The real Romeo and Juliet

Maria Thynne, nee Touchet

Maria Touchet married Thomas Thynne in spring 1594 in a secret wedding ceremony at the Bell Inn in Beaconsfield, they were sixteen years old and had to keep their marriage a secret from everyone as their families - the Thynnes and Maria's maternal family of the Mervyns - had a long standing feud against each other. 

Maria Touchet (1578-1611) was the daughter of George Touchet, Earl of Castlehaven (1550-1617) and Lucy Mervyn (died 1611). Lucy Mervyn was the daughter and only heir of James Mervyn (1529-1611) and his wife Amy Clark. 
Thomas Thynne (1578-1639) was the son of Sir John Thynne (1555-1604) and Joan Hayward (1559-1612). 

John Thynne and Sir James Mervyn were enemies in a lifelong feud which came about due to their politics. The feud started in 1575 and continued for decades; taking place within the confines of the courts of government as well as street violence between groups of the opponents supporters at places such as Marlborough and Salisbury, in which several men suffered injuries. The actual root of the dispute may be traced to a betrothal of marriage between Lucy Mervyn and John Thynne (the mother of the future bride and father of the future groom) that had been cancelled in winter 1574 due to opposition from the Thynne family, in particular from Sir Thomas Gresham who was John Thynne's uncle, which greatly offended the Mervyns.
In terms of allies, the Mervyns had Sir John Danvers and his two sons Charles and Henry, while the Thynnes had John Thynne's brother-in-law Sir Walter Long and his brother Henry Long, as well as Sir Henry Knyvett although he acted as more of a mediator rather than stand strongly on one side. The feud was at its peak around 1590; in September 1589 there was a physical assault between supporters of the two families at Hindon, which Thynne was summoned before the Council for in November, at this time Mervyn also brought a legal charge against Thynne in the Star Chamber. The situation only worsened when Henry Long was publicly murdered - this took place after the marriage of the young couple but before they were discovered, and would only discourage them from revealing the situation to the families. 

Thomes Thynne was in his second year of studying at Corpus Christi College at Oxford, when on the Thursday of Whitsun week he went with two friends to a supper held by some members of the Mervyn family at the Bell Inn in Beaconsfield, which was on the road towards London. It was this evening that Thomas met Maria Touchet for the first time and it appears to have been love at first sight. Thomas had dark hair, a long face, full lips and strong features with a romantic nature, while Maria was dark haired and had a lively personality. The two teenagers spent the evening together eating, drinking, talking and presumably flirting, at one point it is thought that Maria's mother Lucy put it to them to marry that night if they liked each other so strongly, an idea which they jumped upon. Later that evening, the couple went upstairs to a room at the inn and was clandestinely married by a Father Welles, the only witness and only person who knew about the teenagers becoming a couple, was Maria's mother Lucy Touchet. Lucy Touchet had long been tired of the feud between the two families and wanted an end to it; therefore it could be argued that she planned for the two youngsters to meet, as it has been suggested that she provided the couple with fresh bedding for the wedding night as the reputation of the cleanliness of inns was not high. It could be argued that Lucy sought to intervene at this time with arranging for the couple to meet as her daughter Maria had a suitor at court, a high born Mr Manners - Maria, or her sons, would eventually become the heirs of the Mervyn estate at Fountell and so had a valuable bargaining chip when it came to dowries and securing a husband. After spending the night together, come the morning the couple were separated in order to keep their secret, although messages were passed between them frequently. 

When the marriage was discovered, it was the Thynne family who was the most outraged by it. Thomas was the family's heir and as such they had hoped for an advantageous marriage for him that would bring with it a large dowry, whereas with this clandestine marriage there was no dowry and above all, it was to the daughter of their enemy. This marriage would mean that the two families would now be closely connected and could bring a reconciliation between them; something that the Thynnes were not happy about as they had  spent more time and effort into prosecuting the Mervyns in the courts. 

