Tag: tudorengland

06-35 1508 Mary Defalais, A.D. 1524^
06-35 1509 Catherine Defalais, A.D. 1524^
06-35 1510 Adelais Defalais, A.D. 1524^
06-35 1511 Beatrice Defalais, A.D. 1524^
06-35 1512 Hellinore Defalais, A.D. 1524^

The Earl’s daughters were already starving for love and support after losing their mother.  But as sometimes happened, fascination with their stepmother seemed to eclipse Lord Robert’s interest in his own children.  The new Countess, famous for her work with orphans, was as interested in the girls as their father was disinterested.  But her interest—contrary to her reputation—was punitive and vindictive.  She seemed to go out of her way to magnify the disruptions in their life, communicating as forcefully as possible how unwelcome they were in their own home.  Although she could be a harsh, even vindictive disciplinarian to her own nieces and nephews, she also showed a warmth and fondness toward them completely at odds with her unrelenting, frosty hostility towards her stepchildren.

Talk of the remaining Defalais girls’ weddings, and even betrothals, soon sputtered into silence, replaced with dark hints and suggestions of futures in the nunnery.  It was decided that unlike their stepmother and stepsisters, the girls already had plenty of dresses and gowns to last them indefinitely, however they might compare with debutantes of lower standing—or even girls of lower classes.  Their education—something their mother had fought for and encouraged them in, something that made them identify with her even as it helped define their identities—was deemed wasteful for girls.

The girls’ governess—a close friend of their mother’s, who had been governess of all the sisters since Margaret the Younger had outgrown her nanny—was sacked for laxness, literally chased off across the front lawn with a broom by the Countess, huffing and gasping and staggering away as fast as she could while her former charges wept and pleaded uselessly on her behalf.  She was summarily replaced by Sindonie Manning, the longtime governess of her own wards, who at least showed them the same kindness she showed their stepsiblings.

The prestigious tutors also disappeared, their duties to be fulfilled as well as possible by Penance, one of their new stepsisters.  Not only had their stepmother decided she would be perfectly adequate to cover the subjects she considered appropriate for young ladies, but she thought it inappropriate for young ladies of their social standard to be socializing with men, especially younger men born into more vulgar classes of society.  Since a young student from Cambridge was seen visiting the house, even after the tutors were fired, the girls—and their governess—suspected he was teaching Penny what she was supposed to teach them. 

Fortunately for the sisters, Penny was as dedicated to her students as she was conscientious about her duties.  Although she was the same age as Catherine, the middlemost of the seven sisters, Penny became a bright spot in their lives, a way for them to feel connected with their mother, and a source of encouragement and support in the face of their father’s lack of interest and their stepmother’s unremitting hostility.

She became particularly important as an anchor for the youngest daughter, Hellinore.  Hellinore, although studious and accomplished, had tried even her parents’ patience, earning the nickname “the Hellion.”  With the Countess… from practically the moment the two were introduced, sparks had more than flown—they had exploded!  Anne Batonnoir didn’t spare anyone under her control the fury of her punishments; and the daughters had to suffer their detentions in their closets.  Hellinore, in particular, seemed to spend half her existence with a bottom nearly as angry as she was, memorizing every little detail of her closet, until Penny, feeling sorry for her and guilty, started bringing her books and candles and even teaching classes there instead of the nearby schoolroom, so that she could be included. Her sisters took the change in venue with remarkably little complaining, knowing all of them shared a common enemy, and the only difference among their punishments was of degree.  In truth, her older sisters might secretly have been relieved Hellinore acted as such a lightning rod for their evil stepmother’s attentions. 

She seemed to be able to take it, for one thing—unlike Adelais, who wilted and shattered when she drew the Countess’s ire.  One night, Adelais never came to bed, caught in the clutches of their stepmother.  Whatever Adelais had experienced, she refused to say; but she was never quite as bright or gay as she had been before.  While Adelais curled up and shrank, Mary became careful and neutral; Beatrice insistently cheerful and helpful; Catherine sneaky and resentful; and Hellinore… Hellinore became a terror to anyone small enough or—a category encompassing most everyone on the Manor—lower-ranking and weak enough she could bully.

