(no subject)

[naath]

Died on this day in 1560 aged 44 Mary of Guise (my toy,wikipedia). Mother of Mary Queen of Scots; Mary of Guise married the Scottish King James V as her second husband. She was the daughter of the Duke of Guise, which is in France. Henry VIII didn't think much of the idea of a French noble marrying the King of Scotland, so had proposed marriage to her himself after the death of Jane Seymour, apparently she responded "I may be a big woman, but I have a very little neck." The King of France preferred the Scottish King. Mary at this point was 22 and had a son by her first (dead) husband, who she was forced to leave behind in France. James V died shortly after the birth of their daughter Mary, who was then to be sent to France whilst Scotland was controlled by regents, eventually Mary of Guise. After the death of Mary (Queen of England) Mary (Guise) wanted to push Mary (Queen of Scots) claim to the throne of England over Elizabeth's, which lead to Mary (Guise) attempting to make Scotland "more Catholic" which clearly lead to conflict with Protestants in Scotland, Mary (Guise) died in the midst of all this (possibly assassinated) and was buried in France. [what a lot of people called Mary; someone was saying to me how annoying it is when characters in books have *similar* names, real life is worse]

Born on this day in 1456 to Richard Neville , 16th Earl of Warwick and Anne Beauchamp , 16th Countess of Warwick, Anne Neville (my toy,wikipedia). The Richard Neville here is the Kingmaker. Anne married twice - to Edward (son of Henry VI) and to Richard III. Richard Neville had married her to Edward after he thought better of having installed Edward V as King and wanted to support Henry's faction; after they were defeated (and Edward killed). At this point Richard (later III) wanted to marry her, because she was very rich (she had no brothers) but his brother the Duke of Clarence (of Malmsey wine fame) who was married to her sister (Isabelle) didn't want that because if Anne died without children Isabelle (and thus Clarence) would get ALL THE MONEY. As it turned out Richard married her anyway (I have no idea if anyone asked *her* what she wanted...). She and Richard had one son, who did not live long, and she died before Richard (some people alleged killed *by* Richard to be rid of her, although other people allege that he was genuinely devastated by her death).

Comments

[tigerfort]

Back when I worked on the ODNB, the name dreaded above all others - even beyond "John Smith" (and there genuinely are quite a few of those) - was Alastair Campbell. Because every first son in the whole sodding clan was called Alastair, so being told that someone was "Alastair Campbell, son of Alastair Campbell" usually only restricted it to two or three people who could plausibly be doing that thing. (The son-and-heir is 20, his father is nearly 40, and his father is in his late 50s. The last one probably didn't lead the clan into battle, but which one of them presented their respects to the king? And which of the many cousins was it who sailed on so-and-so's expedition to Rome?)

[naath]

How... useful...