Boleyn said

I’ve found some very bizzarre ideas to do with birth control. whether they worked is a matter of speculation.
• A sponge soaked in lemon juice and inserted into the v*gina.
A pessary made of nettle leaves .
The woman must drink sheep urine or rabbit blood.
A numbing genital bath of either cold water or a mixture of ginger and vinegar.
The woman must wear weasel testicles on her thigh or the amputated foot of a live weasel around her neck.
Women of the time still used a number of birth control measures such as coitus interruptus, inserting lily root and rue into the v*gina.
Emetics and diuretics, which reduced the desire for sex or simply made it impossible
Weird.
In Suzzanne Dunn’s book Katherine Howard(fiction) she mentions about a half a lemon. Ie inserting half a lemon into her v*gina so that she could have sex without fear of pregnancy. I remember many years ago I really can’t remember what book it was but it was a book about K.H again fictional, but the Duchess had inserted a stone into K.H v*gina, which she personally removed when she married Lard arse.
I know that half an orange was allegdely used as a rudimentary form of what we now know to be used as a cap.

Thanks a lot! I will NEVER get some of those images outta my HEAD!!!!

Lorna — “Blood letting” is as far (if not too far) as I want to go in learning about ancient medical procedures!!

Oh yes, science and medicine have made wonderfully great strides in the last 150 years; but sometimes it seems there are still missing remedies with some doctors. I can go to my doctor complaining of a bad back and all I get is some ‘muscle relaxers’. I want ‘hands-on’ examinations to find out where my problem is and how to get it repaired! But, that never happens!
Of course, with my present condition, they all just look at me and declare; “You’re just damn lucky to even be here!” I had quite a problem 8 years ago, starting with pancreatitis in Nov, 2005;at age 63, 2 major surgeries,
5 week coma, on TPN for over 4 months, lost from 235 lbs. down to 165 lb during that time, I also had double pneumonia, a trachea, was on life support, could not even sit up in bed alone, came home in wheel chair for 4 months, then a walker for almost 5 months, then a walking cane for the rest of the year; was in rehab for 10 months; and then………I was left with horrible surgical hernias which no doctor will touch! I look 9 months pregnant! Only thing, this damn baby is OVER SIX YEARS OLD!!! I need a wheel barrow to push this thing around.
Wow, Lorna, didn’t mean to write a phreaking BOOK! Sorry, I should be giving Doctors an A+ with the work they did keeping me alive.

O M Z ! Lorna, YOU ARE a survivor! You know, …..no matter how bad one thinks they are, how bad their health/situation is, … there’s always someone, somewhere who has had it worse. I know I’m lucky, and I have never given anyone, doctors, nurses, care givers, and especially my wife, a hard time during this episode of my life. I took the attitude,– “It is what it is!” plain and simple, no ones fault. I had 62 good years — 62 years that many people have never been able to experience, so, why should I complain?
You seem to have had a horrific experience in your life, and I dare say you are handling it in a very acceptable way. I know this is not the space for venting, and/or getting too personal in our posts, but sometimes it just helps to be able to express some of our deeper feelings about out experiences in our lives. Thanks for sharing. I really enjoyed you sharing your story with us.

It’s possible I suppose. Perhaps he was trying to regain the golden years, when he was a golden Sod I mean God in a golden court and saw K.H as a way of doing it.
She is supposed to have had A.B’s vitality and vibrance but didn’t have A.B’s wit, learning or sharp tongue. I guess he hoped that he could mould K.H into what he wanted in a wife. An A.B look alike but perhaps a C.O.A or J.S docility. Someone who was perfectly happy to put up with his shit and temper tantrums as long as she kept her gob shut.

