Reality and Tudor Hollywood

Or Truth, TV and Tudors

Greetings my well regarded readers, all several of you, I hope that the approach of spring (in the north) fills you with the budding joys of renewed life after the crisp chill of winter.  At any time to restore the balance of the humours unsettled by the changing seasons I can recommend a good measure of brandywine infused with, ginger and pepper as a decent tonic.  I know it helped me regain a lost equilibrium.

I must I fear tender grovelling apologies to all my dear devoted readers it has been months, months, months!  Since my last posting, and I know your all missed me, please no more impassioned letters begging me to return.  For lo your dearest wish is granted!  I can but plead the pressures of the poverty stricken life of a writer with teenage children and several cats.  However all is not grim tidings and woe, not one but two new Red Ned novels are on the way (along with the drafts of four more other associated stories).  In fact the upcoming Fetter Lane Fleece should be freely available from Amazon within the week and for the first month it will be a free download.  The Smithfield Shambles though won’t be ready until late May due to editorial issues, ie my editor said it needed three more chapters and some more ‘word wroughting in the forge of inspiration to make it rock like The Liberties of London.  Be that as it may, the novel will be out soon enough.  In the meantime I’d like to make a heartfelt plea to all my readers, if you liked a book in the Red Ned or Dark Devices series please, on my bended knee I beg you leave a review on Amazon.  As an Indie writer and publisher I cannot (like the big six) pay for any advertising or endorsements, nor do I lean on dear old aunt Florence to leave a glowing review for her favourite nephew.  I need you the reader to leave real feedback, so vote with your keyboard even it is only to say ‘Jolly good work!’  There must be a few of you out there since I’ve sold over five thousand books in the past six months.  Thus hopefully there must be a few of satisfied readers out in the electronic aether.  Stand up for novels and stories you appreciate, rather than being bludgeoned by a slick PR campaign. 

Now on to the meat of today’s matter- Reality or Reality TV.

This subject could fill a hundred blogs nay even a thousand, so I will just stick to one small point in a recent discussion.  For those of you you’ve read my Red Ned novels you will have gained the impression that Sir Thomas More the Tudor politician and writer is not my hero, in truth the more I read of him, his career and his writing the less I like him (and yes I have actually read all his works and I do understand Utopia and its origins).  Now I know that there are whole websites and societies devoted to the hagiography of Saint Thomas More and they do a good job of singing his praises and smiting those who dare to point out a few unpleasant facts of his actual history as a servant of the Tudor crown and vitriolic man of letters.  Be that as it may they are entitled to their opinion, just as I am with mine, though even the most sycophantic More biographer (Ackroyd) has had to admit that Sir Thomas More was the creator of the first English secret police or Stasi whom he used to sniff any trace of heresy or heretical literature.  According to contemporaries his treatment of the arrested and accused was considered pretty grim even by Tudor standards.   This included imprisonment and questioning in the Tower and at his private estate at Chelsea, where it has been suggested More had several whipped and beaten.  Now this is just a very brief indication of some of the official acts of Sir Thomas More against those he disapproved of and doesn’t highlight his other controversial political actions during the first stage of the English Reformation. 

Recently I reviewed John Guy’s book on Margaret Roper A Daughter’s Love see the following:

This is for me a difficult book to talk about, firstly I have studied More for several years and unlike a number of contemporary authors and historians I am not impressed with the Tudor figure now viewed through rose tinted glasses. This is not to say that John Guy hasn’t done a splendid job in highlighting More’s career view the lens of his daughter. Guy is one of the most thorough Tudor period historians and his work on More’s public career is excellent. However I still find it annoying that those points of More’s professional life that deeply tarnish his reputation as a ‘humanist’ tended to be glossed over, such as the Richard Hunne case, his attacks on Luther, his creation of a secret police to hunt heretics and the very strange case of his imprisonment and trial.
So while Guy has done a splendid job I finished the book feeling very unsatisfied. Though if you like the period this is a must read or own for the wealth of background detail alone.

Okay fairly standard a good piece of work by John Guy but as I said I had reservations.  Then I began to receive a few disturbing comments criticising my position on More, once again fair enough except that one of them cited Bolt’s play A Man for All Seasons as a source for the amazing, steadfast and compassionate Sir Thomas More.  I must admit to being flabbergasted, its like viewing that abysmal film Pearl Harbour as an accurate account of the 7 Dec 1941 attack or MGM’s 1959 Ben Hur as true Roman and early Christian history.  Now in this media savy age of Youtube, Wiki and a host of quality historical source sites these kind of errors should be less prevalent.  However this appears not to be so, having studied Robert Bolt in High School it is quickly apparent that like Arthur Miller (The Crucible) he used recognisable characters and events from history to highlight the ills and prejudices of contemporary society of the 1950’s.  To claim it as an accurate portrayal for the historical More is rather sad and I fear linked to our growing and current failure to discriminate between fact and fiction in daily life and media.  I also suspect it may also have a lot to do with the cutting of hard core reality subjects like History and Humanities for soft fantasy units such as Business Studies, Economics and Marketing.

