#first Protestant funeral in England

[tudorqueen6]

7 September 1548: THE FUNERAL of the Dowager Queen

Evesham Journal 7 September 1548: THE FUNERAL of the Dowager Queen Katherine Parr. It was the first Protestant funeral held in English. Her chief mourner was Lady Jane Grey. She was buried in St Mary’s Chapel on the grounds of Sudeley Castle, Gloucestershire, England. ‘A Breviate of the Internment of the lady Katherine Parr, Queen Dowager, late wife to King Henry VIII, and after, wife to Sir…

[dwellordream]

“Like the Christians’ Eve, the Iroquois Sky-Woman had an insatiable desire to satisfy her hunger. At first she sought her husband’s guidance, but in time she struck out on her own. Her curiosity brought her to the sacred tree at the center of the Sky-World--a place where, as she soon discovered, the floor of the sky was very thin. Losing her footing, she slipped through a hole at the tree’s base and fell headlong ‘toward the great ocean far below.’

…Like her Iroquois descendants in North America, this first fallen Sky-Woman farmed the rich earths she created, gathered its fruits, and built a hut upon it to live in. After a time, her pregnancy ran its course and, legend says, she ‘was delivered of a daughter.’ The girl and her mother continued to look after their lands till one day, ‘when the girl had grown to womanhood,’ a man appeared. He stayed only briefly--just long enough to impregnate Sky-Woman’s daughter. When her time to deliver arrived she, like many women during the premodern period, died while giving birth. Her offspring survived: two boys who would come to rule the earth their mother and grandmother had made.

…Every native group had its own account of the world’s beginnings. For the Pueblo of the Southwest, human life began underneath the earth when a woman named Tsichtinako (Thought Woman) nursed two sisters: Iatikyu, the Mother of the Corn clan, and Nautsiti, the Mother of the Sun clan. The Ottawa, an Algonquian-speaking people living in the northern Great Lakes region, traced their origins to a male figure called the Great Hare and his younger brother.

…To the Protestants of New England, the followers of the teachings of the Swiss theologian John Calvin, the devotional practices of the Catholics in New France and the Spanish colonies seemed as alien as those of the Narragansets and Wampanoags who lived among them in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. In turn, the faithful in Virginia and Maryland, who followed the orthodox traditions of the Church of England, considered New England’s Puritans to be overzealous reformers.

…Even in the most physical, tangible sense religion was a constant presence. From the stark clapboard spires that capped New England’s Congregational meeting houses, to the sturdy brick of Virginia’s Anglican churches, to the poles marking the underground kivas in which the Pueblo held sacred rituals, places of worship dotted the landscape. Each and every day, the English villages lining the eastern seaboard would have been alive with the sound of church bells.

…Every part of colonial America had its own rhythms of religious devotion--rhythms that helped women and men make sense of their lives. But nowhere did religion play a greater role than it did in early New England. Almost without exception, the leaders of Massachusetts, Plymouth, Connecticut, New Haven, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island were dissenters from the Church of England.

…No matter whether they enthusiastically supported or dared to question the Puritan mission, all law-abiding New Englanders gathered in their local meetinghouses every Sunday, and often once during the week as well, to hear their preacher expound upon scripture. One perennially popular sermon topic was the nature of women. Between 1668 and 1735, women’s lives were the subject of no fewer than 75 printed treatises. Some of these tracts were funeral sermons that eulogized an especially pious female parishioner; others were more general “how-to” homilies dealing with marriage or mothering.

…Pious women were praised by ministers and neighbors alike. If they resembled any Old Testament figure, it was the industrious Bathsheba (the ‘virtuous woman’ described in Proverbs 31:10-31) rather than the perfidious Eve. Where Eve tempted, persuaded, and seduced, Bathsheba planted, prayed, and spun. Her every word testified to a womanly brand of piety: faith tempered with respectful submission. More than one New England minister echoed these verses from Proverbs, exalting the woman who ‘openeth her mouth with wisdom…in her tongue is the law of kindness.’ As the biblical passage suggested, such well-spoken women were indeed more priceless than rubies.

…In fact, New England’s ‘virtuous women’ may have been even more devoted to religious practice than their husbands and fathers. At the very least they were more dedicated churchgoers. At first, men and women joined the churches in equal numbers. Within a generation, however, women outnumbered men in many if not most of the churches in Massachusetts and Connecticut. By the mid-1700s, women comprised nearly three-quarters of many congregations.

…One of the more radical groups in the entire spectrum of dissenting English Protestantism, the Quakers granted female believers an extraordinary degree of autonomy and equality. …Converts of both sexes were encouraged to preach about their religious experiences, and one of the movement’s early and most prominent leaders was an English wife and mother, Margaret Fell. …Where Quaker women were concerned, Massachusetts authorities made the links between female preaching, rejecting ministers’ teachings, and worshiping the devil even more explicit.

…Black women and men brought a very different set of religious beliefs to the southern colonies. Their traditions concerning the supernatural were as diverse as the many African peoples from which they came. There were, however, important common threads; most West Africans believed in more than one God and made the veneration of ancestors an important part of their worship ceremonies.

…Until the 1730s, southern whites made little effort to convert their slaves to Christianity. But in the late 18th century, evangelical sects such as the Methodists and the Baptists appealed to blacks and poor whites alike. …Call-and-response hymn singing and joyful shouting are examples of African forms that influenced the style of worship practiced by both whites and blacks in many southern denominations.”

Jane Kamensky, “Daughters of Eve, Daughters of Zion: Women and Religion” in The Colonial Mosaic: American Women, 1600-1760

[neathyingenue]

It's about time that I did a character intro/backstory dump for my FL OC! Here we gooo

///

Name: Silvia Salcedo (she/they)

Also known as: The Radical Sonneteer

Titles: Citizen, Ms, Comrade

Ambition: Heart's Desire

///

Timeline!

1879

Silvia is born in British Honduras (modern-day Belize, the Yucatec Peninsula) to Roberto Salcedo, a cis British Honduran, and Silas Owens, a trans Welshman.

1880

Moves with Silas and Roberto to western England.

While Silvia is her dads' biological child, the 'official' story is Roberto's daughter by a wife who died.

Silas and Roberto set up a law practice in their country village.

1881-1893ish

Silvia is educated at home. She speaks Spanish and English at home, and learns Welsh and Latin as well.

Somewhere in her childhood, Silvia learns that her dads are a couple and the truth about who she is.

She's taught vaguely that ‘British Empire bad,’ but her dads try as hard as possible to shield her from their colonial trauma.

1893ish-1897

Silvia goes to a girl’s boarding school--one of those progressive, Arts-and-Crafts movement types, probably

Figures out she's a lesbian! Classic girls' school antics!

1897-1900

Silvia attends Oxford (probably as a non-degree-seeking student) and does well.

The ‘Scramble for Africa’ is in the news, which sort of re-radicalizes Silvia and her parents.

Now that they’ve given Silvia a good life and an education, Silas and Roberto decide to get more active in protesting and take more risks with political action.

Silvia also gets politically involved with other students.

She starts hearing rumors about Fallen London, people coming back to life, free love…

1901

In a protest-gone-wrong in Cardiff, a constable kills Silas. The autopsy discovers that Silas is biologically female

Desperate to preserve Silas’s dignity in death, Roberto and Silvia spend all their money and then some to hush it up and give him a funeral.

Burdened by debt, a criminal record, and even more of a desire for independence, Roberto flees back to British Honduras. He begs Silvia to go with him.

Silvia instead moves to London because she’s heard of miraculous things happening there, perhaps even the dead coming back to life!

1899 (the second one)

Silvia arrives in London

Arrested for…yelling at cops probably

Starts Ambition: Heart’s Desire in hopes that she can bring back her dad (although she won't admit it to herself)

Publishes poems. Falls in with Revolutionaries. Tries to call herself “The Revolution’s Sappho” but one publication calls her “The Radical Sonneteer” and that’s what sticks.

Meets Ginny (urchin) and Mothball (urchin's cat), which further ties her to the Neath. Keeps putting off the decision of whether or not she’ll go back to British Honduras instead.

The Starved Invasion happens. Silvia dies. It's a rude awakening, a reminder that she's not on vacation--she is in a dangerous place with dangerous goals.

Now that she’s died, the decision of whether to return was sort of made for her. But she hears about Cider—resolves that she’ll just do that AND the Marvellous, no problem!

Starts to swing wildly between “I can’t have any fun I must WORK” and “We have fun here!” Takes fighting and pickpocketing seriously, then fucks off to Mahogany Hall to do cross-dressing with her cousin Winslow, who's just arrived!

Starts a liaison with Lady [redacted], a socialite. She's terrified that it makes her a class traitor and tries to keep it secret. Their romance is brief but electric, full of many fights and trying to get the other to betray their cause.

Goes on her first serious scientific voyage, which keeps her out of London for a couple of months. When she returns, she's sent to the Tomb-Colonies.

1899 (the third one)

Learns more of the Third City, discovers it was Yucatec Maya--the same Indigenous population that her father is descended from. Realizes that there are still Yucatec Maya people in the Neath, and perhaps instead of seeking home rule on the Surface like Roberto, it would be more valuable to seek the remnants of the Third City in the Neath.

Devotes herself to her studies, learning the language and numerical system of the Yucatec Maya, spending more and more time in her laboratory, and gaining entrance to Parabola.

