"The Fair Maid of Brabant": The Life of Adeliza of Louvain, Queen of England

“It has not been granted to you from Heaven that you should bear a child to the King of the English… Perhaps the Lord has closed up your womb.”
- Hildebert, Archbishop of Tours in a letter to Queen Adeliza

Appropriately enough, Adeliza of Louvain’s career as Queen of England started with a shipwreck. This one incident in the English Channel, which occurred months before she even set foot in England, was to radically alter Adeliza's position in her new country. Initially, the marriage between Adeliza of Louvain and the recently-widowed King Henry I of England was supposed to bring some comfort and distraction to the King following the death of his first wife, the powerful and respected Matilda of Scotland. On the surface, Adeliza seemed to fit the bill perfectly. She was young, charming, beautiful and well-connected. Her father owned sizable territories in modern-day France and Germany and her mother was a descendant of the great Emperor Charlemagne. So proverbial was Adeliza’s prettiness that she was nicknamed “the Fair Maid of Brabant” and her personality had won her praise at the Imperial court in Germany. The marriage contracts between King Henry and Adeliza’s father, Godfrey, were signed in the spring of 1120, six months before the shipping disaster that would shatter not only Adeliza’s future happiness but also the welfare of England for a generation.

"A well-formed woman of middle height, with a short and slender neck"

“The bones found in the place where Queen Anne Boleyn is said to have been buried are certainly those of a female in the prime of life, all perfectly consolidated and symmetrical, and belong to the same person... The remains of the vertebrae, and the bones of the lower limbs, indicate a well-formed woman of middle height, with a short and slender neck. The ribs show depth and roundness of chest. The hands and feet bones indicate delicate and well-shaped hands and feet, with tapering fingers and a narrow foot.”

- The 1876 pathology report on the remains said to be those of Anne Boleyn, Queen of England

Claire Ridgway at The Anne Boleyn Files discusses the 1876 exhumation of the bodies buried in Saint Peter-ad-Vincula's, amongst them the alleged remains of Anne Boleyn.

Katharine Parr in the Movies

"Six wives. And the best of them's the worst." - The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933)

Everley Gregg was the first on-screen Katharine Parr in The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933), in which Henry's sixth and final wife was cast as a bossy but protective nursemaid during her husband's twilight years.

Deborah Kerr, perhaps best known for her role in The King and I, played an elegant and gracious Queen Katharine in the biopic Young Bess (1953), opposite Charles Laughton, Stewart Granger and Jean Simmons. With her red hair and alabaster skin, Kerr had a strong resemblance to the real Queen Katharine, although she was undoubtedly a more beautiful version of the original.

Real-life aristocrat, Sarah Beauchamp, daughter of Prime Minister Winston Churchill, played Queen Katharine in Hallmark's A Queen's Way (1953.)

The Sexualisation of Anne Boleyn

Claire Ridgway at The Anne Boleyn Files criticises the over-sexualisation of Anne Boleyn's story in the modern media.

You can read Claire's full article here.

"It angers me that nearly 500 years on she is still being presented as the woman who tempted Henry away from his wife and beloved church, and a woman who even considered incest to keep her man and crown. Even some Anne Boleyn fans are presenting her as some kind of trophy wife, like a modern day footballer’s wife or celebrity. Others present her as a tragic heroine, a victim of a husband who sought revenge after being bewitched by her. Sometimes it seems that we haven’t moved on from the views of the likes of Chapuys, who called Anne “the Concubine” ... Why oh why do some authors and directors have to make it so that her rise to Queen was based solely on Henry’s sexual infatuation with her and her dangling her virginity as bait? It’s almost akin to people slurring a woman company director by saying that she only got to that position because she slept with influential people or because she’s sexy. Anne Boleyn is not the only victim. Elizabeth Woodville is often portrayed as a woman who used her descent from the mythical Melusine and her knowledge of witchcraft to trap Edward IV and to further her family. Marie Antoinette is depicted as a woman with a voracious appetite for both sexes. Eleanor of Aquitaine was so hot-blooded that she left her frigid husband, Louis VI, for Henry II, and had previously had an affair with her uncle... Alexandra, a member of the History Police group, summed up my feelings on this issue well when she commented on Boudicca, saying, “I think Boudicca was sexy because she was powerful, not powerful because she was sexy”. We are doing historical characters a grave injustice when we credit their success and power to sex and their sex appeal."

"Popular's" Facebook Fan Page

My novel Popular, which will be released in the UK in the Spring of 2011, now has its own fan-page on Facebook, which can be accessed here.

Anne of Cleves in the Movies

"If I do not please the King... will he kill me?" - Anne of Cleves in The Tudors (2009)

Elsa Lanchester was the first on-screen Anne of Cleves in the Oscar-winning The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933). Shown here opposite Anne's fictitious lover, played by John Loder, Anne was shown as being clever and wily, deliberately making herself unattractive so as to extricate herself from marriage to the dangerous King Henry. In reality, Elsa Lanchester was married to Charles Laughton, who starred opposite her as Henry VIII.

In this still from the BBC series The Six Wives of Henry VIII (1970), Elvi Hale is shown as Anne of Cleves, opposite Keith Michell as Henry VIII. Hale's performance and the script, written by Jean Morris, was the most historically accurate portrayals of Henry's fourth queen.

British veterans jeer a woman arrested for defiling War Memorial

 'Disgusting' is indeed the word.

Wendy Lewis, 32, was jeered by a "Guard of Dishonour" of decorated British war heroes, when she arrived at Blackpool Magistrates' Court. She was arrested following a night of drunkenness in which she urinated on the Cenotaph, (Blackpool's war memorial to those who gave their lives in the two World Wars and subsequent conflicts), before she proceeded to perform a sex act on a man nearby.

It is hard not to agree with the description of this woman as "Britain's most disgusting person."

It is good to see that the veterans made a showing at this woman's hearing to represent the memories of their fallen friends and comrades whose memory she insulted - and those of their families. It is only to be hoped that the British public treat Miss Lewis in precisely the same way. The manner in which this woman behaved is beyond the pale, insulting, disgusting and absolutely abhorrent. The fact that she showed absolutely no contrition, but instead told the soldiers to "f**k off" reveals exactly what kind of person she is - as if any further proof was needed.

The Press Association writes: -

A woman branded "Britain's most disgusting person" after urinating on a war memorial is on the run after fleeing court.

Wendy Lewis, 32, was given a "guard of dishonour" by angry war veterans - who she told to "**** off" when she appeared at Blackpool Magistrates' Court.

But she fled the building 20 minutes later and a warrant has now been issued for her arrest.

Lewis had been caught on CCTV relieving herself on the Cenotaph in the town before performing a sex act on a man in public.

She was found guilty of outraging public decency at an earlier hearing and was expected to face a community service order.

But Lewis, who arrived 40 minutes late for her 9.30am court appointment, promptly disappeared 20 minutes later before her case was called on in court.

Earlier, Lewis, of Princess Street, Blackpool, had run the gauntlet of angry old soldiers when she first arrived.

She covered her face with a hood and lashed out at photographers and TV crews as she walked to the court building.

A handful of veterans, proudly wearing berets and campaign medals on their blazers lined the court steps to form the "guard of dishonour" for Lewis. They clapped and shouted, "Disgusting!" as she entered the building.

Police officers will be on the look-out for Lewis and if she is arrested this weekend will spend it in the cells until court resumes on Monday morning.