Heroine of the Weekend

 

It's been quite a while since we had a Heroine of the Weekend post here!  I love it, since I can take a deeper look at historical women I admire, and I can't believe we haven't featured Aphra Behn before.  Her birthday was July 10, 1640, in Canterbury, and she was s fascinating (if somewhat enigmatic character!), a playwright, poet, translator, spy.  She was one the first English women to earn her living with her writing, and was one of the most popular playwrights of the golden age of Restoration theater.

"All  women together ought to let flowers fall upon the tomb of Aphra Behn..."  Virginia Woolf

Behn's early life was quite obscure.  Her father was (maybe) a barber, she was maybe engaged to a man named John Halse in 1657, she maybe traveled to Surinam.  It's clear she was very intelligent, but unclear how she was educated.  She married a man named Johan Behn (possibly Dutch or German) in 1664, but he soon died or they were separated soon after.

She was a staunch supporter of the Stuarts, attached to their court by 1666 (refusing to write a welcome poem to William III after the Glorious Revolution), and was sent as a spy to Antwerp by Charles II  during the Second Anglo-Dutch War. Her code name was Astrea It was not financially rewarding, though, and she may have been sent to debtors' prison after her return (a warrant was issued for her arrest, but it's unclear if it was served).  She started writing plays, hoping to capitalize on the craze for newly reopened theaters.

Her first play, a tragi-romance called The Forc'd Marriage, was performed by the Duke's Men in September 1670, and was a moderate success, but after her third play failed she falls off the record for a few years before returning to write comedies and poetry, as well as translating.  Her most popular play, The Rover (still her most performed work today) debuted in 1676-77, and thereafter she became one of the best-known playwrights in England until her death in 1689.  Her success led to frequent attacks. She was attacked for her private life (she had a long liaison with John Hoyle, a bisexual lawyer) and the morality of her plays, and she was accused of plagiarising The Rover. In the preface to Sir Patient Fancy she argued that she was being singled out because she was a woman, while male playwrights were free to live the most scandalous lives and write whatever plays they wanted.

(You can visit her tomb in Westminster Abbey, as I once did!)

Some good sources on her life:

Janet Todd, The Secret Life of Aphra Behn (1997)

Vita Sackville-West, Aphra Behn: The Incomparable Astrea (1927)

Germaine Greer, Slip-Shod Sibyls (1995)

Heroine of the Weekend: Millicent Rogers

I can't believe it's November already!  I just packed away the pumpkins and ghosties, and now it's almost Thanksgiving.  I just finished writing the 3rd in the "Matchmakers in Bath" series, and am taking a little, much-needed cleaning house and reading my TBR pile break.  

But I was so excited to see that a Sotheby's auction is coming up with some jewels once belonging to Millicent Rogers!  I first heard of this fascinating woman when I was a child, and my parents took me to the Millicent Rogers Museum in Taos, which is a gorgeous old home filled with her collections of Native weavings, jewelry, paintings, and so much more.  I even wrote a novel about her life (alas, not yet published), because she was so, so much more than a fashion icon and heiress.  She packed a lot of life into her brief 53 years. 

Millicent Rogers (1902-1953) was a Standard Oil heiress, an artist, a socialite and fashion icon, a renowned art collector, an activist for Native American civil rights, and still considered one of the most stylish and fascinating women of the 20^th century. Though she had a short life, plagued by ill health after a childhood bout of rheumatic fever, it was a full and exciting one existence, lived in New York, Paris, Austria, Washington DC, Jamaica, and her final, true home in Taos, New Mexico. She was married three times, had three sons, and had love affairs with men like Ian Fleming and Clark Gable.  She was an advocate for Native American rights and a patron of the arts as well as a designer and creator of jewelry in her own right.  I hope one day you will see my story of her in print!  And I hope if you're in Taos, you'll visit her museum, and maybe say hello to her at the Sierra Vista Cemetery, where you can also find many members of the Taos Society of Artists and local characters.  It's a wonderful town, and I can see why she considered it her true home.

Info about the Sotheby's auction

The Millicent Rogers Museum

For more reading on her life:

Cheris Burns, Searching For Beauty and Diving for Starfish

Annette Tapert and Diane Edkins, The Power of Style (just a chapter on Rogers, but it's a wonderful book)

Arthur J. Bachrach, A Life in Full

Heroine of the (slightly-post) Weekend: Queen Alexandra

 Sorry I'm late!!!  This week's Heroine is Queen Alexandra, who died on November 20, 1925...

Born December 1, 1844 in Copenhagen, she had a surprisingly humble start in life!  One of 6 children to Prince Christian of Schelswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glucksburg and Princess Louise of Hesse-Kassel, she was of a cadet branch of the Danish royal family.  With only a small income, the family lived a small-scale but very happy family life at their Yellow Palace grace-and-favor home.  The girls made their own clothes, and Alix shared a room with her sister Dagmar (future Empress Marie Feodorovna of Russia).  They were very close, and loved games and family dinners, which showed in her future desire to build just such a close family for herself.

In 1861, after a "scandal" involving a music-hall actress, Prince Albert Edward turned 20 and his parents decided it was high time he got married and settled down.  With the help of eldest daughter Princess Vicky, Crown Princess of Prussia, Victoria scoured the Almanach Gotha for suitable German princess, but they all had one problem--they were not pretty.  And "pretty" was the number one requirement for the prince.  The undisputed loveliest princess of them all was Alix of Denmark, "the only one to be chosen".  Victoria reluctantly agreed, and the young couple "accidentally" met while touring the cathedral at Speyer on September 24, 1862.  

In March 1863, Alix traveled to England with her family, and was married on March 10 at St. George's Chapel, Windsor.  It was a controversial choice of venue--not close to London, small, not much room for a grand guest list, not many suitable places to stay (only her immediate family was there from Denmark, and Queen Victoria, widowed, watched and wept from a balcony).  At the end of 1864, her father became King of Denmark, and Prussia invaded the Danish territory of Holstein, instilling a lifelong hatred of Germany in Princess (now) Alexandra and creating a source of fiction between her and Queen Victoria.

