Tuesday, April 16, 2024

Tudor England's Most Popular Novel and the Commonwealth of Bees.

It is not surprising that few people know anything about medieval and Tudor science. Some may be aware of the advances in astronomy as it broke free of astrology with the help of astrology itself and of Copernicus. Some aware of the advances in botany as exploration and trade introduced thousands of new plants to Europe.

Beyond those two fields, an even greater lack of knowledge would seem to be apparent, even, at times, among purported experts. This for the simple reason that, outside of them, very little science or scientific method was practiced by the scientists of the time (such as they were). The most popular books of science were often centuries old, wrong in many matters then, and not corrected since.

As often as not, the science (such as it was) was given a more general audience by the creative works of university authors. Among the most popular topics was that of the Commonwealth of Bees. The subject had been popular since Aristotle's comments on it in 4th century B.C.E. Greece. But, mostly, the information (such as it was) came from Book XI of Pliny the Elder's Natural History and Book IV of Virgil's Georgics. Examples of what creative literature and scientific literature (such as it was) had made of them can be found everywhere at least from the 4th century C.E. onward.

I begin here with England's most popular Tudor novel Euphues, his England (1580)1 by John Lyly, secretary to Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford.

The character Fidus is speaking:



GEntlemen, I have for the space oſ this twenty yeares dwelt in this place, taking no delight in any thing but only in keeping my Bees, and marking them, and this I finde, which had I not seene, I shold hardly have beleeved. That they use as great wit by indu[c]tion, and arte by workmanship, as ever man hath, or can, using be[t]weene themeselves no lesse justice then wisdome, and yet not so much wisdome as majestie: insomuch as thou wouldes thinke, that they were a kinde oſ people, a common wealth for Plato, where they all labour, all gather honny, flye all together in a swarme, eate in a swarm, and sleepe in a swarm, so neate and finely, that they abhorre nothing so much as uncleannes, drinking pure and cleere water, delighting in sweete and sound Musick, which iſ they heare but once out oſ tune, they flye out oſ sight: and thereforc are they called the Muses byrds, bicause they ſolow not the sound so much as the consent. They lyve under a lawe, using great reverence to their elder, as to the wiser. They chuse a King, whose pallace they frame both braver in show, and stronger in substaunce: whome if they finde to fall, they establish again in his thron[e], with no lesse duty then devotion, garding him continually, as it were for ſeare he should miscarry, and for love he should not: whom they tender with such fayth and favour, that wh[i]ther-soever he ſlyeth, they ſollow him, and if hee can-not flye, they carry him: whose lyſe they so love, that they will not ſor his saſety stick to die, such care have they for his health, on whome they build all their hope. If their Prince dye, they know not how to live, they languish, weepe, sigh, neither intending their work, nor keeping their olde societie.

And that which is most mervailous, and almoste incredible: if ther be any that hath disobeyed his commaundements, eyther of purpose, or unwittingly, hee kylleth him-ſelfe with his owne sting, as executioner oſ his own subbornesse. The King him-selfe hath his sting, which hee useth rather for honour then punishment: And yet Euphues, al-beit they lyve under a Prince, they have their priveledge, and as great liberties as straight lawes.

They call a Parliament, wher-in they consult, for lawes, satutes, penalties, chusing officers, and creating their king, not by affection but reason, not by the greater part, but ye better. And if such a one by chaunce be chosen (for among men som-times the wors speede best) as is bad, then is there such civill war and dissention, that untill he be pluckt downe, there can be no friendship, and over-throwne, there is no enmitie, not fighting for quarrelles, but quietnesse.

Every one hath his office, some trimming the honny, some working the wax, one framing hives, an other the combes, and that so artiſicially, that Dedalus could not with greater arte or excellencie, better dispose the orders, measures, proportions, distinctions, joynts and circles. Divers hew, others polish, all are careſull to doe their worke so strongly, as they may resist the craft of such drones, as seek to live by their labours, which maketh them to keepe[, to] watch and warde, as lyving in a campe to others, and as in a court to them-selves. Such a care of chastitie, that they never ingender, such a desire of cleannesse, that there is not so much as meate in all their hives, When they go forth to work, they marke the wind, the clouds, and whatsoever doth threaten either their ruine, or [reigne], and having gathered out of every flower honny they return loden in their mouthes, thighs, wings, and all the bodye, whome they that tarried at home receyue readily, as easing their backes of so great burthens.