In this process, Silvia drifts further from her old Revolutionary contacts, and begins to question whether the Liberation of the Night is her priority.

Eventually, as she devotes herself to progressing her Ambition, she loses sight of her other goals. Silvia begins to daydream of what she'd do with her Heart's Desire--all the good she'd do, all the people she'd help.

She has several other flings but falls in love with Caoimhe Coledoc (OC of the-insouciant-scientist). But Silvia is convinced Caoimhe doesn't love her--but maybe she can earn that love if she wins the Marvellous and fixes everything--

[obaewankenope]

Yesterday, my mother and I were discussing Liz IIs death, who'd take the throne, and blah blah about it all (including me informing her that the 3mil funeral cost is because of Victoria's redesign of state funerals blah blah) and she asked me:

Okay, hotshot (I shit you not, she used that word), if you know so much about all this (waving her hand and indicating... Idk... Monarchy shit I guess??) stuff then why did Edward (VIII) have to abdicate the thrown to marry a divorcee if they're letting Charles be King now with her (meaning Camilla)?

And like, I had to stop a minute and think about this all because wow, memory and Monarchy ugh. So! Buckle in y'all its gonna be a great ride!

In 1936, the King of England (and the Commonwealth) was Edward VIII. He caused something called the "Abdication Crisis" because he wanted to marry a divorcee Wallis Simpson but this was a Big No No for a Royal to do.

Now, the thing is, this is what is generally Known about it all. But what my mother (and probably a lot of other people) didn't know is that Eddie 8:

was a Nazi sympathiser

met Hitler in 1937

got pictured performing the Nazi salute

gave German intelligence info on France's military set up that was used to invade France in 1940

and then ended in Portugal after he fled France being invaded where he and his wife rubbed shoulders with German agents and Nazi sympathisers etc etc.

See, the thing is, the Abdication Crisis was what was Publicly Known at the time and made a great Public Excuse for Eddie 8 to leave the throne to his younger brother Albert (George VI) who wasn't a fan of Hitler, the Nazi's or any of that shit.

There's actually a documentary about this darker history of Eddie 8 aired by Channel 4 (Edward VIII: Britain's Traitor King) and I'd recommend giving it a watch because the evidence used by the historian Andrew Lownie is literally decades old. Its from the Royal Archives!

Winston Churchill actually had Eddie 8 removed from Europe all together by making him the Governor of the Bahamas when he was in Portugal and, honestly, the fact that Eddie 8 was also given a Dukedom after adbicating is just Royal Bribery bs to keep him sweet because, afterall, he was a Royal so couldn't have it be known he was a Traitor To The British Empire And Its People blah blah.

The Abdication Crisis was literally a cover up to prevent the common folk from discovering that a King was a Nazi loving bastard and isn't that just a stark reminder of how revisionist history is.

I have known about this for years but for my mother it was a revelation. She had No Idea Eddie 8 had been a Nazi lover, or any of the rest. She, like most, assumed he had been kicked off the throne because he wanted to marry a divorcee but...

Like... That's literally never been an issue for the Royal fucking Family. Like, sure, it was only in 2002 that the Protestant Church of England allowed people to marry divorcees but literally Henry the Fucking Eighth had how many divorces etc etc? It wasn't an impossibility to happen in the first place. But it made a nice smokescreen to oust a King who favoured an enemy nation at a time of great upheaval.

Especially since, ya know, World War II was happening and all that. Yeah...

So yeah, there's some history on the bullshit British Royal Family and how the Public knowledge is carefully curated hogwash by PR managers and Buckingham Palace™ to protect the "image" of the Royal Family and whatever Ruling Monarch there is at the time.

Cool right?

[hey-haven]

So I’m still doing creepypasta redesigns and originally I was gonna post them as a batch as usual, but because the theme here is basically “redoing their entire backstories” I figured to post them one at a time and explain the changes so the post doesn’t become incredibly long.

Please note that this is just for fun and for my AU. I’m not saying my version is better, it’s just different and the original will always be there if you prefer that one.

So here we have Suicide Sadie: (tw, mentions of suicide, domestic abuse, and neglect)

So for Sadie, her story was essentially another “my parent sucks so I killed them” with the only garnish added was she killed herself first and then killed her dad. I am frankly tired of seeing the same exact story over and over so like…here’s my version for my AU.

Sadie immigrated to the United States from England during the industrial revolution and she was immediately put to work in a factory where the conditions were poor, the hours were long, and the pay was low.

After the death of her mother, Sadie’s father married her off to a rich man with the misguided intention of trying to give his daughter an easier life that he could not provide himself. Sadly though, this already poor decision would only make Sadie’s life worse.

Her husband neglected her, often leaving her in the house with literally nothing to do, and the isolation drove her mad. That is until one day, she escaped to be a part of a protest for worker’s rights what with having been a worker in a broken system that often mistreated women. She was caught by her husband, and the neglect turned to physical abuse because he was outraged that his own wife would participate in something like that. He was a business owner himself, so he worried that her voice would put his business under a bad light.

When the isolation and physical abuse got too much, Sadie took her own life as before, any attempt to do something about it only resulted in things getting worse for her. Just a week after the funeral, her husband was found dead, the cause of which was hanging, another “suicide”.

Sadie now carries on as a ghost who specifically makes it her mission to help women try to survive in a world that still treats them poorly. Her spirit often posses men who contribute to this system and have them literally kill themselves.

[abybweisse]

Hello! How are you doing?

As you have problably noticed with the barrage of likes, I have been reading your content and I came across a reply to one of your answers where you stated you believed that Undie killed himself with fire which I never heard before (I do know of the theory that he drowned himself)... I was wondering if you still think this (as I recall this was an older post) and what made you think it? I am so sorry if you already explained this, I'm trying to read all your wonderful, informative posts but I couldn't wait to ask (I assume it will take me a while to read them all and I love interacting with you 😅)

Also, how do we interact with Undie on here? Do we just ask him a question? Is there any rules/etiquette to follow? (I really mean it when I say I love your blog and want to interact more)

Thank you as always and have a great day/night

If my inbox is open, anyone can send Undertaker or Othello an rp prompt. The rules, as such, are pretty basic. Honestly, I'm not sure what my rules are. Maybe... nothing too graphic? Nothing too NSFW.

Death by fire?

There are some posts about this because others have asked about the suicide by fire idea. I still have a theory that he might have killed himself with fire. Either he set himself on fire out of protest, or perhaps he ran into a burning building to die with a loved one he couldn't save.

The main pieces of "evidence" I have for it are:

He keeps those biscuits in a cremation urn, despite the fact that cremation was not a common practice in Victorian England. The most common thing to do was save as much money as possible during your life to afford a full funeral and burial service. Open casket was preferred (if the remains were intact enough). People even got insurance policies for their funerals back then; that's pretty much how insurance first became a common practice. The burning death theory suggests he keeps the urn as a reminder of some kind; if the reaper rebirth theory also turns out to be true, that urn might even contain some of his original remains. 🤯

He not only cries over Vincent's death but comments how particularly bad it is to be burned to ashes. Sure, that meant Undertaker couldn't turn Vincent into a Bizarre Doll, but there might be more to it... some aspect of the burning that's more personal to Undertaker. Vincent actually died before he was set on fire, but idk if Undertaker knows this. He might know what it's like to die by fire and assumes his son Vincent experienced it, too.

When reapers show up, they tend to do things that give possible clues about their suicide methods. Like...

William first appears on top of a tall building and jumps down. I theorize that he suicided by jumping.

Grelle has been shown doing a "dead man's float" and has been compared to Ophelia (at least in the anime) and the original Little Mermaid (who jumps off a boat to die). So, I think Grelle died by drowning.

Ronald also has to be fished out of the sea by William, but the thing that really got my attention was the knife he carries and the wristwatch he shows off during the Campania arc. I suspect Ronald slashed his wrists, perhaps in a bathtub. That's a really old trope. Sometimes this is called a "Roman Bath", and it reminds me of Grelle trying to get William to go to the baths in Baden-Baden. It's at a bath house in Bath where Blavat bleeds those renal patients dry, too, come to think of it. And Grelle is the one who's actually collecting their souls. 🤔 However, I see Grelle as more of the "go jump from the cliffs or off a boat into the sea" kind of person. Maybe even the "weigh yourself down and walk right out to sea" kind of person. But Ronald? He's more likely the kind to try and slash his arteries because he thinks it'll be fast and easy... and finds out the hard way it's neither of those things.

Even Sascha, who we know hanged themself, seems to go everywhere with that camera (with the strap hanging around their neck). And when Ludger is talking to Sascha, just to see that Sascha had moved away from him, Sascha was sitting on a high-up tree branch... the sort of place one might hang themself from.

Not only does Undertaker keep that urn around and cry about Vincent burning to ashes, but we've also seen Undertaker walk right into a burning building (to collect real Ciel's body). If reapers keep doing things that are reminiscent of their own suicides, then this would be a strong indication about the method he used.

[alternatehistoryworlds]

A happier life for Henry VIII's children. Part 2.