Her first child, Prince Albert Victor, was born prematurely in early 1864, starting Alexandra on a devoted (not always happily) motherhood.  Eventually she would have 6 children--"Eddie" was joined by George, Louise, Victoria, Maud, and a boy who died soon after birth.  "She was in her glory when she could run up the nursery, put on a flannel apron, wash the children herself and see them asleep in their little beds."  But the birth of her third child in 1867 left her with rheumatic fever, resulting in a permanent limp and exacerbating her deafness.  It also meant she couldn't keep up with her husband's constant whirl of social life as much, and she started to retreat into her own world of family and dogs, her own friends and charity work, at their homes of Marlborough House in London and Sandringham House in the country.

Her marriage, though a success in many ways (Alexandra was a very popular princess and queen, and they worked well in partnership) was also marred by Edward's constant and blatant infidelities and Alexandra's hearing loss.  But her appeal for the public never waned, she was always considered beautiful and charming, and devoted to her charitable works, especially her interest in nursing and healthcare (Alexandra Rose Day is still an ongoing fundraiser).

in 1901, she finally became Queen!  She increased her charities, but otherwise continued as she had been, doting on her grandchildren.  In 1910, she traveled to Corfu (she often visited her family around the Continent, and her brother was now King of Greece; she had also purchased a holiday home in Denmark with her sister, where Empress Marie lived after the Russian Revolution), but was quickly summoned back to London when her husband collapsed.  After his death, she wrote "I feel as if I have been turned to stone, unable to cry, unable to grasp the meaning of it all."  She moved from Buckingham Palace back to Marlborough House.

She suffered from ill health for the last few years of her life, and died of a heart attack at Sandringham.  She was buried at St. George's, site of her "inconvenient" wedding, with her husband.

Sources:

Georgina Battiscombe, Queen Alexandra (1969)

David Duff, Alexandra, Princess and Queen (1980)

Richard Hough, Edward and Alexandra (1998)

Heroine of the Weekend: Vivien Leigh

 I used to maintain a list of historical women here I called "Heroine of the Weekend" (since I posted them on weekend).  I love discovering new-to-me extraordinary women in history and delving a bit into their lives and times, but life got in the way and I didn't have the time to continue for a while.  I'm eager to start this feature again, even sporadically, and see who we can discover.  Let me know if you have any ideas for future features!  And take a look at past essays in the side panel...

Today's heroine is one of my very favorite actresses, the complex, wonderfully beautiful, immensely talented Vivien Leigh, who was born November 5, 1913 and died July 8, 1967.  The winner of 2 Oscars (Gone With the Wind and Streetcar Names Desire) and a Tony for Tovarich, she had a 30 year career,  Despite her great film successes, she considered herself mainly a stage actress.   "I'm not a film star—I'm an actress. Being a film star—just a film star—is such a false life, lived for fake values and for publicity. Actresses go on for a long time and there are always marvellous parts to play," she said.  She faced many challenges ub ger short life, roles she longed for and lost, a serious battled with bi-polar disorder abd TB (which led to her early death), as well as the collapse of her great love for Laurence Olivier.  Always, she was tough, hard-working, never giving up.

She was born in India, where she had her first stage role as Little Bo Peep at 3, and at age 6 was sent to Catholic school in England.  After her schooling, she was accepted at RADA, but dropped out soon after meeting and marrying conventional, older barrister Leigh Holman in 1932 and having her one child, Suzanne, 1in 1933.  She went back to study part-time, and managed to get a role in in the play The Mask of Virtue (1935).  She got good reviews and lots of notice (except grumblings that her voice was too small for the large space!)  Later Leigh said  "some critics saw fit to be as foolish as to say that I was a great actress. And I thought, that was a foolish, wicked thing to say, because it put such an onus and such a responsibility onto me, which I simply wasn't able to carry. And it took me years to learn enough to live up to what they said for those first notices.^[29] I find it so stupid. I remember the critic very well and have never forgiven him"

In 1935, she first met Olivier at the Savoy Grill, and despite their current marriages were instantly drawn to each other and embarked on a passionate affair..  She played Ophelia to his Hamlet at a famous production at Ellsionore, where the weather was stormy and Vivien was worse, having her first major breakdown.

Her first major movie Yank at Oxford (1938) and it gained her attention in America.  Soon after the pair embarked for the US, Oiliver to stare in Wuthering Heights, Vivie convinced she could bag THE part of Scarlett O'Hara.  She did, of course, and embarked on a long, grueling shooting schedule, with her favorite director replaced, illness, feuds with the likes of Leslie Howard.  Worst of all, she was separated from Olivier.  "Puss, my puss, how I hate film acting! Hate, hate, and never want to do another film again!"  she wrote to him in anguish.

After GWTW her career was never the same.  She became a phenomonon, garnering all acclaim, including the Oscar.  But it wasn't entirely what she wanted.   "I'm not a film star—I'm an actress. Being a film star—just a film star—is such a false life, lived for fake values and for publicity. Actresses go on for a long time and there are always marvellous parts to play."

On May 31, 1940, finally free, the pair married , and headed off to mount a production of Romeo and Juliet in New York.  (after Vivien being disappointed in losing the role of Rebecca opposite Olivie).  The play was terrible flop and huge financial disaster for the could.  Their follow-up was luckier, a film version of That Hamilton Woman.    They returned to England on the eve of war, where Leigh performed for the troops in North Africa (where she probablu first contracted TB), and Olivier made his great, and very patriotiocally stirring Henry V.