The Kyng him-selfe not idle, goeth up and downe, entreating, threatning, commaunding, usmg the counsell of a sequel[l], but not loosing the dignitie of a Prince, preferring those that labour to greater authoritie, and punishing those that loyter, with due severitie. All which thinges being much admirable, yet this is most, that they are so profitable, bringing unto man both honnye and wax, each so wholsome that wee all desire it, both so necessary that we cannot misse them. Here Euphues is a common wealth, which oftentimes calling to my minde, I cannot chuse but commend above any that either I have heard or read of. Where the king is not for every one to talke of, where there is such homage, such love, such labour, that I have wished oftentimes, rather be a Bee, then not be as I should be.

ln this little garden with these hives, in this house have I spent the better parte of my lyfe, yea and the best: I was never busie in matters of state, but referring al my cares unto the wisdom of grave Counsellors, and my confidence in the noble minde of my dread Sovereigne and Queene, never asking what she did, but alwayes praying she may do well, not enquiring whether she might do what she would, but thinking she would do nothing but what she might.



1    Lyly, John. English Reprints. Euphues. The Anatomy of Wit. Editio princeps. 1579. Euphues And His England. Editio princeps. 1580. Arber ed., 1869. 262-4.



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Saturday, March 30, 2024

Why the Celts, the Anglo-Saxons, the Normans and Everybody had Easter Eggs.

Thomas Kirchmeyer, who wrote under the pen-name Naogeorgus, provides us with some of the better detail, in his poem “The Popish Kingdom,” that has survived as to how the Catholic church celebrated it rituals at about 1553. While Kirchmeyer is describing his experience in the German Catholic church, the practices were essentially identical in the English church. About Good Friday he tells us that (in Barnaby Googe's English translation of his poem):


Two Priestes, the next day following [Maundy Thursday], upon their shoulders beare

The Image of the Crucifix, about the Altar neare.

Being clad in coape of crimosen die, and dolefully they sing:

At length before the steps, his coate pluckt of, they straight him bring,

And upon Turkey carpettes lay him down full tenderly,

With cushions underneath his heade, and pillows heaped hie ;

Then flat upon the grounde they fall, and kisse both hand and feete.

And worship so this woodden God, with honour farre unmeete;

Then all the shaven sort falles downe, and foloweth them herein,

As workemen chiefe of wickednesse, they first of all begin :

And after them the simple soules, the common people come.

And worship him with divers giftes, as golde, and silver some.

And others corn or egges againe,


The author's disapproval is palpable. He does so as a Protestant apologist determined to show that Catholicism was actually paganism slightly disguised.

He was right to a considerable degree, of course, and the puritan version of Protestantism, such as were then taking over the English worship, was founded specifically upon erasing all pagan influences from the church. Most Anglicans were aghast to think of losing their favorite traditions of the various holidays. But they could not deny the point. The puritans had them in an impossible position.

For all he and others knew about the pagan rites upon which the Catholic were based, he likely did not know that the prevalence of the egg in the Easter traditions went back millennia into the depths of time. That it was everywhere because the first Sun-worship figure from which Christ would evolve — Phanes — would be born from the great Cosmic Egg and the world (universe) along with him. He only knew that the traditions were pagan.

He certainly also did not know that the Celts who brought their version of the Greek Phanes (Bel or Ba'el, a.k.a. Ba'al), their young warrior Sun God, from a common source. He was born in the Anatolia plateau region of modern Turkey nearly 7,000 years before. In his travels west, to western Europe he came to be called Bel. In his travels south he became Apollo, Phanes, etc. He traveled east with the Indo-European Canaanites, as Ba'el, and their new neighbors the Ibharu (Hebrew) nomads, first worshiped him, as Ba'al, and then rejected him. Later, certain of the Hebrews, resident in Greek Asia Minor, took a more evolved version of him back as the Christ. The ancient Indo-European folk memory of the Cosmic Egg was waiting in Celtic western Europe for him when he arrived there.

Kirchmeyer paints for us the picture of Easter midnight:


At midnight strait, not tarying till the daylight doe appeere.

Some gettes in flesh and glutton lyke, they feede upon their cheere.

