#gertrude courtenay

[catalinadearagonsblog]

Katherine of Aragon & Gertrude Courtenay

Gertrude was daughter of William Blount, fourth Baron Mountjoy, a distinguished humanist scholar and chamberlain to Katherine of Aragon. As the daughter of such an esteemed gentleman at court,  Gertrude received an outstanding education and served Katherine of Aragon as one of her maids of honor. The Queen oversaw the education of her young charges, so Gertrude benefitted from the royal patronage. In 1519, she married to Henry VIII’s first cousin Henry Courtenay, Earl of Devon. Gertrude was the wife and mother of the last Plantagenets at the Tudor court.

Gertrude was one of Queen Katherine of Aragon's attendants at the Field of the Cloth of Gold in 1520. If the Chateau Vert rings any bells it’s probably because it was the masque that saw Anne Boleyn, freshly returned from France, debuting at the Tudor court in March 1522. A little-known fact is that Gertrude Courtenay also took part in it, playing the role of Honour. In 1525, Gertrude’s star was on the rise once again when her husband was created the Marquess of Exeter, making Gertrude a Marchioness.

Gertrude was among the key political players of Henry VIII’s court during the infamous annulment, known as the Great Matter, commencing in 1527 and ending in 1536. The Marchioness of Exeter was among the high-profile ladies-in-waiting who staunchly supported Katherine of Aragon. Seeing how popular the Queen was among the women at court, Anne Boleyn used her influence and dismissed some of them, including Gertrude.

During the summer of 1531, Katherine of Aragon was banished from court. The Queen received gifts and letters from her trusted friends and former servants like Gertrude Courtenay in her exile.

Henry VIII had had enough of his wife’s resistance, and he married the pregnant Anne Boleyn in secret on 25 January 1533. On 31 May, Anne rode in a procession from the Tower of London to Westminster Hall—it was the most impressive part of the coronation festivities. The Marchioness of Exeter opened the cavalcade, a clear sign that she was a high-profile lady-in-waiting. Gertrude had no other choice but to follow the King’s orders and accompany the new Queen: a clear sign to Katherine’s followers that unconditional obedience was required. Gertrude’s husband managed to avoid appearing at Anne’s coronation. Whether the illness Henry Courtenay suffered in June was real or feigned cannot be discerned now, but Gertrude later “much lamented her husband’s sickness at the time of the Queen’s coronation, and said that though her person was there, her heart was at home with her husband”.

Gertrude’s prominent role during the christening of Anne Boleyn’s daughter was calculated as an insult to Katherine of Aragon. Henry VIII selected Gertrude as one of Princess Elizabeth’s godmothers. The disgusted Marchioness complained to her friends that “she really wanted to have nothing to do with this” but took part “so as not to displease the King”.

Like her father, Gertrude walked on eggshells trying not to displease the King, but ultimately it was impossible for her to accept Anne Boleyn as the new Queen. The Catholic Marchioness soon found herself in a position of open defiance of Henry VIII and his second wife. Gertrude gave ear to the Nun of Kent’s prophecies (for which the Nun was executed in 1534). She remained fiercely loyal to Katherine of Aragon and Princess Mary in their fell from grace. She exchanged letters with Eustace Chapuys, ambassador of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, and even visited him in disguise during the period when it was dangerous to become Henry VIII’s enemy. How much Gertrude knew of the proposed match between Reginald Pole and Princess Mary remains unknown, but she certainly favoured the idea of the Anglo-Imperial war. In late 1535, Katherine of Aragon’s health began to deteriorate and it became clear to everyone that she was mortally ill. She died on 7 January 1536 amid rumours of poisoning.

Sources:

Sylvia Barbara Soberton, The Forgotten Tudor Women: Gertrude Courtenay. Wife and Mother of the last Plantagenets

https://tudorsdynasty.com/ten-things-you-didnt-know-about-gertrude-courtenay-marchioness-of-exeter/?amp=

[fideidefenswhore]

The edifice constructed around Elizabeth Barton now began to fall aprt, as people flocked to dissociate themselves from her. The monks of Bocking's own monastery, as a whole body, felt it politic to write to the King seeking his forgiveness for the actions of their 'miserable brother.' After speaking with Cranmer, they also offered money-- £200 or £300-- to Henry [VIII], which they hoped might help him see his way to forgiving them. On 25 November 1533, the Marchioness of Exeter also wrote an abject letter to the King, entirely condemning the 'most unworthy, subtle, and deceivable' Barton. By 16 November 1533 it was reported that Barton had 'confessed herself not only a traitoress but also an heretic.' She had 'mocked all of Kent' with her 'marvellous hypocrisy'.