Leigh sufferered miscarriages, and the mental troubles increased.  The couple went ton tour to Australia and New Zealand in 1948 (soon after Olivier gained knighthood, making Vivien Lady Olivier).  It went on for many gruelling months, and though a great success Vivien's health broke down further.  Olivier said he "lost Vivien in Australia"

Throughout the '40s and '50s there were many movies and stage prductions (including Ceaser and Cleopatra and Antony and Cleopatra together).  "The reviews there were also mostly positive, but film critic Kenneth Tynan  angered them when he suggested that Leigh's was a mediocre talent that forced Olivier to compromise his own"

She performed Blanch in Streetcar... in the West End in 1949 (326 performances) which led to the film version and her second Oscar.  In 1953, her marriage rocky, she went to Ceylon to film Elephant Walk, where she threw herself into an affair with actor Peter Finch, and feel deeper into mental illness.  She was replaced by Elizabeth Taylor, and Olivier took Vivien home to the US for treatment.  Later, after partial recovery, there were more plays, especially Shaw and Shakespeare, as well as a few films, such as Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone and Ship of Fools.  After parting with Olivier (how went on to marry actress Joan Plowright) she entered a long, stable relationship with actor Jack Merivale, settling into life on a country estate with lots of cats.  She died at her London flat of TB on July 7, 1967

 When asked if she believed her beauty had been an impediment to being taken seriously as an actress, she said, "People think that if you look fairly reasonable, you can't possibly act, and as I only care about acting, I think beauty can be a great handicap, if you really want to look like the part you're playing, which isn't necessarily like you."

Director George Cukor described Leigh as a "consummate actress, hampered by beauty", and Laurence Olivier said that critics should "give her credit for being an actress and not go on forever letting their judgments be distorted by her great beauty." Garson Kanin shared their viewpoint and described Leigh as "a stunner whose ravishing beauty often tended to obscure her staggering achievements as an actress. Great beauties are infrequently great actresses—simply because they don't need to be. Vivien was different; ambitious, persevering, serious, often inspired"

Some sources:

Bean, Kendra. Vivien Leigh: An Intimate Portrait. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Running Press

Coleman, Terry. Olivier, The Authorised Biography. London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2005

Edwards, Anne. Vivien Leigh, A Biography. London: Coronet Books, 1978 edition

Spoto, Donald. Laurence Olivier: A Biography. London: Cooper Square Press, 2001

Strachan, Alan. Dark Star: A Biography of Vivien Leigh. London and New York: I.B. Tauris, 2018.

Vickers, Hugo. Vivien Leigh: A Biography. London: Little, Brown and Company, 1988 editionyg

Heroine of the Weekend

 A return of the Heroine of the Weekend feature, a brief glimpse into interesting (sometimes heroic, sometimes decidedly not so) women in history....

This week we take a look at Eleanor of Austria, also known as Eleanor of Castille, born November 15, 1498 (lived until February 25, 1558).  She came from a long line of illustrious royalty, her parents being Philip "The Fair" of Burgundy and her mother Juana of Castile, her grandparents Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain and Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian and the great heiress Mary of Burgundy.  Her brothers became Emperor Charles V, the most powerful man of their era, and Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand; her sisters were the queens of Denmark, Hungary, and Portugal, and she herself became the queen of Portugal (1518-1521) and of France (1530-1547), as well as holding the Duchy of Touraine in her dower.

She had a long betrothal history before her age reached double digits!  She was engaged briefly to Henry VIII of England before he decided to marry her aunt Catherine of Aragon (lucky escape for Eleanor), as well as brief ideas of marrying her to Louis XII of France, Sigismund I of Poland, or the Duke of Lorraine.  She was raided at her aunt's court at Leuven until 1517, when she joined her brother Charles in Spain.

She was married to her uncle by marriage, Manuel I of Portugal, in 1518 (he was previously married to not one but two of her aunts!).  They had two children, Charles, who died at a year of age, and Maria.  When Manuel died, to complete the family coziness, her sister Catherine married her stepson, Juan III.  They kept Infanta Maria at their court while Eleanor went back to Spain.

By 1527, Francis I of France was a captive in Spain, taken in battle during the long conflict between the two countries.  This was ended (or at least paused) by the Treaty of Cambrai, or "The Ladies' Peace," since several royal ladies, including Francis's mother and Eleanor, were involved in its terms.  One of the treaty's provisions was a marriage between Eleanor and Francis, who had long been a widower with many children.  This took place in 1530.

It was not a happy marriage, needless to say after such an unpromising beginning!  They had no children, and Francis made no secret of his many mistresses.  At Eleanor's official entrance to Paris, he started as he meant to go on and stood with his mistress in a window for hours.  But Eleanor was crowned at St. Denis on May 31, 1531, and played a large official role.  She served as a diplomat between her brother and her husband, as well as between her various siblings' squabbles, and attended royal events like the marriage of her stepson to Catherine de Medici in 1533.  She raised her two youngest stepdaughters, and was much praised for her devotion to charity.

In 1548, after the death of Francis, she moved to Brussels to work for her brother and his empire, until he decided to abdicate and retire to a monastery in 1555, and she and her sister Mary moved to live near him.  She met her daughter Maria in 1558, for the first time in 28 years, and died shortly after.

She was originally buried at the Cathedral of St. Mary Major in Medina, until she was moved to the official royal burial chapel at El Escorial in 1586.

Most sources on her life come from books about other people!  Some interesting ones include:

--Leonie Frieda, Francis I: The Maker of Modern France (2018)

--Sylvia Barbara Soberton, Golden Age Ladies: Women Who Shaped the Courts of Henry VIII and Francis I (2016)

--Geoffrey Parker, Emperor: A New Life of Charles V (2021)

--Giles Tremlett, Isabella of Castille: Europe's First Great Queen (2017)

--Julia Fox, Sister Queens: Katherine of Aragon and Juana, Queen of Castile (2012)

Heroine of the Weekend: Colette

 This weekend's heroine is the writer Colette, born on January 28, 1873!  