They rost their flesh, and custardes great, and egges and radish store,

And trifles, clouted creame...


The worshipers cannot wait a minute more to gorge upon sweets and eggs that they'd hard-boiled during Lent in order to keep them edible at the big moment.

As those millennia passed, and the Indo-Europeans migrated through Persia to Northern India, from the Balkans to Greece, through Central Europe to south Italy and north to Russia, and Western Europe to Scotland and Ireland, their languages changed — each region diverging from the others. So did the names of their gods and goddesses, and the stories told about them, the specifics of their traditions concerning eggs and much more. But they did not change so much that their relationship is unrecognizable.

And they added their own new stories and traditions along the way. The Celts and their cousins the Gauls worshiped the hare for its astonishing fertility. Easter being the beginning of their year, they were particularly attentive to the hare so that they would receive the blessing of having many children and the Cosmic Egg would return and reopen to revive the world and provide a good crop.

Thus we can quote from Brand's Popular Antiquities (1900):


GEBELIN, in his Religious History of the Calendar, informs us that this custom of giving eggs at Easter is to be traced up to the theology and philosophy of the Egyptians, Persians, Gauls, Greeks, Romans, &c., among all of whom an egg was an emblem of the universe, the work of the supreme Divinity.

Hutchinson, in his History of Northumberland, speaking of Pasche eggs, says: “ Eggs were held by the Egyptians as a sacred emblem of the renovation of mankind after the Deluge. The Jews adopted it to suit the circumstances of their history, as a type of their departure from the land of Egypt; and it was used in the feast of the Passover as part of the furniture of the table, with the Paschal Lamb. The Christians have certainly used it on this day, as retaining the elements of future life, for an emblem of the Resurrection. It seems as if the egg was thus decorated for a religious trophy after the days of mortification and abstinence were over, and festivity had taken place; and as an emblem of the resurrection of life, certified to us by the Resurrection, from the regions of death and the grave.”

*

Le Brun, in his Voyages, tells us that the Persians, on the 20th of March 1704, kept the Festival of the Solar New Year, which he says lasted several days, when they mutually presented each other, among other things, with coloured eggs.

*

The subsequent extract from Hakluyt’s Voyages (1589) is of an older date, and shows how little the custom has varied — “ They (the Russians) have an order at Easter, which they alwaies observe, and that is this: every yeere, against Easter, to die or colour red, with Brazzel (Brazil wood), a great number of Egges, of which every man and woman giveth one unto the priest of the parish upon Easter Day in the morning. And, moreover, the common people use to Carrie in their hands one of these red Egges, not only upon Easter Day, but also three or foure days after, and gentlemen and gentlewomen have Egges gilded, which they carry in like maner. They use it, as they say, for a great love, and in token of the Resurrection, whereof they rejoice. For when two friends meete during the Easter Holydayes, they come and take one another by the hand; the one of them saith, ‘The Lord, or Christ, is risen’ the other answereth, ‘It is so, of a trueth;’ and then they kiss, and exchange their Egges, both men and women, continuing in kissing four dayes together.”


The conflict created by the Puritans resolved itself after nearly a century. The customs were kept, among the English, not as religious rituals but as long-cherished folk traditions. Those puritans that still objected lived a hard life or emigrated to America where they could completely cleanse their religion.



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Wednesday, March 27, 2024

The Humble Service of the Great on Maundy Thursday.

Once again, John Brand provides us a road map to the development of another holy day. And, once again, we excerpt that portion which travels through Medieval and Tudor times.



Maundy Thursday,” says a writer in the Gentleman’s Magazine for July 1779, “is the poor people’s Thursday, from the Fr. Maundier [modern French: Mendier], to beg. The King’s liberality to the poor on that Thursday in Lent [is at] a season when they are supposed to have lived very low. Maundiant [modern French: Mendiant] is at this day in French a beggar.”



Other authors have suggested that the name of the day comes from an Old English word for the basket in which the gifts of the day were received.

An earlier name for the day was “Shere Thursday”. Folk derivations range widely often returning to the shearing of hair: laymen to prepare for Easter and new monks to be tonsured. To this we add our own version that the time of the year is just right to begin shearing sheep of their winter wool. Pre-modern England was about nothing so much as sheep and their wool.