The Hidden Lives of Tudor Women (Norton, Elizabeth)

[princepotatosack]

Hello one and all and welcome to the The Duchess Affair name post. This is a list of period-accurate given names you can give your MC if you need some inspiration or want to know what kinds of names ladies had back then. I've combed through the 1809 edition of Debrett's Peerage for names of noblewomen in the 1600s and 1700s in Britain, which is where I'm taking the liberty of assuming TDA is set.

As always, you can drop any questions in my inbox, I love love love playing reference librarian :-)

Most names in this period either came from the Bible or from literature. The Bible was the most common book owned and read, so Biblical names were frequently seen. Some nobles liked to show off how cultured and educated they were by naming their children after mythological figures or characters from poetry and history, but most people of all classes named children after ancestors or loved ones (which explains why it seems like it was the same dozen names getting passed around again and again.)

Very common names -- the majority of women back then had one of these names:

Anne

Caroline

Catharine (not a typo – this was the standard spelling in the 1700s!)

Charlotte

Diana

Elizabeth

Frances

Georgiana

Henrietta

Isabella

Jane

Louisa

Margaret

Maria (pronounced like “Mariah”)

Martha

Mary

Sarah

Sophia

Less common but not unheard-of names:

Agnes

Alathea

Albinia/Albina

Alicia/Alice

Amelia/ Emilia/Emily

Arabella

Augusta

Barbara

Bridget

Cassandra

Cecilia/Cecily

Clarissa

Constance/Constantia

Dorothea/Dorothy

Eleanor

Emma

Gertrude

Grace

Harriet/Harriott

Hester

Honora/Honoria

Jemima

Judith

Julia

Juliana

Lavinia

Laetitia/Letitia

Laura

Lucy

Marianna/Marianne

Matilda

Penelope

Priscilla

Rachael

Rebecca

Susan/Susanna/Susannah

Theodosia

Theresa

Thomasina/Thomasine

Rarities and oddities -- I only came across these names once or twice each, use them to add a bit of flavor and eccentricity!!!:

Abigail

Amabel/Amabella

Amantha

Anastasia

Angelica

Annabella

Antonia

Araminta

Beatrix

Camilla

Christiana/Christina

Clara

Clementia/Clementina

Dulcibella

Esme

Ethelred

Eugenia

Felicia

Flavia

Flora

Florentia

Frederica

Gabriella

Helen/Helena

Horatia

Josepha

Leonora

Madelina

Margaretta

Narcissa

Octavia

Olivia

Philadelphia

Rose

Selina

Sibella/Sibilla/Sibylla

Tryphena

Urania

Winifred

And just for fun, some extremely British sounding surnames I found that made me chuckle aristocratically:

Beckington

Cavendish

Chatham

Courtenay

Dalrymple

Darlington

Fortescue

Gainsborough

Kingscote

Lovelace

Mountstuart

Ogilvie

Pembroke

Pierrepont

Posonby

Tattershall

Twisleton

Wentworth

Willoughby

Wriothesley

[queenmarytudor]

huh I just found out Susan Clarencius and Gertrude Courtenay Marchioness of Exeter were related by marriage

[super-nova5045]

@thespianlesbian100 i will never stop

(tw: blood, gore and shitty art)

goddamnit gertrude stop murdering mary!!

[apho-sappho]

Does anyone know if Gertrude Courtenay was actually Elizabeth I's godmother? I've seen absolutely none of that in the actual records, even by someone who was legitimately Elizabeth's godfather. Hell, theres no mention of it even by Eustace Chapuys, who no doubt would've flaunted it around saying that Anne Boleyn made one of Katharine's most trusted ladies be the godmother of the little bastard

[nanshe-of-nina]

Daughters of the Counts of Flanders and Boulogne, part I

Judith de Flandre, Countess of Northumbria and Herzogin von Bayern. Daughter of Baudouin IV, comte de Flandre and Aenor de Normandie. Grandmother of Judith von Bayern, Herzogin von Schwaben.

Mathilde de Flandre, Queen of England. Daughter of Baudouin V, comte de Flandre and Adèle de France. Mother of Constance de Normandie, dugez Breizh and Adèle de Normandie, comtesse de Blois.