I’m also curious if the recent Tudors series has caused a similar array of problems and misconceptions, I must admit to only viewing a few and found them a tad trite and woefully simplistic, in plot, dialogue and melded characters.  With such a wonderful opportunity to build on the glorious Elizabeth R with Glenda Jackson I suspect they’ve opted for the more trashy Dynasty version.  But hey, I read Tudor histories for pleasure and try and write Tudor period novels for a living.  Its just that after Band of Brothers, The Pacific and Downton Abbey I felt historical accuracy for TV series may have been on the rise.

Now as I say in my novels they are a work of fiction, and characters in them may not be as strictly portrayed in historical records.  However my caveat is that I make a valid effort to craft a mostly accurate view of the Tudor Age one that I hope is interesting and accessible to the general reader.  I source as many period accounts, letters, maps, images, histories and physical pieces as possible to give my stories as real life as possible, a written form of reconstruction archaeology if you will.  So if any of my readers find problems or errors in my presentation of the tumultuous reign of Henry VIII, I encourage you to get stuck in and set me straight!  But please remember to quote a better source than a modern film.

Regards Gregory House

A Free Novel plus an Act of Succession!

A Free Red Ned novel to all my friends today at Amazon

Good day to my growing legion of devoted readers, I wish you all the best for this Lenten season as we push towards Easter, in this season of fasting and contemplation, as you eagerly await the coming spring in the north, when it hopefully gets warmer.  While here in Terra Australis we wait for La Nina to calm down and stop flooding the country.  Well for all of you have an early Easter present, I am currently offering my Red Ned novel set around Christmas The Liberties of London as a free download from Amazon Aust/US and the UK for two days starting 16/3/12 and ending on the 17/3/12 (ending around 11.59 pm Pacific Standard Time).

So I encourage you to take a Red Ned home take a seat, a glass of fine Rhenish and read about how Ned’s best laid plans for a Tudor Christmas Revel unravel.

The Liberties of London UK

The Liberties of London US/Aust

Red Ned Tudor Mysteries, Apprentice Lawyer and Aspiring Rogue

This is the first of a series of stories following the life and mis adventures of Edward (Red Ned) Bedwell, a young apprentice lawyer at Gray’s Inn and reluctant investigator who experiences first hand the tumult and intrigue during the reigns of the Tudor monarchs from Henry VIII to Queen Elizabeth I.  A foot slogger’s view of the dangerous and deadly rivalries, ambitions and human foibles of the

Tudor Court

.  His Sovereign Majesty the King may command and Councillor Cromwell will instruct, but it is poor Ned that has to deal with the inevitable consequences that led to treachery and murder.  In this Ned is mostly aided by the solid friendship of Rob Black, an artificer in iron and bronze.  However it also includes the not necessarily appreciated but usually correct hectoring of his sister Mistress Meg Black, an apprentice Apothecary and suspected heretic.  With this ill sorted team Ned has to balance solving his master’s instructions with retaining his honour, keeping secrets and somehow climb up the greasy pole of advancement in the Tudor Age.

 

The Act of Succession, A Very Tudor Act

Now on the 23/24^th of March we have the four hundred and seventy eight anniversary of Henry VIII most famous splash on the pages of history, in 1534 the Act of Succession.  In one document he sets aside his wife Katherine of Aragon, disinherits his daughter Mary, legalises his marriage with Ann Boleyn, proclaims the expected heir and breaks with the Papacy over the religious control of England. Now as a Tudor devotee this little piece of work sits as the heart stone of the whole Tudor dynasty the reasons for its composition and passing kicked off the ‘English’ Reformation, that traumatic political and religious revolution.  The whys, wherefores and consequences pack my bookshelves and provide for me as a Historical Fiction author an incredible range of subject matter to draw upon, to bring to you the reader stories about the origins of our present age and society and help craft how I view the actions of our ancestors.  But first lets settle a some myths, in my studies of Tudor history I have found a few glaring misconceptions, well actually there are lots but we will stick with just this one for now. 

Royal Succession

A number of historians down the ages would have you believe that there has been an unbroken majesty of succession of the English crown and that it has, except for a few ‘ahem’ occasions passed from monarch to appointed eldest successor.  Cough, cough. 

Ah no, on the whole that is a myth, one that the Stuart line via their Divine Right of Kings used to muddy the waters and consolidate their hold on the throne.  See how well that worked.  Now let us go back to another important date to establish the base line, 1066 William Duke of Normandy claims his right to the throne.  Well we know what happened in short he won at Hastings marched up to London and was crowned King.  Simple…maybe not William stated he had a bloodline claim and then put it to the test on the field of battle, as per the understanding of the time the Lord God judged him worthy by granting victory in battle.  But then military conquest does not automatically make one King.  William had to follow the laws and precedents and submitted himself to the Witan for approval.  Given the lead by the Almighty and without any other viable contenders they acquiesced as did the church.  True they may not have had much choice since Harold Godwinnson, and his brothers were dead on the field, Harald Hardrada like wise, while the other contenders Edgar Atheling and Sweyn Forkbeard were essentially out of the bidding.  However William consolidated two fundamentals of inheriting the monarchy- military success and appointment by the Kingdom’s representative consultative body.
 