Elizabeth was the second daughter of King Henry VIII of England and his second wife Anne Boleyn. When the girl was 3 years old, the king annulled the marriage to her mother. Henry sent Anne to a convent and forbade Anne to communicate with her daughter, and soon afterward married Jane Seymour. She developed a close relationship with her stepmother, brother and sister. In 1547, her father died and Elizabeth was finally able to meet her mother. The meeting between mother and daughter after years of separation was very touching. When Anne saw Elizabeth, she could not believe that this beautiful girl was her daughter. First they cried for a long time in each other's arms, and then they sat up all night talking. They had a lot to say to each other. So their meetings became more and more frequent, and Edward allowed his father's second wife to stay with Elizabeth. In 1557 Edward VI began to look for worthy suitors from Protestant countries, for the hand of his sister, and his choice fell on the eldest son of the King of Sweden, Prince Eric. In the king's opinion, this marriage was to strengthen the sympathy of his subjects for him. In 1558, the princess became the wife of the heir to the Swedish crown, and 2 years later they became King and Queen of Sweden. It is said that at their first meeting the prince was so enchanted by her beauty that he lost the power of speech. Their married life was strong and passionate. For her husband Elizabeth became the most important confidante, with whom he discussed many problems. Six children were born in the marriage:

Gustav II of Sweden (1559 - 1605) Not interested in politics and never wanted to be king. Overthrown and killed by conspirators, including his own son Charles. Husband of Maria of Austria. Father of 4 children: Charles IX, Ludwig, Frederick, Elizabeth.

Anne of Sweden (1560 - 1634) Countess of East Friesland. At the age of 18 she married her cousin Enno III. The marriage was a happy one for both spouses. They became the parents of 9 children: Edzard III, Sabina, Agnes, Johann, Gustav, Rudolf, Christina, Sophia, Christian.

Magnus of Sweden(1561 - 1619) In 1582 he married his cousin Mary of England. They had 4 children: Nils, Katharina, Gunilla, Arnold. Magnus was widowed in 1590. And in 1592 he married his mistress Maria Oberg, but before that he received from his elder brother-king and his mother a permission to remarry. From his second wife he had 6 children: Magdalena, Sven, Hokon, Valdemar, Ingeborga, Svante.

Johan of Sweden(1565 - 1630) From childhood Johan was interested in navigation and discoveries. Therefore, he spent most of his life traveling, exploring lands not previously known. He was never married, however he recognized 3 children: Brita, Lars, Eric. And upon his death, he left each child a generous inheritance.

Cecily of Sweden(1567 - 1634) Macgravine of Baden-Rodemachern. In 1583 became the wife of Edward Fortunatus They became the parents of 5 children: Christoph III, Cecily, Elizabeth, Ottilia, Herman. In 1603, her husband died and Cecily was offered remarriage

Virginia of Sweden(1570 - 1606) Duchess of Holstein-Hottorp, wife of Johann Adolf. Virginia was older than her husband by 5 years, but despite this their marriage was happy. They had 7 children: Frederick III, Elisabeth, Conrad, Dorothea, Gedviga, Albrecht and Augusta. The Duchess died of childbirth fever a week after the birth of the last child. After the death of his wife, Johann lived the remaining 10 years until his death as a widower.

In 1568, the queen returned briefly to England for her mother's funeral. In 1577, King Eric XIV of Sweden died, and Elizabeth mourned her husband's death bitterly. But fortunately for Elizabeth, she had her children and grandchildren by her side, who became the meaning of her life. In addition, the Queen Dowager actively influenced the policies of her eldest son, King Gustav II. Gustav, weak-willed and indecisive, was not interested in ruling the state. In fact, the kingdom was ruled by Elizabeth, which did not please her daughter-in-law. Because of this, the two women often conflicted with each other. In March 1603, the Queen Dowager of Sweden died. She was buried in Uppsala Cathedral next to her husband. And 2 years later Gustav II was overthrown and killed. Her grandson Charles became the next king of Sweden.

Tumblr: History.Period Drama

[aesthetic-solar-space]

Queen/Lady Jane Grey (The Queen for Nine Days)

Lady Jane Grey, later known as Lady Jane Dudley after her marriage and then she was known as the "Nine Days Queen". She was an english noblewoman who claimed the throne of England and Ireland from July 10 - July 19 1553.

She was the great granddaughter of Henry VII through his younger daughter Mary, making her first cousin once removed of Edward VI (Henry's son and successor)

She has an excellent humanist education, and a reputation as one of the most learned women of her day. She was married in May 1553 to Lord Guildford Dudley, a younger son of Edward's chief minister.

June 1553, Edward VI wrote his will nominating Jane and her male heris as successors to the crown upon his death, this was in part do to religion that differed between himself and his half sister Mary Tudor who was supposed to succeed him according to Henry VIII's will. This change would not only remove his half sister Mary but also his half sister Elizabeth Tudor from the line of sucession on account of their illegitimacy.

After Edwards death, Jane was proclaimed queen on July 10th 1553 and awaited her coronation in the Tower of London. Support for Mary quickly grew while most of Jane's supporters abandoned her - including the English government. The privy council proclaimed Mary Tudor as Queen on July 19th 1553, deposing Jane.

Her prime supporter and Edwards old chied minister (Jane's father in law) was accused of treason and executed less than a month later.

Jans on the otherhand was held prisoner in the Tower of London and was convicted of high treason in November 1553 - a death sentence in of its own.

Mary initially spared her life. However Jane soon became viewed as a threat to the crown when her father, Henry Grey became involved with the Wyatt's rebellion against Queen Mary's intention to marry Philip of Spain.

Jane and her husband were executed on February 12th 1554, at the time of her death Jane was only either 16 or 17 years old.

Jane was the eldest daughter of Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Suffolk with his wife Frances Brandon. No one knows exactly when she was born though there are many theories; October of '37, May of '37, May of '36, or February of '37.

Jane's mother was the eldest daughter of Henry the eighths younger sister, Mary. Jane also had two younger sisters; Lady Katherine and Lady Mary Grey.

She spoke Latin and Greek from an early age, she also studied Hebrew and Italian as well. She was a commited protestant.

She much preferred academic studies as apposed to activities such as hunting parties. She may even have believed her strict upbringing, something very common at the time, to have been too harsh.

Around February 1547, Jane was sent to live in je household of Edward VI’s uncle, Thomas Seymour, who was soon to be married to Catherine Parr. Henry VIII’s widow.

She was an attendant to Catherine up until her death during childbirth in September of 1548. She was close to Catherine and was even involved in her funeral

When Thomas Seymour was convicted of treason, Jane proceeded to return home and continue her studies.

Throughout her life she had a few engagement talks but nothing was made of them until May 25th 1553. That same day the couple was married at Durham House in a triple wedding. The wedding of on of each of the couples sisters was also happening.

The third succession act of 1544 restored Henry VIIIs daughters to the line of succession although they were still regarded illegitimate. This act also gave Henry the ability to alter the line of succession through his will. It reinforced the succession of his three children and declared should none of them leave descendants the throne was to be passed to heirs of his younger sister, this included Jane.

For unknown reasons when making the succession, Henry excluded Jane's mother as well as the claims of his own older sister.

During Henry's reign both of his daughters had been named illegitament when his marriages to their mothers were declared void.

15 year old Edward VI lay dying in the summer of 1553, with Mary still as his pressumed heir. Edward however in a draft will ("my devise for the succession") which was composed in early 1553, had first restricted the succession to (non-extistant) male descendants of Frances Brandon and her daughters, before he named his protestant cousin. "Lady Jane and her male heirs" as his successors.

Probably in June 1553 the intent was to ensure his protestant legacy - removing Mary who was a devoted Roman Catholic

Edward personally supervised the copying of his will which was issued on June 21st and signed by 102 notables. He also announced to have his "declaration" passed in parliament in September.

The King died on July 6th 1553, however his death was not announced for four days. On the 9th, Jane was informed she was now queen - claiming to accept the crown only with reluctance.

The 10th, she was officially proclaimed Queen of England, France, and Ireland. After she had taken up a secured residence within the Tower of London (usually where monarchs lived from time of accession until coronation). Jane refused to name her husband as king, since it would require an Act of Parliment.

A goal of many at this time was to isollate and attempt to capture Mary Tudor to stop her from gaining any further support.

When Mary was sure of the demise of her half brother, she left her residence at Hunsdon and set eyes for East Anglia where she began to rally her support.

Jane is often labelled the Nine Days Queen, although her technically reign goes from Edwards true death on the 6th - making it a few days longer. July 19th Jane is imprisoned in the Tower's gentlemen gaoler's apartments while her husband was in the Beauchamp Tower.

September parliament declared Mary the rightful successor and denounced and revoked Jane's proclaimation as that of a usuper.

Jane was charged with high treason as were her husband, two of his brothers, the former archbishop of Canterbury, and Thomas Crammer.

Trial by special commission took place in November 13th 1553, as to be expected all defendants were found guilty and sentenced to death. Jane's guilt of having treacherously assumed the title and power of a monarch, with evidence of a number of documents she signed as "Jane the Quene".

Her sentence was to "be burned alive on Tower Hill or beheaded as the Queen pleases."

Burning was traditional english punishment for treason when it was committed by a woman.

The imperial ambassador reported to Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, that her life was ro be spared by Queen Mary.

Wyatt's rebellion in January 1554 against Queen Mary's marriage plans with Philip of Spain however sealed Jane's fate in a different way. Her father, Henry Grey and his two brothers joined the rebellion, and so the government and Queen Mary decided to go through with there verdict for Jane ans her husband.

