alice seymour, nee parr. viscountess beauchamp / the avenging magdalene - shunned for her licentious mouth, upon her bed lies a house for scandal & rumour, she returns to court seeking fury
penned by velvet for @bloodydayshq
BULLETPOINTS:
name: alice seymour nee parr age/dob: thirty-eight / february 20th 1521 status/rank: viscountess beauchamp country of origin: england place of birth: blackfriars, london birth order: third youngest mother & father: marquess thomas parr of northampton & lady maud parr nee green✟ siblings: utp parr, marquess of northampton (41), utp parr, lady parr (39) sexuality: bisexual horoscope: pisces virtues: leaderly, cunning, independent vices: irritable, coquettish, hostile marital status: married to viscount beauchamp (m. 1545) issue: arthur seymour (b. 1549), catherine seymour (b. 1553) alliance(s): the greys (by marital bonds-politics), the seymours (marriage, tense), the spanairds (maternal bonds) adversaries: the boleyn family, the tudor crown (ish), the court (fully)
TIMELINE:
1521 Birth in Blackfrairs, London to Maud & William Parr, Marquess of Northampton & Lady-in-Waiting to Catherine of Aragon 1525 Death of William Parr, her brother inherits, Alice & her sister become wards to the crown at Bridewell Palace, Blackfriars 1526 Is moved to her Uncle Sir William Parr ‘s Rye House, Hertfordshire for her education whilst her mother remains at court 1531 Her mother dies from the sweating sickness, her will is in place and Alice inherits many portraits, jewels and enough for a dowry of her own 1532 Marriage of Anne Boleyn & Henry VIII 1536 Death of Catherine of Aragon, this is where her hatred for the Tudors/Boleyns begins 1538 Moves to London, where she becomes Lady in Waiting to Anne Boleyn by the arrangement of her Uncle, she detests it and begins a series of secret missives between herself and Mary Tudor, & Anti-Reformist parties 1545 Marries Viscount Beauchamp by the arrangement of her Uncle, she misses the arrest warrant for Anne, and returns to court whilst she detesting her husband for not supporting his brothers 1549 Leaves court to give birth to Arthur Seymour, returns with a fighting vigour and swears her fidelity to her husband despite rumours that she has been licentious and promiscuous with both the young Prince William & many other men at court 1550 Remains at court as part of Anne Boleyn’s circles, probably flirts with henry Tudor whilst she can to get stuff? Begins an absent re-construction of Wulfhall to benefit her son's inheritance, but its an uphill battle since Seymour is hardly a name honoured by the people 1553 Gives birth to Catherine Seymour 1557 Henry VIII dies, attends the coronation of William III with the Grey & Seymour clans 1559 Attends the marriage of Anne Boleyn & Thomas Wyatt
BIOGRAPHY:
Kendal Castle was crumbling, or rather, it had crumbled. As the ancestral House of Parr, one would've thought someone would have paid greater attention to the wellbeing of a home that could've last a thousand years, for instead of being brought into the world beneath the roof of a seat that had long been held by their family since the time of the Caput baroniae, Alice was born amongst the city of London, Blackfrairs to be exact. The youngest of three, the only thing stammered between uneasy lips was the fact that shes was then owed a dowry by the behest of a father who had grown all too comfortable with cards at the Palaces of the English court. So, when wrapped in lavender scented linens, she was pushed into the arms of a wet nurse so both parents could return to their habits and pleasures.
Thomas Parr was a fine, intelligent mind - he had once been the principle to Lady Margaret Beaufort's school at Collyweston and had long since taken grand advantage of his intellect to pursue mathematics and theology before being risen to the role of Master of the Wards, Master of the Guards and Comptroller to the King. Maud Green was met on a similar playing field as a trusted member of the revolving ladies who waited upon Catherine of Aragon, with her own rooms to enjoy and great luxuries passed upon her by the kindness of the Queen. Their marriage was one of fine dining, riveting conversation and kind looks passed over the heads of their peers. First came their son, then a daughter, and then finally Alice.
