Matilda, Rudolf & Bill

I've read three excellent books in the last week so I thought I'd write one post with all three as I don't think I'll have time this week to write longer posts & I don't want to forget the details. In a way, they encapsulate my reading interests. A historical biography, a 19th century novel & a murder mystery.

Matilda of Flanders was the wife of William the Conqueror. Biographies of early medieval women are few & far between because there is very little information. Queens & abbesses are the only women whose lives may be chronicled at all & almost always in relation to their family - father or husband. Matilda was the daughter of the Count of Flanders, descended from the royal houses of England & France & very proud of her lineage. It is said that when she was told that William, Duke of Normandy wanted to marry her, she refused contemptuously because he was illegitimate. William had succeeded his father as Duke at the age of nine & surprisingly had survived the endless plots & assassination attempts. The chroniclers say that he rushed to Flanders, grabbed Matilda by the hair & beat her unmercifully. She was taken to her rooms more dead than alive but, when she recovered from her injuries, declared to her father that she would marry no one but William. This is one of many legends & stories about Matilda that Tracy Borman debunks. The chronicle that relates the story was written 200 years later & there is no known contemporary source for the story.

Tracy Borman has been able to get a little closer to Matilda than to many other medieval queens because she often acted as Regent of Normandy when William was in England - most famously in 1066 when he was defeating King Harold but also in the difficult years afterwards as he was consolidating his rule. Matilda was an active Regent, signing charters & conducting diplomatic negotiations with neighbouring rulers. Even after her eldest son, Robert, had grown up & she shared the regency with him, Matilda was the dominant partner.

The marriage of William & Matilda was considered a happy one & they had at least nine children. Conflict between them intensified, however, as their sons became adults. Matilda's favourite was the eldest son, Robert, contemptuously called Curthose (short-boot) by his father on account of his short stature. His stature may have been inherited from Matilda who was a tiny woman, only just over four feet tall. William had no time for the boy &, although he was destined to become Duke of Normandy, he was ignored by his father in favour of his younger brothers, William (later William II of England) & especially Henry, the youngest. Matilda's support for Robert, even to the extent of supporting him in a rebellion against his father, soured her relationship with William, although he was said to be devastated by her death.

Tracy Borman's biographies are always well-written & full of the details about women's lives that I find fascinating. I enjoyed her earlier books about Henrietta Howard & Elizabeth I very much. Matilda was a forceful woman, not content to be merely the subservient partner in her marriage, & that was unusual in this period. I enjoyed finding out more about her life.

The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope is a classic adventure story with a gorgeous romance as well. It's probably one of the most famous adventure stories of all time & has been filmed at least twice - with Ronald Colman in the 1930s & Stewart Granger in the 1950s. Rudolf Rassendyll, a descendant of the royal house of Ruritania (but on the wrong side of the blanket) has inherited the red hair of the Elphbergs & enough money to idle his time away. He decides to visit Ruritania for the coronation of his distant cousin, Rudolf V. As soon as he arrives, he becomes involved in misunderstandings because he looks so much like the King. The two cousins meet & spend the night before the coronation drinking. The King's jealous brother, known as Black Michael, drugs the King's wine, hoping that his non-appearance at his coronation will allow Michael to usurp the throne. When the King can't be wakened from his drugged sleep, Rudolf is persuaded to take the King's place.

Rudolf is coached in his role by two of the King's retainers, Colonel Sapt & Fritz von Tarlenheim. With their help, he is crowned King &, when they discover that the King has been kidnapped by Michael & is being held at his castle of Zenda, Rudolf continues the impersonation while plans are laid to free the King. Rudolf doesn't plan to enjoy his new role so much or to fall in love with beautiful Princess Flavia, the woman who is expected to marry the King although she doesn't love him. Rudolf must play a wily game, as Michael & his henchmen can't expose him without exposing their own misdeeds. The scene is set for an exciting story of plots & counter-plots, sword fighting & romance. There's also an extra layer of complexity to the story as Rudolf realises that he would be a worthier King than his cousin but is too honourable to allow him to die so that he can remain King & marry the woman he loves.

