Tag: :'(

kosemsultans:

Pietro Bragadin, ambassador in the early years of Süleyman’s reign, reported that while both were still resident in the imperial palace in Istanbul, Mustafa was his mother’s “whole joy”. Mustafa was sent out to his princely post at Manisa in 1533. Describing his court at Kara Amid (Diyarbakır) near the Safavid border, Bassano wrote around 1540 that the prince had “a most wonderful and glorious court, no less than that of his father” and that “his mother, who is with him, instructs him in how to make himself loved by the people.”

The Ambassador Bernando Navagro, in a 1553 report, described Mahidevran’s efforts to protect her son: “[Mustafa] has with him his mother, who exercises great diligence to guard him from poisoning and reminds him every day that he has nothing else but this to avoid, and it is said that he has boundless respect and reverence for her.”

– The Imperial Harem by Leslie P. Peirce.

They were lessons she swallowed whole. For the rest of her life, she remained devoted to the niceties. Few things seemed to cause her greater stress or anguish than the fear that she might make a mistake in public. She seldom did. Compliments on her polite gracefulness followed her into the grave. This decorum subjugated and elevated Catherine, for while it kept her firmly kowtowing at the feet of her guardian, it also affirmed her superior position to those around her.

Young & Damned & Fair by Gareth Russell (via queenbessofyork)

autrenecherche:

“A dispatch from Chapuys to Charles V, dated 28th January, mentions Anne being pregnant and is backed up by a letter from George Taylor to Lady Lisle, dated 7th April, in which Taylor writes ‘The Queen hath a goodly belly, praying our Lord to send us a prince.’ 

In July 1534, Anne’s brother George Boleyn, Lord Rochford, was sent on a diplomatic mission to France to ask for a postponement of a meeting between Henry VIII and Francis I because of Anne’s condition. Anne was described as being ‘so far gone with child she could not cross the sea with the King.’ “

“There is yet another mention of Anne’s pregnancy in a letter from Chapuys dated the 27th July. Also, Eric Ives writes of how there is evidence that Henry VIII ordered a silver cradle, decorated with precious stones and Tudor roses, from Cornelius Hayes, his goldsmith, in April 1534 and he would not have spent money on such a cradle if he was not sure that Anne was pregnant.
“  

“It seems very likely that the proposed meeting was cancelled because sometime between 26 June and 2 July, disaster struck – Anne was delivered of a stillborn baby, after which the king[…] left her behind at Hampton Court and commenced his already delayed summer progress.

On 18 July we hear from John Husee that ‘The King is now at Oking [Woking Palace Surrey], and comes hither on Tuesday, and will tarry here and at Eltham till Friday, when he will meet with the Queen at Guildford. Southwark, 18 July.’

The king was planning to visit the Princess Elizabeth at Eltham Palace before joining the queen at Guildford, where they were reunited sometime toward the end of July or the beginning of August. The king and queen had been apart for more than a month, their longest period of separation since 1528, when Anne had retired from court in anticipation of the arrival of Cardinal Campeggio.”  

“ The secret of the disaster was so well kept that it was only on 23 September that Chapuys reported that the queen — or “the lady” as he insisted on calling her — was not, after all, to have a child. We have to remember that the ambassador had been out of touch with the court while it was on summer progress. Away from the public eye, with a smaller number of attendants than at other times and with both Anne and Henry desperate to conceal it, total discretion was achieved.
“ – Eric Ives 

“At The Mercy Of The Queen (2012) has Anne experiencing a stillbirth in late June, and shows us afterwards crying over her son’s body.

“Perfect … he is perfect … see his little fingers, long and slender like my own. And his hair, the color of his father’s. So tiny he is, so frail and helpless … I cannot bear it ! I cannot bear that he never even drew a breath on this earth. Why send him? Why send him to me when he cannot draw one breath?”