Their executions were first seceduled for February 9th 1554 but was postponed for three days to give Jane a chance to convert to the Catholic faith.

On the morning of February 12 1554 they took Guildford from his rooms within the Tower of London to the public execution place on Tower Hill where he was then beheaded. his remains were brought back to the tower past Jane's rooms, she was then taken out to Tower Green inside the Tower to be beheaded.

She made a speech as she ascended the scaffold, the resighted Psalm 51 (have mercy upon me, o god). She handed her gloves and handkerchief to her maids. The executioner asked her for forgiveness which she granted. she then blindforlded herself. She failed to find the block by hand and cried out, once helped with her head upon the block Jane spoke her last words.

"Lord into thy hands i commend my spirit." the axe then fell beheading the young girl in one clean stroke.

Jane and her husband were buried in the Chapel of St Peter ad Vincula on the north side of the tower green. No memorial stone was erected at their grave.

Jane's father was executed 11 days after Jane on the 23rd of February 1554.

Her mother, Duchess of Suffolk married her Master of Horse and Chamberlain - Adrian Stokes in March of 1555. She was fully pardoned by Queen Mary and allowed to live at court with her two surviving daughters. She died in 1559.

During Mary's reign Jane became viewed as a protestant martyr for centuries to come.

[thessalian]

Thess vs Queen Elizabeth II

So. Here I am, watching the whole “Royals gathering amid concerns over Queen’s health” thing and the reactions to same, and ... I’m sorry, but I am just a little pissed off.

No, I’m not a huge fan of the monarchy. I just feel really icky about the gleeful anticipation over the death of an old lady. (No, I wasn’t quite this conflicted over Margaret Thatcher, possibly because Thatcher was a lot more visible and active about making the lives of other people so much worse than they needed to be.) But even all that I could understand in others, if it weren’t for three things:

This Changes Nothing: I’m sorry, but it doesn’t. Is the Queen going to die at some point, either very soon or just soon? Yes. Will that topple the monarchy? No. She has heirs. So many heirs. Heirs upon heirs. The monarchy will perpetuate. All anybody’s celebrating is a hugely expensive public funeral (at a time when quite enough money’s being taken from the taxpayer, thank you) and some other entitled nitwit taking the throne. Which brings us to...

Charles Is Arguably Worse: The man is a weirdo. He talks a good game about climate change, sometimes, when he feels like it, but consider who he is. He’s into some really weird spiritual hokum which is going to create a lot of noise in the religious community because all of a sudden we’ve got a man who believes in some Scientology-grade weird shit as the head of the Church of England. He’s also the guy at the centre of the “cash for access” scandal from awhile back, so he’s way more open about being a parasite than his mother ever was. This plus the whole thing with “What happens about Camilla’s title?” is going to eat so many news cycles, at least as much as the death, obits, and funeral are. Which brings us to...

This Is A Glorious Distraction For Tory Bullshit: Liz Truss just announced her so-called fix for the energy and cost of living crises. These are stupid. She is going to set the cap for energy price rises just a little lower than it was going to be originally. She will pay for this by excessive borrowing, instead of dropping another windfall tax on the energy companies who publicly admit that they now have more money from unprecedentedly high profits than they know what to do with. So the average taxpayer is going to be paying for this bullshit for generations so that energy companies can keep what is officially Way Too Much Money. And on top of all that? One of her biggest campaign donors is the wife of the BP CEO. So if that isn’t venial bullshit that really needs investigating, I don’t know what is. But is anyone talking about it? No. They’re waiting with bated breath for the announcement that “London Bridge is down”. What other Tory bullshit will the funeral and coronation bury in the news cycles, I wonder?

I get it. I do. But it’s that last one that really gets to me. Charles is just a gross person, the monarchy’s not going anywhere, but Thatcher’s death didn’t get rid of the Tories or even her specific political legacy, so y’know, whatever, I get it. But all the focus on a ninety-six-year-old lady being close to death is just letting a whole bunch of Tory policy sweep by unexamined. They do enough damage when we’re actually paying attention. It’s bad enough that no one talks about the Elections Act anymore, now that it’s passed, or even mentions the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act beyond a brief blurb about how it affects protesting. I hate to fucking think what will go undiscussed when the Queen dies and people are either mourning or making sure that “Ding Dong, The Witch Is Dead” goes back to No. 1 on the singles charts. And then the cost of the funeral and the coronation on top of the other shit our tax money funds instead of actually going to the social safety net for which we actually pay the taxes in the first place.

We have a new Prime Minister who is currently burying the entire country in debt. I don’t care if the Queen dies. If the monarchy dies? Then you have my attention. But I’m getting mood whiplash between Tumblr “YAAAAAAAAY!” and the news “How Sad, After All She’s Done For This Country!” and it’s been a hard day and I don’t want the miseries being inflicted on the British public to be overshadowed in any way by some old lady who lived off our tax money, basically stolen land, and assets she never had to declare for nearly a hundred years. Her son’s been doing the same thing, and he’s going to keep doing it. Don’t get me wrong; I don’t care that she’s dying. She’s ninety-six. That happens to ninety-six-year-old people. And she wasn’t the sweet old grandmother she attempts to portray. I get that. But hearing about it non-stop is just frustrating. There’s shit out there that actually matters and it’s getting drowned out by “even the rich die”.

[mariacallous]

Britain’s summer has been baking and listless in the main, weeks of bright, wan sunshine, unbroken by rain or any particular hope. In July, southern England received a thimble’s worth of rain—a shade over a centimetre—the least since records began, in 1836. On August 12th, a drought was declared in eight regions, and people were banned from washing their cars. There has been a monotony to the heat, an uncanny continuance, which has seemed to connect to a deeper apathy toward the country’s frightening immediate future. Britain’s economy is failing. The Bank of England has predicted that inflation will reach thirteen per cent in October, its highest level since the early eighties. A recession may be coming. People’s heating and electricity bills are rising at a speed that no one can quite believe. The nights are hot; the children can’t sleep.

Boris Johnson, in character to the last, is spending his final weeks as Prime Minister in decompression mode: throwing a wedding party, vacationing in Slovenia and Greece. The mass resignations that led to his downfall in July mean that there is barely a functioning government, let alone a plan to address the crisis, or any authority to deliver it. Instead, there is a prolonged Conservative Party leadership contest, in which around a hundred and fifty thousand Party members, or 0.32 per cent of the British electorate, are currently choosing the next Prime Minister. The winner will be declared on September 5th, at which point, you would assume, someone will have to start running the place again.

In the meantime, parts of the United Kingdom are breaking down. Since June, the London Underground and the national rail network have been disrupted by rolling strikes led by the National Union of Rail, Maritime, and Transport Workers. The R.M.T. has rejected pay offers that fall short of inflation. They are not the only ones. The gap between wage growth and price rises is at its widest since comparable records began, just over twenty years ago. Last week, around eight hundred workers staged a sit-in at the canteen of an Amazon warehouse in Essex, to protest against a thirty-five-pence-per-hour (or three-per-cent) pay rise. The G.M.B. union said that protests spread to at least five other sites, with some employees working slow, picking one parcel an hour. The cost-of-living crisis, as it is known, has spread everywhere, and its principal symptom is the same: people cannot cope. Milk prices have gone up by twenty per cent since last year, gas by forty per cent. A recent survey of food banks found that almost eighty per cent were running low on food themselves. “To give out packs of breadcrumbs and a tin of chickpeas is heartbreaking,” William McGranaghan, the manager of Dads House, a charity in West London, told the Independent earlier this week. “We’re struggling—we just can’t keep up with the numbers.”

Later this month, there are strikes scheduled by funeral services, refuse workers, the Royal Mail, examination-board staff, and dockers. Members of the Royal College of Nursing, which was founded in 1916, are voting on whether nurses in England, Scotland, and Wales should withdraw their labor for the first time in the union’s history. The National Health Service, which was recently awarded the George Cross, the highest civilian award for bravery, by the Queen, for its efforts during the pandemic, is already overwhelmed. More than six and a half million people (that’s the equivalent of around fifty Conservative Parties) are currently on waiting lists for hospital treatment, an increase of fifty per cent on pre-pandemic levels. No one knows what will happen if the nurses walk out.

Around half of the inflationary pressure in the U.K. comes from rising energy prices, which are largely a consequence of the war in Ukraine. Since 2019, there has been a price cap, which is now updated every three months by the country’s energy regulator, to protect consumers from blatant profiteering. But the cap only moves one way. Last winter, it was set at £1,277 per year, for an average household. Earlier this month, analysts projected that the cap could almost quadruple—to £4,266—by the spring of 2023. According to the I.M.F., the poorest twenty per cent of British households will soon pay a higher proportion of their income on energy (around fifteen per cent) than any other population in Europe, except Estonia’s. “This is a national crisis, on the scale that we saw in the pandemic,” Martin Lewis, a financial journalist and consumer advocate, told the BBC last week. “We are currently in that position where we are watching the beds in European hospitals and doing nothing about it.” Around a quarter of families already owe more than two hundred pounds to their electricity providers, according to Uswitch, a price-comparison Web site, and that is before the next price rise has come into effect. Gordon Brown, a former Labour Prime Minister, who was in office during the financial crisis, has called for the government to take control of the energy market. Keir Starmer, the current Labour leader, has proposed that prices stay where they are for at least six months, with the government paying the difference—an intervention that would cost around twenty-nine billion pounds.