Like his daughters, the Earl failed to thrive and bloom in his new wife’s garden.  Instead, he appeared increasingly listless and withdrawn; even prematurely aged.  Some joked, carefully, that it was his new wife’s energy; but most attributed it to vinegar and tragedy.  In some corners, surely far from Fensmere, jokes were made about someone called the “Earl of Quickjack,” but this one, at least, didn’t show the same signs of vigor that had been so loudly proclaimed at his wedding.

PART 2 OF STORY RECAP

Literature Section “06-35 Grimm Transformations II:  The Long Fall”—Accompanying Images:  1508-1512.  846 words—©2025 The Remainderman.  This is a work of fiction, not a book of suggestions.  It’s filled with fantasies, idiots, and criminals. Don’t believe them or imitate them.

1501 06-34i Robert and Margaret’s Fairytale Wedding^
1502 06-34 Robert and Margaret’s Fairy Tale Life^
1503 06-34 Stormfall colon Hell in a Red Dress^
1504 06-34 The Earl’s Second Wedding, to Lady Anne^
1505 06-34 Mortified sisters at the second wedding^

Everything began the autumn of the haunting.

Once upon a time, not so very long ago, fortune beamed on the Defalais family with a generous light reserved only for the luckiest.  Lord Robert, the Earl of Warwick, was one of the most powerful and prominent men in England, politically astute and well-esteemed by King Henry VIII.  Lady Margaret Mordaunt’s grace, charm, and beauty had been celebrated even before her debut at court, and even before tragedy and piety had cleared a path through her six older sisters to her marriage.  Her family’s title had gone to her younger half-brother; but she had brought estates of her own to join those of her husband’s.  Both families had joined the Tudor pretender at the Battle of Bosworth Field, and been richly rewarded with the plunder despoiled from those who had kept their oath. 

The couple’s courtship had been the talk of the court; their wedding, the event of the season; and their affection manifest, in the form of seven accomplished and (mostly) proper daughters:  Margaret, Elizabeth, Mary, Catherine, Adelais, Beatrice, and Hellinore.  The eldest were well-wed, the middle children hopeful, and the youngest naïve.  They enjoyed the best tutors their mother could arrange from among the faculty of nearby Cambridge University.

The family dwelt in splendor at Fensmere Manor, a newly-built seat ahead of its time, more luxurious and pleasant country estate, than drafty fortress for hiding in.  Blessed with health, wealth, education, position, strength, and even family, which all considered their birthright, their destiny was to blossom and grow, crowding out the needs and ambitions of lesser bloods.

Or so it appeared, until a tragic fall robbed the Countess of her life, the family of its joy, and England of one of its most precious gems.  The daughters lost their role model, their most ardent advocate, their fiercest defender, and their loving, attentive mother.  The Earl was distraught, distant, and thoughtless in his own grief, practically a second parent lost to them even as he lost his own way, leaving his daughters in the capable but uninspired hands of his servants.

Then SHE appeared:  Anne Batonnoir, a Lady of obscure family origins but great charity somewhere far to the West—Devon, Cornwall, or even the Pale.  Her brother Jerome was a Herald of Arms in service to the King, and she was well-respected throughout the English clergy as a charitable woman who helped them care for orphans of quality and piety.  Jerome had slowly achieved some minor influence at the royal court, and now she quickly achieved even greater influence at the Earl’s. 

None could deny her extraordinary beauty, magnetic charisma, or easy self-assurance.  Her spirit, body, and manner were indisputable evidence of her gentle birth and high prospects.  And men not inclined towards the counsel of their mothers pursued her with as much focus and intensity as their mothers displayed in trying to steer them towards more-eligible, less-interesting women like the Earl’s daughters.

Her first appearance in Cambridgeshire, like Lady Margaret’s final tragedy, coincided with an autumn of ill winds, momentous storms, and inexplicable losses.  As the weather grew colder, crops wilted; cattle were mutilated; people disappeared; and rumors spread, of fires spied and chants heard deep in the woods.  Of remote dances and orgies on the darkest nights, and unholy ceremonies when the full moon was in zenith.  Tales of demons and witchcraft rattled the unsteady and inflamed the superstitious.  And some—among them, it must be said, the most jealous and least charitable of women—whispered that Robert’s alacritous courtship of Anne was more than unseemly:  it was unnatural.