Born in the Burgundy village of Saint-Saveur-en-Puisaye to a war hero father and his wife, the family was orginally prosperous but suffered finanical reversals.  She married in 1893 to Henri Gauthier-Villars ("Willy"), a writer and publisher 14 years her senior.  Her first 4 books (the "Claudine" titles) were published under his name and copywright.  When they separated in 1906 (and later divorced in 1910), she had no income from her own writings.  She worked in journalism and on the music hall stage, as well as practicing as an amateur photographer.  She also had relationships with several women, including the famous Natalie Barney, as she continued her writing.

In 1912, she married Henri de Jouvenal, and in 1913 had her daughter ('Bel-Gazou").  She published her very popular (and scandalous!) Cheri in 1920, and her writing career took off quickly.  She was divorced again in 1924, and in 1925 married Maurice Goudeket, who was her husband for the rest of her life.

The 1920s and '30s were very productive for her work, and she was acclaimed as France's greatest female writer.  She was 67 when the Germans occupied France, and she stayed in her Paris apartment on the Palais-Royal despite the arrest of her Jewish husband in 1941 (he was quickly released, and they spent the rest of the war quietly).  In 1944, she wrote her most famous work, Gigi.  Postwar, she was famous but ill with arthritis, nursed by her husband, and continued to write.  (She was nominated for the Nobel Prize in literature in 1948).  When she died on August 3, 1954, she was the first French woman of letters to receive a state funeral, and was buried in Pere Lachaise.

A couple of sources for her fascinating life:

Judith Thompson, Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette (1999)

Annie Goetzinger, The Provocative Colette (2018)

Heroine of the Weekend

 

This weekend's heroine is that quintessentially French singer Edith Piaf (born December 19, 1915, died October 10, 1963)...

Edith Piaf - La vie en rose (Officiel) [Live Version] - Bing video

(Fictional) Heroine of the Weekend: Amelie

I've recently joined a group called Upbeat Authors, started by Trish Milburn.  The stated mission of the group is "focusing on spreading happiness and positivity as far as we can."  We're living in unusual, sometimes frightening times, and it's easy to feel stressed and lose our sense of creativity and just simple joy in life (for me, anyway, who am prone to severe anxiety in the best of times!).  It always helps to remember what we love--writing, reading, looking at beautiful paintings, listening to music, watching a sunset, loving our families/pets/homes.  Every Monday, look for us on Facebook, Twitter, all sorts of social media, with the hashtag #UpbeatAuthors.

So this weekend I am taking a look at one of my very favorite (and upbeat!) movies of all time, Amelie, starring the adorable Audrey Tautou, from 2001.  This is of my favorites not just because it's set in my very favorite city (and it's a very Parisian movie), but because the heroine just makes me--smile.  Which is her mission in life.

According to Rotten Tomatoes, "Amelie is a fanciful comedy about a young woman who discreetly orchestrates the lives of the people around her, creating a world of her own making."  And she does this despite her own paralyzing shyness, thanks to an active imagination, a whimsical sense of mischief (the bit where she cracks the creme brulee with her spoon ad then smiles is gorgeous!).  She returns a precious childhood box to an old man, leading to a reunion with his estranged family; matchmakes foe co-worker, Gina, with hilarious and ultimately disastrous results, helps a bullied shopworker; and even gets her widowed father to follow his dreams of travel using his garden gnome.

With the help of her disabled neighbor, Monsieur Dufayel, who paints Renoir's Luncheon of the Boating Party over and over, though he can never figure out the girl drinking from the water glass, Amelie even comes out of her own shell.  The girl in the painting, and Amelie herself, have been frozen by their own fears.  She releases herself, and finds love with the equally quirky Nino (after a series of bizarre courting games!)

It was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars, and won the French Cesar Award.  If any movie is guaranteed to make me feel #upbeat, it's this one!  What is yours?

Heroine of the Weekend: Edith Cavell

(I'm currently at the Historical Novel Society conference--more on that next week when I am home and over Conference Fatigue, lol!  But today we have a Heroine for a belated Memorial Day tribute, Nurse Edith Cavell, who lost her life in WWI)

Edith Cavell (1865-1915) was a vicar's daughter, educated at Norwich School for Girls, who started her working career as a governess in Belgium (which gave her a lifelong love for the country, where she could indulge in interests in art and her facility for languages) before returning for nurse's training in London and jobs in various hospitals, where she as always seen as a compassionate and efficient medical professional.  She was recruited to be matron at a new nurses' training school in Brussels, and by 1910 had launched nursing journals, recruiting nurses for over 3 hospitals and 24 new branches of the school, just in time for the huge demand of World War I.

The Red Cross took over the hospital when the war started, and Cavell became a war nurse.  She also helped wounded British soldiers out of occupied Belgium into the Netherlands, becoming part of a large network of underground escape routes.  She was arrested by the Germans on august 3, 1915 and charged with harboring Allied soldiers.

She was held in prison for 10 weeks, confessing to sheltering 60 British and 15 French soldiers, as well as French and Belgian civilians before being condemned to death.  The British diplomatic service could do nothing for her, despite the fact that she was a British national and should not have been charged with treason.  On the night before she was executed, she wrote "Patriotism is not enough.  I must have no hatred or bitterness toward anyone."  (the words now carved on her statue in Trafalgar Square).  She was executed by firing squad on October 11, and her death was a huge propaganda tool for the Allied cause.

After the war, she was taken back to England for a service at Westminster Abbey and laid to rest at her family home in Norwich.

Heroine of the Weekend: Frida Kahlo

One of the things I missed about doing this blog was finding Heroines to feature every weekend--women in history both famous and not-so-famous (and sometimes not even very heroic!), but who I found to be interesting.  Today I'm taking a look at the artist Frida Kahlo, because I just happened to go to an exhibit last week centered around her life.  ("Mirror, Mirror: Photographs of Frida Kahlo" at the Spanish Colonial Arts Museum).  I've always been fascinated by her (as so many people are!) and loved getting a closer look at her life and style.

Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) was born Magdalena Carmen Frieda Kahlo y Calderon in Coyocoan, Mexico City, to a Mexican mother and German photographer father, and had 3 sisters, growing up in the Casa Azul (now a museum, and on my bucket list).  At age 6, she was stricken with polio, bedridden for months and emerging with a pronounced limp.  Her father encouraged her to get into sports, and she enrolled in 1922 at the National Preparatory School (one of the few female students), and took art classes.  But her new life didn't last long.  On September 17, 1925, she was horribly injured in a trolley crash, spending months in the hospital and then facing a lifetime of surgeries and constant pain.  But she took that pain, that suffering, and used it in an art never seen before, one that was deeply personal, graphic, and often surreal.  She also became radical in her politics, joining the Mexican Communist Party.

In 1928, she met the famous mural painter Diego Rivera, and married him the next year.  They spent much time on the move for his work, living in California, New York City, and Detroit for many years.  Affairs by both partners (including one by Rivera with Frida's sister), as well as several miscarriages and professional complications (Rivera was famously fired from a mural project at Rockefeller Center for sneaking in a portrait of Lenin to the image).  They divorced in 1939, Kahlo then moving for a time to Paris, but remarried the next year and stayed together for the rest of Kahlo's life, though living in separate but conjoined houses/studios.

The 1950s were a time of increasingly bad health, and Kahlo became almost completely bedridden, especially after a leg amputation (though she had an easel installed above her bed and continued working!).  In 1953, she had her first solo exhibit in Mexico, and was taken to the opening party by ambulance, where she drank and partied from a specially installed bed.  She died July 13, 1954 at age 47, at Casa Azul.  In 2002, a movie of her life was made with Salma Hayak nominated as an Oscar for her main role.

I've always been in awe of her strength, her uniqueness, her great talent, her fearlessness, and her ability to know and be true to herself.  She's really a Heroine.

Heroine of the Weekend: Emily Wilding Davison

I've been much too neglectful of this blog lately (thanks, deadlines and medical non-fun things!) but with Election Day coming up on Tuesday (finally!) I've been thinking a lot about the sacrifices so very many people have made so I can go to the polls in peace.  Some of them gave literally everything.

Emily Wilding Davison (1872-1913) was an English suffragist, a woman of immense intelligence and dedication.  She was arrested 9 times, subjected to the notorious method if force-feeding 49 times, which weakened her health considerably.  She was very well-educated for the times, attending Kensington Preparatory School and St. Hugh's, Oxford, where she took first-class honors but women were not allowed degrees at that time.  She went on to work as a governess and teacher.  Later she took a degree in Modern Foreign Languages at the University of London.

In 1906, she joined Emmeline Pankhurst's WSPU and dedicated her whole life to its cause of winning the vote for women, becoming one of the most dedicated and passionate of its members.  Her most famous exploit came on census night, April 2, 1911.  She hid in a cupboard in the Palace of Westminster, so she could list her official residence as the House of Commons.  A plaque placed on the cupboard door in 1990 marks the occasion.  In 1912, in Holloway Prison, she threw herself down an iron staircase to protest the brutal practice of force-feeding hunger strikers.  She survived, but was in pain for the rest of her life.

On June 4, 1913, she bought a train ticket to attend the famous Epsom Derby.  King George's horse, Anmer, far back from the leaders, came around the corner, and she stepped out in front of him, being knocked down and fatally injured.  She died four days later.  Her true motivations that day are unclear.  She probably did not intend to commit suicide, though she would of course have known the great risks.  She had a return rail ticket, as well as a ticket to a suffrage benefit dance and plans for a holiday in France with her sister.  Film of the event shows something in her hand,, perhaps a suffrage banner later found near her, and she might have intended to throw it over the horse's bridle.  Eyewitnesses nearby stated they thought she merely meant to cross the track, thinking the horses had all passed.  Whatever the intention, her sacrifice was a terrible sadness and brought much attention to the cause she so loved.

Her funeral was attended by thousands of suffragists, accompanying the coffin to her hometown of Morpeth, Northumberland in their white gowns and sashes.

In her memory, and in that of thousands of others who fought and died for this basic right of any human being, please, please vote.




https://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/may/26/emily-davison-suffragette-death-derby-1913

Heroine of the Weekend: Queen Elizabeth II

This year is all about the queen!  With her Diamond Jubilee so recently behind us, and her 90th birthday this year, we're seeing a lot about Queen Elizabeth, and I love it.  She is certainly a great heroine, who has devoted her long life to hard work and service, and long may she reign.  We all know the details of her life, so I thought it would be fun to take a look at a few trivia facts...

 She speaks fluent French and often uses the language for audiences and state visits. She does not require an interpreter.

She's received over 3.5 million items of correspondence during her reign.

Since 1952, she has conferred over 404,500 honors and awards.

Queen Elizabeth II is Britain's 40th monarch since William the Conqueror was crowned.

About 1.5 million people have attended garden parties at Buckingham Palace or the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Scotland since Elizabeth has been on the throne.

Over the course of her reign, she has given regular Tuesday-evening audiences to 12 British Prime Ministers, starting with Winston Churchill

She is patron of more than 600 charities and organizations.

In the past 60 years, the Queen has undertaken 261 official overseas visits, including 96 state visits, to 116 different countries.

In 2005, she claimed ownership of 88 cygnets (young swans) on the River Thames. They are looked after by a swan marker. The first royal swan keeper was appointed around the 12th century.  Technically, the Queen still owns the sturgeons, whales and dolphins in the waters around the U.K. A statute from 1324, during the reign of King Edward II, states, "Also the King shall have ... whales and sturgeons taken in the sea or elsewhere within the realm." This statute is still valid today, and sturgeons, porpoises, whales and dolphins are recognized as "fishes royal"

The Queen joined Facebook in November 2010, with a page called the British Monarchy, which features royal news, photos, videos and speeches. (I doubt she will play Candy Crush, though)

Elizabeth was the first British monarch to celebrate her diamond wedding anniversary.

