Seriously, though, is there any member of the Teutonic nobility whose portrait does not make for pure comedy gold
A challenger appears:
Dude
Guy
Sir
Just gonna leave this here.
Remember that one non-rhyming Dr. Seuss story about Bartholomew Cubbins and the Five Hundred Hats?
Buddy got himself an eighthead
Sir Moore of Moore Hall kicks The Dragon of Wantley in it’s ‘Arse-gut’
Frontispiece of the libretto for the opera The Dragon of Wantley (1737)
Best kingly death?
Deposed;
Slain in war;
Haunted by the ghosts they have deposed;
Poisoned by their wives;
Sleeping killed;
Doesn't matter, they were all murdered
(R2 signup since you can't put links in poll titles)
there should be plushies of the strange but endearing creatures that live in medieval texts margins
HE!!!!
HE!
but also, they
HER 💜
ALT
ALT
ALT
ALT
ALT
ALT
ALT
ALT![Detail from the Salisbury Breviary (Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, MS Lat. 17294), fol. 5r. This is the calendar page for July. In gold lettering, we read: "Obitus nobilissime d[omi]ne marie comitisse derby m[at]ris excellentissimi reg henrici 5 1393 (obit of the most noble Lady Mary, Countess of Derby, mother of the most excellent king Henry V, 1393)". The breviary was commissioned by Mary's third son, John, Duke of Bedford, at sometime in the 1420s.](https://64.media.tumblr.com/1c03a2c9dbc9d091f321afa4e2aef115/59330f1a1e5f6cbe-ec/s400x600/08478e8c6af23ceadfa49e160c258b5e19e987b2.png)
ALTMary de Bohun, Countess of Derby
Mary de Bohun was probably born around 22 December 1370 to Humphrey de Bohun and Joan Fitzalan, Earl and Countess of Hereford. As her father had no son, she and her elder sister, Eleanor, became the heiresses of his wealthy earldom. Eleanor married Thomas of Woodstock, the youngest son of Edward III, and according to Froissart, Woodstock intended Mary to enter a nunnery so he would inherit the entire earldom. This was not to be. In late 1380 or early 1381, Mary married John of Gaunt's son and heir, Henry Bolingbroke, the future Henry IV. The marriage appears to have happy as they shared similar interests and often spent time together. The story that Mary gave birth to a short-lived son in 1382, when she would have been only 11, is now believed to be a myth brought into being by a mistranslated text referring to her sister giving birth to a son. Mary's first child was the future Henry V, born 16 September 1386. Four more children soon followed: Thomas, Duke of Clarence (29 September 1387), John, Duke of Bedford (20 June 1389), Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester (3 October 1390) and Blanche, Electress Palatine (25 February 1392). Mary died either giving birth to her sixth and final child, Philippa, Queen of Norway, Denmark and Sweden, or from complications afterwards, on 1 July 1394, when she was only 23 years old. Mary was buried on 6 July 1394 in the Church of the Annunciation of Our Lady of the Newarke in Leicester. The church and her tomb was destroyed in the Reformation.
A little of her personality can be reconstructed. She was interested in music, playing the harp or cithara, and she bought a ruler to line parchment for musical notation, suggesting she may have also composed music.Such an interest was shared by both her husband and eldest son, one or both of whom were the 'Roy Henry' who composed two mass movements. She maintained a close contacts with other noblewomen, not only her mother and sister, but Constanza of Castile, Katherine Swynford and Margaret Bagot, suggesting that she may well have been more politically aware and involved than what is generally believed. She may have also continued the de Bohun of patronising manuscript illuminators. A number of illuminated manuscripts believed to belong to her or her sister are some of the most celebrated late medieval English manuscripts.
Mary never became Duchess of Lancaster, let alone Queen of England, but it was her family's badge of the swan that became associated with the Lancastrian kings, most famously borne by her eldest son, Henry V. One of Henry V's first acts as king was to order a copper effigy for her tomb, while in the charter of his Syon foundation, he required that the soul of "Mary … our most dear mother", among others, be prayed for in a daily divine service. Her third son, John, recorded her anniversary into his personal breviary, while her daughters may have each carried manuscripts belonging to her with them when they left England to be married. Despite the brevity of her life, Mary was remembered long after her death.
Sources: Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, MS Lat. 17294, Chris Given-Wilson, Henry IV (Yale University Press 2017), Ian Mortimer, The Fears of Henry IV (Vintage 2008), John Matusiak, Henry V (Routledge 2012), Calendar of the Patent Rolls: Henry IV. Vol. I. A. D. 1399-1401, Calendar of Close Rolls 1381-1385, Rebecca Holdorph, 'My Well-Beloved Companion': Men, Women, Marriage and Power in the Earldom and Duchy of Lancaster, 1265-1399, University of Southampton, PhD Thesis, Marina Vidas, The Cophenhagen Bohun Hours: Women, Representation and Reception in Fourteenth Century England (Museum Tusculanum Press 2019)
*trying to lure the heroes to their doom* quickly everyone! into my large spider
Aren't we all tired? Why don't we rest at the spider's web for a change? 😁
In the splendid tradition of my Dad’s Official Birthday portrait, a triumphant return to the Baroque era with a truly spectacular wig. I think he wears it better than ol’ Philip V of Spain, and he certainly boasts a better jaw.
“Portrait of Queen Catherine of Braganza as Saint Catherine” by Jacob Huysmans
“One day Queen Catherine decided she wanted to visit a country fair incognito. She set off on the back of a cart horse ridden by a courtier in what she fondly imagined to be the country style. Unfortunately, both the queen and courtiers, including Frances Stuart, now Duchess of Richmond and the Duchess of Buckingham, ‘had all over-done it in their disguise’. In their red petticoats and waistcoats, they looked more like ‘Antiques than Country folk’. Catherine continued for a while innocently enjoying herself. At a booth she bought a pair of yellow stockings 'for her sweetheart’. But of course, quite apart from her 'antique’ clothes, her heavy foreign accent - what a witness unkindly called her 'gibberish’ - could not help drawing attention. Soon a crowd gathered to gape at these strange birds in their even stranger plumage, and the queen was mobbed.”
From the book, 'King Charles II’ by Antonia Fraser.