In [Sir Thomas] More’s answer to Tyndal, on the Supper of our Lord, is the following passage : “He treateth, in his sec[o]nde parte, the Maundye of Chryste wyth hys Apostles upon Shere Thursday.” Among the Receipts and Disbursements of the Canons of the Priory of St Mary in Huntingdon, in Nichol’s Illustrations of the Manners and Expences of antient Times in England (1797), we have : “Item, gyven to 12 pore men upon Shere Thorsday, 2s. In an Account of Barking Abbey in Select Views of London and its Environs (1804), we read inter alia, in transcripts from the Cottonian Manuscripts and the Monasticon, “ Deliveryd to the Co’vent co[o]ke, for rushefals for Palme Sundaye, xxi pounde [of] fygges. Item, delyveryd to the seyd co[o]ke on Sher[e] Thursday viii pounde r[ic]e. Item, delyveryd to the said co[o]ke for Shere Thursday xviii pounde [almonds].” It was also called Maunday Thursday; and is thus described by the translator of Naogeorgus in the Popish Kingdom —

And here the monkes their Maundie make, with sundrie solemne rights

And signes of great humilitie, and wondrous pleasaunt sights.

E[a]ch one the others feete doth wash, and wipe them cleane and drie.

With hatefull minde, and secret fra[u]de, that in their heartes doth lye:

As if that Christ, with his examples, did these things require,

And not to helpe our brethren here, with zeale and free desire;

E[a]ch one supplying others want, in all things that they may,

As he himselfe a servaunt made, to serve us every way.

Then strait the loaves doe walke, and pottes in every place they skinke,

Wherewith the holy fathers oft to pleasaunt damsels drinke.


The German Protestant Latinist Naogeorgus's The popish kingdome, or reigne of Antichrist, written in Latine verse by Thomas Naogeorgus, and englyshed by Barnabe Googe (1570). is a wonderful resource for information about the Catholic rituals that were being abandoned or transformed in Protestant regions of Europe.



In Langley’s Polydore Vergill we read;

The kynges and que[e]nes of England on that day washe the feete of so many poore menne and women as they be [years] olde, and g[i]ve to every of them so many pence, with a gowne, and another ordinary almes of meate, and kysse their feete; and afterward g[i]ve their gownes of [f] their backes to them that they se[e] most ne[e]dy of al[l] the nomber.

Nor was this custom entirely confined to royalty. In the Earl of Northumberland’s Household Book, begun anno Domini 1512, fol. 354, we have an enumeration of

Al manner of things yerly geven by my Lorde of his maundy, ande my [Lady's] and his Lordshippis Childeren, as the consideracion WHY more playnly hereafter folowith.

Furst, my Lorde useth ande accustomyth yerely uppon Mawndy Thursday, when his Lordship is at home, to g[ive] ye[a]rly as manny gownnes to as manny poor men as my Lorde is ye[a]res of [age], with hoodes to them, and one for the ye[a]re of my Lordes [age] to come, of russet cloth, after iii y[a]rddes of bro[a]de cloth in every gowne and hoode, ande after xiid. the brod y[a]rde of clothe.

Item, my Lorde useth ande accustomyth ye[a]rly uppon Mawndy Thursday, when his Lordship is at home, to g[ive] ye[a]rly as manny sherts of lynnon cloth to as manny poure men as his Lordshipe is ye[a]rs of [age], and one for the ye[a]re of my Lord’s [age] to come, after ii y[a]rdis [and one half] in every sh[i]rt, ande after . . . the yerde.

Ite, my Lorde useth ande accustomyth ye[a]rly uppon the said Mawndy Thursday, when his Lordship is at home, to g[ive] ye[a]rly as manny tren plat[t]ers, after ob. the p[i]ece, with a cast of brede and a certen meat in it, to as manny po[o]re men as his Lordship is ye[a]res of [age], and one for the ye[a]re of my Lordis [age] to come.

Item, my Lorde used and accustomyth ye[a]rly, uppon the said Maundy Thursday, when his Lordship is at home, to g[ive] ye[a]rely as many [a]shen cuppis, after ob. the p[i]ece, with wyne in them, to as many po[o]re men as his Lordeship is ye[a]res of [age], and one for the ye[a]re of my Lordis [age] to come.