During all the later dynastic squabbles of the Normans, Plantagenets and the bloody wars of the Roses this essential held firm as a viable and legal precedent, the monarch may anoint a successor but it is the decision of Parliament whether that actually happens.  This is a very simplistic rendition of the set up, but when Henry Tudor won out at last in 1485 he didn’t just plunk his butt on the purple cushions and say that was that.  To become Henry VII by the grace of God, King, he did what every other contender had to do, have his claim approved by Parliament.  Rubber stamp you say?  No, not as simple, as Hurstfield points out in Freedom, Corruption and Government in Elizabethan England Parliament was ‘virtually’ representative of the kingdom.  It may have been viewed as corrupt, stacked and incompetent and hardly as representative as now.  But even the arch manipulator Cardinal Wolsey couldn’t get Parliament to do whatever Henry wanted.  The Amicable Grant is a good example, even after bribing the Speaker Sir Thomas More, physically threatening the Commons with arrest, stacking the seats and rigging the discussions, it didn’t rollover.  I think that GR Elton may have had it right when he suggested that the Tudor Parliaments had more power in the Kingdom than is readily given credit.  His crown proof apart from the series of Reformation Parliaments was the Act of Succession where the Sovereign of the land petitions Parliament to accept and give legal validity to his rearranging of the royal succession.  It is a recognition that the right of the crown of the realm resides in the grant of Parliament, as it still does.

Just as an aside think of this, if Dudley and the Privy Council had on the imminent death of Edward VII had summoned Parliament they may have pulled off the succession of Queen Jane or at least stall the coup of Princess Mary Tudor.  However like so many rulers of Britain a public expression of the Commons tends to ruin those wonderful fantasies of obedience.

Regards Gregory House

The following transcription was lifted whole from;

http://www.luminarium.org/encyclopedia/firstactofsuccession.htm

THE FIRST ACT OF SUCCESSION, A.D. 1534. 25 HENRY VIII, CAP. 22.

      This Act was the last of the series of ecclesiastical enactments passed in the spring of 1534. No form of the oath herein mentioned was prescribed; but letters patent were issued containing a form and appointing a commission.

[Transcr. Statutes of the Realm, iii. 471.]