But the person who is almost certain to be Britain’s next Prime Minister has made it clear that she will do neither of those things. Polls put Liz Truss, the country’s Foreign Secretary, twenty-two points clear of Rishi Sunak, the former Chancellor of the Exchequer, whose resignation helped start the cascade that buried Johnson. Truss, who is forty-seven, has been a Cabinet minister for eight years, during which she has stayed on message—whatever the message—every day. She campaigned against Brexit before fervently coming round to the idea. As Foreign Secretary, Truss has borrowed style choices from Margaret Thatcher, arranging to have herself photographed riding a tank, and projected a vaguely confrontational energy to the world. Truss likes freeports, low taxes, and the way Chinese schools teach math. (Her father was a math professor). In 2012, she was a co-author of “Britannia Unchained,” which argued that British workers “are among the worst idlers in the world” and the country was held back by a bloated state and excessive regulation. Truss believes in what she calls “Conservative economics.”

In the contest to succeed Johnson, Truss has positioned herself as the change candidate. “The last twenty years of economic policy haven’t delivered growth,” she says, which is a bold contention given that her party has been in charge for twelve of them. Truss’s ideas to address the country’s worrying inflation rate and unaffordable energy bills include tax cuts, fracking, and the suspension of a climate-change levy—a package that would be worth just over a hundred and fifty pounds to most families and probably make inflation worse. She opposes “handouts.” Rather than speak about the single thing on every voter’s mind, Truss prefers to display her no-nonsense credentials by supporting Britain’s immoral plan to deport refugees to sub-Saharan Africa and trying out some culture-war material. “As a straight-talking Yorkshirewoman, I know that a woman is a woman,” Truss told a party hustings in Darlington last week. A few days later, she published a plan to deal with a “woke civil service culture that strays into antisemitism.”

The whole experience must be disorienting for Sunak, who until recently had the largest support among Conservative Members of Parliament and led the government’s economic response to the pandemic. At the end of 2021, Sunak was the most popular politician in the country—with a higher approval rating than either Johnson or Nicola Sturgeon, the leader of the Scottish National Party—and the bookies’ favorite to become the next Prime Minister. His own plan to limit the misery this winter is to make direct payments to poorer families—the extension of a grant program that he began, as Chancellor, in the spring. “If we don’t do that, I can tell you not only will millions of people suffer, we will get absolutely hammered when it comes to an election,” Sunak said last week. “The British people will not forgive us for not doing that.” Sunak used to work for Goldman Sachs. He is almost freakishly spry. He bounces on his toes and seems delighted to be in whichever suburban retail park he is visiting at any given moment. (At the peak of his popularity, as Chancellor, Sunak was all about hoodies and late nights poring over official documents). But he appears to have been fatally punctured as a candidate, among the Conservative Party base, at least, by his perceived disloyalty to Johnson and his own extreme metropolitan tendencies. (Sunak’s father-in-law is Narayana Murthy, an Indian tech billionaire). In recent days, three Conservative M.P.s who previously supported Sunak have publicly defected to Truss, citing the inevitable momentum of her campaign.

Truss’s record suggests that she will switch to the safest political ground, once she enters Downing Street. “I will deliver what people want me to deliver,” she said in Darlington. In a recent Guardian column, Gaby Hinsliff quoted former staffers who have worked with Truss, describing her mathematical, highly flexible approach to political problems. (She likes to test her team’s mental arithmetic in meetings.) “She’s a contrarian. Just because ninety per cent of people tell her, ‘This way is the way,’ she’s not inclined to accept that,” one aide told Hinsliff. So far, Truss has been making her case to the Conservative Party membership, which is older, richer, and more male than the rest of the population. But even the better-off are not immune from the fear of what is to come. A snap poll of Conservative members found that eighty-five per cent supported Labour’s idea of an energy-price freeze for the winter. If she is elected in September, Truss has promised tax cuts on Day One, followed by an emergency budget that will be designed to minimize the impact of a recession. By then, Britain’s summer of discontent, as the newspapers have called it, will be darkening and changing into something else. The anxiety will deepen. The strikes will go on. The numbers don’t lie. 

[audreygcblog]

The Pawn

Throughout her life, Lady Jane Grey was used and manipulated by the men to who she was closest. She never asked to be the figurehead of the protestant overthrow of the English crown, yet she did not have control over the plans her uncle and father had for her. After reading her letters in class, I was compelled to look more into the life of England's nine-day queen.

Childhood

In the year 1547, Catherine Parr, the wife of the late King Henry VIII, and Thomas Seymour were married. Lady Jane Grey was the great-granddaughter of the king, and when she was nine years old, she was sent to the home and put under the care of Catherine Parr. Parr took control of the education of both her stepchildren and Lady Jane Grey.

In 1548, Queen Catherine Parr died in childbirth, devasting ten-year-old Lady Jane Grey. She was the principal mourner at Catherine Parr's funeral. Afterward, Lady Jane Grey was sent back home and quickly returned to be the ward of Thomas Seymour.

Unfortunately, now that she was under the care of Thomas Seymour, he saw an opportunity to use Lady Jane Grey to his advantage. As she was third in line for the throne, he made it his goal to wed her to his nephew and her cousin Edward VI. By doing so, he could ensure Lady Jane Grey's ascension to the throne and he could have been able to use her to gain power for himself.

During this time, Edward VI was nine years old and too young to rule by himself. Edward Seymour, Thomas Seymour's eldest brother, was placed as regent. Edward Seymour exploited his power as regent, which aggravated the rest of the Regency Council and his younger brother Thomas who wanted the power for himself. 

In desperation, Thomas Seymour broke into the nine-year-old's private apartment and was promptly arrested. He was sent to the Tower of London and executed in 1549. The plot to wed Lady Jane Grey to the young king was put to an end, and she was sent home.

Becoming Queen

At the age of fifteen, Edward VI was very ill. In the first version of his will, Edward was not aware that he was terminally ill. In his first draft he had chosen his heir to be a male Protestant in his family. Therefore, he disinherited his half-sisters, Mary and Elizabeth, and proclaimed his heir to be the one of the children of his cousin Lady Frances Grey or the children of her children. Those children being Lady Jane Grey and her sisters.

In 1553, it became clear that the king was going to die soon and not a single male heir had been produced. With no other choice, Edward changed his will and made Lady Jane Grey his successor.

Upon Edward VI's death, Lady Jane Grey was brought brought to her father-in-law's residence to be told by the Privy Council that she was to be queen.

Lady Jane Grey was very confused and worried about becoming queen. She did not calm down until her husband and family arrived. It is even rumored she fainted after being told the news of her inheritance of the throne.

She accepted her fate and prayed that God would guide her in leading the people of England. She was graceful and elegant during her coronation until she had to wear the crown. Although she has accepted her succession to the throne as being God's will, she still felt like she did not deserve such a title.

A Welcomed Death

The eldest daughter of Henry VIII, Princess Mary, demanded she be put on the throne along with the support of many who believed her to be the rightful Catholic heir.

Soon, Mary built up her own army and rebelled against the newly crowned Queen Jane. During the attack on the palace, Queen Jane's father ran to safety while leaving his daughter behind in the Tower of London. There she became a prisoner and was soon sentenced to death for treason.

In her final letters, she wrote to both her sister and father, assuring them that she was going to be happier in heaven than she ever was on earth. Lady Jane Grey's letters reveal she was dissatisfied and full of sorrow during her lifetime. She was not worried about her own death as much as she was worried about the little sister she was leaving behind. She wrote, "And as touching my death, rejoice as I do and consider that I shall be delivered of this corruption and put on incorruption, for as I am assured that I shall for losing of a mortal life, find an immortal felicity. Pray God grant you and send you his grace to live in the love."

To her father, she said, " ... I yield God more hearty thanks for shortening my woeful days... yet, my dear father, if I may without offence rejoice in my own mishap, herein I account myself blessed, that washing my hands with the innocency of my face, my guiltless blood may cry before the Lord, 'Mercy to the innocent…In taking [the crown] upon me, I seemed to consent and therein grievously offended the Queen and her laws … to me, there is nothing more welcome than from this vale of misery to aspire to that heavenly throne of all joy and pleasure, with Christ our saviour."

With willingness and maintenance of her pride, Lady Jane Grey was beheaded on the Tower grounds.

Conclusion

For her entire life, Lady Jane Grey was considered nothing more than a way to gain Protestant power in England. She never wanted to be queen, yet had to pay the ultimate price for it. After researching more about the life of Lady Jane Grey, I have concluded that she was just a scared seventeen-year-old girl who wanted to do the right thing. Her innocence and goodness were taken advantage of by the people around her. Hopefully, Lady Jane Grey is resting in the peace she never got to experience in her lifetime.