Item, my Lorde useth and accustomyth ye[a]rly uppon the said Mawndy Thursday, when his Lordshipe is at home, to g[ive] ye[a]rly as manny purses of le[a]ther, after ob. the p[i]ece, with as many pennys in every purse, to as many poore men as his Lordship is ye[a]res of [age], and one for the ye[a]re of my Lord’s [age] to come.

Item, my Lorde useth ande accustomyth yerly, uppon Mawndy Thursday, to cause to be bought iii yerdis and iii quarters of brode violett cloth, for a gowne for his Lordshipe to doo service in, or for them that schall doo service in his Lordshypes absence, after iiis. viiid. the y[a]rde, and to be furrede with bla[c]ke lamb, contenynge ii keippe and a half, after xxx skynnes in a kepe, and after vij. iiid. the kepe, and after iid. ob. the skynne, and after Ixxv skynnys for furringe of the said gowne, which gowne my Lord we[a]rith all the tyme his Lordship doith service; and after his Lordship hath done service at his said Maundy, doith g[ive] to the po[o]rest man that he fyndyth, as he thynkyth, [a]mongs[t] them all the said gowne. 

Item, my Lorde useth and accustomyth yerly, upon the said Mawnday Thursday, to caus to be delyvered to one of my Lordis chaplayns, for my [Lady], if she be at my Lordis fyndynge, and not at hur owen, to comaunde hym to g[ive] for her as many groits to as many poure men as hir Ladyshipis ye[a]res of [age], and one for the ye[a]re of hir age to come, owte of my Lordis cofiueres, if sche be not at hir owen fyndynge.

Item, my Lorde useth and accustomyth yerly, uppon the said Maundy Thursday, to caus to be delyvered to one of my Lordis chaplayns, for my Lordis eldest sone the Lord Percy, for hym to comaunde to gyf for hym as manny pens of ii pens to as many poure men as his Lordship is ye[a]res of [age], and one for the ye[a]re of his Lordshipis age to come.

Item, my Lorde useth and accustomyth ye[a]rly, uppon Ma[u]ndy Thursday, to caus[e] to be [delivered] to one of my Lordis chaplayns, for every of my yonge maisters, my Lordis yonger sonnes, to [give] for every of them as manny [pence] to as manny poore men as every of my said maisters is ye[a]res of [age], and for the ye[a]re to come.



The royal ritual is remarkable and each monarch seems to have performed it with genuine humility until the reign of James II. As can be seen above, many of the high nobility of England joined their monarch in honoring the day so.



Source: Brand, John. Observations on Popular Antiquities Chiefly Illustrating the Origin of Our Vulgar Customs, Ceremonies and Superstitions (1900). 56,



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Wednesday, March 20, 2024

Did you celebrate Braggot Sunday?

The history of the word “braggot” goes back to pre-Norman times in Britain. The origin was likely brackwort, bragwort, etc., possibly indicating a malt held over from a previous malting.

We have something of an early description of it in Geoffrey Chaucer's “Miller's Tale”:

[Her] mouth was swete as braket or the me[e]th,

Or hord of apples, laid in hay or he[a]th.1

“Braket” is braggot, “meeth,” mead. Early on, braggot also was a fermented honey alcohol. This remained the case in some recipes as late as the 1590s as evidenced by the recipe given in the highly popular Haven of Health (1596).

Take three or four galons of good ale, or more as you please, two dayes or three after it is clensed, and put it into a pot by itselfe; then draw forth a pottle thereof, and put to it a quart of good English honey, and set them over the fire in a vessell, and let them boyle faire and softly, and alwayes as any froth ariseth skumme it away, and so clarifie it, and when it is well clarified, take it off the fire and let it coole, and put thereto of pepper a pennyworth, cloves, mace, ginger, nutmegs, cinamon, of each two pennyworth, beaten to powder, stir them well together, and set them over the fire to boyle againe awhile, then bring milke warme, put it to the reste, and stirre alltogether, and let it stand two or three daies, and put barme upon it, and drink it at your pleasure.

Few of the spices mentioned were available in pre-Norman (or even early Norman) times. It is possible that removing them leaves us with the basic original recipe sweetened only by honey.

At some point, and various places, in England, Mid-Lent Sunday became an observed day of the season. It has been suggested, based upon the Catholic liturgy, that it was first called some variation upon “Mother Sunday” because, in pre-Anglican times, members returned to their mother church to lay offerings before the altar.