 Elizabeth has sent more than 175,000 telegrams to centenarians in the U.K. and the Commonwealth, and more than 540,000 telegrams to couples in the U.K. and the Commonwealth celebrating their diamond wedding anniversary.

 In an average year, the Queen hosts more than 50,000 people at banquets, lunches, dinners, receptions and garden parties at Buckingham Palace. The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh have sent over 37,500 Christmas cards during her reign and she has given out approximately 90,000 Christmas puddings to staff, continuing the custom of King George V and King George VI. In addition, the Queen gives her entire staff gifts at Christmastime

Elizabeth learned to drive in 1945, when she joined the women's branch of the British army. Both she and Winston Churchill's daughter were members of the group, which was called the Auxiliary Territorial Service.  She was a Girl Guide (1937), a Scouting movement for girls and a Sea Ranger (1943), a section of the Girl Guides focused on sailing.

An important innovation during her reign was the opening in 1962 of a new gallery at Buckingham Palace to display items from the royal collection. The brainchild of the Duke of Edinburgh, the Queen's Gallery occupied the palace's bomb-damaged private chapel. It was the first time that parts of the palace had been opened to the general public.

 The only time the Queen has had to interrupt an overseas tour was in 1974, during a tour of Australia and Indonesia. She was called back from Australia when a general election was announced suddenly. The Duke of Edinburgh continued the program in Australia, and Elizabeth rejoined the tour in Indonesia.

She has opened Parliament every year except 1959 and 1963, when she was expecting her children Prince Andrew and Prince Edward, respectively.

She went on her first state visit as Princess Elizabeth to South Africa with her mother and father, then King and Queen, from February to May 1947. The tour included Zimbabwe, Bechuanaland, Swaziland and Basutoland (now Lesotho). The Princess celebrated her 21st birthday in Cape Town. Her first state visit as Queen was to Kenya: her father King George VI died, and she acceded the throne during the tour, which had to be abandoned.  Her first Commonwealth tour began on Nov. 24, 1953, and included visits to Bermuda, Jamaica, Panama, Fiji, Tonga, New Zealand, Australia, the Cocos Islands, Ceylon, Aden, Uganda, Libya, Malta and Gibraltar. The total distance covered was 43,618 miles (70,196 km).

Elizabeth has owned more than 30 corgis during her reign, starting with Susan, who was a present for her 18th birthday in 1944. A good proportion of these have been direct descendants from Susan. Elizabeth currently has five corgis: Emma, Linnet, Monty, Holly and Willow.  She takes a keen interest in horses and racing. Her first pony, a Shetland called Peggy, was given to her by her grandfather King George V when she was 4 years old. Elizabeth continues to ride at Sandringham, Balmoral and Windsor. The Queen also takes interest in horse breeding. Horses bred at the royal studs over the past 200 years have won virtually every major race in Britain. Elizabeth has about 25 horses in training each season.

As a young girl, Elizabeth acted in a number of pantomimes during World War II, including playing Prince Florizel in Cinderella in 1941. The productions took place every year in the Waterloo Chamber at Windsor Castle..

The last and only other British monarch to celebrate her Diamond Jubilee was Queen Victoria in 1897, at the age of 77. At 86, Queen Elizabeth will be the oldest monarch to celebrate this occasion.

Heroine of the Weekend: Madame de Sevigne

This weekend we take a quick look at one of the most famous and erudite letter-writers in history, Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, the Marquise de Sevigne, who died on April 17, 1696.  She's known now as one of the most representative figures of the Enlightenment.

Born February 5, 1626 to an old, aristocratic family, she found herself an orphan by the age of 7, and was raised by her maternal grandparents and uncle, who gave her an excellent education.  She was married on August 4, 1644 to another scion of an old family, Henri, the marquis de Sevigne of Brittany, who had an ancient name but not much fortune.  The marriage produced two children, Francoise (b. 1646), who would be the recipient of most of her mother's famous letters, and Charles (b. 1648), but her husband died in a duel over his mistress in 1651.  Marie never remarried, devoting herself to her children and the intellectual life of the Paris salons.

In 1669, her beloved daughter married the comte de Grignon, who was soon appointed governor of Provence, and in their separation the stream of letters began, where the two discoursed about religion, philosophy, government, and the arts as well as family matters.  Buy 1673, the letters were being circulated and widely read.

According to the Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Sevigne's moral psychology explores the amatory structure of human desire and the difficulty of accepting one’s mortality. Representative of neoclassicism, her philosophy of art privileges the values of harmony, proportion, and balance. An avid reader of theological and philosophical works, she provides a running commentary on the theories of her favorite contemporary authors. Her letters reflect the intellectual sophistication of the period’s salon culture, where the philosophical controversies spawned by Cartesianism had become the object of everyday discussion.

For more info on her fascinating life, I like Francis Mossiker's Madame de Sevigne: a Life and Letters (1983)

Heroine of the Weekend--Empress Marie Feodorovna

Happy Easter, everyone!  I am taking a small break from stuffing myself with Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs (the most perfect food in the world) to take a look at another heroine, the vivacious and courageous Dowager Empress Marie of Russia (owner of the gorgeous Winter Egg).

