History Student

Mary I and her stepmothers

Historians:

“For some time after the coronation, reports of [Anne’s] health continued to he good, but there is reason to believe that the advanced stages of the pregnancy were, in fact, difficult. Henry, it was later said, was at his wits’ end, even hoping for a miscarriage if it would save Anne’s life.  […]

“[After Elizabeth’s birth] there is … no evidence of the crushing psychological blow that some have supposed. […] After all the alarms [during her pregnancy], Anne had an easy labor; the child was perfect and took after her father. Henry’s predominant emotion was relief. […] Letters announcing the news were sent out far and wide, a second and public Te Deum was sung at St Paul’s, and preparations were at once put in hand for a magnificent christening on Wednesday, 10 September, to be followed by bonfires and free wine in London.

“[…] The name Elizabeth was given to the child, rather than the name of one of the godmothers, deliberately to identify her with the royal dynasty, especially Henry VIII’s mother.

“[…] [However] the birth of Elizabeth may have cemented the relationship between the parents, but it undeniably weakened Anne’s position in the eyes of the world.  […] [W]ith a daughter in the cradle, Anne still had to establish her claim to the throne. The birth of Elizabeth undid much of what the coronation set out to achieve; Anne Boleyn remained a pretender. If she had had a son in September 1533, her position would have been beyond challenge.” | Eric Ives

The birth of Elizabeth Tudor has been consistently misrepresented either “the beginning of the end” of or as a major negative turning point in her parents’ marriage. While the arrival of a daughter rather than a son on 7 September 1533 was a disappointment, it was not as terrible a blow to Henry VIII as is commonly depicted.  That the newborn princess was such a healthy, pretty infant boded well for the future, and the king was relieved that Queen Anne had a brief and successful labor. The late months of her pregnancy had been so precarious that Henry was even said to have wished for a miscarriage if it meant that his “most dear and most entirely beloved wife” would live. If true, it was–with hindsight–a sadly ironic testament to his love for the woman he had fought so hard to marry. 

August 31, 1997.

In the privacy of her domain, Marie Antoinette creates a parallel court in her own orbit, with a relaxed etiquette and courtiers chosen by affinity rather than birth. But in keeping the court at a distance, Marie Antoinette is closing herself in. The Petit Trianon and its garden becomes a world in itself.

“Among the eaves and gables of Versailles, immediately above the royal apartments, are the series of small panelled rooms which were known as les petits appartements. It is here that the King of France led his private life far removed from the show and glitter of La Salle des Glaces ... These narrow, low-ceilinged rooms with their delicate gilding have still a certain atmosphere of intimacy. We can see the alcove from where a secret staircase led directly from the royal apartments to the countess’s bedroom, which the infatuated Louis would sometimes climb as often as twenty times a day.

During her five winters at Versailles, most of Jeanne’s life was spent in those small panelled rooms ... the chandelier was now of rock crystal and the glass bottles were topped in gold, while the mirror which reflected her lovely face was a masterpiece by Roettiers de la Tour, the greatest goldsmith of the day. Chased in the purest gold, decorated with the countess’s device of myrtle and of roses, surmounted by a crown, it created a sensation when first exhibited in his workshop.

Every piece of furniture in her rooms, from the rare lacquer cabinets to the tables of rosewood and of satinwood inlaid with plaques of painted porcelain, was perfect. Every picture, from Greuze’s La Cruche cassée to the landscapes of Fragonard and Vernet, was chosen with taste. Even the bronze firescreen and door handles were chiseled by that master craftsman Gouthière. There may have been a hint of the parvenue in the richness of the décor, in the sumptuous golden bed gilded by Cagny, in the folding which covered so much of the panelling, but the general effect was voluptuous, sensual, and intensely feminine, calculated to appeal to an old man who himself admitted ‘that his senses would never give him peace’.”

Madame du Barry: The Wages of Beauty, Joan Haslip

He makes her laugh because some of the things he says and does and the way he looks at life is obviously slightly different than her, so together they’re a great couple.