Once the Catholic liturgy was gone it seems that most parishes were convinced by the name to convert the day into a kind of proto-Mothers' Day. Others just celebrated the day as Mid-Lent Sunday: a day when Lenten restrictions were loosened and folks allowed to take a break. Somewhere in all of this many parishes celebrated the day as Braggot Sunday filled with quantities of the local recipe of sweet ale.

By the time William Harrison's 1577 Description of England appeared, his wife was one of many serious brewers of beer. She added brackwort to give the beer an ale-like quality and color. Regardless of the brack, her sweetening ingredients did not include honey or expensive sugar.

Finallie, when the setteth hir drinke togither, the addeth to hir brackwoort or charwoort halfe an ounce of arras, and halfe a quarterne of an ounce of baiberries finelie powdered, and then putting the same into hir woort, with an handfull of wheat flowre, the proceedeth in such usuall order as common bruing requireth. Some, in steed of arras & baies, adde to much long pepper onelie,...2

The arras mentioned refers to orris an exotic extract from Iris pallida or Iris germanica still much sought after as a unique flavor experience and herbal remedy.

Harrison mentions more in passing metheglin and “a kind of swish swash made also in Essex, and diverse other places, with honicombs and water, which the [homelie] countrie wives, putting some pepper and a little other spice among, call mead,...”. His survey does not mention what was drunk on Mid-Lent Sunday or Braggot Sunday but does give a feel for how the recipes had changed over the centuries.

Whatever exactly was imbibed, Ben Jonson tells us, in his Masque of the Metamorphosed Gipsies (1621), that some version of Braggot was still available and popular.

And we have serv'd there, armed all in ale,

With the brown bowl, and charg'd in bruggat stale.



1“Miller's Tale,” 3263.

2 Harrison, William. Description of England, Frederick Furnivall ed. (1577, 1587, 1887) I.159.


Keyword spellings: Braggot, Bragget, Braggat, Bruggat, Brackwoort



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Saturday, March 16, 2024

Mothering Sunday.

Time flies, doesn't it? We're a week late to post about Mothering Sunday1. Dyer is just one of a number of authors of Popular Antiquities to draw from more or less the same references. His volume, however, includes information taking the origin of the simnel cake back at least to Henry I.

Simnel Sunday is better known as Mid-Lent or Mothering Sunday, and was so called because large cakes called Simnels were made on this day.

Bailey in his Dictionary... says, Simnel is probably derived from the Latin Simila, fine flour, and means a sort of cake, or bun, made of fine flour, spice, &c. Frequent mention is made of the Simnel in the household allowances of Henry the First.


Cancellarius v solidos in die et i Siminellum dominicum, et ii salum, et i sextarium de vino claro, et i sext. de vino expensabili, et unum grossum cereum, et xl frusta Candell."

—Libr. Nigr. Scaccarii

To the chancellor 5 shillings per day and 1 Sunday simnel, and 2 salt, and 1 pint of clear wine, and 1 pint of table wine, and one large candle, and 40 candle chips2

—Black Book of the Treasury.

The " Siminellum Dominicum," Hearne thinks, was a better kind of bread and that "Siminellum Salum," from [s]al, cibus, victus, was the ordinary bread ; if it be not the Latin Salis (Siminellum Salinum), in which case it denotes that more salt is contained in it than in the other. If the derivation from Simnel be not satisfactory, perhaps the Anglo-Saxon [s]ymbel, a feast or banquet, whence [s]imbel, daeg, a festival day, may suffice.3

As is so often the case, the poetry of Herrick provides a stanza on the tradition that informs us that it was practiced throughout much or most of England for centuries.

Herrick in his Hesperides has the following:

To Dianeme.


I'll to thee a Simnell bring,

'Gainst thou go'st a mothering ;

So that, when she blesseth thee,

Half that blessing thou'lt give me.

Mothering Sunday,—In many parts of England it was formerly customary for servants, apprentices, and others to carry presents to their parents on this day. This practice was called Going a-Mothering, and originated in the offerings made on this day at the mother-church.

Dyer seems a little off the mark here. I am not aware that the day was dedicated to both parents but only to one's mother. Much wider celebrations, however, were practiced on the same day to relieve the fast of Lent with merriment.