She was born, as all fairy princesses should be, in a palace, as Princess Dagmar of Denmark, second daughter of King Christian IX (the first being the future Queen Alexandra of England, Dagmar's lifelong best friend).  The family was relatively poor as far as royal families went, but were very close to each other, and had a lighthearted time together.  Dagmar loved to swim and ride, play cards, and collect dogs.  In 1864, she became betrothed to the Tsarevich Nicholas of Russia ("Nixa") a handsome and sensitive young man, whom she sincerely loved.  Sadly, he died in April of 1865, leaving Dagmar broken-hearted.  She was comforted by letters from Nicholas's brother, Alexander, and in June 1866 she accepted his proposal.  They were married in a lavish ceremony at the Winter Palace on November 9, after she converted to Orthodoxy and was named Marie Feodorovna.  Of the wedding night, her new husband wrote, I took off my slippers and my silver embroidered robe and felt the body of my beloved next to mine... How I felt then, I do not wish to describe here. Afterwards we talked for a long time

Welcomed by her new win-laws, the new Grand Duchess quickly made herself very popular in Russia.  Pretty, outgoing, fashionable, she became a leader of Society as well as renowned for her charitable activities (especially the founding of new hospitals and orphanages, as well as patronizing the arts), she was exactly what the country wanted.  She also quickly did her foremost duty of heir-producing.  Nicholas was born in May 1868, followed by Alexander in 1869 (who died in infancy), George, Xenia, Michael, and Olga (1882).  She proved a loving if slightly commanding mother (much like her sister Alexandra).

In March 1881, tragedy struck.  Her father-in-law, Alexander II, was assassinated, leaving Marie with sharp, lifelong anxieties for her family--Our happiest and serenest times are now over. My peace and calm are gone, for now I will only ever be able to worry about Sasha.

She was crowned with her husband on May 27, 1883, in a lavish ceremony at the Kremlin, attended by over 8000 guests, including her sister, who stayed for many weeks.  After, the Imperial family moved to Gatchina, a 900-room palace a few miles outside St. Petersburg for security reasons.  Marie missed the lively city life, the balls and theaters, though her husband preferred the quieter, more spartan life of Gatchina.  Despite their different temperments, they loved each other all their marriage, and had a very successeful union.

But it wasn't one that last as long as she would have liked.  By 1894, it was clear that the formerly robust tsar was very ill,   The choice of wife by their son Nicholas also had them worried.  Alix of Hesse-Darmstadt, granddaughter of Queen Victoria, was beautiful, but also shy, retiring, and in poor health most of the time, not strong enough for the challenges of life in Russia.  But Nicholas was in love, and reluctantly his parents agreed to the engagements.  Marie would never have much in common with her daughter-in-law, and often disapproved of her behavior, but the couple were married a week after Alexander's funeral.

Marie was still the leader of Society, since Alexandra seldom cared to take precedence, and she also often traveled abroad.  In 1906, she and her sister bought a danish villa, Hvidore, which would prove to be her last home.  In 1914, she was in England when war broke out, and rushed back to Russia.  There she threw herself into the war effort, becoming president of the Russian Red Cross and outfitting hospital trains.  In 1916, concerned about the evil effects of Rasputin on her son's family and unable to reason with him, she moved to Kiev, and it was from there that she fled to the Crimea when revolution exploded.  At first, she refused to leave Russia, sure that rumors her son was dead were not true, until her sister persuaded her to come to England.  King George sent the warship "Marlborough" to fetch his aunt, and she left with other relatives, carrying one Faberge egg with her, in 1919.

She made her home in Denmark, a leader of the Russian exiles, and always hoped her son would prove to be alive.  She still believed that when she herself died, October 13, 1928, and was buried at Roskilde Cathedral.  In 2006, her dearest wish was finally carried out, and she was reburied next to her husband in the Cathedral of Peter and Paul in St. Petersburg.

I love Marie for her energy, style, and level-headed intelligence, and also feel heartbroken for her in all the sorrow she had at the end of her life.

A great source for more about her is Coryne Hall's Little Mother of Russia: A Biography of Empress Marie Feodorovna (2006)

Elizabethan Week, Day Six: Heroine of the Weekend

For our heroine this weekend, I had to look to the Elizabethan era, which is chock-full of strong, inspirational women!  I used many of them in my research and my Kate Haywood novels (trying to weave as many of them as possible into the stories), and one that I found really fascinating (and very elusive) was Emilia (or Amelia) Lanier (1569-1645).  Since Kate is a musician at the queen's court, I've been reading everything I can find about music in the Tudor period.  The Bassano family of Venice held high places in the queen's musical consort, and Emilia was one of them.  She was also (perhaps) the Dark Lady of Shakespeare's poems, and one of the first female professional poets in her own right.

Emilia was born the daughter of court musician Baptiste Bassano, baptized at the church of St. Botolph's, Bishopsgate, on January 27, 1569.  Her father died in 1576, and she was sent to be educated in the household of the Countess of Kent, where she learned Latin among other subjects.  Once launched into the world, she became the mistress of one of the most powerful men at court, the queen's cousin Henry Carey, Baron Hunsdon, a patron of the arts (he was the Lord Chamberlain in the Lord Chamberlain's Men, where Shakespeare got his start).  He was also 45 years older than her.  When she became pregnant in 1592, she was married off to her cousin, Alfonso Lanier, a musician at the royal court, who claimed her son Henry as his own (though the marriage was said to be unhappy in the long run!).  According to the diaries of astrologer Simon Forman (who may have made a pass at Emilia and was rejected, so his gossip should always be taken a bit doubtfully!), "...and a nobleman that is ded hath Loved her well & kept her and did maintain her longe but her husband hath delte hardly with her and spent and consumed her goods and she is nowe...in debt."

She became one of the first Englishwomen to publish her own work in 1611, with her volume of poems Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum, considered radically feminist for the era.  Her husband died in 1613, and little is known of her from 1619-35.  She sued her brother-in-law, and may have run a school.  She died in 1645.

For more about the Dark Lady controversy....
Was Shakespeare a Woman?

Some good sources for the history of Emilia and music in this era:
Kari Boyd McBride, Biography of Aemilia Lanier (2008)
David Lasocki, The Bassanos: Venetian Musicians and Instrument Makers in England, 1531-1685 (1995)

Heroine of the Weekend: Francesca Caccini

To get back to our Heroine of the Weekend posts (where I get to take a look at some well-known and less well-known women in history who I admire in one way or another!) we're going to turn to Baroque Florence and meet composer/singer/musician/teacher Francesca Caccini, called "La Cecchina," who was born September 18, 1587!  Her opera, La liberazione di Ruggiero, is generally considered to be the first opera composed by a woman...

