reformist beliefs were influencing Elizabeth’s. When Elizabeth grew up and became Queen, unlike her siblings Edward and Mary, she did not favour just Catholicism or Protestantism alone; she worked towards a middle way between the two, leading to the creation of the Church of England. So, having been exposed to her step-mother’s beliefs and then, seeing the two extremes of religion in the reigns of both of her siblings – Protestant Edward and then Catholic Mary – this all must have had an impact of how she wanted to run the country and mediate its spiritual and ecclesiastical issues.

Possibly the most important tutorial in being a Queen that Elizabeth observed came in the summer of 1544. In that summer, the King had sailed to France and Elizabeth observed Katherine as a Queen Regent. This would help to prove to the young Elizabeth that in an age when women were seen as inferior to men, a Queen could rule England just as well as any King. Only Katherine of Aragon had been made Queen Regent before Katherine Parr. Katherine Parr excelled in and took great delight in her new responsibility, handling with ease the mass of papers, taking part in discussions with advisers and make important decisions. This definitely had a great influence on the young Elizabeth who later on as Queen faced and defeated the Spanish Armada. Everything that Elizabeth had learned about being Queen was epitomised in what was to be her most famous speech, given to her army at Tilbury in 1588:

I am come amongst you, as you see, at this time, not for my recreation and disport, but being resolved, in the midst and heat of the battle, to live or die amongst you all, to lay down my life for my God and for my kingdom and for my people, my honour, and my blood, even in the dust. I know I have the body of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and a king of England too.

Therefore, the real Katherine Parr was brave, passionate, religious, creative, witty and clever, liked glamour, escaped with her life from the Tower and helped to mould and influence one of English history’s greatest Queens. She even got on well with a Catholic. However, many of us don’t know this because the real Katherine has been tamed.

Images:
- Katherine Parr – artist unknown, painted in 1545.
- Katherine Parr – artist unknown.
- The young Elizabeth.
- Elizabeth I “The Rainbow Portrait”

Sources and suggested further reading:
Katherine the Queen – Linda Porter, Macmillan, 2010.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

By Danielle Marchant
I am an Independent Author from London, UK. I am the author of “The Lady Rochford Saga”, based on the life of Jane Boleyn, Lady Rochford. Both parts 1 and 2 are out now, and I am currently working on part 3, due for release Spring/Summer 2016:

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Visit my Facebook page and website.

"Scramble" - Remembering the Battle of Britain and Why it Still Appeals to us Today

by Helena P. Schrader

"Scramble!" RAF Squadron is given the order to
take off very early in the Battle of Britain
Courtesy of the Imperial War Museum

The Battle of Britain was more than a military victory. The Battle of Britain was a critical psychological and diplomatic victory as well. The psychological impact of defeating the apparently invincible Luftwaffe was enormous at the time. The RAF had proved that the Luftwaffe could be beaten, and by inference that the Wehrmacht could be beaten. This fact alone encouraged resistance and kept hope alive all across occupied Europe. Even more important, as a result of British tenacity and defiance in the Battle of Britain, the United States, which at the start of the Battle had written Britain off as a military and political power, revised its opinion of British strength.  Because of the Battle of Britain, the U.S.A. shifted its policy from ‘neutrality’ to ‘non-belligerent’ assistance. With American help, Britain was able to keep fighting until Hitler over-extended himself in the Soviet Union. The Battle of Britain was the necessary pre-requisite for future victory in Europe.

Yet, any such purely objective assessment of the Battle of Britain does not explain the appeal of the Battle of Britain to people today.  There were, after all, many other decisive battles in WWII from Stalingrad to Midway. The appeal of the Battle of Britain is less military and diplomatic than emotional.

Fighter Command Control Room;
Courtesy of the Imperial War Museum

The Battle of Britain appeals to us today because it was not only a clear case of good against evil, but of the underdog winning against a bully. RAF Fighter Command was tiny!  Even including the foreign pilots flying with the RAF, there were only roughly 1,200 trained fighter pilots in Britain at the time of the Battles. (Numbers varied due to training, casualties and recruiting.) These men were a highly trained elite that could not be readily replaced. Pilots were not mere “cannon fodder.”  They were specialists that took years to train. In the summer of 1940, they stood against apparently overwhelming odds. Churchill – as so often – captured the sentiment of his countrymen when he claimed that “never in the field of human conflict has so much been owed by so many to so few.”