1 Dyer, Thiselton. British Popular Customs (1900). 113-17.

2 candle chips] presumably to melt his own additional small candle(s).

3 Hampson, R. T. Med. AEvi Kalendarium (1841). I.177n.


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Sunday, March 10, 2024

Opportunity Hovers Around A Dying Queen: 1602-3.

The Carey boys were dashing young cavaliers in the opening years of the 17th century. John, the elder, who would soon become the 3rd Baron Hunsdon. For the moment he was the Governor of the vital strategic fortress town of Berwick on the Scottish border. His younger brother, Robert, was a favorite of Queen Elizabeth I and had been appointed Warden of the Middle March.

Robert tells us that he decided to visit the Royal Court in London, late in 1602, but he was far too well connected and far too much an opportunist not to have chosen the time in light of news about the queen's declining health. It is more than a little likely that the decision to leave his post in the hands of a lieutenant came after the two brothers consulted on the family interests involved. John would follow upon a signal from Robert that matters called for both of them to be present in London where all interests were resolved in England.

History may thank those interests, then, for one of the more informative records of the last days of the queen.

After that all things were quieted, and the border in safety, towards the end of five years that I had been Warden there, having little to do I resolved upon a journey to court, to see my friends and renew my acquaintance there. I took my journey about the end of the year. When I came to court I found the Queen ill disposed, and she kept her inner lodging; yet she, hearing of my arrival, sent for me. I found her in one of her withdrawing chambers, sitting low upon her cushions. She called me to her, I kissed her hand, and told her it was my chiefest happiness to see her in safety and in health, which I wished might long continue. She took me by the hand, and wrung it hard, and said, " No, Robin, I am not well," and then discoursed with me of her indisposition, and that her heart had been sad and heavy for ten or twelve days, and in her discourse she fetched not so few as forty or fifty great sighs. I was grieved at the first to see her in this plight; for in all my lifetime before I never knew her fetch a sigh, but when the Queen of Scots was beheaded. Then upon my knowledge she shed many tears and sighs, manifesting her innocence that she never gave consent to the death of that Queen.

I used the best words I could to persuade her from this melancholy humour; but I found by her it was too deep rooted in her heart, and hardly to be removed. This was upon a Saturday night, and she gave command that the great closet should be prepared for her to go to chapel the next morning. The next day, all things being in a readiness, we long expected her coming. After eleven o'clock, one of the grooms came out and bade make ready for the private closet, she would not go to the great. There we stayed long for her coming, but at the last she had cushions laid for her in the privy chamber hard by the closet door, and there she heard service. From that day forwards she grew worse and worse. She remained upon her cushions four days and nights at the least. All about her could not persuade her either to take any sustenance or go to bed.

I, hearing that neither the physicians nor none about her could persuade her to take any course for her safety, feared her death would soon after ensue. I could not but think in what a wretched estate I should be left, most of my livelihood depending on her life. And hereupon I bethought myself with what grace and favour I was ever received by the King of Scots, whensoever I was sent to him. I did assure myself it was neither unjust nor unhonest for me to do for myself, if God at that time should call her to his mercy. Hereupon I wrote to the King of Scots (knowing him to be the right heir to the crown of England) and certified him in what state her Majesty was. I desired him not to stir from Edinburgh; if of that sickness she should die, I would be the first man that should bring him news of it.1

Perhaps the Carey brothers were the first to move into position to grab the golden ring. Some would chose to stay out of London, and the Court, and depend upon the main players to protect their interests, for the circumstances could erupt in conflicts of every kind.

For just one potential catastrophe, among many, Arabella Stuart, a Catholic with rights to succession that might challenge the Scottish king, was rumored to have married and to have communicated with the Pope. Neither was true. Regardless, she remained under effective “house arrest” in the care of her grandmother, the Dowager Countess of Shrewsbury.

Being 27 years of age, and kept in isolation from all but a very few persons approved by her grandmother, Arabella could only struggle to get free. The struggle could only be interpreted as rebellion — rebellion that could arrive, at some point, in her being advised, by very interested parties, who hovered waiting at a distance, to claim the throne. A throne to which there were numerous claimants — especially one being Catholic — could well mean a bloody civil war.



1 Powell, G. H. The Memoirs of Robert Carey Earl of Monmouth (1905). 70-1.



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