#thewritingpossum

[doodlebugs-and-doodleart]

I don't have a scooby on how to turn on replies but thank you @thewritingpossum for your comment :)

#replies #sort of #not art

[jezabelofthenorth]

they acrualy were some warriors out there calling out emma frost on her shit and they have my eternal respect rather than saying some random tumblr user ACTUALLY hates the real koa rod um making fun of this weird ass version of her whom is a baby stealer and hates her daughter, like could not be me but you do you i suppose

#thewritingpossum

[philomaela]

thewritingpossum replied to your post “I’m reading Lisa Hilton’s biography of Madame de Montespan and it’s...”

yeah, I read her biography of england's queen consorts and it's really really easy to see who she likes or dislikes..It's kind of a shame because she has interesting things to say for the most part

She definitely makes a lot of really interesting and valid points, but yeah it’s really easy to see who she likes and dislikes. It was most obvious with Madame de Maintenon like I was just reading it like “wow, she will not give this woman the benefit of the doubt on anything.” And it was a little distracting tbh.

#thewritingpossum #text

[heartofstanding]

@thewritingpossum  replied to your post “I just really want a medieval murder mystery with baby Henry V as a...”

You know I have to ask you, who is Richard Courtenay and why is he interesting?

I was hoping someone would ask! ;) I tried not to be too recklessly enthusiastic and more scholarly, but I got very wordy instead.

Basically, Richard Courtenay was a close friend of Henry V and the Bishop of Norwich from 1413-1415. He was born around 1381 and became a priest in 1400, with a special papal dispensation for his youth, and seems to have a chronic problem with actually turning up to do his job: in 1397 he was declared “contumacious” for failing to turn up or send a proctor for a bishop’s visitation and he never actually visited Norwich.

It’s not known how he and Henry met. I’ve seen it suggested that they met in Richard II’s court (but I’m yet to find an academic source for this) or studied at Oxford together (though irrc, it’s been said there’s no evidence Henry was ever at Oxford). It’s even possible, I guess, that they met while they were both in Wales during the early 1400s.

He and Henry probably bonded over being book nerds. He commissioned a book for Henry about good rule (De Officio Militari by Richard Ullerstone), and his personal project at Oxford was a secure establishment of the university’s library. Which is a neat little link with Henry’s youngest brother, Humphrey (later Duke of Gloucester), who donated a hell of a lot of books to Oxford during his lifetime. 

Courtenay also appears to have been a huge nerd and studied civil law at Oxford, rather than theology (which, apparently, most of his kind – “a securely destined young aristocrat” – studied). He was Chancellor of Oxford from 1406 and 1411, at which point he was ordered to resign by Henry IV – because he was busy fighting Archbishop Arundel over Arundel’s attempts to “purge” the university of Wycliffism – this seems to have been more about trying to keep the university free from Arundel’s interference than protecting heretics.

The whole thing is a bit hilarious because he was forced to resign and the university just turned around and immediately re-elected him chancellor. It goes on a bit, but he pretty much won the fight with Arundel and probably remained chancellor there until 1413, when Henry became king.

At which point, Courtenay was granted the major see of Norwich, but also made keeper of the king’s jewels and treasurer of the chamber. He was involved in a lot of Henry’s early diplomatic talks with France and it seems he employed spies there, so I’ve basically taken that to assume that he was some kind of spy-master. He was also named as executor in Henry’s 1415 will and went with him on the 1415 campaign in France.

Where he died. He’s actually the first recorded death from dysentery at the siege of Harfleur and the most well-known victim. Henry was said to have personally attended his deathbed, bathed his feet and closed his eyes. Courtenay died without a will and Henry arranged for him to be buried in his own tomb at Westminster Abbey (by some accounts they share the same burial space, but the Abbey’s official website seems to suggest that he was buried in a separate location in Henry’s chantry).

Because of this, the current Earl of Devon, Charles Courtenay, is going around saying that Courtenay and Henry were lovers. There’s no real evidence they were beyond possible tomb-sharing and it’s supremely unlikely that’s going to change, but, hey, if people are going to invent Welsh women to be the love of Henry V’s life, I can imagine a torrid love affair between Henry and a guy that actually existed.