Bill Slider is one of my favourite detectives. Cynthia Harrod-Eagles has written over a dozen books in this series & I always look forward to meeting up with Bill again. Melanie Hunter is an ordinary young woman. She works at the Natural History Museum, lives with her real-estate agent boyfriend in a flat in Shepherd's Bush, loves her dog, Marty. There seems no reason why she should have gone missing, let alone be murdered. But, when her neighbour reports her missing, & then her body is found soon after, Slider's team start digging into Melanie's life & find that she had secrets.

Melanie's father was killed in a train crash when she was a teenager. Her mother remarried, a strict, unsympathetic man who Melanie never liked, but after a few rebellious years, Melanie settled down, studied hard & became a palaeontologist. Her career was on track, she was living with her boyfriend, Scott Hibbert, & they planned to get married. Scott had gone to a friend's wedding for the weekend, Melanie had drinks with her friends, came home, went out again almost immediately taking only her keys & disappeared. Downstairs neighbour, Ronnie Fitton, alerted the police because Melanie would never have left the dog alone. However, when Melanie's body is found & the investigation starts, no one's secrets are safe. Fitton murdered his wife in a notorious case & spent years in prison. Scott Hibbert wasn't at his friend's stag night as arranged & Melanie's stepfather's alibi for the night in question looks increasingly shaky. Melanie was loved by everyone but someone must have had a motive for killing her. Was it someone who loved her too much?

Cynthia Harrod-Eagles writes a beautifully-constructed police procedural with clues, suspects & red herrings a-plenty. Bill & his team are old friends now. Jim Atherton, suave, too clever for his own good & now, after many commitment-free years, settling down with Emily & their Siamese cats. Rita Connelly, a newer member of the team, compassionate, clever & determined to do well. My favourite character is Detective Superintendent Fred Porson. Porson's malapropisms & mangling of the language are hilarious but he's a supportive boss & lets Slider get on with the job with minimum interference, except when the Press are demanding arrests. Bill's family life is also happy with his wife, Joanna, baby son George & his father all sharing the house. Harrod-Eagles is such a good writer & Kill My Darling is an absorbing novel that I read virtually in one sitting.

Royal mistresses - Madame de Pompadour & Mrs Howard

I’ve been reading about royal mistresses this week. I’ve just finished reading Nancy Mitford’s biography of Madame de Pompadour, mistress of Louis XV & I’m half way through listening to the audio book of Tracy Borman’s biography of Henrietta Howard, mistress of George II. Both women lived in the 18th century, a period I’ve never been terribly interested in, but recently I’ve been reading more about it. I’ve always been more attracted to the Tudor & Victorian periods. Then, I became interested in Richard III so that led me back a little through the medieval period. Then the Anglo-Saxons took my fancy & my love of early 20th century fiction led to an interest in the history of the period & the World Wars. So, it was inevitable that I would get to the 18th century sooner or later.

I’ve dabbled in the 18th century before with Amanda Foreman’s Georgiana, Flora Fraser’s Princesses & Stella Tillyard’s Aristocrats, all biographies of fascinating women. There are also big gaps in my knowledge of French history. Apart from the Revolutionary period & the 16th century, I really only know about French history when it impinged on English history. So, Nancy Mitford’s witty, elegantly written biography was a good place to start.

Madame de Pompadour’s full name was Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson, Madame Le Normant d’Etioles, Marquise-Duchesse de Pompadour, known to her family as Reinette. I’ll refer to her as Madame, I think! Born into a loving bourgeois family, Madame made an early marriage to Monsieur d’Etioles but she always had great ambitions. Her charm & beauty had captivated everyone she met. She visited a fortune teller when she was nine & was told she would be the mistress of a king & she was called Reinette (little queen) after this. She was an excellent amateur actress, a skill she put to good use in later years when she put on theatrical performances to amuse the King at Court. She was lovely without being truly beautiful. None of the many portraits by artists such as Boucher are said to be very like her. Mitford quotes some descriptions of Madame by her contemporaries, such as Dufort de Cheverny,

Not a man alive but would have had her for his mistress if he could. Tall, though not too tall; beautiful figure; round face with regular features; wonderful complexion, hands and arms; eyes not so very big, but the brightest, wittiest and most sparkling I ever saw. Everything about her was rounded, including all her gestures. She absolutely extinguished all the other women at Court, although some were very beautiful.