Still, less-suspicious women, and virtually all men, took one look at Lady Batonnoir and dismissed supernatural explanations.  Not that the men were likely to share those thoughts with their wives, but they did with one another.

If Lord Robert’s first wedding was a fairy tale, his second was a delicious scandal; and definitely the subject of as much gossip as his first.  Soon after they took their leave of the celebration, the guests near the stairs to the Great Chamber became excited, drawing other guests to them.

From above came the unmistakable sounds of a very passionate woman, being aroused and then, in turn, bitterly disappointed by her groom.  Within ten minutes the gentry of the whole county, and those few of their peers from elsewhere who had been able to attend the quick ceremony, learned not only that the new Countess was as expressive and hard-working as she was attractive, but also that the Earl was a quickjack who had already been accommodated twice today by his energetic new wife before their marriage was thirty minutes’ old.

As best the attentive crowd could gather, he had attempted to defile her just before the ceremony, only sparing her wedding dress by ruining his own breeches before he could get them off.  Even so, he had just barely and technically managed to consummate the marriage by penetrating her (ineptly and painfully, it seemed) before spending himself.  The guests, embarrassed, scattered to report their news to everyone they might come across, carefully avoiding the Earl’s mortified older daughters who were struggling to maintain their dignity in the presence of their father’s vassals.

Fensmere Manor is the silent host and witness to most of the events in ARPc and some of those in ARPh.  It was effectively the seat of the Earl and Countess of Warwick during that title’s creation for the Defalais family, which held the title between the creations for the Nevilles and the Dudleys.  The second Earl, Robert Defalais, resided there partly out of deference for his first wife, Margaret; but probably more so, because by comparison, Warwick Castle was a joyless bunker that would require a fortune to upgrade.

Fensmere was located on the Gog Magog hills of Cambridgeshire, overlooking Cambridge, within a half-mile of the Babraham Road, around the area now occupied by Wandlebury Country Park.  It was one of the earliest country houses in England, begun by Margaret’s father with money her maternal grandfather had acquired under circumstances that were not well-known, and consequently still remained a subject of gossip.  While easily overshadowed by Cardinal Wolsey’s magnificent Hampton Court, construction at Fensmere Hall began about a decade earlier, in the final years of Henry VII’s reign or the earliest ones of Henry VIII.  Fensmere Hall remained ahead of its time until the dissolution of the monasteries enriched the Tudor nobility and led to the building boom of the later Tudor and early Stuart periods.  Although not fully one of the so-called “prodigy houses” of those later eras, like Hampton Court it was more than a precursor to them:  a house designed to demonstrate the wealth and prestige of its builder, especially through the use of glass, extensive craftsmanship, and expansive amenities.

The new style of building was inspired by the Italian Renaissance, fueled by prosperity, and enabled by dramatic changes in Western Europe that allowed construction to focus on residential rather than defensive purposes for the first time since antiquity.  While gunpowder and cannon were eroding the advantages of armor and residential fortresses, trade, commerce, and education were knitting together nations from isolated fiefdoms ruled by battling warlords.  Where once the Royal Progress through the land had been as a heavily-armed military convoy traveling from loyal castle to loyal castle for protection, it was now beginning its evolution toward the Mardi Gras parade roving from one palace to the next, that it would become by Elizabeth I’s reign.

By the time of ARPc, Fensmere Hall was, for all intents and purposes, finished.  Its design had changed over time, most notably after Margaret took over construction after her father’s death; but also incrementally as new construction materials and ideas filtered into England.  As a result, it was a bit of a hodgepodge, but it contained most or all of the elements found in later prodigy houses. Margaret’s daughters loved the house and all it symbolized—partly because of their love for her and her untimely death; partly because the house was so advanced for its time; partly because it was ripped away from them prematurely and traumatically; but perhaps mainly because it had been such a labor of love for Margaret’s father that it became a matter of the family’s mythology and identity.

In 1496, the Bishop of Ely converted a derelict nunnery on the eastern edge of Cambridge, the 12th-century Benedictine nunnery of St. Mary and St. Radegund, into a community for graduate priests studying in the University of Cambridge, with a free grammar school for the choristers serving in the College’s Chapel and other locals.  Its full name is “The College of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint John the Evangelist and the glorious Virgin Saint Radegund, near Cambridge.”  The name “Jesus” was actually derived from its Chapel. In the 1520s it was still a new, struggling, and tiny school with only six or seven priests and very rarely, other students, who were unlikely to obtain degrees, since degrees were only required for clergymen, church lawyers, and schoolmasters.