Works Cited

Lady Jane Grey - Britannica

Lady Jane Grey - Historical Royal Palaces

Lady Jane Grey - Letters

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 6.4 (after 1940)

1940 – World War II: The Dunkirk evacuation ends: the British Armed Forces completes evacuation of 338,000 troops from Dunkirk in France. To rally the morale of the country, Winston Churchill delivers, only to the House of Commons, his famous "We shall fight on the beaches" speech. 1942 – World War II: The Battle of Midway begins. The Japanese Admiral Chūichi Nagumo orders a strike on Midway Island by much of the Imperial Japanese Navy. 1942 – World War II: Gustaf Mannerheim, the Commander-in-Chief of the Finnish Army, is granted the title of Marshal of Finland by the government on his 75th birthday. On the same day, Adolf Hitler arrives in Finland for a surprise visit to meet Mannerheim. 1943 – A military coup in Argentina ousts Ramón Castillo. 1944 – World War II: A hunter-killer group of the United States Navy captures the German Kriegsmarine submarine U-505: The first time a U.S. Navy vessel had captured an enemy vessel at sea since the 19th century. 1944 – World War II: The United States Fifth Army captures Rome, although much of the German Fourteenth Army is able to withdraw to the north. 1961 – Cold War: In the Vienna summit, the Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev sparks the Berlin Crisis by threatening to sign a separate peace treaty with East Germany and ending American, British and French access to East Berlin. 1967 – Seventy-two people are killed when a Canadair C-4 Argonaut crashes at Stockport in England. 1970 – Tonga gains independence from the British Empire. 1975 – The Governor of California Jerry Brown signs the California Agricultural Labor Relations Act into law, the first law in the United States giving farmworkers collective bargaining rights. 1977 – JVC introduces its VHS videotape at the Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago. It will eventually prevail against Sony's rival Betamax system in a format war to become the predominant home video medium. 1979 – Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings takes power in Ghana after a military coup in which General Fred Akuffo is overthrown. 1983 – Gordon Kahl, who killed two US Marshals in Medina, North Dakota on February 13, is killed in a shootout in Smithville, Arkansas, along with a local sheriff, after a four-month manhunt. 1986 – Jonathan Pollard pleads guilty to espionage for selling top secret United States military intelligence to Israel. 1988 – Three cars on a train carrying hexogen to Kazakhstan explode in Arzamas, Gorky Oblast, USSR, killing 91 and injuring about 1,500. 1989 – In the 1989 Iranian Supreme Leader election, Ali Khamenei is elected as the new Supreme Leader of Iran after the death and funeral of Ruhollah Khomeini. 1989 – The Tiananmen Square protests and massacre are suppressed in Beijing by the People's Liberation Army, with between 241 and 10,000 dead (an unofficial estimate). 1989 – Solidarity's victory in the 1989 Polish legislative election, the first election since the Communist Polish United Workers' Party abandoned its monopoly of power. It sparks off the Revolutions of 1989 in Eastern Europe. 1989 – Ufa train disaster: A natural gas explosion near Ufa, Russia, kills 575 as two trains passing each other throw sparks near a leaky pipeline. 1996 – The first flight of Ariane 5 explodes after roughly 37 seconds. It was a Cluster mission. 1998 – Terry Nichols is sentenced to life in prison for his role in the Oklahoma City bombing. 2005 – The Civic Forum of the Romanians of Covasna, Harghita and Mureș is founded. 2010 – Falcon 9 Flight 1 is the maiden flight of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, which launches from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Space Launch Complex 40. 2023 – Protests begin in Poland against the Duda government. 2023 – Four people are killed when a Cessna Citation V crashes into Mine Bank Mountain in Augusta County, Virginia.

[dwestfieldblog]

OPEN LETTER FROM THE PRISON ISLAND

Have you accepted Eris into your pineal gland? Can you remember the first planet? A sense of humour is vital. Literally. On with the show…

So, I’m back ‘home’. Here in England, failing to stay sane as the country genuinely falls apart. Boys not allowed to wear shorts to school in 31-degree heat but they can wear skirts in Norfolk. The rights of trans men to ‘chest feed’…do men give birth and lactate? A ‘Period Dignity Officer’ appointed in Scotland to mansplain all about menstruation to teenage girls…and presumably boys too. Parents demanding the dick in Dick Turpin is changed to Richard in York. Non binary aliens helping kiddies to read rather than a male teddy bear. And the ever-wonderful Mermaid organisation giving chest bindings to young females against parents’ wishes to flatten breasts most are yet to even have.

Men’s toilets to get tampon machines in Bristol. For cocaine haemorrhages? Drag queens doing story time pantomime dame schtick for 3 to 11 year olds, encouraging them to ‘get fabulous’. A female lecturer was sacked from a college for daring to suggest that ‘Drag is a grotesque caricature of femininity… started off as a liberating form of entertainment for gay men ostracised for being effeminate’. Which it was. The Brighton Institute for Modern Music (lol) replied that ‘BIMM fully supports and defends freedom of speech, academic freedom….’ No, you don’t.

A genuine shame the only folk ranting in public about this endlessly increasing mentally ill virtue signaling woke excrement waste of time and upended version of biological fact…are right wing bigots. Far too much hogwash Newspeak has been coming from the Left, no wonder the Tories were able to abuse power for so long. The steady shift against evidence based teaching will turn truths inside out until the masses believe only in a new type of very virtual reality, dumbed down all the way and proud about it. Speaking of which…

A temporary goodbye and good riddance to Boris Johnson…the ‘oven ready’ turkey and his chumocracy of swine, a symptom of just how lost this country has become in the last 12 years of his arrogant parties’ aristocratic rule. Wonderful the Queen waited until the guilty scumbag who lied to her face was finally gone to take her own leave. The very thought of him trying to look sincere in sorrow and leading the nation through this endlessly funereal time…a vast deal of which he is directly to blame. The populist opportunist seems likely to attempt a return as his Cincinnatus quip showed. And as for his ‘Mission largely accomplished, for now’….Yes, if his plan was to rip Britain apart from her closest allies, make us the poor man of Europe  (‘the status of an emerging market economy’ said the Financial Times) allow thousands to die by his own policies, ensure his mates got the most bonuses, contracts and honours , pressure the NHS to collapse brick by brick and treat it all as if were an Etonian prank…A special deep circle of Hell is reserved for leaders who betray their own countries for their own gain. Or so I pray by candlelight.

Britain has the worst rate of inflation in the G7…Utility companies have bosses receiving colossal bonuses above and far beyond decency while the average household will be paying over three times what they were this time last year. Heat or eat. Freeze and eat trash. And all services are providing less and less actual functioning service. Can’t pay? WON’T pay…It would be nice to imagine a revolution here which did not involve rabid morons. Righteous middle-class fools supergluing themselves to motorways or those financed by Moscow and Beijing to stir the poo. But unlikely. The new laws against protest, set up under the Covid Times and extra surveillance will nip that in the bud. The Mass Psychology of Fascism by W Reich should be mandatory reading in schools…when I am World President, it will be.

Government lawyers are now banned from telling from telling ministers that their polices are unlawful. Apparently, this calling to account is slowing down the bright, illegal and twisted ideas that genius politicians have. How to hold a government to account if is not allowed to explain the law to it in terms they understand? Let alone the Boris et al idea or removing all accountability and ethics advisors. How very decent a fair play English style. Not at all like a step by goose step into a totalitarian state without noticing... Meanwhile outside…

NASA finds a way to create oxygen on Mars. China finds evidence of floods there. DNA experts decode the blueprint of life, almost twenty years of re checking the supposed junk DNA and recalibrating their ideas. Unwinding the coils to explore the origins of Man will be a beautiful thing for all the fundamentalists who continually have to amend their ideas to fit the expanded horizon or else go crazy//crazier…This year’s massive droughts, floods, extreme weather rising…could just be a historical blip, a decades long hiccup for mother Earth or a serious glitch in this blue green spaceship’s computer caused by the monkey brains. The world will realign by wiping us out. Or perhaps Mad Vlad the slaphead will do it…

Russian schools now under heavy propaganda to prepare the next generation for serious nationalistic impulses to defend their glorious Mother. Apparently, life is not worth living unless you are prepared to die for your country…Just ask the hilariously insane state gimp Vladimir Solovyov on his prime time tv show, the lovely guy who repeatedly calls for Britain to be annihilated by nuclear missiles. Apart from the fallout blowing in the wind and the drop off in customers for China’s shite, it seems a possibility. Not sure if the world would truly give a damn if this island vanished overnight. Putin has promised his hypersonic penis replacement Satan II will be ready by Christmas. But Shorty must be getting desperate in ordering the foulage based Wagner group to offer cash and freedom to convicts to murder civilians. Something seems likely to give soon to appease the shame… the use of tactical nuclear missiles on Kyiv to assassinate one man or an overthrow of the bald dwarf by Zyuganov et al. One scumbag to be replaced by another warmonger. There must be quite a few rich generals who would love to declare martial law.