This image of a small “band of brothers” standing up to a massive and invincible foe in a defensive battle for their homeland was reminiscent of other heroic battles – Henry V at Agincourt, Edward the Black Prince at Poitiers, Leonidas and his 300 at Thermopylae.  Such battles, pitting a few defenders against a hoard of enemy, have always appealed to students of history and readers of historical fiction like almost nothing else.

RAF Pilots at "Readiness,"
Courtesy of Chris Gross

Furthermore, the Battle of Britain still resonates with us today in part because it wasn’t a battle won by generals, technology or even “aces” — but rather by young men barely out of their teens.  (The average age of RAF fighter pilots in the Battle was 22.)  They fought in beautiful, fragile machines that still awe aviation enthusiasts. And the casualties were devastating.  In just four months, Fighter Command lost roughly 40% of its pilots.  That means that each pilot had only a slightly better than 50% chance of surviving the Battle.  Furthermore, the effective casualty rate of killed and wounded was closer to 70%.  This situation was aggravated by the fact that, as a rule, the more experienced pilots had a 5-6 times greater chance of surviving than did the replacement pilots coming into the front line with very little flying and no combat experience.  The most critical period for a replacement pilot was his first fortnight in a front-line squadron.  Many pilots did not survive four hours.  That makes for an element of tragedy even in victory that catches at our heart-strings.

Funeral for PO Billy Fiske,
U.S. citizen and RAF fighter pilot, during the Battle of Britain,
Courtesy of  Andy Saunders

We shouldn’t forget, however, that the pilots alone did not win the Battle.  The RAF had worked hard to ensure that its pilots were supported by some of the best trained ground crews in the world.  With an ‘apprentice’ program, the RAF had attracted technically minded young men early and provided them with extensive training throughout the inter-war years. In some ways, ground crews were better educated than many pilots. Under the circumstances and given the fact that many pilots came up from the ranks themselves, it is hardly surprising that the relations between pilots and crews were on the whole excellent.  The RAF had a notoriously relaxed attitude toward discipline in any case, and this further worked to break down barriers. Last but not least, at this stage of the war, individual crews looked after individual aircraft and so specific pilots.  The ground crews identified strongly with their unit – and ‘their’ pilots. After the bombing of the airfields started in mid-August, the ground crews were themselves under attack, suffering casualties and working under deplorable conditions – often without hot-food, dry beds, adequate sleep or time-off.  The ground crews never failed their squadrons.  Aircraft were turned around – rearmed, re-fuelled, tires, oxygen, airframe etc. checked – in just minutes.

Ground Crews Refuelling in the Rain.
Imperial War Museum

Equally notable was the RAF’s early and exceptionally positive attitude toward women.  The RAF actively encouraged the establishment of a Women’s Auxiliary, which by the end of the war served alongside the RAF in virtually all non-combat functions.  Even before the start of the war, however, the vital and highly technical jobs of radar operator and operations room plotter, as well as various jobs associated with these activities, were identified as trades especially suited to women.  The C-in-C of Fighter Commander, ACM Dowding, personally insisted that the talented women who did these jobs move up into supervisory positions – and be commissioned accordingly. During the Battle of Britain over 17,000 WAAF served with the RAF, nearly 4,500 of them with Fighter Command. A number of WAAF were killed and injured and six airwomen were awarded the Military Medal during the Battle.

WWII WAAF Recruiting Poster.
Imperial War Museum

Last but not least, given the losses and the sheer physical demands placed upon the RAF pilots at the time, it was their ability not only to keep flying but to keep drinking and laughing that awed their countrymen, their leaders and their enemies — when they found out.  And it still appeals to us today.