I agree Anyanka. I do feel that K.H had the atributes of being a good Queen, and perhaps if she had been just that little bit older, when H8 cast his beady eyes on her, she would have perhaps had the maturity to have dealt with the whole court situation better. I don’t think she was in anyway spiteful or malicious, I think she was actually very gentle and loving and certainly showed a great deal of compassion to others less fortunate than herself. Certainly her kindness towards Margaret Pole shows that, I’m not certain but I believe she pleaded with H8 to spare her life, due to her age, but H8 refused to listen.
When H8 was ill in 40/41 she probably did feel that she had done something to anger him. Maybe that why she turned to Culpepper to ask his advice on how to make ammends for what she felt she might have done wrong. After all Culpepper would have known H8 inside out and upside down so therefore it would have stood to reason, that Culpepper would have known the likes and dislikes of H8 too, and advices K.H on how to make H8 happy.
She made mistakes like all teens do, none of us are infallible and I dare say we’ve all done things we regret. But she simply didn’t have the maturity to handle the situation she found herself in. She was really just a little girl in a big world, but that doesn’t mean she was stupid, far from it, her education wasn’t as advanced as K.O.A, or A.B’s but she did have a basic understanding of reding and writing. I would say (purely and opinin) that her education was perhaps along the same lines of that as J.S, enough to get by but not too much for her to start acting out of her given station in life, I hope that makes sence. In a world when woman were subserviant in the male dominated sociaty it really wasn’t considered the norm to have big ideas of your own.

I actually find that a very strange thing to say. Because if you lok at it. K.O.A was in my opinion far more superior in intelligence than H8 was, she stood her ground when H8 wanted to divorce her and as a result earned the respect and admiration of the people. Henry’s answer to that was to change the face of England forever which IMO was a cowardly act of temper on H8’s part, he wanted his own way and he wouldn’t see reason. I don’t believe Anne was solely responsible for H8 destroying the church, but she may have said “it doesn’t have to be like this, here read this book” H8 was the one who pulled apart England and he was the one who had to live with it.H8 turned the world upside down to get back at K.O.A and then turned it inside to get rid of A.B. H8 was a hypocrite a liar and a murderer, as well as a stinky fat old git.

One of things that I really don’t undestand when it comes to K.H and her downfall is that why was Dereham’s servant/dog’s body/ bat-man or whatever he was, tortured? I believe (His name escapes me for the moment) he had all his teeth and fingernails pulled out in front of Dereham. I am unsure as well as to his fate, after such treatment. Did he go to the scaffold with his freind/master or did he go free? and why even torture him at all, was it just to get him to confirm what they already believed, when Mary Lasselles dropped the big S****y brick?
Hadn’t that evidence already been proved as K.H servants rolled over quickly enough to say what happened in the Duchess’s household. Fear can be a powerful weapon.. If you were told you were going to die if you didn’t cough up, you would cough up and hope that it would save your life, and I think this is what happened here. Joan Bulmer and the others were afraid their first reaction was to save themselves and if that meant sacrificing another’s life (I.e K.H.) to save your own then so be it.
K.H was another one of Lard arse’s victims, and she didn’t deserve to die.

Larry do you really want to hear my opinion of the big, fat, stinking, wife murdering, useless, cowardly, hypocritical, lying, slimy, mysodynistic, whining, cheating, poor bleeding martyr, sad act sack of crap? I think that just about covers it.. I sure I will think of some more choice words to decribe lard arse in due time.

Dereham’s friend was called Davenport the name came to me in the middle of the night. Dinosaur thought I had finally gone mad (News for him I’m there already. Well you don’t have to be mad to live here with a Dinosaur but it sure as hell helps) when I suddenly sat up in bed and said out loud “Davenport that was his name” He’s used to my little eccentricities by now.

Barnettbuff said

OH……………….you have such a WAY WITH WORDS…..such as they are!!!!! On the subject of Katherine,…I’m listening to a book about another Katherine, “Katherine Swynford” by Anya Seton, written several years ago; however, since she is most likely in my acestorial line, it is of great interest to me. I’ve enjoyed “driving around” the community in Lincolnshire, around Kettlethrope.

That’s a good book Larry I read it some years back. John of Guant’s daughter Catherine, by Contance of Castille was great aunt I believe to Katherine of Aragon.

Thank you Anyanka. I knew K.O.A was a great something to Constance and John.
Makes me laugh about John of Gaunt, he was determined to have power for himself one way or another, and although he didn’t get a shot to sit on the big chair and wear the sparkly tin hat his decendants from all 3 marriages did. Whether it was in good old blighty or abroad somewhere. The closest he got to sitting on the big chair wearing a sparkly tin hat was when he went into bat (and I don’t mean cricket) for his wife Contance when she made a play for the throne of Castille. They say that all is fair in love and war. He didn’t win the battle for Constance but he did win the war when his daughter Catherine married Henry of Castille.

It was said that when Henry Turnip found out that K.H had betrayed him (if you can call it that) he was tempted to run her through himself with his own sword. What would have happened if he had gone to her room and killed her?