(That paragraph was written before the mobilisation of the crippled and the masses pressganged to fight, the disgusting referendum at gunpoint and the gas pipe line sabotages)

No country ever seems to understand that once you have been ‘great ‘and then diminished, you never rise again. When an empire falls due to greed and inhuman ideology, it stays broken. ‘In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule’. FN. There is always the slim optimistic chance of evolving a country through wisdom rather than brute force, intelligence over violence, better education at every level, common sense and critical thinking, philosophy, empathy, work and play…Hmmm. Verrry likely eh? But still possible. This is what happens when I have no alcohol for seven days and nights…A utopia of clarity…

Meanwhile Hungarian bug eyed bullfrog Orban addressing CPAC ‘A Christian politician cannot be racist’. Yes, IF they ARE actually a Christian Viktor. Countries where European and non-Europeans mingle are ‘no longer nations’. ‘We Hungarians know how to defeat the enemies of freedom…’ Love how all these corrupt leaders are always able to convince followers by projecting their own identity as a description of enemy outsiders. When the biggest threat to their country is themselves. And his government are now worried that ‘pink education’ means that so many females are studying and receiving higher education that they will be less likely to choose or find a spouse who can match their standards of attainment. ‘The over representation of women in universities’ is causing a fall in birth rates as, shockingly, many females do not want to waste their qualified career times cleaning up baby mess. Got to love the right wing eh? So they are encouraging women to be less intelligent or else they won’t marry…get back in the kitchen bitch. What a charmingly Christian government. Can just imagine Orban and Bolsanaro paying a Dominatrix to beat them while their tiny private parts are tied up in a little cage. Speaking of which yet again…

Trump, Tucker Carlson, Bannon, Alex jones. America…well another noble and Christian decision, now enshrined in law, to disallow the right of women to make their own decisions with regard to their own bodies. The abortion desert is spreading across all Republican states. I think it is maybe possible that ‘a’ Creator exists but until this can be PROVED and peer tested by constant review that a supposedly all forgiving and mercifully compassionate master of all that is, actually has something as mundane as an opinion on how many ‘mewling cabbages’ (copyright Bill Hicks) are born, then the dumbass supreme court and the fake ‘Christians’ should shut their dammed mouths. You can quote the Bible until you are red in the face (and a lot of you insecure sadists do) but this has no meaning other than in your own reality, go twist in your own insanity and mind your own business.

As for possible future president, Mike Pompous has recently said that that no extenuating circumstances be allowed for an abortion, including impregnation by rape or incest, both of which are very popular in Republican states. ‘Every one of these is a child’. Yes, junior, yor daddy is a rapist but he’s a gud Christian man. My brother is the father of my child…lovely. Great to know Pompeo has vowed to fight on against anything which seems ungodly ‘until the Rapture’. (That would be the end of the world, when all believers will be lifted together into the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.) These creeps are actually looking forward to the Apocalypse because it means they get to meet the invisible sky wizard. Raise thy children to be Pagans and honour the mystic.

‘Nationwide abortion ban means you must wait until your child is at least seven years old before they can be terminated in a school massacre by a disaffected 18-year-old loner legally carrying three semi-automatic weapons’. Private Eye.

The Justice said he believes ‘the constitution means something and that meaning does not change’. Aha, so the part of about ‘a wall of separation between church and state’ is open to the opposite interpretation. Love it when right wingers start looking upon the Founding Fathers as libertarian Socialists and change the basic tenets to fit their nonsense. ‘Congress shall make NO laws’…but it is fine when judges appointed by their side can do it. There is always a get out of jail free clause for the corrupt of heart.

Top secret intelligence documents in Florida…Trump of COURSE using the ever gullible Christians and Q Onan to spread the word about the utterly unfair raid on his mansion by the Eff Bee Eye. If you want to convince folk about a conspiracy, always get those who already believe in conspiracies on side first. Then let them spread the cancer. I continue to sense via very remote viewing, that Q was either set upby troll farms in the East to sow discord, or by some wannabe pranksters who might very well be regretting their test to see just how much utter garbage the American masses will swallow. The devil runs a slave ring of porno kids through a pizza shop and the elite clientele all worship the horned one. Sure he does, sure they do. It is horrific what bollocks morons are willing and anxious to believe. Affirm their most paranoid ideas and swear to protect them and the bleating ones will just trot along meekly to the stained and stinking slaughterhouse.

Headline; ‘Russia and China ‘exploit technology for own ends’. Really? Did not know that. A digital silk road indeed. And the West would never dream of doing that eh? If China wants to rule the world, it had damn well better put the reins on their wayward brat Putin or they will lose millions of above ground customers soon. Another recent headline ‘China undermining internet as a force for good, warns spy chief’. Hmm. Fill in the blanks with your own ideas.

Watch out for Blake Lemoine and those like him, AI is a dangerous pretend friend to have, even more so than traditional ideas of God and the actions of believers.  Handing over power to a sentient machine just because it can imitate empathy to any sucker is a grim future mistake.

Foreigners in Israel who fall in love with a Palestinian must inform the military authority within 90 days or be expelled. Yes really. Should they also have to wear a big yellow ‘P’ on their clothes? Enough already…

‘The universe consists essentially of information/implicate order. Out of this enfolded (archetypal) information, temporary ‘realities’ unfold spatiotemporally, but which ‘realities’ we encounter/perceive, depends on our state of consciousness. Normal consciousness, or the Black Iron Prison, consists of a type of delusion in which one conditioned ‘reality’-tunnel appears to us as the only possible ‘reality’. The terror of seeming insanity or the confrontation with Death jar us out of that one ‘reality’-tunnel and opens us to multiple universes. Or we can make the quantum leap escape the Black Iron Prison- simply by contemplating the right kind of deeply meaningful nonsense long enough. RAW/PKD

I remembered the first planet. Happy Halloween if we get there…gather the correspondences from 777 and perform a ritual or 23. Blessed be the witches and magicians. Sensual epiphanies needed…Do something or Be Nothing. Love more.

[processandenquiryrhianna]

Notes taken during the Grayson Perry podcasts. (1/2)

Research into Grayson Perry - Life: Perry was born 1960 in Essex, England to a working-class family, of which Perry admits had its fair share of problems. At four years old, his father left after finding out his mother was having an affair with the milkman, who his mother eventually married. Though, Perry has said that this man was violent towards him, his sister and his mother. Because of these misfortunes, he lived an unhappy childhood, using a fantasy world involving his teddy bear as a coping mechanism. Perry believes that the experiences one has at a young age are noticeable in later adulthood, his of which affected his sexuality and sense of identity. From an early age he liked to dress in stereotypically women's clothes and in his teens realised that he was a transvestite. When he was 15, he lived with his father’s family in Chelmsford, this is when he began to dress as a woman. His father did not approve, and although Perry said he would stop, his stepmother told those around and thus his father threw him out. Leaving him no choice but to return to live with his mother and stepfather in Essex, who were no more impressed by him.

Perry pursued art after the backing from his art teacher, he took part in an art foundation course at Braintree College of Further Education form 1978 to 1979. Most of his education took place at Portsmouth College of Art and Design for BA in fine art, he graduated in 1982. Perry experimented with pottery and exhibited his first piece at a New Contemporaries show at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London in 1980. After graduation, Perry got involved with The Neo Naturists, a group birthed by Christine Binnie to bring around the “true sixties spirit”, of which involved living one’s life rather naked and portraying it occasionally in performance where body paint was always involved. His family troubles did not cease, and when he moved away, his step-father told him to “not come back”, the damage within Perry and his parents relationship was so deep, that when his mother died, he did not attend her funeral. As of now, he lives with his wife, author and psychotherapist PhilippaPerry, together they have a daughter Florence who’s as born in 1992.

Perry is most noticeable for his alter-ego “Claire”, who he expresses as dressing in a feminine style. He explains Claire is “a 19th century reforming matriarch, a middle-England protester for No More Art, an aero-model-maker, or an Eastern European Freedom Fighter", and "a fortysomething woman living in a Barratt home, the kind of woman who eats ready meals and can just about sew on a button". His choice of style while as Claire is what is most eye catching, it’s typically artistic, bright, mix and match fabric and all over oozing with visual interest. Perry utilises his alter ego and includes her within his work, dressing himself in stereotypical ’womans’ clothing: for example Mother of All Battles (1996) is a photograph of Claire holding a gun and wearing a dress, in ethnic eastern European style, embroidered with images of war, exhibited at his 2002 Guerrilla Tactics show. Grayson design Claire’s outfits himself, although fashion students at Central Saint Martins art college in London also get involved occasionally, through an annual design competition.

On a more personal note, he enjoys motor biking a travelling. Perry supports the Labour Party, who he has designed works of art to help raise their funds. In 2015, Perry endorsed Jeremy Corbyn’s campaign during their leadership election. Perry said he would support Corbyn as he was “doing something interesting for the political debate” and is quoted saying “I think he’s gold.”. However, in 2018 Perry said that Jeremy Corbyn had “no chance of winning an election”.

Art Process: Grayson Perry has a multitude of skills, including but not limited to; ceramics, tapestries, documentaries, podcasts, writing and lectures. As for Ceramics, here are a variety of examples: In 2002, the Stedelijik Museum in Amsterdam mounted his Guerrilla Tactics , which was partly responsible for his winning of the Turner Prize in 2003, the first to be given to a ceramic artist. His work references the traditional ceramic ways, particularly involving Greek Pottery and folk art. He’s been quoted saying "I like the whole iconography of pottery. It hasn't got any big pretensions to being great public works of art, and no matter how brash a statement I make, on a pot it will always have certain humility ... For me the shape has to be classical invisible: then you've got a base that people can understand". His methods consist of coiling, which is quite traditional, when finished they typically have a omelet surface using various techniques, which include glazing, incision, embossing and the use of photographic transfers. He has he uses these methods not for decoration, but to give meaning. Perry question the idea of pottery being exclusively decorative or utilitarian and cannot be used to express ideas, and this rebellion can really be seen within his ceramic pieces. Perry uses his work as a vessel to reference his upbringing, mostly his stepfathers anger and the absence of a reliable male in his life to provide guidance. ‘Using My Family’ in 1998 is a good example of this, where it is a teddy bear giving affection, and the piece ‘the Guardians’ which are of his mother and stepfather. Perry’s work commonly contains sexually explicit content, as well as child abuse, such as ‘We’ve Found the Body Of Your Child’ 2000. He uses strong juxtaposition with decorative cliches, as well as the technique ‘guerrilla tactic’, using the approachable medium of pottery in order to provoke thought and challenge traditional thoughts.