Pilots of "B" Flight, 85 Squadron, July 1940,
Courtesy of Edith Kup

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My novel on the Battle of Britain, Chasing the Wind (Kindle edition: Where Eagles Never Flew), pays tribute to the entire spectrum of participants, male and female, from mechanics and controllers to WAAFs as well as to the pilots. I based my account on the very meticulous records now available from both the UK and Germany to ensure that the raids, casualties, and claims each day are correct. Yet the most important research was reading the memoirs of dozens of participants and corresponding with others to try to get the atmosphere “right.” My greatest moment as a historical novelist came when I received a hand-written letter from a man I had only read about up until then: RAF Battle of Britain “ace” Bob Doe. Wing Commander Doe wrote to tell me I had “got it smack on the way it was for us fighter pilots,” and said that Chasing the Wind was “the best book” he had ever read about the Battle of Britain.  It doesn’t get any better than that for a historical novelist!

Here’s a video teaser about the novel. Click here!

For reviews click here: Reviews.

The Siege of Flushing, August 1809

by Jacqueline Reiter

At 1 PM on the 13^th of August 1809, about fifty British cannons and mortars of different sizes opened at once on the French territory of Flushing (Vlissingen) from five batteries. Several gunboats bombarded the town simultaneously from the Scheldt river. Early in the morning of the 14^th a sixth battery opened fire, joined a little later by the deafening roar of six warships of the line giving their all. William Congreve's rockets added to the terror the town must have experienced, setting it on fire in several different places.

The Bombardment of Flushing (Wikimedia Commons)

A brief cease-fire between 4 pm and 9:30 pm on the 14^th was all the respite the townspeople of Flushing received. When the bombardment resumed, it continued throughout the night until the French general in command of Flushing's garrison, Monnet, surrendered at 2:30 am on 15 August.

The siege of Flushing provided the main action of the Walcheren campaign of 1809, intended to provide a distraction for Britain's ally, Austria, which had been at war with France since April. (More about the background to the expedition can be found in a previous EHFA post on thesubject). The British were to capture the French harbour of Flushing on the island of Walcheren, destroy the French and Dutch fleet at Antwerp, and ruin the navigation of the Scheldt River. To achieve this 40,000 soldiers and more than 600 ships sailed on 28 July – even though Austria had been defeated at Wagram at the beginning of the month.

The military commander of the expedition was John Pitt, 2^nd Earl of Chatham, the notoriously lazy elder brother of former prime minister William Pitt. The naval command was entrusted to Sir Richard Strachan, a brave but hot-blooded admiral who had contributed to the Trafalgar campaign. Neither was ideal for the task, but intelligence had been gathered for months that the French, distracted by war with Austria, had stripped the area around Antwerp of troops. Lord Castlereagh, the Secretary of State for War, described the campaign as a “coup de main”, a lightning action designed to take the French unawares before they had time to strengthen their defences.

Walcheren (1660) (Wikimedia Commons)

The expedition, divided into four parts, would secure the island of Walcheren by investing Flushing and disabling the French batteries on the opposite coast at Cadsand, allowing the fleet access to the West Scheldt. Another division would land on the adjacent island of South Beveland and secure the approach to Antwerp. Once this was done, the main part of the army would land opposite Batz at the southernmost tip of South Beveland and march for fifteen miles to Antwerp. What would happen when they got to Antwerp remained something of a mystery, but ministers were confident that the town hadn't been strengthened in, oh, ages, or at least since the last source with which they provided Lord Chatham had been published (about 1794).

Unfortunately for the British politicians, things began to go wrong for the expedition before it even sailed. First came the news of Wagram, then adverse winds delayed the expedition's start. The newspapers had been gossiping loosely about the “grand expedition” for months, as a result of which the French, who could read just as well as the British, knew nearly as much about the expedition as the government did. Persistent adverse winds drove the fleet off course almost immediately, and the ships were nearly all forced to take shelter in a natural basin called the Roompot – which was, unfortunately, on the wrong side of Walcheren. Sir John Hope and his reserve force went through South Beveland like a knife through butter, but the Cadsand landing failed because of bad weather and poor communication.

The loss of Cadsand meant that the fleet could not get up the West Scheldt with the main force for Antwerp until Flushing fell. Flushing's commander, Monnet, apparently only had between two and three thousand motley troops of various nations and states of discipline, so taking Flushing should have been simplicity itself. Once again, however, the British were hampered by disastrous weather. Instead of landing somewhere sensible near Flushing, the soldiers landed at the opposite end of the island. Marching troops across land was bad enough, but dragging the ordnance and siege supplies across boggy land was an entirely different proposition.