      In their most humble wise shown unto your majesty your most humble and obedient subjects, the lords spiritual and temporal and the Commons in this present Parliament succession assembled, that since it is the natural inclination of every man, gladly and willingly to provide for the surety of both his title and succession, although it touch only his private cause; we therefore, most rightful and dreadful sovereign lord, reckon ourselves much more bound to beseech and instant your highness (although we doubt not of your princely heart and wisdom, mixed with a natural affection to the same) to foresee and provide for the perfect surety of both you, and of your most lawful succession and heirs, upon which dependeth all our joy and wealth, in whom also is united and knit the only mere true inheritance and title of this realm, without any contradiction;
      Wherefore we your said most humble and obedient subjects, in this present Parliament assembled, calling to our remembrance the great divisions which in times past have been in this realm, by reason of several titles pretended to the imperial crown of the same, which sometimes, and for the most part ensued, by occasion of ambiguity and doubts, then not so perfectly declared, but that men might, upon froward intents, expound them to every man's sinister appetite and affection, after their sense, contrary to the right legality of the succession and posterity of the lawful kings and emperors of this realm; whereof hath ensued great effusion and destruction of man's blood, as well of a great number of the nobles, as of other the subjects, and especially inheritors in the same; and the greatest occasion thereof hath been because no perfect and substantial provision by law hath been made within this realm of itself, when doubts and questions have been moved and proponed, of the certainty and legality of the succession and posterity of the crown; by reason whereof the Bishop of Rome, and see apostolic, contrary to the great and inviolable grants of jurisdictions given by God immediately to emperors, kings and princes, in succession to their heirs, has presumed, in times past, to invest who should please them, to inherit in other men's kingdoms and dominions, which thing we, your most humble subjects, both spiritual and temporal, do most abhor and detest; and sometimes other foreign princes and potentates of sundry degrees, minding rather dissension and discord to continue in the realm, to the utter desolation thereof, than charity, equity, or unity, have many times supported wrong titles, whereby they might the more easily and facilely aspire to the superiority of the same; the continuance and sufferance whereof deeply considered and pondered, were too dangerous and perilous to be suffered any longer within this realm, and too much contrary to the unity, peace, and tranquillity of the same, being greatly reproachable and dishonourable to the whole realm:
      In consideration whereof, your said most humble and obedient subjects, the nobles and Commons of this realm, calling further to their remembrance that the good unity, peace and wealth of this realm, and the succession of the subjects of the same, most especially and principally above all worldly things consists and rests in the certainty and surety of the procreation and posterity of your highness, in whose most royal person, at this present time, is no manner of doubt nor question; do therefore most humbly beseech your highness, that it may please your majesty, that it may be enacted by your highness, with the assent of the lords spiritual and temporal, and the Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, that the marriage heretofore solemnized between your highness and the Lady Katherine, being before lawful wife to Prince Arthur, your elder brother, which by him was carnally known, as does duly appear by sufficient proof in a lawful process had and made before Thomas, by the sufferance of God, now archbishop of Canterbury and metropolitan and primate of all this realm, shall be, by authority of this present Parliament, definitively, clearly, and absolutely declared, deemed, and adjudged to be against the laws of Almighty God, and also accepted, reputed, and taken of no value nor effect, but utterly void and annulled, and the separation thereof, made by the said archbishop, shall be good and effectual to all intents and purposes; any licence, dispensation, or any other act or acts going afore, or ensuing the same, or to the contrary thereof, in any wise notwithstanding; and that every such licence, dispensation, act or acts, thing or things heretofore had, made, done, or to be done to the contrary thereof, shall be void and of none effect; and that the said Lady Katherine shall be from henceforth called and reputed only dowager to Prince Arthur, and not queen of this realm; and that the lawful matrimony had and solemnized between your highness and your most dear and entirely beloved wife Queen Anne, shall be established, and taken for undoubtful, true, sincere, and perfect ever hereafter, according to the just judgment of the said Thomas, archbishop of Canterbury, metropolitan and primate of all this realm, whose grounds of judgment have been confirmed, as well by the whole clergy of this realm in both the Convocations, and by both the universities thereof, as by the universities of Bologna, Padua, Paris, Orleans, Toulouse, Anjou, and divers others, and also by the private writings of many right excellent well-learned men; which grounds so confirmed, and judgment of the said archbishop ensuing the same, together with your marriage solemnized between your highness and your said lawful wife Queen Anne, we your said subjects, both spiritual and temporal, do purely, plainly, constantly, and firmly accept, approve, and ratify for good and consonant to the laws of Almighty God, without error or default, most humbly beseeching your majesty, that it may be so established for ever by your most gracious and royal assent.
      And furthermore, since many inconveniences have fallen, as well within this realm as in others, by reason of marrying within degrees of marriage prohibited by God's laws, that is to say, the son to marry the mother, or the stepmother, the brother the sister, the father his son's daughter, or his daughter's daughter, or the son to marry the daughter of his father procreate and born by his stepmother, or the son to marry his aunt, being his father's or mother's sister, or to marry his uncle's wife, or the father to marry his son's wife, or the brother to marry his brother's wife, or any man to marry his wife's daughter, or his wife's son's daughter, or his wife's daughter's daughter, or his wife's sister; which marriages, although they be plainly prohibited and detested by the laws of God, yet nevertheless at some times they have proceeded under colours of dispensations by man's power, which is but usurped, and of right ought not to be granted, admitted, nor allowed; for no man, of what estate, degree, or condition soever he be, has power to dispense with God's laws, as all the clergy of this realm in the said Convocations, and the most part of all the famous universities of Christendom, and we also, do affirm and think.