Caccini's musical career was no surprise.  Her father, Guilio, was a musician, and her mother Lucia (who died when Francesca was quite young) was a singer, as was her stepmother Margherita and her brother and sister.  She was well-educated, not only in music, but in languages (including Greek and Latin), math, and philosophy.  It prepared her for a life at court.  Her first appearance in public was in France in 1600, at the marriage of Henri IV and Marie de Medici (Francesca's father composed some of the music for the occasion).  King Henri declared her to be "the best singer in all of France!" and tried to get her to stay in his service, but she returned to Florence and built a career serving the Medici.  She worked there as a chamber singer, composer of works for special occasions, and teacher.  By 1614, she was the most highly paid musician at court.  La liberazione...was composed for the visit of Polish prince Ladislaus in 1626 (he liked it so much he had it performed in Warsaw 2 years later!)

She was very well-known throughout Europe, and admired by other musicians.  Monteverdi wrote in 1610, "I heard, in Florence, the daughter of GR sing very well and play the lute, the guitar, and the harpsichord."

She married a fellow musician Giovanni Signori in 1614, and had one daughter with him, Margherita, in 1622.  After his death in 1626, she married nobleman Tommaso Raffaeli and moved with him to Lucchese, mostly retiring from her musical career.  They had one son, but he died in 1630 and she returned to Florence to teach the Medici princesses and perform at smaller occasions.  She left their court in 1641 and was soon lost to public record (it's thought she died sometime before 1645).

Sadly, most of her work is now lost, except for the opera and a few works from her famous cycle of 36 songs in various styles (laments, sacred hymns, love songs, dances).

For more info on her life:
--Kelley Harness, Echoes of Women's Voices: Music, Art, and Female Patronage in Early Modern Florence (2006)
--Carolyn Raney, "Francesca Caccini" in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1980)
--Suzanne G. Cusick, Francesca Caccini at the Medici Court (2009)



For more in-depth info on her music, the Bright Cecilia site has some good stuff...

HOTW: Juliette Recamier

Today we'll take a look at the great French society leader, salonier, beauty, and patron of arts (not to mention cover subject for many a historical novel!), Juliette Recamier, who died May 11, 1849.

She was born Jeanette-Francoise Julie Adelaide Bernard to royal notary Jean Bernard and his beautiful wife Marie Julie in Lyon, where she was educated at the Convent de la Deserte before the family moved to Paris.  The family's fortunes went down during the Revolution, and she was married at the age of 15 to wealthy banker and family friend Jacques-Rose Recamier (the rumor had it that he had an affair with her mother and Juliette was his natural daughter, but this was never proven...).  Recamier himself said "I am not in love with her, but I feel for her a genuine and tender attachment which convinces me that this interesting creature will be a partner who will ensure the happiness of my whole life and, judging by my own desire to ensure her happiness, of which I can see she is absolutely convinced, I have no doubt that the benefit will be reciprocal .... She possesses germs of virtue and principle such as are seldom seen so highly developed at so early an age ; she is tender-hearted, affectionate, charitable and kind, beloved in her home-circle and by all who know her"

The marriage was never consumated, but Juliette kept herself busy with a popular salon that was crowded with artistic and political stars of the day.  Her health was never very good, so she often reclined on the low sofa now called a "recamier" in her honor, but that didn't stop the conversation.  She had a long romance with Francois-Rene Chateaubriand, the writer, politician, and historian often considered to be the founder of French literary Romanticism.  She had other admirers, including the duc de Montmorency, Lucien Bonaparte, Prince Augustus of Prussia, and the baron de Barante.

But one person who didn't admire her was Napoleon, especially considering her friendship with Germaine de Stael and her refusal to be a lady-in-waiting to Empress Josephine.  She was exiled from Paris, traveling to rome and Naples, and to stay with Madame de Stael in Switzerland (where they came up with a scheme for her to divorce in order to marry Prince Augustus, but it never worked out).  Sadly, she lost much of her fortune late in life, but still carried on her famous salon from her apartment at the convent of L'Abbaye-aux-Bois, until she died of cholera in 1849 and was buried in Montmarte.

Her style is still influential, especially to those of us who love the Regency period!  Everyone knows her image, even those who don't know who she was...

A few sources for her eventful life:
Eduoard Herriot, Madame Recamier (1906)
H. Noel Williams, Madame Recamier and her Friends (1901)
Stephane Paccoud, Juliette Recamier: Muse et mecene (2009)

Heroine of the Weekend

Since today is my birthday, it seemed like a good time to get organized and start doing some blog posts again!! I'm going to start by adding in some new Heroines, since I have missed them. Today's Heroine is Bertha Morisot, born on January 14, 1841.

Morisot was born in Bourges, to a well-to-do and respectable family who nevertheless encouraged their daughters Berthe and Edma in their pursuit of art. (Edma married young and gave up painting, while Berthe was more ambitious). Berthe first studied with Barbizon School artist Camilly Corot, who encouraged her interest in plein-air landscape painting, and later with Edouard Manet, who became one of her greatest friends and colleagues and who used her as his model many times (there are rumors of romance, but no proof has come to light...)

Her first appearance in the prestigious Salon was in 1864, with 2 landscapes. She continued to show at the Salon, to mostly positive reactions, until she joined up with the rebellious Inpressionists in 1873. Her light, free style fit well with their aesthetic, though like the other female Impressionist Mary Cassat she mostly painted images of her own milieu of intimate domestic life, women in their homes, and landscapes.

In 1874 she married Edouard Manet's brother Eugene and had one daughter, Julie. She died of pneumonia on March 2, 1895 and was buried in the Cimetiere de Passy. Her paintings can still be seen in every major museum in the world and are highly sought-after in art auctions...

Some sources on her life:

Anne Higonnet, Berthe Morisot (1995)
Julie Manet, Growing Up With the Impressionists: The Diary of Julie Manet (1987)