More seriously, because Cadsand had not been taken, the French garrison there was able to throw as many reinforcements into Flushing as it liked. Obviously the British navy tried to stop them, but the weather pinned the British fleet too high or too low every time they tried to establish a blockade. The British could only watch as boat after boat of French soldiers crossed the Scheldt. By the time the fleet finally managed to complete the investment on the 7^th of August, Flushing's garrison had nearly tripled, and Lord Chatham was forced to disembark one of the brigades intended for Antwerp to reinforce the besiegers at Flushing.

Chatham had hoped to get to Antwerp while Flushing was investing, but he now had too few men to proceed. Nor could the navy bring the siege equipment for Antwerp round South Beveland until Flushing fell. Strachan could not understand why Chatham did not want to embrace the “simple” solution of marching across South Beveland to get to Antwerp, disembarking, re-embarking, and re-disembarking thousands of troops and cavalry. Chatham, for his part, could not understand why Strachan wasn't able to sail up to Batz with the siege supplies, or – for that matter – stop the French getting over from Cadsand to Flushing. Meanwhile, Sir Eyre Coote, Chatham's second-in-command in charge of the Flushing operations, was convinced his superior was staying on Walcheren deliberately to spite him.

Once the siege artillery arrived at Flushing, tugged laboriously across the entire breadth of Walcheren, the batteries took days to construct. The army blamed the engineers, and the engineers blamed the weather, which was about as unfavourable as it was possible to get, with torrential all-night-long downpours that flooded the trenches and stopped work. Chatham was comfortably ensconced in a “palace” in Middelburg, with as much turtle soup as he could eat, but his men, up to their ankles, then knees, then hips in water – Monnet had cut the dykes in an attempt to flood out the besiegers – weren't happy.

The British in Middelburg, 1809 (Dutch print)

On the 7^th there was a brief, confused sortie by the French, which resulted in the British gaining more ground towards the town, but the batteries were taking so long even Chatham was getting twitchy. He badgered Strachan about getting the ships to participate in the bombardment, but Strachan still hadn't managed to get the ships round yet. He finally did so on 11^th August, but the batteries still weren't ready for another two days. When they did open, the ships of the line weren't able to get underway for a further twenty-four hours, again due to the weather.

By the time Flushing capitulated on the 15^th, the campaign was effectively over. Reducing Flushing was meant to have made the march on Antwerp possible, but in fact it delayed further operations. Far from being Castlereagh's coup de main, more than two weeks had elapsed since the British sailed. The Flushing garrison did not march out till 18 August, and it took a further week for the fleet, beset by bad weather and navigational problems, to get the troops and siege supplies to Batz.

Chatham, meanwhile, was also inching towards Batz. He seems to have given up on Antwerp the moment he set foot on South Beveland. He went through the motions of preparing to continue, but intelligence put enemy forces around Antwerp at 35,000 men, the town's defences had been strengthened, and the French fleet was well out of reach.

Most seriously of all, however, was the mysterious fever sweeping through the troops. “Zealand fever”, or “Walcheren fever” as it became known, was probably a toxic combination of malaria, dysentery, typhoid, and typhus. It started virtually overnight in mid-August and raced through the army at a terrifying rate. Chatham's lieutenant-generals advised him to call off the campaign, and at the beginning of September the British fell back on Walcheren. In mid-September Chatham sailed with the bulk of his army, including thousands of sick, leaving Sir Eyre Coote with a holding garrison of sixteen thousand men. Within days even this was two-thirds out of action.

Cruikshank on "The Grand Expedition" (Wikimedia Commons)

The recriminations at home were terrible. Chatham and Strachan blamed each other for the disaster, and many doubted whether the expedition should ever have been sent in the first place. There was a lengthy parliamentary enquiry which cleared the government of incapacity, but Chatham was forced to resign his cabinet post as Master-General of the Ordnance. Neither he nor Strachan were ever employed again.

The real victims, however, were the thousands of soldiers crippled or killed by “Walcheren fever”, and the civilians of Flushing, ruthlessly bombarded in an attempt to cut short a siege and win an unwinnable campaign.