The marriage was not discovered until April 1595, and from 1597 until 1601, John Thynne tried to get his son's marriage annulled, however the young couple and the Touchet family fought against him to keep it declared legal and valid. In 1601 the Court of Arches came to a conclusion on the matter and declared the marriage valid, after which time the young couple began living together. However, this whole affair did not succeed in reconciling the two families that had over time become political court factions. 
Maria and Thomas lived at Longleat together after Thomas inherited it in November 1605, and the couple had three children together; John (born 1604), Thomas (born 1611) and another son, until Maria died giving birth to Thomas in 1611. 

This situation, having two warring families which are then brought together through a secret marriage between the young heirs, sounds particularly similar to that of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, and indeed it may have served as his inspiration. Romeo and Juliet was written in 1595 when the whole affair came to light, and  Shakespeare would have been aware of it not just through court gossip but also through his patron Henry Carey, Lord Hunsdon, who was also closely involved with the Touchet/Mervyn/Thynne feud. Shakespeare's works at this time, such as Love's Labours Lost, often were based on or at least took inspiration from contemporary events, and therefore the similarities between his play Romeo and Juliet and this marital scandal cannot be ignored. 

The Virgin Mary teaching thieves a lesson

The church of St James the Greater (St Jacob's in latin) in Prague is home to a myth of it's own.

This church was home to a statue of the Virgin Mary and around her neck hung a necklace with a large jewel hanging from it. A thief had seen this necklace and had decided to steal it; one night he waited inside the church until late at night when it was finally empty and went to steal the necklace from the statue. As the thief reached around the statue to remove the necklace, the statue itself came to life and moved its hands from its previous position of prayer to having one hand wrapped around the thief's wrist and then once again fell lifeless. The thief immediately dropped the necklace and tried to pull his arm free but it was no use, the statue would not budge; he was stuck. He spent the entire night trying to free his arm, and during those hours prayed to God to free him, promising that he would never steal again and that he would become a good man. When the morning came and the priest of the church entered and found the thief attached to the statue, he was amazed at the sight before him. The priest tried for hours to help to free the thief, using any available materials such as candle wax and butter, before admitting defeat. Seeing no other option, the priest called for the executioner to come with his axe. The thief was relieved, believing that the priest intended to cut the statue in order to free the man's arm, however the priest declared that if this was her vengeance for a thief, imagine what she would do to someone who desecrated her statue. The priest intended to cut off the thief's arm. The executioner came to the church and cut off the theif's arm below the elbow and then sealed off the wound. The thief then ran from the church, and it was only then that the Virgin Mary statue released the arm it was holding, dropping it to the ground and once again resuming her praying position. The priest then took the severed arm and hung it up in the church as a warning to thieves in the future so that they would be discouraged from trying to steal from the church, and to show that thieves will be punished by God. Many years later the thief whose arm it was returned to the church and saw that his arm had been hung there like a relic, and met with the priest who thanked him and said that his arm being there had served its purpose and those who had stolen from the church before actually returned the goods they had stolen and asked for forgiveness.
The arm of the thief is still hanging in the church today, and still stands as a warning to those who dare steal from the church.

They died, but they also lived too

All over the world there are memorials and lists upon lists of names of those who were victims of the Holocaust and the Nazi regime, however this is how they end up being remembered; as names on a list, as a statistic, as one of the dead, we forget to remember that they were once alive, living day to day lives like ourselves today.

Across central Europe, particularly Germany and the Czech Republic, on pavements outside buildings plaques like these are found all over the country.
These plaques read:
1) SARLOTA ZIZALOVA nee FREUDENFELDOVA
    born 1911, deported 1942 to Terezin, died 1943
2) MIREK ZIZALA
    born 1938, deported 1942 to Terezin, died 1943
3) RUDOLF FREUDENFELD
    born 1903, deported 1942 to Terezin, died 1944
4) ADELA FREUDENFELDOVA
    born 1881, deported 1942 to Terezin, died 1942

The plaques have been placed outside the residences of those who were deported to the concentration camps during the Holocaust as a reminder of those who were killed and that they aren't just names on a list somewhere but they were here, this is where this family lived and spent their lives together.
Particularly in Germany there seems to be a theme of making what happened in history into a constant presence to serve as reminders to it's people of what happened. In Berlin there are many memorials dedicated to the victims of the Nazi regime sitting on nearly every street so it is unavoidable for a person to go about their day without being constantly reminded of what happened. These plaques are also a part of this as they make sure that remembering the victims is a part of daily life, they are not to be forgotten.