(Some articles imply Henry favoured Courtenay over his wife because he had Courtenay buried in his tomb, which seems a bit of a reach to me. Courtenay died five years before Henry even married Catherine de Valois.)

Here are some quotes to make you ship Henry/Courtenay (from actual historians, not the Earl of Devon).

Juliet Barker, Agincourt: The King, The Campaign, The Battle:

Richard Courtenay, bishop of Norwich, was a man who, despite his profession, had put his extraordinary abilities wholly at the service of his king rather than his God. A doctor of civil and canon law, twice elected chancellor of the University of Oxford, of which he was a generous and learned patron, diplomat, financier and a constant companion and advisor to Henry V, the only thing he had never found time to do was visit his diocese, where John Leicester, archbishop of Smyrna, lived in his palace and performed his ecclesiastical duties for him. For the English chaplain (who was unaware of the bishop’s spying activities), Courtenay was “a man of noble birth, imposing stature, and superior intelligence, distinguished no less for his gifts of great eloquence and learning than for other noble endowments of nature, … regarded as agreeable above all others to members of the king’s retinue and councils”. He was also, the chaplain said, “the most loving and dearest’ of the king’s friends”, which is perhaps a more remarkable epigraph, since there were few men who could claim such a relationship with Henry V. That it was justified is indicated by the fact that the king himself attended his deathbed, bathed his feet for him and closed his eyes when he died. 

R. G. Davies, “Courtenay, Richard” in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography:

Unlike the king, Courtenay had not made a will. Henry had the body sent back to the chapel of Edward the Conessor in Westminster Abbey, where it was buried in the plot he had already designated for his own interment. There he remains, unobtrusively sharing the magnificent royal tomb. When Henry himself was buried on 8 November 1422, Courtenay’s feet had to be amputated and placed neatly under his armpits to allow the king’s body its exact space. He was not to be moved. 

In summary, Courtenay:

was Henry V’s “loving and most dearest” friend

fought Archbishop Arundel and basically won

was involved in Henry’s attempts to win France diplomatically, or at least declare war diplomatically 

at same time, employed spies in France so let’s just imagine that he was the medieval equivalent of James Bond’s M or something

was so BFF-y with Henry that they share a tomb 

which makes me and Courtenay’s sort-of-descendent ship him and Henry together

#thewritingpossum #henry v #richard courtenay #the original draft of this post was basically the bullet points with more caps #also he was apparently hot and known as 'the flower of devon' #also this is the result of some late night typing so pls forgive typos and mistakes #i can post sources too but i was reluctant because tumblr eats posts with links in them now #but the oxford dictionary of national biography is the main one #oh my god they were tomb mates

[aturinfortheworse]

thewritingpossum commented on thewritingpossum's post “so there’s a ton of french children songs that used to be porn like...”

@aturinfortheworse​ You can find both the lyrics and various interpretation (many of them clearly made for kids) if you google Marianne s'en va au moulin. I'm not sure if you understand french but if not i can do a shitty translation later today x)

I don’t really understand french but I know someone who does and I badly need to torment her thusly

#thewritingpossum

[medievalcat]

was having some thoughts on got costume design:

-The Northern costumes weren’t bad imo but after a while the Northern style began to look repetitive, and monolithic. I think the show could have displayed how the clothing there is suited for cold weather and less frivolous than other regions without doing that. Personally I think taking inspiration from Russia and the Kievan Rus historical clothing could have worked very well.

-the Islands are a seemingly harsh climate and the people are active at sea a lot which explains why they seem to wear thick fabrics like wool and sealskin a lot and why their clothes, from the few descriptions we get, seem to be very full-body-covering. I’ve said that despite the “aesthetically Viking, politically Ireland” thing I think the Isles are less a metaphor for any specific *culture* and more about different issues that are existing in many places so I don’t have a set idea for what culture they think they are similar to. I think they would have a lot of layers and possibly for special occasions have the gold coin style jewelry that many cultures have such as in the Balkans and West Asia. They also seem like they wear dark colors and relatively practical.