Mathilde de Boulogne, Queen of England. Daughter of Eustache III, comte de Boulogne and Moire of Scotland. Mother of Marie Ire, comtesse de Boulogne.

Gertrude de Flandre, contessa de Savoia. Daughter of Thierry, comte de Flandre and Sibylle d’Anjou. 

Marguerite Ire, comtesse de Flandre. Daughter of Thierry, comte de Flandre and Sibylle d’Anjou. Mother of Isabelle de Hainaut, Yolande de Hainaut, and Sibylle de Hainaut

Isabelle de Hainaut, reine de France. Daughter of Marguerite Ire, comtesse de Flandre and Baudouin V, comte de Hainaut. Grandmother of Saint Isabelle de France.

Yolande de Hainaut, markgravin van Namen. Daughter of Marguerite Ire, comtesse de Flandre and Baudouin V, comte de Hainaut. Mother of Isabelle de Courtenay, Tsarina of Bulgaria; Yolande de Courtenay, Queen consort of Hungary; and Marie de Courtenay, Empress of Nicaea. 

Sibylle de Hainaut, Dame de Beaujeu. Daughter of Marguerite Ire, comtesse de Flandre and Baudouin V, comte de Hainaut. Mother of Agnès de Beaujeu, comtesse de Champagne.

Jehanne, comtesse de Flandre. Daughter of Baudouin IX, comte de Flandre and Marie de Champagne.

Marguerite II, comtesse de Flandre. Daughter of Baudouin IX, comte de Flandre and Marie de Champagne. Mother of Jehanne de Dampierre, comtesse de Rethel.

[catherinesboleyn]

Catherine of Aragon’s Ladies-In-Waiting/Maids-Of-Honor

Ladies-in-waiting:

Anne Hastings - Daughter of William Hastings and Katherine Neville. Married at 10 years old to 13 year old George Talbot, becoming Countess of Shrewsberry. The two had 11 children.

Mary Say - Daughter of Sir William Say and Elizabeth Fray. Married to Henry Bourchier.

Elizabeth Scrope - daughter of Sir Richard Scrope and Eleanor Washbourne. Married to William Beaumont.

Margaret Scrope - No info.

Elizabeth Stafford - Daughter of Edward Stafford and Eleanor Percy. Her father was executed for treason against Henry VIII. Married to Thomas Howard, making her the Duchess of Norfolk. The two had five children. In 1530, she was caught conveying letters to Catherine of Aragon, and was exiled from court the next year.

Agnes Tylney - Daughter of Hugh Tylney and Eleanor Tailboys. Married to Thomas Howard, making her the Duchess of Norfolk. The two had seven children. She was put in the tower when her step-granddaughter, Katherine Howard, was convicted for treason, but was eventually released.

Maud Green - Daughter of Sir Thomas Green and Jane Fogge. Married to Sir Thomas Parr when she was 16 years old. The two had three children, including Katherine Parr.

Elizabeth Howard - Daughter of Thomas Howard and Elizabeth Tinley. Married to Thomas Boleyn. The two had three children, including Anne Boleyn.

Margaret Pole - Daughter of George Plantagenet and Isabel Neville. Her brother, Edward, was executed in 1499 for treason against Henry VII. Married to Sir Richard Pole, the two had five children. She was executed in 1541 for treason against Henry VIII.

Joan Vaux - Daughter of Sir William Vaux and Katherine Penyston. Married to Sir Richard Guilford, the two had one child. In 1499, she was made Lady Governess to Princess Margaret and Mary. She stood for Henry VIII as a witness that Catherine of Aragon and Arthur, Prince of Wales, had consummated their marriage.

Maids-of-honor:

Dorothy Badby - No info.

Elizabeth (Bessie) Blount - Daughter of Sir John Blount and Catherine Pershall. She was mistress to Henry VIII for about eight years, and bore him an illegitimate son, Henry Fitzroy. Married Gilbert Tailboys, then again to Edward Clinton. She gave birth to 7 children in her lifetime.

Gertrude Blount - Daughter of William Blount. Married to Henry Courtenay, the two had two children. She was chosen as godmother at the confirmation of Princess Elizabeth, even though she was a close friend of Catherine of Aragon. In 1538, she was put in the Tower along with her husband and son. Her husband was executed, but her and her son were released.

Anne Boleyn - Daughter of Thomas Boleyn and Elizabeth Howard. Married Henry VIII when his marriage to Catherine of Aragon was annulled. The two had one child, the future Elizabeth I. She was executed on false charges in 1536.