An idealist who lived his ideals

Tomas Garrigue Masaryk was the President of Czechoslovakia from 1918 to 1935, during which time he was reelected three times and only resigned in 1935 due to his old age and poor health.

He was born as Tomas Masaryk in 1850, and when he married in 1878 to an American woman Charlotte Garrigue as well as she taking his last name as was customary, he also adopted her last name and became Tomas Garrigue Masaryk. This can be viewed in two ways; a romantic act of devotion to his new wife, but also as a symbol of a belief in gender equality. From learning about the history of Czechoslovakia, this act is not so surprising as there does not seem to be as strong a prejudice against women that is found in more Western countries; all women of Czechoslovakia got the right to vote in 1918 which was two years before American women and ten years before British women. Tomas had been raised as a Catholic believer, later in life converted to being a Protestant Unitarian; the same religion of his wife Charlotte. The couple had five children together; sons Jan and Herbert, and daughters Alice, Anna and Olga.

Tomas Masaryk is most prominently remembered for being the founder of Czechoslovakia who first came to public notice due to his championing for justice.  In 1899 Masaryk bravely denounced anti-Semitism in the famous murder case of Leopold Hilsner whose trial revived the myth of Jewish ritual sacrifice. Again in 1909, Tomas Masaryk defended a group of Croat nationalist leaders in a treason trial by proving that the Austrian Foreign Ministry had forged the evidence used against them. Masaryk made a name for himself as a man who stood by his principles and fought for justice even though popular opinion was strongly against him - his countrymen disliked him as Masaryk was showing the people how corruption was playing a large role in the law and government. Masaryk had Humanist ideals and held a strong belief in social reform; something which would lead to Czech independence.

In 1914 when the First World War broke out, as a prominent politician Tomas was sent into exile and started campaigning for his idea that it would be in the people's best interests if there were to be a separate country for Czechs and Slovaks away from the Austria-Hungary empire to help the oppressed people. In his travels across the globe, Tomas gathered the support of Czech and Slovak citizens living abroad, wrote numerous articles and gave speeches and also established a Czechoslovak army - Czech Legions - which served on the side of the Allies in WWI. In 1916 Tomas went to Paris to argue his case to the French government, then Russia and then in 1918 he went to America and managed to gain the support of President Woodrow Wilson. The Austria-Hungary empire fell in 1918 and on November 14th Tomas Masaryk was elected as the President of the Czechoslovak Republic, and then further reelected in 1920, 1927 and 1934.

The fountains of Aix en Provence

Aix en Provence has been given the nickname 'City of a thousand fountains', a name which it more than lives up to with its many beautiful and intricate marble sculpted fountains than can be found in nearly every square. The name 'Aix' comes from the Latin word 'aquae' meaning 'water' due to the town being built upon a thermal water source by its founder, Roman general Caius Sextius.

La fontaine Rotunde

The Rotunde fountain was built in 1860 and was the first in the town with a fonted basin. The three statues on top represent Justice, Agriculture and Fine Arts. This fountain has become the focal point of the town.

Fontaine de la Place des Precheurs

This fountain was built in 1758 by Chastel in the shape of an obelisk. On each of the four sides sits an effigy; Sextius Calvinus - the Roman founder of Aix, Charles III - last sovereign Count of Provence, Louis XV - reigning king at the time of construction, and Louis XVIII - last titular Count of Provence.