      Be it therefore enacted by authority aforesaid, that no person or persons, subjects or residents of this realm, or in any your dominions, of what estate, degree, or dignity soever they be, shall from henceforth marry within the said degrees afore rehearsed, what pretence soever shall be made to the contrary thereof.
      And in case any person or persons, of what estate, dignity, degree, or condition soever they be, has been heretofore married within this realm, or in any the king's dominions, within any the degrees above expressed, and by any the archbishops, bishops, or ministers of the Church of England, be separated from the bonds of such unlawful marriage, that every such separation shall be good, lawful, firm, and permanent for ever, and not by any power, authority, or means to be revoked or undone hereafter, and that the children proceeding and procreated under such unlawful marriage, shall not be lawful nor legitimate; any foreign laws, licences, dispensations, or other thing or things to the contrary thereof notwithstanding.
      And in case there be any person or persons within this realm, or in any the king's dominions, already married within any the said degrees above specified, and not yet separated from the bonds of such unlawful marriage, that then every such person so unlawfully married shall be separate by the definitive sentence and judgments of the archbishops, bishops, and other ministers of the Church of England, and in other your dominions, within the limits of their jurisdictions and authorities, and by none other power or authority; and that all sentences and judgments given and to be given by any archbishop, bishop, or other minister of the Church of England, or in other the king's dominions, within the limits of their jurisdictions and authorities, shall be definitive, firm, good, and effectual, to all intents, and be observed and obeyed, without suing any provocations, appeals, prohibitions, or other process from the Court of Rome, to the derogation thereof, or contrary to the Act, made since the beginning of this present Parliament, for restraint of such provocations, appeals, prohibitions, and other processes.
      And also be it enacted by authority aforesaid, that all the issue had and procreated, or hereafter to be had and procreated, between your highness and your said most dear and entirely beloved wife Queen Anne, shall be your lawful children, and be inheritable, and inherit, according to the course of inheritance and laws of this realm, the imperial crown of the same, with all dignities, honours, pre-eminences, prerogatives, authorities, and jurisdictions to the same annexed or belonging, in as large and ample manner as your highness at this present time has the same as king of this realm; the inheritance thereof to be and remain to your said children and right heirs in manner and form as hereafter shall be declared, that is to say:
      First the said imperial crown, and other the premises, shall be to your majesty, and to your heirs of your body lawfully begotten, that is to say: to the first son of your body, between your highness and your said lawful wife, Queen Anne, begotten, and to the heirs of the body of the same first son lawfully begotten, and for default of such heirs, then to the second son of your body and of the body of the said Queen Anne begotten, and to the heirs of the body of the said second son lawfully begotten, and so to every son of your body and of the body of the said Queen Anne begotten, and to the heirs of the body of every such son begotten, according to the course of inheritance in that behalf; and if it shall happen your said dear and entirely beloved wife Queen Anne to decease without issue male of the body of your highness to be begotten (which God defend), then the same imperial crown, and all other the premises, to be to your majesty, as is aforesaid, and to the son and heir male of your body lawfully begotten, and to the heirs of the body of the same son and heir male lawfully begotten; and for default of such issue, then to your second son of your body lawfully begotten, and to the heirs of the body of the same second son lawfully begotten, and so from son and heir male to son and heir male, and to the heirs of the several bodies of every such son and heir male to be begotten, according to the course of inheritance, in like manner and form as is above said.
      And for default of such sons of your body begotten, and of the heirs of the several bodies of every such sons lawfully begotten, that then the said imperial crown, and other the premises, shall be to the issue female between your majesty and your said most dear and entirely beloved wife, Queen Anne, begotten, that is to say: first to the eldest issue female, which is the Lady Elizabeth, now princess, and to the heirs of her body lawfully begotten, and for default of such issue, then to the second issue female, and to the heirs of her body lawfully begotten, and so from issue female to issue female, and to the heirs of their bodies one after another, by course of inheritance, according to their ages, as the crown of England has been accustomed, and ought to go, in cases where there be heirs females to the same; and for default of such issue, then the said imperial crown, and all other the premises, shall be in the right heirs of your highness for ever.
      And be it further enacted by authority aforesaid, that on this side the first day of May next coming, proclamation shall be made in all shires within this realm, of the tenor and contents of this Act.
      And if any person or persons, of what estate, dignity, or condition soever they be, subject or resident within this realm, or elsewhere within any the king's dominions, after the said first day of May, by writing or imprinting, or by any exterior act or deed, maliciously procure or do, or cause to be procured or done, any thing or things to the peril of your most royal person, or maliciously give occasion by writing, print, deed, or act, whereby your highness might be disturbed or interrupted of the crown of this realm, or by writing, print, deed, or act, procure or do, or cause to be procured or done, any thing or things to the prejudice, slander, disturbance, or derogation of the said lawful matrimony solemnized between your majesty and the said Queen Anne, or to the peril, slander, or disherison of any the issues and heirs of your highness, being limited by this Act to inherit and to be inheritable to the crown of this realm, in such form as is aforesaid, whereby any such issues or heirs of your highness might be destroyed, disturbed, or interrupted in body or title of inheritance to the crown of this realm, as to them is limited in this Act in form above rehearsed; that then every such person and persons, of what estate, degree, or condition they be of, subject or resident within this realm, and their aiders, counsellors, maintainers, and abettors, and every of them, for every such offence shall be adjudged high traitors, and every such offence shall be adjudged high treason, and the offenders and their aiders, counsellors, maintainers, and abettors, and every of them, being lawfully convicted of such offence by presentment, verdict, confession, or process, according to the customs and laws of this