Victorian Musings

BIRTH Mary was the only child born to KingHenry VIII of Englandand his first wife Katherine of Aragon. Through her mother, she was a granddaughter of KingFerdinand II of Aragonand QueenIsabella I of Castile. She was born at the Palace ofGreenwich inLondon, and was baptised three days later at the Church of the Observant Friars where her parents were married. Her godparents included her great-aunt theCountess of Devon,Lord ChancellorThomas Wolsey, and theDuchess of Norfolk. The King's cousin once removedMargaret Pole, 8th Countess of Salisbury

“You ask me to tell you something of my life before marriage. It would be hard indeed not to do anything you ask of me if within my power. To say the truth this particular thing you want is somewhat painful”  Emily Tennyson, a note from her journals, written in 1869

Emily Sarah Sellwood was born on 9 July 1813 in a house in Horncastle, Lincolnshire, England where her father worked as an attorney.  Being baptized the day she was born, some would say, left her with a fragility that plagued her tiny frame most of her adult life. She grew up in a Christian household and she was described as having a calmness to her that was more than mere passivity.  A trait that would serve her well later in life as a wife to the pre-eminent British Poet Laureate!
Emily Sellwood’s childhood home, Horncastle
 Emily Sellwood’s earliest memory of her father, Henry Sellwood, was of him looking at her ‘with sad eyes’ after her mother’s death on 30 September 1816. Emily Sellwood was three years old.  He carried…

Product details Hardcover: 303 pagesPublisher: Amberley Publishing (28 Sep 2011)Language EnglishISBN-10: 1445603047ISBN-13: 978-1445603049UK Edition
BOOK DESCRIPTION The fall of Anne Boleyn and her brother George is the classic drama of the Tudor era. The Boleyns had long been an influential English family. Sir Geoffrey Boleyn had been Lord Mayor of London. His grandson, Sir Thomas, had inherited wealth and position, and through the sexual adventures of his daughters, Mary and Anne, ascended to the peak of influence at court.
The three Boleyn children formed a faction of their own, making many enemies: and when those enemies securied Henry VIII's ear, they brought down the entire family in blood and disgrace. George, Lord Rochfort, left no children. Mary left a son by her husband, William Carey - Henry Carey, Lord Hunsdon. Anne left a daughter, Elizabeth I - so like her in many ways and a sexual politician without rival.
“Anne was a woman with a mind of her own, and her own political a…