It was almost unheard of for a bourgeoise to become the King’s mistress & her ascendency caused much gossip & jealousy. Although any woman would have caused just as much gossip as gossip was almost the only thing that kept the courtiers from dying of boredom. Madame was a great patron of the arts. She was responsible for the Sevres china factory’s success & was a great admirer of writers such as Voltaire who she helped with her friendship & contacts at Court. She was a great gardener & when the King built the Petit Trianon for them to retire to, Madame was responsible for the design of the gardens. She was sincerely devoted to Louis & he to her, although his devotion didn’t prevent him sleeping with as many other women as he fancied. Madame became quite influential politically as well. The King & his chief ministers would meet in her apartments & she was very involved in the peace negotiations during the Seven Years War.

Louis remained devoted to Madame for nearly twenty years. Her poor health was the only blot on her happiness & she died of a lung complaint at the age of 43. Louis was so attached to Madame that he allowed her to die at Versailles (it was the custom that only members of the royal family were permitted to die there). Her body was immediately removed after her death to a chapel at the Hotel des Reservoirs nearby. The King watched the cortege on its journey to Paris from a balcony of the palace,

He watched the Marquise as she went back up the long Avenue de Paris; in the bitter wind he stood there without coat or hat until she was out of sight. Then he turned away, tears pouring down his cheeks. “That is the only tribute I can pay her.”

In some ways, Henrietta Howard’s story is similar to Madame de Pompadour’s. Henrietta was born into a noble, but impoverished family. After her father’s death in a duel & her mother’s death when Henrietta was just 12, she had to rely on the kindness of relatives. She made an early, disastrous marriage to a distant relation, Charles Howard. He was a drunken womaniser who abused his wife physically & mentally. They were not well-off as Charles gambled & drank away what money they had, mostly Henrietta’s allowance. Henrietta’s only joy in the years of her marriage was her son, Henry. The Howard’s precarious financial situation led to them living with relations until their welcome wore out & then in a succession of dingy lodging houses.

Then, Henrietta had the idea of selling everything they had & going to the Hanoverian Court at Herrenhausen in Germany. The last of the Stuart monarchs, Queen Anne, was ailing & her heir was her cousin, Dowager Electress Sophia of Hanover & her son, the Elector George Louis. Henrietta thought it might be possible to ingratiate herself with the Hanoverians that would result in a position at the English Court when they succeeded Queen Anne on the English throne. Henrietta was an attractive young woman, resourceful, intelligent & witty. She was also discreet & modest. Sophia was delighted with her as was her grandson, George Augustus & his wife, Caroline.

Sophia died just two months before Queen Anne so it was George Louis who became George I of Great Britain. Fortunately for Henrietta, the new Princess of Wales, Caroline, honoured a promise to find her a position at Court & Henrietta became one of the Princess’s Women of the Bedchamber. Here was the longed for financial security at last. Henrietta was separated by Charles by this time, made easier by the fact that he was in King George’s Household & the King & Prince of Wales loathed each other & kept very separate Courts. She was constantly afraid of Charles’s temper though & worried that he would create a scandal that would harm her position. She was also devastated that He would not allow her to see young Henry, who was growing up to despise his mother.

Several years after the Hanoverians arrived in England, Henrietta became the mistress of the Prince of Wales. Prince George wasn’t a very prepossessing character, unattractive physically with his stoutness & bulging eyes, he had a choleric temper & was an incredibly boring conversationalist. He was also still very much in love with his wife & retired to bed with her at every opportunity, much to the laughter of his courtiers. George felt he must have a mistress. It was expected of a Prince & he was tired of people saying that he was dominated by his wife. It was certainly no love match but it did give Henrietta a measure of influence & she used this to further the careers of her friends, including the writers, John Gay & Alexander Pope.

I’m just at the halfway mark of this fascinating book & George has paid Henrietta off very generously with enough money, furniture & jewels to buy & furnish her own house at Twickenham. George was notoriously miserly so this was a magnificent gesture & he tied the gift up legally so that Charles couldn’t get his hands on any of it – vitally important in this period when everything a woman possessed belonged to her husband. Henrietta is looking forward to leaving Court & living quietly in the country but I can’t help thinking Charles is destined to make trouble for her. I’m looking forward to the rest of Henrietta’s story.