realm, shall suffer pains of death, as in cases of high treason; and that also every such offender, being convicted as is aforesaid, shall lose and forfeit to your highness, and to your heirs, kings of this realm, all such manors, lands, tenements, rents, annuities, and hereditaments, which they had in possession as owners, or were sole seized of by or in any right, title, or means, or any other person or persons had to their use, of any estate of inheritance, at the day of such treasons and offences by them committed and done; and shall also lose and forfeit to your highness, and to your said heirs, as well all manner such estates of freehold and interests for years of lands and rents, as all their goods, chattels, and debts, which they had at the time of conviction or attainder of any such offence; saving always to every person and persons, and bodies politic, to their heirs, assigns, and successors, and every of them, other than such persons as shall be so convicted, and their heirs and successors, and all other claiming to their uses, all such right, title, use, interest, possession, condition, rents, fees, offices, annuities, and commons, which they or any of them shall happen to have in, to, or upon any such manors, lands, tenements, rents, annuities, or hereditaments, that shall so happen to be lost and forfeited by reason of attainder for any the treasons and offences above rehearsed, at any time before the said treasons and offences committed.
      And be it further enacted by authority aforesaid, that if any person or persons, after the said first day of May, by any words, without writing, or any exterior deed or act, maliciously and obstinately shall publish, divulge, or utter any thing or things to the peril of your highness, or to the slander or prejudice of the said matrimony solemnized between your highness and the said Queen Anne, or to the slander or disherison of the issue and heirs of your body begotten and to be begotten of the said Queen Anne, or any other your lawful heirs, which shall be inheritable to the crown of this realm, as is before limited by this Act; that then every such offence shall be taken and adjudged for misprision of treason ; and that every person and persons, of what estate, degree, or condition soever they be, subject or resident within this realm, or in any the king's dominions, so doing and offending, and being thereof lawfully convicted by presentment, verdict, process, or confession, shall suffer imprisonment of their bodies at the king's will, and shall lose as well all their goods, chattels, and debts, as all such interests and estates of freehold or for years, which any such offenders shall have of or in any lands, rents, or hereditaments whatsoever, at the time of conviction and attainder of such offence.
      And be it also enacted by the authority aforesaid, that no person nor persons offending in any of the treasons and misprisions contained and limited by this Act, shall in any wise have or enjoy the privilege and immunity of any manner of sanctuaries within this realm, or elsewhere within any of the king's dominions, but shall utterly lose and be excluded of the same; any use, custom, grant, prescription, confirmation, or any other thing or things to the contrary thereof in any wise notwithstanding.
      And be it also enacted by authority aforesaid, that if your majesty should happen to decease before any such your issue and heir male which should inherit the crown of this realm, shall be of his age of eighteen years, or before such your issue and heir female which should inherit the crown of this realm, shall be married, or be of the age of sixteen years, which Almighty God defend, that then your said issue and heir male to the crown, so being within the said age of eighteen years, or your said issue and heir female to the crown, unmarried, or within the said age of sixteen years, shall be and remain unto such time as such issues and heirs shall come to their said several ages afore limited, at and in the governance of their natural mother, she living, with such others, counsellors of your realm, as your majesty in your lifetime shall depute and assign by your will, or otherwise, for the same, without contradiction of any person or persons to the contrary thereof.
      And if any person and persons by writing, or exterior deed or act, procure or do, or cause to be procured or done any thing or things to the let or disturbance of the same; that then every such offence shall be high treason, and the offenders, being thereof convicted, shall suffer such pains of death and losses of inheritance, freeholds, interests for years, goods, chattels and debts, in such manner and form as is above specified in cases of treason afore mentioned.
      And for the more sure establishment of the succession of your most royal majesty, according to the tenor and form of this Act, be it further enacted by authority aforesaid, that as well as the nobles of your realm spiritual and temporal, as all other your subjects now living and being, or that hereafter shall be, at their full ages, by the commandment of your majesty or of your heirs, at all times hereafter from time to time, when it shall please your highness or your heirs to appoint, shall make a corporal oath in the presence of your highness or your heirs, or before such others as your majesty or your heirs will depute for the same, that they shall truly, firmly, and constantly, without fraud or guile, observe, fulfil, maintain, defend, and keep, to their cunning, wit, and uttermost of their powers, the whole effects and contents of this present Act. And that all manner your subjects, as well spiritual as temporal, suing livery, restitutions, or ouster le main out of the hands of your highness or of your heirs, or doing any fealty to your highness or to your heirs, by reason of tenure of their lands, shall swear a like corporal oath, that they and every of them, without fraud or guile, to their cunning, wit, and uttermost of their powers, shall truly, firmly, and constantly observe, fulfil, maintain, defend, and keep the effects and contents contained and specified in this Act, or in any part thereof; and that they, nor any of them, shall hereafter have any liveries, ouster le main, or restitution out of your hands, nor out of the hands of your heirs, till they have made the said corporal oath in form above rehearsed.
      And if any person or persons, being commanded by authority of this Act to take the said oath afore limited, obstinately refuse that to do, in contempt of this Act, that then every such person so doing, to be taken and accepted for offender in misprision of high treason; and that every such refusal shall be deemed and adjudged misprision of high treason; and the offender therein to suffer such pains and imprisonment, losses and forfeitures, and also lose privileges of sanctuaries, in like manner and form as is above mentioned for the misprisions of treasons afore limited by this Act.
      Provided always, that the article in this Act contained concerning prohibitions of marriages within the degrees afore mentioned in this Act, shall always be taken, interpreted, and expounded of such marriages, where marriages were solemnized and carnal knowledge was had.

