[Katharine Parr]’s pregnancy was a strenuous one: it was during this period that Thomas Seymour’s roving eye turned to Henry’s youngest daughter, the Lady Elizabeth. As Katharine was thought to be dangerously old to be having children, Seymour might have been hedging his bets in setting his cap at Elizabeth: should anything happen to his wife, he may have thought to take the teenage Elizabeth as his bride. The former princess’ governess, Kat Astley, appeared to facilitate Seymour’s access to her charge with this in mind. Seymour was openly seen in Elizabeth’s chambers before she had risen for the day, dressed only in her nightgown, and holding her in his arms during his wife’s pregnancy. Racked with debilitating symptoms, Katharine was confined to her apartments as her husband continued to pay court to her stepdaughter.
At the end of a scorching English summer, on 30 August 1548, Katharine Parr went into labour at Sudeley Castle. She gave birth to a girl, Mary, who was perhaps named so to soften the Lady Mary’s anger at Katharine for ‘shaming’ her late father. Katharine appeared in high-spirits, though privately she confessed ‘she did fear such things in herself, that she was sure she could not live.’ Only days later, Katharine’s fatal premonitions were realised. She became ‘suddenly feverish,’ displaying the telltale signs of puerperal fever. It was then, in Katharine’s delirium, that her opprobrium and anger toward Seymour bubbled to the surface. ‘I am not well handled,’ she cried, railing that Seymour ‘careth not’ for her, and stood ‘laughing at my grief.’
Seymour attempted to calm her, but to no avail. The more he attempted to mollify Katharine, the more she ‘dealt with him roundly and shortly.’
D. Novakovic, Coffin Break: The Dramatic Afterlife of Katharine Parr
“For the next few years, Edward’s household led an itinerant journey through some of the many smaller royal palaces and hunting lodges that Henry possessed on the outskirts of London. It was a life devoted to leisure and enjoyment. On his removal to Hunsdon around Easter 1540, Lady Bryan wrote to Cromwell informing him as she was accostumed to, of Edward’s progress:
‘My Lord Prince’s grace is in good health and merry… his grace danced and played so wantonly that he could not stand still and was full of pretty toys as ever I saw child in my life’.
Mary continued her visits, spoiling her brother with presents. Elizabeth was less generous, demonstrating a early habit for thrift for which she would become readily noted, but her gifts were no less thoughtful, for each year she sent her brother a cambric shirt that she had made herself.”
“Edward VI: The Lost Tudor King of England”, Chris Skidmore.
This painting of Dido Elizabeth Belle (1761-1804), daughter of a slave, with her cousin Lady Elizabeth, by David Martin in 1778, is typical of slave portraits. Dido is shown in exotic costume carrying a tray of fruits – plantation produce. She stands behind Elizabeth, who carries a book, and rather awkwardly holds her at arm's length.
"Normal Women: 900 Years of Making History" - Philippa Gregory
Me: Gonna schedule some more fluff posts for @fandom-fluff-of-the-day
My brain: Talk about the plot inconsistencies in Black Butler and how the only one ever shown canonically becoming immortal was Ciel so there's no reason for Lizzie to be in the 21st century in the Circus Arc