Tudor England Quotes

“Since arriving in England, Katherine had come to know a freedom she had never dreamed of in Spain, where young women were kept in seclusion and forced to live almost like cloistered nuns. They wore clothes that camouflaged their bodies and veiled their faces in public. Etiquette at the Spanish court was rigid, and even smiling was frowned upon. But in England, unmarried women enjoyed much more freedom: their gowns were designed to attract, and when they were introduced to gentlemen they kissed them full upon the lips in greeting. They sang and danced when they pleased, went out in public as the fancy took them, and laughed when they felt merry.”
― Alison Weir, The Six Wives of Henry VIII

“By the middle of Henry VIII's reign, the white meats — that is, dairy products — were considered common fare and people from all classes would eat meat whenever they could get it.”
― Clarissa Dickson Wright, A History of English Food

“The White Falcon by Stewart Stafford

Trampled pomegranate underfoot,
Fervent ascent of anatine steps,
To the alabaster falcon's chamber,
Viperine slither as a king's retinue.

Roman breakage for a concubine,
Stillbirths piled on a spiral staircase,
Skewered tongues spitting smears,
Spurious sparks fanned to an inferno.

Denounced in the toxic public mind,
Cast into a wolf pit by kangaroo court,
Blood money to the Gallic executioner,
Her headless ghost in a centuries' limbo.

© Stewart Stafford, 2024. All rights reserved.”
― Stewart Stafford

“Anne Hathaway's Garden by Stewart Stafford

In Stratford, lies a garden's tended hair,
Two lovebirds, Avon swans, nested there.
Anne kept counsel as Shakespeare's bride,
United home and clan over distance wide.

Pestilence, flood and war roared with fright,
This English idyll thrived in the pastoral light,
Rose, rosemary pruned with nurturing care,
Floral Tudor fireworks, exploding fragrant air.

The Bard, swansong past, returned to her,
Wooed Anne with words, the heartbeat spur,
To walk and reminisce among the green,
Sparked a fire that life apart rendered lean.

Anne Hathaway's garden outlived them all,
Paralleled words, evergreen, as in virgin scrawl.

© Stewart Stafford, 2024. All rights reserved.”
― Stewart Stafford