Kick@ss Tudor Women

Day One is Lady Margaret Beaufort, a perfect beginning since she is the Mother of the Tudor Dynasty. Watch the video, and then check out the links to more reading, below. You can also download the transcript as a pdf if you prefer to read rather than watch/listen.

More ReadingTudor Times Guest Article: Margaret Beaufort, Villain or Hero
http://tudortimes.co.uk/guest-articles/lady-margaret-beaufort-hero-or-villain

Margaret Beaufort: Appearance and Possessions
http://tudortimes.co.uk/people/margaret-beaufort-appearance-possessions

In the footsteps; Country Castles & Cambridge Colleges
http://tudortimes.co.uk/people/margaret-beaufort-country-castles-and-cambridge-colleges

Newspaper and Magazine Articles about Margaret
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/history/real-life-game-of-thrones-henry-viis-mother-margaret-beaufort-had-to-become-shrewd-and-calculating-9563489.html

http://www.historytoday.com/michael-jones/lady-margaret-beaufort

Books (amazon.com affiliate links)
Blood Sisters: The Women Behind the Wars of the Roses
Margaret Beaufort: Mother of the Tudor Dynasty

Margaret Beaufort's Tomb: http://www.westminster-abbey.org/our-history/people/margaret-beaufort

Day Two is Katherine Fenkyll, who is a great example of women who were able to carve out careers for themselves, using skills and luck. Watch the video, or download the transcript as a pdf. Links to more information are below.

Katherine Fenkyll's record in the Livery Company:
http://www.londonroll.org/search/?vb=lr&vw=ps&st=12000&rf=company%3Adrp%7Cyear_start%3A1400%7Cyear_finish%3A1639&sb=surname&sa=0

General Web Link: http://www.mrlib.org/women-in-the-time-of-the-tudors-a-renaissance-refresher/ Specifically: "Some women could join organizations of trade people and skilled workers. A woman arrived at an entrepreneurial position by assisting in her husband’s or father’s workplace, which trade she took over after the male’s death. Hence, in the cloth trade – spinners, dyer, tailors, and shoemakers – were found business women. In non-guild enterprises, women worked as food preparers, brew masters, and bakers, often working at an inn or pedaling on the streets and at fairs. If her sole role was housewife to a farmer or merchant, as a helpmate in the home and in family management demanded full-time commitment."

Day Three is Elizabeth Barton, better known as the Maid of Kent. She has appeared in countless stories of Henry VIII's relationship with Anne Boleyn because of her prophesies that Henry would die if he left the Church and married Anne. But most stories don't dig deeper into her life, and that's what I try to do here. Download the transcript as a pdf, and check out the links below for more information on this elusive mystic.

Web Links
http://under-these-restless-skies.blogspot.com.es/2014/03/elizabeth-barton-nun-of-kent.html
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02319b.htm
http://www.stevenconnor.com/dumbstruck/archive/barton.htm
http://www.executedtoday.com/2011/04/20/1534-elizabeth-barton-the-holy-maid-of-kent/

Bibliography:

McKee, John (1925), Dame Elizabeth Barton OSB, the Holy Maid of Kent, London: Burns, Oates and Washbourne.
Neame, Alan (1971), The Holy Maid of Kent: The Life of Elizabeth Barton: 1506–1534, London: Hodder and Stoughton, ISBN 0-340-02574-3.
Shagan, Ethan H (2003), "Chapter 2: The Anatomy of opposition in early Reformation England; the case of Elizabeth Barton, the holy maid of Kent", Popular Politics in the English Reformation, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, pp. 61–88.
Watt, Diane (1997), Secretaries of God, Cambridge, UK: DS Brewer.

The Moana song, just to pay homage to talking to one's grandmother's spirit ...

Isabella Whitney is the star of Day Four, and she's the first woman to make a living as a writer in England. Her works are down to earth, bawdy, and written for the masses. Watch the video, or download the transcript as a pdf, and check out the links below for more info.

Web Links
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2007/04/isabella-whitneys-wyll-and-testament/305848/

The Poetry Foundation
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poets/detail/isabella-whitney#poet

https://www.wwnorton.com/college/english/nael/noa/pdf/27636_16u66Whitney.1_9.tp.pdf

Read her poems online
Will and Testament: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/45991
Letter to the Unconstant Lover: https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/html/1807/4350/poem2951.html

Portrait of Isabella credit to:
http://emilymchase.com/home.html

The final day of the Kick@ss Tudor Women series is Levina Teerlinc, an artist who replaced Holbein at the Tudor court .... and made more money than he did! Read the transcript as a pdf, watch the video, and check out the links below for more info.

Web Linkshttp://beingbess.blogspot.com.es/2012/11/levina-teerlinc-female-miniature.html

http://the-history-girls.blogspot.com.es/2014/04/politics-and-art-of-intimacy-levina.html
Levina is portrayed in the historical fiction novel, Sisters of Treason, by Elizabeth Fremantle.

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