---

Source:

Documents Illustrative of English Church History.
Henry Gee and William John Harvey, Eds.
London: Macmillan and Co., 1914. 232-2.

Regards Gregory House

The Yes Virginia, there really is a Shakespeare

Or the turd besplattered premise of Anonymous (to quote Sir Thomas More)

Greetings my well regarded readers, all several of you, I have some quite good news to impart, for most of this last month Red Ned’s The Liberties of London has been sitting amongst the August company of Amazon UK top 100 Historical Fiction Mystery list.  Either at its peak of 22 or more usually in the 30’s to 70’s, I must thank all you UK readers for your discerning taste and if you enjoyed it please leave a review on Amazon or send a copy to your friends.  As well I’m please to announce that my latest novel in the Red Ned Tudor Mystery series –The Cardinal’s Angels is now out on Amazon.  While in another genre I’ve released the first of my Peter Wilks Archaeological Mysteries series- Terra Australis Templars also on Amazon.

Today’s article pushes a little ahead of my usual period of Henry VIII’s England, considering the current fraca concerning History and Hollywood I thought we’d look at Emmerlich’s latest piece Anonymous.  As you may have noticed from the splashy ads its a fictional tale about the Earl of Oxford as the secret author of one of the greatest collections of plays in the western world, no less than the real writer of all of Shakespeare’s sonnets and plays.  So you ask where does that leave poor ol’ Will Shakespeare?  Well for Oxford to rise Will has to go down and its not just a minor downplaying no, instead the illustrious bard is portrayed as an illiterate drunken buffoon, whom it seems can hardly make it as a hack player.  Which is as you may understand is a bit of a come down.  How did they do this you ask?  How else…by the magical faerie dust of Hollywood.

Hollywood History???

The film industry in Hollywood has an interesting relationship with history.  A Love/Hate one, in that history provides some wonderful sources for cinematic stories and when viewed via very particular psyche of the film producer is never dramatic, or lurid or speculative enough.  It has to be bigger, or more dramatic, salacious and so forth!  Okay, I’ll just give the silly example of Pearl Harbour.  An experienced battle hardened fighter pilot shoots down lots of Japanese aircraft during the December 7 attack, (which in its self is a very demeaning presentation of the event) then translates himself into a bomber pilot just in time for the Doolittle Raid.  Oh dear that really warps a valid historical event into a sad travesty.  So in the meantime let us just accept that Hollywood has a tendency to ignore reality in preference to the more wilder flights of fantasy.  So its entertainment, no worries!  Well yes, and no, as humans we are natural storytellers and a vast amount of our learning, habits and interpretation of the world around us is made up of stories.  This simple fact is much utilised by the advertising industry, which one must admit is a legalised business for the dissemination of, not to put too fine a point on it ‘untruths’ or ‘marketable truths’. 

Bearing this in mind it should be no surprise that Emmerlich has sort to boost his films performance and historical credibility by any means possible.  This marketing of history has included offering Anonymous educational modules to school pushing as it is termed the Oxfordian view.  Well its only marketing, so why should we care?

I believe we should, for a number of reasons, not the least because re inventing the past into a pliable fantasy pastiche is a common tool used to stifle criticism and complaint against abuse.  This fantasization of the past has been utilised by all manner of opportunists, ranging from political ideological driven parties like National Socialist to more purely commercial organisations such as News International.

First a quick look at poor ol’ Will.

Shakespeare?  Bladerdash!!  Oxford!!

The Oxfordians, as they term themselves like Climate Change skeptics appear to accept not one single shred of evidence regarding the authenticity of Shakespeare’s works.  These non-viable pieces of evidence include written accounts by his contemporise, such as Dekker, Johnson and Greene and range from memorials, reports and snide viperative assertions (Greene, a fellow writer who knew little about restrain either with a poisoned pen or dicing).  I will not go over the lengthy academic accounts of why the plays must have been by Shakespeare, or how the studies were based on thorough analysis of verse, word style changes and so on.  There are more than enough scholarly works on that solid research without my need to build up the case. 

The best I can do is recommend a book by Bill Bryson- Shakespeare: The World as Stage.  It is perhaps the simplest and most entertaining account of what we do know about Will, (not a lot) and where that came from (or didn’t).  As well it shines a very disturbing spotlight on the origins of the rival authorship claims and their evidence…or actually supposition… or maybe fabrication and even a heavy dash of delusion. 

Thus having raised that issue I pass onto what I feel is my strongest ground for dismissing Emmerlich’s Anonymous as a poorly contrived piece of dog’s vomit masquerading as entertainment.

Queen Elizabeth- Gloriana Triumphant…Or slut?

I don’t quite see the logic in this scripting and portrayal of Queen Elizabeth as either a historian or writer, it just makes a bad film even worse.  According to the storyline Gloriana has three illegitimate children, one of which is the Earl of Oxford, the hero of Anonymous.  Even more disturbing, later on Elizabeth is so much the ditzy raving slut that she tries to seduce her own bastard child ie Oxford.  Err what is this?  The Queen of England has even less morals than Paris Hilton, or even Caligula?