A wanton demoness posing as an English aristocrat, rampages across Henry VIII’s Cambridge using her penchant for bringing out others’ wickedest urges, to debauch and defile everyone in her path. The envious are seduced to collaborate, the virtuous are persecuted to lose faith, and everyone over 18 gets their freak on.  To endure, her survivors, including an earnest young tutor and his students, are forged into more passionate, tenuous versions of themselves.

This world begins with the actual historical record of natural events, people, and geographic locations in the early modern period when it is set, right down to what I was able to learn with the resources available to me of fires, improvements, and reconstructions of specific buildings such as the Doge’s Palace in Venice.  It then adds supernatural dimensions, creatures, and plots *not* reported in any verifiable histories of the time.  After much consideration of Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, and ancient pagan ideas about hell (most of them considered apocryphal or heretical within their respective religious traditions), I threw out most of the specific historical theories and proceeded to incorporate a physical realm from ideas about virtue and vice that would be widely recognized in at least most Western traditions.  The result shares some terminology with Dante, but its relation to Dante’s inferno would be a challenge to many of his (and the Christian theologians’ who influenced him) ideas.  I hope it will feel familiar while encouraging readers to seriously reconsider what concepts of hell tell us about how we live our lives.

In most respects, the natural human world in the story remains as true to known, actual historical events, people, and locations of the 16th Century as I could make it.  Rather than altering known history, or making additions inconsistent with it, I tried to add details consistent with everything we do know.  For an example of an event, the story includes an acqua alta in Venice on October 31, 1517.  Historical records mention such an event in 1517, but I could not find a specific date for it.  The date I picked is neither the most nor least likely, but possible.  As an example of people, Earls of Warwick were created both before and after the date of the story; but the title was vacant during the time of the story.  The location where Fensmere Manor is set did have buildings in the 16th century which were subsequently destroyed, and has been the site of a country home, but I did not find specific information about the buildings that existed at the time of the story.  Some features of the manor are a bit early compared with when they became common in England, but they were possible and known at the time.

The liberties knowingly taken with the historical record of the natural world are narrow, idiosyncratic, egregious, and intentional; although they are not always what you might expect.  For example, there were actually dildoes and other sex toys in the sixteenth century; and even predecessors of corsets and high heels.  But not the actual corsets and stiletto heels as depicted in some of the AI generated images.  In addition to being a matter of taste, there are practical problems with the actual dress of the time that would interfere with steamy scenes.  Not hygiene–several historical sources insist people of the time were as clean as their technology and station allowed them to be, regardless of what things had been like 200 years before, or became again in the time of Versailles.  Rather, as an example, the sources indicate extravagant women’s fashions, rather than consisting of complete garments, could have different sections that were laboriously pinned together and effectively assembled into what appeared to be complete garments.  That sounds like quite an impediment to passion, and perhaps even an absolute bar to women cavorting away from their own chambers (imagine what she would look like in the morning, walking home with clothes pinned together by her paramour rather than her skilled lady’s maid…).

All that said, in taking certain liberties with history, I take comfort from the fact we are learning more about the renaissance and early reformation periods all the time, often upending assumptions about what was and was not possible.  Some years ago, an entire book about medieval society was titled and marketed based on the fact that women didn’t wear underpants during the medieval and early modern periods.  Then, a few years ago, excavations at an Italian castle unearthed a huge cache of underwear, including women’s underpants, from the period.  I doubt a true stiletto would have been technologically achievable in the early 1500s, but blockier high heels would have been, even if we don’t see examples of them. Another respect in which I have altered history, but take comfort from the recent discoveries of social historians, is the age of consent.  In Tudor England, as in parts of the United States until quite recently (and perhaps even today), people under the age of 18 could be legally married.  In practice, however, there are indications underage marriages were rarely practiced; and when they were, it was typically for purposes of diplomacy, business, or estate-planning, not love or even friendship.  Parents didn’t want their children being married before they were ready; and nobody thought it would be a good idea for children who couldn’t even support themselves yet, to be getting married or having children.  Accordingly, in this world, the age of consent is 18 for all purposes.