Elizabeth's women - Tracy Borman

There are countless biographies of Elizabeth I. There have been books about Elizabeth as a politician, an icon of art & poetry, her influence as a literary figure. There was even a book called Elizabeth I, CEO. There have been many books about Elizabeth’s relationships with men, her favourites & advisers like Leicester, Cecil & Walsingham & her suitors, Philip of Spain & the Duc d’Alencon. There have been hundreds of novels. I always loved Margaret Irwin’s Young Bess & the movie made from it with Jean Simmons & Stewart Granger as Thomas Seymour. What a pity Seymour was really so sleazy, nothing at all like lovely, noble Stewart Granger in the movie. Oh well, real life is rarely like the movies. *

Tracy Borman’s new book concentrates on Elizabeth’s relationships with women. There are chapters on Elizabeth’s mother, Anne Boleyn, her stepmothers, cousins the Grey sisters, Margaret Douglas & Mary, Queen of Scots. Rivals such as Douglas Sheffield & Lettice Knollys & her servants & ladies-in-waiting. I’m not sure how true the subtitle, The hidden story of the Virgin Queen, is as all these women have been part of Elizabeth’s story in every biography I’ve read. Several have their own biographies & there have been lots of novels written about them, too. Does anyone else remember My Enemy, the Queen by Jean Plaidy about Lettice Knollys? I loved that book. However, it’s an interesting idea to bring all their stories together in one book, & Tracy Borman does an excellent job of telling Elizabeth’s story through her relationships with these women.

Many of these women, her servants & ladies of the court, had a more intimate relationship with the Queen than anyone else. They were with her every minute of the day, she was rarely alone. They dressed her, washed her, entertained her & often slept in her bedchamber. They had enormous influence, which probably accounts for their willingness to serve at Court, as they were often poorly paid & lived in very basic accommodation. They often paid dearly for that privilege. Lady Mary Sidney, sister of Robert Dudley, nursed Elizabeth through smallpox but caught the disease herself, was left horribly disfigured & left Court to live in the country. During the perilous times of Mary I’s reign, when Elizabeth’s life was often in danger, her governess, Kat Ashley, found herself in the Tower several times. Admittedly it was mostly because Kat was a foolish woman who loved to gossip & often caused trouble with her indiscretions. But, she was utterly loyal to Elizabeth, she was the closest thing to a mother Elizabeth had ever known, & she was repaid by lifelong love & loyalty by the Queen after her accession. Ladies like Bess Throckmorton & Elizabeth Vernon who fell in love with courtiers & wanted to marry met a frosty reception from the Queen who was a jealous mistress, demanding total loyalty, even at the expense of her ladies’ happiness. Secret marriages & pregnancies were often the result & some unlucky ladies ended up in the Tower. There’s lots of scandal, treason, ambition & duplicity in the stories of these women. If you’ve read other books about Elizabeth, this will give you another perspective on her life.

* Dani at A Work In Progress has just reviewed the Sourcebooks reprint of Young Bess here. What a gorgeous cover this new edition has. I love the fact that Sourcebooks have been reprinting some wonderful English fiction in recent years. Georgette Heyer, R F Delderfield & now Margaret Irwin among others. I believe they're going to reprint Cynthia Harrod-Eagles' Morland Dynasty series as well.

Abby, hot cross buns & reading progress

I've spent the morning making hot cross buns. They're on to the second rising now & I have the cross mixture all ready to pipe on & then pop them into the oven. I love making hot cross buns. The dough smells so delicious, I use lots of spices & it's a lovely dough to knead. These have become an Easter tradition at work so we'll be enjoying them for morning tea tomorrow. Unfortunately I've had a camera malfunction - actually, I think the camera's had it, - so I can't post a photo of the actual buns. My friend P is coming over tomorrow to finish installing my new water tank so he will have a look at the camera as well. It was only cheap as I didn't think I'd need a camera very often. Well, blogging has changed my mind. I love taking photos of Abby & the garden & my cooking, so, if the camera has died, I'll be out next week looking for a new one. So, the photo above is not authentic but gives an idea of what my buns look like. I wish you could smell them!

The camera problems also mean I don't have a picture of Abby in her new purple sparkly collar. Actually it was while I was trying to get a shot of her in the collar yesterday that the camera gave up the ghost. So, here are a couple of photos from earlier in the summer.

I'm halfway through two terrific books. Tracy Borman's Elizabeth's women & Ann Cleeves's Black raven which is the first in the Shetland Quartet. Perversely, I started with the last book in the series which I loved & reviewed here. I'll be getting back to both books after lunch.