Fontaine des Augustines

Built in 1620, then reconstructed in 1820 by Aix architect Mr Beisson, as it has been used as a public lavatory since 1786. On the top of the granite column - material brought from the Gallo-Roman mausoleum in the palace of the counts of Provence - sits a copper, twelve pointed star. While three of its spouts pour non-drinkable water, one spout produces drinkable water.

La fontaine Saint Louis

This fountain was built in 1843 with a bust of Saint Louis atop it and the crest of the city of Aix on the base.

Fontaine de la Place des Tanneurs

In the 1800's this area of six streets became inhabited by tanneries which is why today this is called Tanners Street (Rue des Tanneurs). The fountain has stood since 1761 according to the plans of Georges Vallon, with the water coming from the town hall fountain. Due to aquatic plants and the pipes being too close to the ground and therefore being broken from being trampled by horse drawn carriages, the fountain was inactive for fifty years. In 1861 the city decided to restore the fountain. The vase on top of the fountain was sculpted by Jean Chastel.

La fontaine Marcello Drutel

This fountain was named after Marcello Drutel who was a Provencal poet.

La fontaine des neuf canons

Built by Laurent Vallon in 1691 the fountain was originally named 'La fontaine St Lazare' and was curved on all four sides but two of these were later cut to allow for vehicles. Its water was used by those at the religious house St Ursula and then later on, the Benedictines. In 1761 it was renovated and given the name 'Nine Cannons'. For forty years at the end of the 19th century, it had been in use as a drinking trough for cattle who were coming from the cattle market in Arles; this use explains why it has such a low basin.  

 La fontaine des Quatre Dauphins

Built in the Mazarin quarter of Aix in 1667 by the sculptor Jean-Claude Rambot. The statue atop the pyramid was originally a sculpture of Saint Michael, and has since been changed to a fleur de lys, a Maltese cross and finally, a pine cone that we see today.

La fontaine Place d'Albertas

Built in 1912 by engineers at the local Ecole des Arts et Metiers d'Aix en Provence, this fountain pays tribute to Marquis Jean-Baptiste d'Albertas who built the private residences on this square and also the gardens of the same name.

Fontaine de l'hotel de ville

Completed in 1757 by the sculptor Chastel, who was responsible in particular for the sculpting of a chapter of Corinthians from the Bible upon it, all in accordance with the designs of the architect Brun.

La fontaine Moussue

This iconic fountain on the Cours Mirabeau was constructed in 1667 by the architect Fosse. Originally it was adorned by a newt on the top, then this was changed three years later to four children holding a basin out of which poured the town's water, however this no longer stands and is simply a cube covered in moss. Ten years later this became a hot water fountain because the water from the fountain outside the boilermakers was diverted to this fountain. This water is not drinkable and it has long been forbidden for the housewives to wash their clothes in this fountain but they could draw water from it to wash the doorsteps and stairs of nearby buildings. Today, the water from this fountain is still running a hot 18 degrees, even in winter when the cold outdoor temperature caused steam to come from the fountain due to the collision of the two temperatures, giving it a mystical appearance.

La fontaine des Trois Ormeaux

Built in 1632, it is adorned with sculptures of fruits and flowers and shows the graceful architecture seen under Louis XVI.

La fontaine du Roi Rene

Standing at the very top of the Cours Mirabeau is this fountain which was built to commemorate the 600th anniversary of King Rene's birth in 2009. The actual statue which has been placed there was sculpted in 1822 by David d'Angers. The figure of King Rene is given books - to represent he was a man of great culture, spoke several languages and is the protector of the Arts, Sciences and Letters - as well as a bunch of Muscat grapes which he introduced to Aix en Provence.

Fontaine Gilly

Built in 1988 in honour of the sculpter Seraphin Gilly.

La fontaine Jouse d'Arbaud

This fountain was built to commemorate the Provencal poet Jouse d'Arbaud.