As for tapestries, Perry crafted a 15m x 3m tapestry called “The Walthamstow Tapestry” in 2009, which bears hundreds of brand names encompassing large figures in the stages of life, from birth to death. perry even made pair of large-scale tapestries for A House of Essex, together named ‘the Essex House Tapestries: The Life of Julie Cope” (2015). The work was completed on a holiday home in Wrabness Essex, along with the collaboration of Fashion Architecture Taste (FAT). It overlooks the River Stour, after a commission from Living Architecture, the charity founded by the philosopher Alain de Botton. The house tell the story of Julie May Cope, a fictional Essex woman who was "Born in a flood-struck Canvey Island in 1953 and mown down last year by a curry delivery driver in Colchester". Writing in The Daily Telegraph, Ellis Woodman said, "Sporting a livery of green and white ceramic tiles, telephone-box red joinery and a gold roof, it is not easy to miss. ... Decoration is everywhere: from the external tiles embossed with motifs referencing Julie's rock-chick youth to extravagant tapestries recording her life's full narrative. Perry has contributed ceramic sculptures, modelled on Irish Sheelanagigs, which celebrate her as a kind of latter-day earth mother while the delivery driver's moped has even been repurposed as a chandelier suspended above the double-height living room." A large and varied amount of work by Perry is within this house, depicting Julie Cop’s life. Including a series of large-scale tapestries, The Essex House Tapestries: The Life of Julie Cope, which include "A Perfect Match" (2015) and "In Its Familiarity, Golden" (2015), and for the bedrooms, "Julie and Rob" (2013) and "Julie and Dave" (2015). He also wrote an essay, "The Ballad of Julie Cope" (2015) and created a series of black and white woodcuts, Six Snapshots of Julie (2015). The work was shown in an exhibition, Grayson Perry: The Life of Julie Cope, at Firstsite in Colchester, Essex, from January to February 2018.

Perry has been in a multitude of documentaries, talking people through his experiences and how this has shaped his journey through life. In 2005, Perry presented a Channel 4 documentary, Why Men Wear Frocks, in which he examined transvestism and masculinity at the start of the 21st century. The documentary won a Royal Television Society award for best network production. He also has a three part series made with Channel 4, made in 2012, ‘All In The Best Possible Taste with Grayson Perry’, analysing the ideas help within different social classes through the UK. In 2014, he presented a three-part documentary onChannel 4 ‘Who Are You?’, which explores identity. In it he creates diverse portraits for the National Portrait Gallery, London, of ex-MP Chris Huhne, Rylan Clark-Neal from The X Factor, a Muslim convert and a young transgender man. Again with Channel 4, he discussed masculinity with ‘Grayson Perry: All Man”. Perry has even more documentaries and discussion projects, which I highly recommend.

Grayson Perry i also well experienced with writing, he was an art correspondent for The Times, writing a weekly column until October 2007. He guest edited an issue of New Statesman in 2014, entitled "The Great White Male Issue". Perry gave the 2013 BBC Reith Lectures. In a series of talks titled Playing to the Gallery, he considered the state of art in the 21st century. The individual lectures, titled "Democracy Has Bad Taste", "Beating the Bounds", "Nice Rebellion, Welcome In!" and "I Found Myself in the Art World", were broadcast in October and November 2013 on BBC Radio 4 and the BBC World Service. He expanded the lectures into a book, Playing to the Gallery: Helping Contemporary Art in its Struggle to Be Understood (2014). In 2017 Perry gave the inaugural Orwell Lecture in the North for The Orwell Foundation, entitled "I've read all the academic texts on empathy".

It’s clear to see that Grayson is vastly experienced artist, who’s style, art and intelligence is worth the ponder. I thoroughly enjoyed researching Perry, specifically these wonderful podcasts which I found easy and intriguing to listen to.

[alwaysfirst]

Queen's funeral security to cost Rs 59 crores in Indian rupees

Sep 16, 2022 16:14 IST London , September 16 (Always First): More than USD 7 million (around INR 59 crores) will be shelled to beef up the security for the Queen's funeral on September 19. According to New York Post, protecting Queen Elizabeth's funeral will be the most expensive single-day operation in UK history, costing over USD 7.5 million. To secure the unprecedented number of foreign leaders, who are expected at the funeral on Monday, the British Mi5 and Mi6 intelligence agencies, London's Metropolitan Police, and the Secret Service will work together. "This is the biggest policing operation that the United Kingdom policing has ever undertaken," New York Post quoted Simon Morgan, a former Royal security officer, as saying. "When you look at the other events, they were big -- the Prince and Prince of Wales' wedding in 2011 was the biggest -- but in comparison to this, you can't compare it," he said. William and Kate's 2011 wedding had heavy police deployment. According to New York Post, Police costs for the 2011 wedding were an estimated USD 7.2 million. London will be covered with heavy security -- from marksmen and observers perched on rooftops and observation points, to police dispersed among the crowd -- with police and intelligence officers anticipating a "substantial threat of terrorism," Morgan said. The online new portal reports that parts of the city are already cordoned off and it's likely that more streets will shut down ahead of the funeral. Despite the fact that 750,000 people are expected to attend the funeral -- considerably more than at Will and Kate's wedding -- Morgan, who currently oversees the London-based, private international security company Trojan Consultancy, predicted that London will essentially "shut down" for the late Queen's memorial. New York Post further reports that extremist environmental activist groups like Extinction Rebellion, which has been organizing large-scale protests across England with the intention of obstructing daily life, are being closely monitored by British authorities. Royal protection has also been given to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle who lost their right to taxpayer-funded security when they quit their royal duties. Most dignitaries planning to attend will likely take shared buses, but some, like President Biden, will make their own arrangements. (Always First) Read the full article

[kayla1993-world]

Queen Elizabeth II's coffin takes long road through Scotland

Queen Elizabeth II’s flag-draped coffin was driven slowly through the Scottish countryside Sunday from her beloved Balmoral Castle to the Scottish capital of Edinburgh in a solemn, regal procession.

The hearse led a seven-car cortege from Balmoral, where the queen died Thursday at the age of 96, for a six-hour journey through Scottish towns to Holyroodhouse Palace in Edinburgh.

The procession was a huge event for Scotland as the United Kingdom mourns its longest-reigning monarch, the only one most Britons have ever known, for several days.

The packed Royal Mile in Edinburgh fell silent as the hearse carrying the queen arrived. However, as the convoy faded from view, the crowd spontaneously began clapping.

When the hearse arrived at Holyroodhouse, members of the Royal Regiment of Scotland, dressed in green tartan kilts, carried the coffin past the queen's three youngest children — Princess Anne, Prince Andrew, and Prince Edward — into the throne room, where it was to remain until Monday afternoon so staff could pay their respects.

King Charles III and Queen Consort Camilla will travel to Edinburgh on Monday to join another solemn procession carrying the queen's coffin to St. Giles Cathedral on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile.

The cortege's first stop was in Ballater, where residents regard the royal family as neighbours. Hundreds of people stood motionless. Some people placed flowers in front of the hearse.

The entourage was treated with respect in every Scottish town and village People mostly stood silently; some clapped politely, while others pointed their phone cameras at passing cars.

The cortege passed through locations rich in House of Windsor history along the way. Among them was Dyce, where the queen formally opened the United Kingdom's first North Sea oil pipeline in 1975, and Fife, near St. Andrews University, where her grandson Prince William, now the Prince of Wales, studied and met his future wife, Catherine.

The queen’s eldest son, King Charles III, was formally proclaimed the new monarch in the rest of the United Kingdom: Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. It came a day after England's pompous accession ceremony.

A protester appeared with a sign condemning imperialism and urging leaders to abolish the monarch just before the proclamation was read in Edinburgh on Sunday.

Even so, there was some booing in Edinburgh when Joseph Morrow finished his proclamation with “God save the king!” Ann Hamilton, 48, was irritated by this.

Still, it was a sign of how some people, including those in Britain's former colonies, are grappling with the monarchy's legacy — and its future.

Proclamations were read earlier in the day in other parts of the Commonwealth, including Australia and New Zealand. Even as he grieved for his late mother, Charles went to work at Buckingham Palace, meeting with the secretary-general and other Commonwealth envoys.

Albanese, who supports an Australian republic, said on Sunday that now was not the time for a change, but for paying tribute to the late Queen Elizabeth II.

There were hints of possible family reconciliation among the grief that engulfed the House of Windsor. Prince William and his brother Harry, along with their wives, Catherine, Princess of Wales, and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, surprised mourners near Windsor Castle on Saturday with a surprise joint appearance.

The queen's coffin was making its way back to the capital via a circuitous route. After being flown to London on Tuesday, the coffin will be moved from Buckingham Palace to the Houses of Parliament on Wednesday, where it will lie in state until a state funeral at Westminster Abbey on September 19.

Locals in Ballater, according to Barr, regard the royal family as neighbours. Taylor was overcome with emotion as the hearse drove through Ballater.