-the Stormlands also have a harsh climate which makes me think they also would have thick, strong fabrics that would keep out water and moisture. I think their clothes are not talked about a lot but Stannis iirc is described as wearing leather all the time so it fits. Also people have compared the Stormlands to Spain which idk if I think GRRM intended but I can see the clothing looking similar to late medieval/early Renaissance spain. Many rich colors, thick but expensive and fine fabrics. Heraldic clothing too.

#i say things #thewritingpossum #since we were talking aboutit :)

[makingqueerhistory]

thewritingpossum replied to your post “Girl, could you possibly prostrate yourself to appease cis-hets more?”

Could this girl be more obsessed with you tho? Like, you went to great lenghts to explain your opinion to her and to give her an historical and sociological context and she's still going so I'm pretty sure she's not going to learn and become more educated, she's just looking to start shit...

Yeah, they seem pretty hyper-fixated on us, but I find that isn’t uncommon with people who don’t have anything better to do. It is unlikely that we will respond to anything more from them, we just wanted to give some closure to the whole mess. Thank you for the support!

#thewritingpossum #answered

[rhaella]

Happy birthday! I hope you have a great year! :)

thank you!! 😊😊

#thewritingpossum #answered #21st

[theangryhistoriananna]

thewritingpossum replied to your post: I was talking about The Bull and the Rose the...

also this novel where anne is a vampire lol

Or anything written by Alison Weir.

#thewritingpossum

[thelittlestspider]

thewritingpossum replied to your post “every year nano shows up to kick my ass and i let it”

saaaaame, a huge part of me is like "well, you already know you just cannot write 1600+ words a day, it's not gonna happen" but another part of me refuse to let it go

i feel this. every year i’m like “this is gonna be the year you finally write 50k in 30 days” but then my brain’s like “you just” clenches fist “never learn”

#thewritingpossum #my writing quantity is outstripped by my lack of stamina #perfectionism and inability to keep to any kind of writing schedule

[jezabelofthenorth]

TRULY ever “anne stan” as u say because...........lmao, hates that part of tobg, because it’s terrible??? i know tobg is old but like isn’t um kinda the point WHOM was online here where tobg came out in the year of our lord 2008, we made fun of koa stealing a baby in 2020 because it happened in november of 2020 and it was insane and funny as hell, that’s it

#thewritingpossum

[thecatsaesthetics]

thewritingpossum replied to your photo: Sexy? Hot? Are they confirming that was not...

they can say it as much as they want it doesn’t make it true lmao

Listen the guy might be cute in real life, but with those weird angles and that wig, he looked awful. 

The wig wasn’t even silver-blond, it was golden looking. The more I look at Visery’s wig I can see it’s way more silver than Rhaegar’s was. That’s just unacceptable at this point, their budget is massive. No reason to have a wig this bad looking. 

Like I’ve seen people argue he was cast because he looks like one of the commissioned art work of Rhaegar but what is the point if they don’t even show Rhaegar’s face? 

#thewritingpossum

[heartofstanding]

@thewritingpossum replied to your post “Book asks: 1, 3, 6, 20”

I relate so much to what you said about histfic being able to give us some answer on more emotional things, that's really what make it interesting imo. Also, I know it's not the point of this post but i'd love to hear your headcanons about Edward II and Isabella if you ever feel like sharing them :)

Yes! And imo it’s so much more interesting when conflict is complicated and messy and not Bad Guy is Bad and Good Guy is Good. Like the idea that Isabella’s rebellion was motivated by her love for Edward and a sense that she had to act, even though it is painful, is far more interesting than  “long-suffering queen finally snaps and goes on quest for revenge after years of being neglected by her icky gay husband”.

i should probably say my headcanons are a bit weak, since I’ve been knee-deep in Richard II feels and I’ve only read Kathryn Warner’s biographies of Isabella and Edward so far (and one terrible novel I was promised was going to be so much better than it was), but I still managed to ramble for 600 words.