Brought up to relish the mind and what could come from nourishing cunning, Alice had been wise from the start. For though their father died when, their mother used her connections to have herself and her children established in the rooms of Bridewell Palace, Blackfriars, so she could keep her proximity to the Queen and her offspring could continue their wellbeing beneath her quick gaze. Though, they only remained a year, for Alice at only five years of age, was found in the arms of her father's brother, William Parr, escorted alongside her sister towards Rye House, Hertfordshire, for their education and happiness.
Of course, it would've been foolish to live such a youthful childhood amongst the humdrum of an English Court, thereafter became the hotbed of fury concerning the dissolution of the marriage between the King and Queen. And though their mother, the ever faithful Lady Maud, remained by her Mistress' side in an act of complete loyalty to both the Pope and the safety of Catherine, Maud soon caught the sweating illness. Alice, who had grown to enjoy the great expanse of land nurtured by her Uncle, running alongside her siblings whilst cultivate a strong, unbreakable friendship with them both, soon learnt that they were no longer as safe as before, but rather orphans put to the mercy of their paternal Uncle.
Though, they were indeed luckier than most. With her brother the present Marquess of Northampton, the daughters of the late Thomas & Maud inherited their fair share of rare portraits, jewels and a fine dowry to secure a good match - but since their brother was still too young to understand what was needed for two young girls, they remained under the house of their Uncle, forever seemingly waiting to be returned to the brother, as was often foretold by their mother when sent stories though fine ink.
When Alice is called to court by the behest and control of her Uncle, she is seventeen. Pale, a fair-height and with the favourable red-hair worn by the King himself, she is quickly anointed as a beauty of Court to serve beneath Queen Anne Boleyn as a Lady in Waiting. Though, unlike perhaps many of her peers, the memory of her mother burns into her mind like a red-hot-poker, for too often it was declared that Boleyn was but a concubine, a woman unworthy of the place once warmed by a royal Princess of Aragon. With a stubborn nature, her unruliness once matched with a sincere need to get what she wanted, turns her beauty into something to be scorned - for whether it was the Queen, the other jealous ladies or deterred male courtiers, rumours well around her seventeen year old self that declare her a coquette, a liar and indeed a Pope sympathiser.
Of course, they weren't wrong.
Shunned, yet kept beneath the stern eye of the Queen and her court, by the late age of twenty-four, Alice is matched to the Viscount Beauchamp, the youngest brother to the late Seymours who had swiftly been executed for treason against the crown - a family whom Alice had kept at arm's length for both her own survival and in the hope of side-stepping their eventual demise. It was by the puppeteer hand of her Uncle, that the marriage was made, and though Alice found herself rather repelled with a marriage to a man who had not saved his own family, she is forced to go along with it - mostly, in some hope to save her reputation and head, which lingers upon the chopping block for her constant letters sent to the Lady Mary, a friendship nourished by her mother's own to Mary's mother.
But what else is there to say? For that is the biography of Alice Parr, and this is now the re-telling of Alice Seymour. Still, shunned by the noble ladies in fear of catching her reputation (which, though muted by her marriage is still questioned by the flicker of her eyelashes), Alice becomes a mother. Arthur is born, and beloved. But a maternal devotion does little to a boy meant to become his father's son, and before she returns to court there are already rumours that he is not of his father's loins but of some other courtier who had fallen for her lustful woes - even, by the gossip of chambermaids, the Prince William has found it hard to look yonder.
In an effort to secure her son's wellbeing, she begins to evoke her parents' intellect and spirit by renewing the works set upon the Seymour home of Wulfhall, which had fallen into disrepair after the fall of the late Edward, Thomas and Jane Seymour, before becoming a mother once more to a daughter, little Catherine, named after the Queen in a coy act of subterfuge.
Now, she returns to court again as a Viscountess. And, hey, if she survives this season, then there's no end to her appetite.