Oh spare me!  Not just tacky, but insultingly demeaning, I mean what would Americans think, if in a novel or screen play I suggested that George Washington regularly bent the young servants over the banister rail, unbuttoned his breeches and gave them a damned good ‘rogering’?  See what I mean the imagination shudders to an abrupt halt.

Queen Elizabeth’s reign defined the later Tudor period as a ‘golden age’ of achievement in art, science and discovery, which was made manifest by her survival from plot, assassination and invasion.  Her political acumen, was regarded as legendarily incisive, though also frequently and according to some in her Privy Council notoriously indecisive.  As for her rivals, their strident public condemnations of Elizabeth were full of accusations of ‘an apostate excommunicate and protestant whore, dripping with the blood of catholic martyrs’.  This overtop treatment tends to indicate an obsessive fear and betrays a sneaking respect for the formidable Queen of England. 

But hey, this is a Hollywood fantasy, lets just ignore the fact that Elizabeth was the most closely watched princess in the pre Victorian era.  The fright of the Thomas Seymour affair and its resulting investigation has been frequently cited as enough to convince a young Elizabeth that public and private virtue were her strongest defences from the Tower, the axe and rebellion. 

As many a historian has noted, after her upbringing at the tumultuous Tudor court which claimed her mother plus more than a few relations and friends Elizabeth’s overwhelming motivation was survival.  How any of this complexity and depth of person and character appears in Anonymous is well beyond debateable…it doesn’t.

Thus when it comes to Hollywood versions of Elizabeth, I think we are better served by the interpretations of Cate Blanchett, Dame Judy Dench, Glenda Jackson, and Betty Davis or even Quinten Crisp.  

Alright we’ve hopefully salvaged the reputation of Gloriana, the discussion will continue in part 2 next week in;

How to win Friends and Influence People in Elizabethan England

So will I spend money on Anonymous or recommend it?  While the CGI scenery is very good and the costumes passible, on the whole the script and plot lack even the most basic credibility or coherence of the Bold and the Beautiful…So no. 

Dont forget to have a browse through the list of books on my Amazon Author's page or my List of Best Tudor Fiction

Regards Greg

A Famine of Horses A Review

Greeting my friends and Houselings having started this theme of book reviews I thought we’d look at a spread of contemporary writers who have produced some good pieces of fiction and non-fiction in the Tudor Period.  Today it is the turn of PF Chisholm, whom for those of you who don’t already know is Patricia Finney and to be blunt she is an excellent writer of historical fiction.  Without being reduced to base grovelling and sycophancy, it is one of my aspirations that eventually my Red Ned Tuor Mysteries will be favourabley compared with her excellent Cary series.  So as you see I've got a pretty high target to aim for.




A Famine of Horses: A Sir Robert Carey Mystery by P.F. Chisholm

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


It is now Oh Gods some fifteen years since I first came across the first of PF Chisholm's Sir Robert Carey novels set in the politically complex Tudor England of the 1590s’. Queen Elizabeth’s fleet has beaten back the famed Armada and that threat at least for time has diminished and the kingdom basks in relative peace. However the northern border with Scotland it is not so quiet. Murder, cattle reiving and tower burning are all too common occurrences. So one more dead body found in the Debatable Lands shouldn’t make that much difference, except when it’s a Graham, and the head of that surname has a nasty reputation for vengeance. In to this cauldron of trouble steps Sir Robert Carey newly appointed Deputy Warden of the Western Marches. What Sergeant Dodd of the Carlisle garrison thinks of his new commander probably shouldn’t be put in print, but between them Cary and Dodd they have to solve two mysteries the ill timed murder of a Graham and the sudden ‘Famine of Horses of the title’. Alright that hasn’t given away anything that isn’t apparent from a quick view of the back cover blurb. As to the quality of the story, in short it is superb. PF Chisholm has a fine grasp of the character’s traits, they are all so very human and compelling. Sergeant Dodd for one is the epitome of the dour northern with a wry sense of humour and an intelligence that shouldn’t be underrated. As for Cary he comes with a very interesting history, he has to head north to escape his London creditors and recoup the fortune he doesn’t have. I’m not give much away in saying that his father Lord Hunsdon is the son of Mary Boleyn and that it is said he bore an uncanny resemblance to Henry VIII. That hint alone should wet your interest. The difficulties and scrapes Robert Carey gets into and his ahh unique ‘solutions’ very much carry the tale along to its not quite expected conclusion. In it all PF Chisholm has worked very hard to recreate the Borders region of the 1590’s as a living breathing culture alive with plots, mischief and mayhem. She hasn’t stretched facts or come up with wildly improbable story lines like some period writers. Instead this is honestly engaging with a very dry sense of humour. Most of all it’s a damned enjoyable romp for anyone who likes historical fiction. And yes it is worth every one of the five stars I gave it!

Regards Greg

The Liberties of London

The Queen's Oranges



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