I think there was a great deal of love and warmth between Edward II and Isabella. It took a while to develop because Edward wasn’t into prepubescent girls, ew, but it did develop and for the most part Isabella accepted Edward’s devotion to his favourites/lovers. But that was slowly eroded away by Edward’s relationship with the younger Hugh Despenser (I don’t... really know what was going on there. I mean, obviously, they were shagging, but Edward seems to have been a lot more isolated with Hugh than he was with his other favourites). 

imo, Isabella’s public refusal to return home to England wasn’t the first time she’d tried to get through to Edward, she tried appealing to him before but he wouldn’t listen and Hugh was always there, undercutting her. So she goes public, probably embarrassing both in the process. She thinks it’ll be a wake up call, forcing Edward’s hand. 

But Edward still. won’t. listen. He’s either totally in the dark about the issues (personal and political), or he’s just too in love and too dependent on Hugh to bring himself to care. He doesn’t see why he has to choose, and anyway Hugh’s not making him choose.

And Isabella’s getting more and more desperate. Like, she’s tried to get through to him, she’s gone public, and Edward’s still picking Hugh over her. So now she’s got to take care of things herself. And she’s getting justifiably angry,

And that anger drives her actions for most of the rebellion.  She’s just angry and hurt and lashing out. She’s after revenge, and she’ll take her anger out on whoever’s standing in her way, whoever’s connected to her hurt and humiliation.

But I don’t think she ever meant it to go as far as it did. However angry she is, she still has love for Edward, and what she really wants is go back to the way things were before. And she’d hoped, if Edward had listened to her at the start, had given up Hugh, they would’ve reconciled. There would’ve been no desposition, no rebellion. And maybe there’s part of her that holds onto the hope that it’s still possible.

But Hugh’s execution really puts an end to such a thing. Edward loved him and was dependent on him, so Isabella’s involvement in Hugh’s destruction is unforgivable. Edward probably blames her for a lot of it. I’m not sure if Isabella was clear-headed enough to know that or whether she’d hoped, with Edward forcibly separated from Hugh, he’d begin to see things her way.

I like to think that Isabella wasn’t as enamoured with Roger Mortimer as the popular narratives were and that she wasn’t shagging him (she was aiming to reconcile with Edward, at least at the start). He was a useful ally, but as Isabella’s anger and her desire for revenge began to fade, the veil started to lift.  On one fairly recent post on Kathryn Warner’s blog, people were speculating that Isabella might have Edward III’s “inside man” when he overthrew Roger Mortimer. Which I decided is definitely what happened.

I haven’t really settled on whether Edward died at Berkeley Castle in 1327 or escaped to live in Italy (I tend to be sceptical of the ‘faked his death and survived’ story, just because it seems too good to be true). I’ve been playing with the idea that maybe Isabella learned Mortimer was planning to have Edward murdered and acted to save Edward’s life by having his death faked and his escape facilitated. 

But, whatever happened, I think Isabella genuinely grieved over what happened between her and Edward, especially once her anger began to fade. I mean, she was buried in her wedding dress and with his heart, so obviously there was still some affection there.

#thewritingpossum #text posts #replies

[nellietrelawney]

Happy birthday, dear! I hope you'll have a great year! 🎉👽🎈

Thank you so much dear!!!!! ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

#asks #thewritingpossum

[medievalcat]

@thewritingpossum: I feel like that while the geography would not work, the territories of house Reed would be great for Québec because it’s both northern and super removed from the general culture of the place. They’re even known as frog eaters and “frog” used to be a super popular insult for Québecois tho it’s not really used anymore soI always associated the two concepts. Also, they have their own territories but are still ruled by a bigger house so it works even better for me     

this is really cool to think about, I didn’t know! Personally my opinion of the American versions of the Reeds would be that they are from the Everglades in Florida bc of all the swamps and the nature (and gators lol)

#thewritingpossum #i say things

[thesmokinpossum]

before i go to bed....here’s the traditional drunk self promo of my history/writing blog if you want any quality content from me like, ever

#i honestly post more personal content there too lol #thesmokinpossum is just a place for aesthetic and fandom content at this point lmao #no it's not entirely true a lot of you are amazing but i do post more effort there #don't judge the blog on the past day i was zonked/drunk lmao #anyway follow thewritingpossum if you love me x) #or don't i'm not the cops lol