Log In
Register
Home
Topic RSS
9:26 pm
April 20, 2010
Offline
Ok,
I just finished reading “the boleyn inheritance” by phillpa gregory…and I have to get a couple of things off my chest.
I thought I was horrified at the beheading of Anne, but to kill this child is amazing to me….she wasn't raised to be a queen, so her past shouldn't have been held against her….if Henry wanted to marry a nun, he should have saved one of the ones he allowed to be raped and run from the abbeys…..again, a woman is killed because of her personality…and personality that she had BEFORE she even met this man…….
Now, having said that, Catherine was the stupidest person in the world to: 1. Marry Henry, 2. Trust her uncle, the duke of norfolk, 3. trust her kinswoman Jane Boleyn, 4. have an affair while married to Henry…….that was senseless….but like I said , she was a CHILD….I know that 16 was old for back then, but when she was amorous before coming to court, she was only 11 and 14 and had no guidance(according to Gregory)……
According to this book, she didn't even know she was going to be killed until they were taking her to the scaffold….which I guess might be a blessing…..I thought to kill her, and not just annull the marriage because of Dereham, was unusually cruel…but I know they say that Henry was going mad at this time, but gosh…no one helped this child?
Now, again innocent men were killed….and I'm not talking about Thomas Culpepper….but Francis Dereham….Why was he killed? He slept with her back when she was 14….before she even knew the king….he lost his life? He's not a genuis either…what made him come to court??? She was married, he should have moved on with his life….
Also, I live in America, so maybe the laws are different, but I also think its unfair that Henry passed laws and made them retroactive….for the sole purpose of killing someone…..I'm sure there is a special place in hell for him…(sorry to be so harsh)….
All I can say is thank goodness that Anne of Cleves escaped…..it would have been a shame for her to die, and she didn't even consumate the marriage….
9:29 am
March 12, 2010
Offline
I agree as well. I've read The Boleyn Inheritance and want to read JD's biography. I've always felt so sorry for Katherine and had a special fondness for her that some might find ridiculous. But it's so sad how a naive young girl raised in what was basically a noble orphanage was caught up in the scheming world of adults at court. I agree that Francis Dereham's death was ridiculous. Katherine may have been made to lie about her virginity, but Dereham didn't lie or commit adultery with her! And we still don't know exactly why Katherine conducted the affair with Culpeper. They had courted before, so maybe they were in love. Or maybe Katherine knew she needed to become pregnant and feared the King's increasing age. Or maybe a mixture of these. We may never know, but I don't think that generalizing Katherine as “stupid” or “a wh*re” is fair when we know so much about her childhood yet so little about her motives.
10:24 am
August 12, 2009
Offline
Phillipa Gregory is not someone you should rely on for information about the Tudors. She – how can I put this kindly? – makes stuff up. Like all the time. Her novels are riddled with inaccuracies and outright untruths. She's worse than The Tudors on Showtime.
That said, I DO feel sorry for Kathryn. I remember what I was like as a teenager, and my parents taught me right from wrong. I feel for someone basically dumped on someone else to raise (I like the term 'noble orphanage', Hannah), and largely allowed to run wild. To then be taken to essentially another world, with rules and protocol and politics that have severe consequences for screwing up, and expecting her not to screw up, was cruel. And that's on the Howards. They also threw her to the wolves to save their own skins when she was caught.
After she was arrested, I don't think anything she did or said would have saved her. Especially since Henry was a half-crazy tyrant by this time. If he would have a man hanged, drawn and quartered for having sex with a willing, unmarried girl, he wouldn't have let her live. I think Cranmer tried his best to get her to admit to a pre-contract with Dereham, but she was too frightened to see it as a way out. She was convinced it would be used to condemn her, instead. And Cranmer couldn't push too hard, as he had his own neck to worry about. It hadn't been that long since Cromwell lost his head for not giving Henry what he wanted, also involving a marriage. So Kathryn was too frightened to think straight and was surrounded by people too frightened for themselves to try to help her. And because she kept denying it, they tortured Dereham some more and he told them about Culpeper. And game over for all of them. Tragic.
"Don't knock at death's door.
Ring the bell and run. He hates that."
11:31 am
February 24, 2010
Offline
Phillipa Gregory writes fiction. She takes poetic license to the max.
Cranmer was trying to get the marriage annulled. He probably didn't want another Queen's blood on his hands. Had they not tortured Dereham into giving Culpeper's name, Catherine may have gotten away with her life. Although knowing Henry's temperment, I kind of doubt it. When that affair came out, she was doomed, and so was everyone around her. If Dereham hadn't been working as Catherine's secretary, he may have escaped death. (as Manox did) That was a dumb move on Catherine's part. But we don't know how his employment came about. Maybe he blackmailed her into hiring him.
I feel sorry for Catherine too….I feel sorry for every woman that Henry's life touched.
Catherine's family put her in an awful situation and then left her on her own. Sixteen may have been considered grown up at that time, but Catherine was different than most sixteen year old girls. She had not received much in the way of education. She could just get away with reading and writing. Her Culpeper letter proves that. She had no Motherly influence in her life. No Father in her life. What she learned, she learned from men who only wanted to use her. God only knows where the Grandmother was. And then there is Norfolk, who has to be the worst uncle in the world.
Catherine knew she was going to die before she got that scaffold. While she was still at Syon, she openly confessed her crime to the delegation sent to hear her case. She asked that her family not be affected by her crime. She asked that the King give away her dresses to her attendants. She was taken from Syon, not without a struggle, to the Tower by barge on Feb. 10th. On the 12th she was told she would die the next day. She requested the block be brought to her so she could practice placing her head on it.
A heartbreaking life.