The streets are alive with memory

When I walked around my town of Aix en Provence, I often found that the most beautiful streets were those with features that had been there for decades, perhaps even hundreds, of years. Aix is famous for its picturesque fountains - being home to over forty of them - which add to the town's rustic provencal charm, most of which comes from the fact that most of the buildings and streets have not changed in a long time, everything still looks as it did a hundred years ago. A lot of Provence is still in the same shape as it has always been in with farmhouses and fields and uneven alleyways between buildings with faded blue painted window shutters. Walking along the back streets of the town, you can almost feel as if time had stopped years ago due to the absence of modernised buildings, advertisements which light up the entire street and mainstream chain shops which clutter up high streets. 

One of the simplest pleasures to be enjoyed is to simply pop into a bakery, buy a tasty baguette, and take a stroll around Aix and just enjoy the sights of the blue shuttered windows, gently flowing fountains, marble statues and other evidences of Aix's younger years.

For me, one of my favourite parts of Aix was the old product adverts that had been painted onto building walls decades ago but still survive today.  

Jane Seymour:The Saintly Queen

While Anne Boleyn is painted by history as the great sinner of Henry VIII's wives, her successor Jane Seymour is then portrayed as her complete contrast; the saint.

Jane Seymour

It is perhaps not a surprise that after her predecessors downfall drowned in accusations of adultery and sin to finish off a love affair as tempestuous and fiery as the king himself, that Jane would prefer to have kept her image as one of purity, loyalty and obedience. It may have been out of fear of the king - and of losing her head - or perhaps she was simply a mild-mannered and docile person; but it was the outcome that Jane remains viewed by many as simply the wife who gave the king a son, an honourable title indeed but it gives nothing of her own mind, actions or will.

As queen, Jane could implement her own rules to her ladies in waiting; she raised the age of a maid in waiting from twelve to sixteen, the style of dress was changed from the French style worn by Anne Boleyn to the more modest wear and gable hood previously worn by Elizabeth of York. Jane also implemented strict new rules and clothing regulations for her ladies; maids of honour were expected to wear expensive, lavish girdles of pearls, and if not, they were not to appear in her royal presence. The required number of pearls was more than one hundred and twenty, since lady Lisle sent that number to her daughter Anne Basset but this was not enough and so she could not wear it before the queen.

The legacy of Queen Jane seems to begin and end with her giving birth to a son - of course had she lived longer this would have been an entirely different story. Until the King took a romantic interest in Jane Seymour, there seems to be little evidence of her life; she never caused a scandal, was never married and seems to have been simply another daughter of a family at the royal court. Her life, when reviewed by historians, is that she is Edward's mother, Lord Somerset's sister, and the first step mother who treated Princess Mary with kindness. The judgement she is given has been based upon her relation to others, rather than her own merits, yet such little evidence has remained of her own personality and actions that this is the only way she can be seen - in relation to, or through the eyes of others surrounding her. The support she gave to Princess Mary, her motives are unclear; was it simple affection to a step-daughter who had been the victim of cruel neglect, or was it more in terms of having had a common dislike of Anne Boleyn and her faction, as well as wanting to promote herself as a family woman and giving Henry the traditional family image that he craved so desperately? In 1536-7 the Princess Mary made frequent visits to Queen Jane.

The way in which Jane appears to have behaved during her marriage to Henry revolves around her being an obedient wife; adopting the motto of 'Bound to obey and serve' seems to sum up her position in the marriage. Whether it was Jane or Henry who ultimately chose for her this subservient role in the marriage, we'll never know. Unlike Henry's previous wives Jane did not involve herself in politics, or even religious matters, and seems to have restricted herself to domestic issues concerning her household and the royal family - Jane worked for a reconciliation and better familial relations between the King and Princesses Mary and Elizabeth. Unlike Anne, there are no witty remarks or clever arguments that have lasted through time, if indeed there were any to remark upon in the first place. Jane caused no drama, raised no questions or even did anything without Henry's express permission. The only remaining record of any of her activity while queen was an order to the park keeper at Havering-atte-Bower "to deliver to her well-beloved the gentlemen of her sovereign lord the king's chapel-royal, two bucks of high season." Even for this small act, Jane still uses the king's seal as the authority behind it instead of her own, as if to say she is unworthy of even this power and that it lies with her husband the king. 