Joan Champernowne - Daughter of Sir Phillip Champernowne and Katherine Carew. Married to Sir Anthony Denny, the two had twelve children.

Elizabeth Darrell - Daughter of Sir Edward Darrell and Alice Flye. She was the mistress of Sir Thomas Wyatt, who she bore three children by. Married to Robert Stroud in her later years.

Bridget Fogge - Daughter of Sir John Fogge and Alice Fogge. Married to Antoneye Lowe, the two had four children.

Margery Horsman - Close friend of Anne Boleyn’s, and was one of those interrogated before Anne’s arrest.

Frideswide Knight - No info.

Mary Norris - Daughter of Thomas Fiennes and Anne Bourchier. Married to Sir Henry Norris, the two had four children. Five years after her death, her husband was executed for being one of the five alleged lovers of Anne Boleyn.

Katherine Payne - No info.

Jane Popyngcort - Taught Princess Margaret and Mary French. Was rumored to be a mistress of Henry VIII.

Maria de Salinas - Daughter of Martín de Salinas and Josefa González. Married to William Willoughby, the two had one child. She was a good friend of Catherine of Aragon’s, but wasn’t allowed to see her after the annulment from Henry VIII.

Jane Seymour - Daughter of Sir John Seymour and Margery Wentworth. Married Henry VIII after the execution of Anne Boleyn, and she bore him one child, a son. She died not long after she gave birth.

Anne Stanhope - Daughter of Sir Edward Stanhope and Elizabeth Bourchier. Married to Sir Edward Seymour, making her the Duchess of Somerset. The two had seven children. She was said to be very snobby, but was highly intelligent.

Lucy Talbot - No info.

Anne Weston - No info.

Mary Zouche - No info.

[buttercup-draws44]

Mary and Gertrude dance in some 1920s attire. Mary I design by @arty-e Gertrude Courtenay design by @lakes-other-sixes

[tudors1485-1603]

Edward Courtenay, Earl of Devon by an unknown artist. Dates to the 1550s.

Edward Courtenay was the son of Henry Courtenay, marquess of Exeter. His mother, Gertrude, was a friend of Katherine of Aragon and her daughter princess Mary and regularly sent them gifts and gave them support when Henry VIII repudiated Katherine. The Courtenays were conservatives and opponents of religious reform in general. They were caught up in Thomas Cromwell’s attack on the conservative faction at court in the late 1530s and in 1538, Gertrude was imprisoned in the Tower whilst in 1539 Henry was executed. Edward was also sent to the Tower in 1538 (when he was 12) and stayed there until 1553.

His long stay in the Tower resulted in making him unused to the intrigues of court and yearning for freedom. In 1553 both Edward and his mother were set free by the new queen, Mary I of England who was close to Gertrude. Soon after Mary’s accession, the subject of marriage came about and various candidates were put forward. Many courtiers and minsters were worried about the prospect of Mary marrying a foreign ruler and urged her to marry an Englishman. The candidate put forward by some was Edward Courtenay. However Mary does not appear to have taken the prospect of marrying Edward seriously. He was not exactly helping to win over, as after being released from the Tower he understandably wished to catch up on all the fun he had missed and his activities began to be discussed at court. His inexperience at court and his apparent arrogance (he was recorded to have threatened to have the power to have people killed) made him even more undesirable.

Mary instead chose to marry her second cousin Philip of Spain, which promoted anger and fear in certain quarters in England. Among those anger was Thomas Wyatt, the younger who helped organise a rebellion against the marriage. Edward became implicated in the plot when it was discovered that he had been in contact with certain rebels. In addition a rumour started to spread that the rebels intended to overthrow Mary and replace her with her sister Elizabeth, who would be made to marry Edward. Eventually Edward confessed some knowledge about the rebellion and was resent to the Tower. His imprisonment overall ended in 1555 and he left England for diplomatic missions. He died in 1556.