References

There are three major studies of the Walcheren campaign:
Gordon Bond, The Grand Expedition (Athens, GA, 1979)
Martin A. Howard, Walcheren 1809: the scandalous destruction of a British army (Barnsley, 2011)Carl A. Christie, “The Walcheren Expedition of 1809” (University of Dundee PhD thesis, 1975)
Sir John Fortescue also devotes fifty pages or so to it in his History of the British Army (volume 7). There is also a short treatment of the campaign from a Dutch perspective, particularly dwelling on the serious damage done to the town of Flushing: Tobias Gent, De Engelse invasie van Walcheren in 1809 (Nijmegen, 2009)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jacqueline Reiter has a Phd in 18th century political history. She is currently working on the first ever biography of John Pitt, 2nd Earl of Chatham, due to be released by Pen & Sword Books in September 2016. When she finds time she blogs about her historical discoveries at http://alwayswantedtobeareiter.wordpress.com/, and can be found on Twitter as https://twitter.com/latelordchatham.

Hail Mary Over the Centuries

By Kim Rendfeld

It’s only 11 lines, but the Hail Mary, or Ave Maria, took almost a millennium to develop into the form we know today.

Hail Mary,
Full of Grace,
The Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women,
and blessed is the fruit
of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary,
Mother of God,
pray for us sinners now,
and at the hour of death.
Amen.

(From EWTN)

Hail, Mary by Luc-Olivier Merson,
circa 1885, High Museum of Art

From Christianity’s earliest days, the Virgin Mary was an advocate for the faithful, an intercessor who would plead their case to God. Devotional images of her go back to the second century, and more Christians started to name their daughters Mary toward the end of the fourth century.

A novelist studying early medieval times can easily see her importance. Charlemagne dedicated a newly built basilica at Aachen to her. On a smaller scale, a scribe wrote, “The book was given to God and His Mother by Dido [of Laon]. Anyone who harms it will incur God’s wrath and offend His Mother.”

No surprise, then, that Christians wanted a prayer just for her. When I first wrote The Cross and the Dragon, I assumed the Ave Maria always had its current form. I just needed the Latin translation for my characters.

Imagine my surprise when my editor informed me that Ave Maria was a lot shorter in the eighth century. “Hail, Mary, full of grace,” or words to that effect go back to the sixth century, so I could have my characters praying “Ave Maria, gratia plena.”

But it apparently took a few more centuries for the prayer to get longer. Two Anglo-Saxon manuscripts from around 1030 include “benedicta tu in mulieribus et benedictus fructus ventris tui” (“blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb”). In the 12th century, churchmen accept the greeting to Mary as a form of devotion, as familiar as the Apostle’s Creed and the Lord’s Prayer.

And so the salutation persisted, accompanied by a gesture of homage such as genuflecting, kneeling, or bowing the head. Some saints said the Ave Maria 50 to 150 times a day.

Christians had probably always greeted Mary with a request in mind such as healing a loved one’s illness, a safe return from battle, a bountiful harvest, or resisting temptation. The closing words of today’s prayer—“pray for us sinners now and at the hour of death”—originated in the 14th century and had variations throughout languages. It became part of the Roman Breviary in 1568.

What we end up with is a prayer that both venerates the Blessed Mother and asks her to use her special relationship with God on behalf of a faithful follower.

Sources

"Hail Mary" by Herbert Thurston, The Catholic Encyclopedia

"The Blessed Virgin Mary" by Anthony Maas, The Catholic Encyclopedia

Daily Life in the World of Charlemagne by Pierre Riché

Einhard’s The Life of Charlemagne translated by Evelyn Scherabon Firchow and Edwin H. Zeydel

Kim Rendfeld has written two novels set in eighth century Francia and is working on a third. The Cross and the Dragon (2012, Fireship Press) is a story of a noblewoman contending with a jilted suitor and the premonition she will lose her husband in battle. The Ashes of Heaven’s Pillar (2014, Fireship Press) is a tale of a mother who will go to great lengths to protect her children after she has lost everything else.

To read the first chapters of  Kim's published novels or learn more about her, visit kimrendfeld.com or her blog Outtakes of a Historical Novelist at kimrendfeld.wordpress.com. You can also like her on Facebook at facebook.com/authorkimrendfeld, follow her on Twitter at @kimrendfeld, or contact her at kim [at] kimrendfeld [dot] com.

Kim's book are available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other retailers.