"And contemporaries all commented on Jane Seymour's intelligence: in this she was more clearly like her cautious brother Edward than her dashing brother Tom. She was also naturally sweet-natured (no angry words or tantrums here) and virtuous -- her virtue was another topic on there was general agreement." Antonia Fraser

This may also have been a clever and subtle way for Jane to show that although she is now the Queen of England, all the power is Henry's and he is the one in control of everything - including her own fate. By not using her newly acquired royal power, as Anne did to support the causes she believed in, Jane also prevented a faction forming around her; it was perhaps the many friends and male courtiers that Anne Boleyn had attracted to herself which caused adultery accusations to take root in people's minds and therefore if Jane gave out no power or favour she would not fall into the same trap - she could be accused to nothing but obedience to the king. Jane's lack of giving royal favours and political alignment meant that she also gave people no reason to find an enemy in her, she would not be turned against as Anne had been. While these actions may have saved her life and given her a rather peaceful reign as queen, Jane had to be careful at all times with her words and actions and to hide her true feelings from everyone else, which has unfortunately gone down in history as to mean she did nothing of importance and was rather boring and plain. It appears that even Henry did not truly appreciate Jane's value until she produced a son, and then too soon after she died without ever being able to enjoy her new position - she would be Henry's wife and was the mother of the heir to the throne; she would have enjoyed a comfortable life. Henry was eventually buried with Jane Seymour, and after her death he spoke well of her, however it seems to have been a case of too little too late as during her time as queen she was kept living under the shadow of the axe that had taken Anne Boleyn's head.

Prince Edward

Both women in fact performed the same act; they led Henry away from his current wife and got him to marry them and then gave birth to Henry's children. Jane did no less than Anne in this respect; they were both trying to win over a married man. Anne had been more of an aggressor than Jane, but she had to be as she started from the very beginning while England was loyal to the Pope and Henry had been married to the same woman for the past twenty years. Anne's feisty personality was probably necessary for the woman who trying to marry an already married king; anything less would have not been enough motivation and persuasion. Had Anne given birth to a son her future as queen would have been more than secure, sadly this failure then gave rise to her downfall. When Princess Elizabeth was born an opportunity arose; Anne would now have less of the King's favour as she had 'failed' him and so other courtiers now saw a window of opportunity. If one non-royal woman can lure the king into marriage, why not another? Anne had already many enemies at court, and now the idea of replacing her in the king's bed became a real possibility. She, herself, had created this line of thought years before when she insisted to Henry that it was marriage or nothing for her, and while this did indeed work well for her, it also gave every other noble born woman the same possibility. So a replacement was to be found; whether Jane's personality and temperament fitted the requirements or whether it was the other way around, it arose that Jane Seymour was precisely what the king was in need of. Jane was mild, sweet, caring and capable of having children; a stark contrast to Henry's current firecracker of a wife.

When Anne Boleyn and Jane Seymour are put in comparison to each other, at first they appear to have very little in common and are each other's polar opposites, however below the surface they are more similar than we are led to believe; they both lived as courtiers, seduced a king, became queen, became the mother of heirs to the throne of England and became a lasting name in history. Their endings may have come in different ways, but ultimately they both had their lives taken from them by this lion of a king and did not live to see what their children became. The labels of 'saint' and 'sinner' given to these two most brave of women, are hardly justified; Jane Seymour may have been a good woman and was a good wife to King Henry but this does not gain her the name of 'saint', she did as Anne did - she acted in the way she had to survive Henry Tudor.

"Apparently, her beautiful, pale complexion was not enough to offset her large nose, small eyes and compressed lips. It was Jane Seymour's virtuous and gentle nature that attracted the king for she was indeed a "plain Jane." Yet, she, like Anne Boleyn, had lured the king away from his wife. But while Anne would be portrayed as a witch, Jane would be forever remembered as a saint." - David Starkey