[catalinadearagonsblog]

The conservative party saw their chance to strike and supplant Anne Boleyn with Jane Seymour, who, they hoped, would convince the King to return to the Catholic Church and Princess Mary legitimised and reinstated to the line of succession. By April 1536, Mary was informed by her friends who conspired against Anne Boleyn that “very shortly her rival would be dismissed”. Mary took a keen interest in the unfolding conspiracy and firmly believed that her father would soon divorce Anne. She instructed Eustace Chapuys to “watch the proceedings, and if possible help to accomplish the said divorce”. Mary was eager to emphasise that she did not wish for the King’s divorce from Anne Boleyn “out of revenge for the many injuries inflicted on her mother, the late Queen, and on herself” because she had forgotten and forgiven them “for the honour of God, and she now bore no ill-will to anyone whomsoever”

It is evident that neither Mary nor Anne Boleyn’s enemies were aware of what was about to happen. They often used the words “dismiss” and “divorce” interchangeably when speaking about Anne’s ruin. This clearly points out that they expected Henry VIII to divorce Anne and send her away from court in disgrace.

On 27 April, John Stokesley, Bishop of London, was approached to give his opinion “as to whether the King could or could not abandon” Anne Boleyn, but he wisely refused to give his verdict unless invited to do so by the King himself. Clearly, the conspirators tried to ascertain whether there were any legal grounds that the King could use to annul his marriage to Anne.

At some point, however, the conspiracy turned deadly. Thomas Cromwell soon began interrogating Anne’s ladies-in-waiting, hoping to build a case against the Queen. On 2 May, Anne Boleyn was arrested on multiple charges of adultery, incest with her brother George and plotting the King’s death. She was executed on 19 May.

Sylvia Barbara Soberton, The Forgotten Tudor Women: Gertrude Courtenay. Wife and Mother of the last Plantagenets

[fideidefenswhore]

i find it odd that anne boleyn is expected to please literally everyone all the time, that she only deserves loyalty if she's in this constant people pleasing mode. like she's not the queen and loyalty isn't what she should expect. i never hear anyone asking coa to constantly get everyone titles and positions or they're going to anne's side and if they do it's coa's fault for "alienating" them and she deserves it. and sorry if i misunderstand, but why would anne selecting those three women be petty? gertrude courtenay gets the huge honour of being elizabeth's godmother and yeah i get she probably didn't want it but what did she want? no rewards and no recognition? elizabeth stafford like why shouldn't that be trying to win her over? why is it petty to want her to carry her train but it wasn't petty when mary howard did it? with margaret bryan i don't get why they say this insults mary like you could say it shows she had someone at hatfield who cared about her so it's not like everyone there hated her.

There's a distinct unwillingness to entertain any benefit of the doubt when it comes to AB, for sure.

Carrying the Queen's train was an honour, and there's a continuity in how all the times it's recorded, the women in that position were those of Anne's family, and Duchesses. It was a subservient position in the way that it was a subservient task with a large audience, and in the way that it reinforced the image of the Queen as the premiere lady of the realm, which is probably why in her last attempted offer to her stepdaughter, Anne reassured her that she would not be suborned to that specific task if she chose to accept her invitation to court. This offer is still sometimes viewed as spiteful, however, either because it was not within Anne's initial offers, that we know of (via Chapuys) or because the offer was made from "a position of weakness", not strength, ie, Anne did not offer this at the peak of her ascendancy. However, this is reading the sources backwards, in context Anne had just secured the promotion of several of her "lanterns and light", "her bishops", attended the ceremonial centerpiece of their promotion, the ceremony which bookended her successful Summer Progress with Henry VIII, the death of her predecessor opened the possibility that the Imperial party would acknowledge her as Queen, and she was pregnant and expecting a son.

So, anyway, I digress...their expectations to how many believe Princess Elizabeth's household should have been arranged are not especially realistic. Margaret Pole wanted to serve Princess Mary at her own expense, although I sincerely doubt she would have been willing to do so in the household of the former in a subordinate position, since her offer was specifically to pay for the continuance of Princess Mary's own, separate, establishment.

Let's follow this thread, that AB alienated people and secured enmity through her political missteps. What would the counterfactual here be, exactly? Let's entertain that Anne's influence over her husband was great enough, and that she was 'politic' enough, to realize that the Countess of Salisbury was peeress in her own right and that it would be best to get on her better side. Let's say that she convinces Henry to grant Margaret Pole's request, and her stepdaughter remains where she is in her own establishment. What would have been the ripple effect of this? Could it be that Margaret's son, Lord Montague, would be absent from those meetings of Boleyn opponents, beginning March 1536, in which Chapuys recorded his attendance?

Or, might it be that the Poles would continue to only give lip service via mandatory oaths and continue to privately push for the restoration of Princess Mary at the expense of Anne Boleyn and her daughter? Might it even have eventually intensified Margaret's resentment of the Boleyn faction, to have had to personally pay out of pocket for several years for the upkeep and wages of the Princess Mary's household?

Is it realistic to expect Anne Boleyn to have given way in the matter of the priory of Bisham? Anne Boleyn and Thomas Cromwell both wanted William Barlow, whom they both patronized in their common cause of religious reform, appointed as prior of Bisham, and pushed for the resignation of the current prior. Pole had also been opposed to the man in this position, but upon learning that Barlow was to be his replacement, went the way of 'better the devil you know...' and then decided to support his refusal to resign ("Nicholas Carew noted dryly [...] that the current prior, with the support of Margaret and others, refused to resign, although Margaret and the rest had thought the current prior unsuited for the position before [...] the reform-minded Barlow was put forth as candidate", Margaret Pole: the Countess in the Tower, Susan Higginbotham). The Boleyn/Cromwell nexus had their way, and Barlow was appointed to that position. Should Anne have decided to instead oppose this appointment and placate Margaret Pole? To do that would have not only been antithetical to her beliefs and patronage, but would have had the consequence of alienating Thomas Cromwell, who was, at the time, according to Chapuys, the most powerful and influential person in England, and with Henry VIII, save only Anne Boleyn herself.

[yourdeepestfathoms]

hi! since ur getting into the six the kids fandom a bit with ur content, im curious as to what you think of some fanmade six the kids ladies in waiting. like gertrude courtenay and barnaby fitzpatrick? a quick tumblr search brings them up. do you have any avian hcs for them?

I wouldn’t say I’m really getting into Six the Kids? The only one I really like is Edward because I think he and Joan would have an interesting dynamic. But!! I want this AU to be a big thing, so I can give these two a shot!

Gertrude was a purple finch Avem!

She and Mary became close after she spectacularly failed at swooping during flight practice, which caused the princess to make fun of her and show her “how it’s really done.” Mary then offered her some tips and tricks on flying and they became friends.

Their personalities did not match at all, but they were still close.

She knew about Mary’s plans with the jaw trap pretty early on, as the princess would often tell her about how she would lock up every dirty crossbreed and demon (Vespers) if she became queen. Gertrude humored her, not thinking anything of it.

However, she was appalled by the conditions Mary put hybrids, the Flightless, and Vespers through. It was so bad that workers of any of those three tribes would bow to HER when she came by because they knew she was close to the queen and thought they would be punished if they weren’t respectful.

She still stuck around with Mary, though, and never brought up her thoughts to her.

She swore she never washed the smell of burnt flesh and smoke out of her feathers.

Barnaby was a red admirable Cimex!

He and Edward just grew close naturally.

He never understood Edward’s fascination with the king’s pet Flightless (or hybrid for the tour!verse), but he respected his friend’s thoughts.

He always tried to touch Joan’s wingbuds (or Joan in general for tour), and Edward ALWAYS yelled at him in a panic lol

When Joan was found dead in her cell, he and Edward had a fight over it. (“Why are you crying? It’s not even that sad.” “It is sad! She’s dead!” “And? She wasn’t your best friend.” “Well, maybe she could have been if everyone wasn’t so mean to her!”)

When Edward died, he made a special weaving out of silk for his grave.

[queenmarytudor]

[Queen Mary] told me that she had that day been to Parliament to hear the Acts that had already been passed. There were two: one to repeal the Statutes that had declared it to be treasonable to touch upon the late King's Henry marriage, or religion, for under them no one could venture to speak of the Pope without incurring the penalties of treason; and the other to restore their honour to [Edward] Courtenay and his mother [Gertrude], and to declare that the sentence, imprisonment and execution of their respective father and husband [Henry] should imply no disgrace to them. I then asked the Queen who had brought forward the second measure, for it seemed to me that it would not have gone through so rapidly had it not been for the marriage question, and there were other more important matters waiting to be dealt with. She replied that Courtenay and his mother had requested, by the Chancellor's [Stephen Gardiner] advice, that it should be done, and she did not think it had anything to do with the marriage question.

Simon Renard to Charles V, 23rd October 1553

[super-nova5045]

@weirdbutdecentart @thespianlesbian100 ahaha i did it again

(no tw this time but sad :(, slight spoilers for squid game ig)

shittiest of the shitty 😍

[apho-sappho]

I'm going to scream Gertrude Courtenay was the cousin of Jane Seymour and half cousin of Anne Boleyn