Day 4: Gislingham

     Hello again!

     I LOVE this little village. Gislingham is a village so small that it can be crossed in five minutes. Each cottage has a name, and some still have thatched roofs! There is a pub, a town hall, a store, a primary school, a church, a football pitch, a playground, a mobile library, a mobile post office (which comes to their village for two hours each day), and a mobile fish and chips van (which comes on Wednesday nights). Doesn't that sound darling?! I couldn't believe how quiet it was last night.

     This morning, Mary and Mark took me to the town hall, where an art show was going on. That village is so talented! There were several paintings and sketches that I would eagerly have bought, if I'd had enough money. Everyone there seemed very kind and friendly. They all knew each other, of course. I don't know what the population is, but I'm sure it's only a few hundred, if that.

     After the art show, they took me to see St. Mary's Church, whose tower I'd seen poking out from behind some trees.

     The iron gate was rickety, and the tombstones were slanted and moss-covered. I LOVED it. As much as I was taken with it from the outside, the inside made my heart leap. It dates back to the Medieval times, and it still has some of the same, patterned tiles. The solid, English oak that was used to build parts of the church (including the ornate, intricately carved rafters and decorations) is still standing strong. Amazing! Mary told me that many of the churches in the area date back to the Norman times! I love it. I would have taken pictures of the inside, but they generally frown on that here.

     On the way back to their cottage, they took me around the back of the village to show me these views that the camera could not do justice to:

     After lunch, we drove a few villages over to a town called Diss, in the county of Norfolk. Since Gislingham is in Suffolk, I couldn't help but compare the two rivaling dukes whose titles came from these neighboring counties during the reign of Henry VIII. I know, I know, me and my obsessions. But...being in their former dukedoms and placing physical places with titles was really exciting for me! 

     The Duke of Norfolk (Thomas Howard) was the conniving, ambitious man who was behind the marriages of Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard to Henry (the two wives that were beheaded). Not a great track record, which was why he was sent to the Tower. He wasn't executed, however. After Henry's death, he was released, and later aided Bloody Mary on her way to the throne, earning back the titles he had lost when he fell from Henry's favor. Sounds like a pretty bad guy, right? There's more, but I'll leave you to do that research. 

The Duke of Norfolk

     The Duke of Suffolk (Charles Brandon) was conniving and far from a saint himself, but his story is far more endearing. His father was killed by Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth during Henry VII's fight for the throne. Left as an orphan, Henry VII had him brought to court and raised there. This was not uncommon for the orphans of men who had performed a great service for the king, but Charles distinguished himself in other ways. He and Henry VII's son, the future Henry VIII, became the best of friends. He was actually closer in age to Henry's older brother, Arthur, but Charles had much more in common with Henry. They were both athletic, handsome (I know, I know, but for THEIR day they were handsome. Henry VIII wasn't always obese and insane!), extremely competitive, charming, and ladies' men. This was all well and good, until Charles and Henry's sister, Mary, fell in love. When Henry decided to marry his sister off to the aging King Louis XII of France, she agreed to marry him on the one condition that she would be allowed to choose her own husband once the king died. Henry, wanting her cooperation, agreed. 

     Charles was appointed to escort Mary to her marriage and to ensure that everything went according to plan. He also participated in the jousts celebrating their marriage. Soon, King Louis died, and Charles was sent back to France to collect Mary and--more importantly--the gold plate and jewels that were supposed to be given to Henry, as well as the reimbursement of the wedding costs, since she was now a widow. Since he was Henry's closest friend and well-titled, Henry seemed to be well-disposed to the idea of Charles marrying his sister. However, Charles had made many enemies in his high position, and Henry decided to use the gold plate and jewels as leverage: Mary, in return for the treasure. Charles was made to promise that he wouldn't propose to Mary, but his trip brought an unexpected surprise.

     Mary was being held under surveillance at the Hotel ("town house") de Cluny in Paris, just to make sure she was not carrying the heir of the French throne. 

     When Charles arrived, Mary met him in the chapel:

     She told him that if they were ever going to be together, they had to marry there, right then, before Henry could interfere. Charles agreed (I like to think it was because he loved her, but he was also known to be an opportunist. But...he was committing treason by marrying her, and he DID love her...so I'm going with the romantic version) and they were married secretly on March 3, 1515. When Henry found out, he was FURIOUS. His privy council urged him to have Charles executed, and they may very well have succeeded, had Cardinal Wolsey not intervened for them. After Charles agreed to pay an exorbitant fine, return Mary's dowry, and give Henry the precious golden plate and jewels, he was once again in the king's good graces and the two were officially married at Greenwich Palace on May 13, 1515. Charles, in spite of his daring move of marrying Henry's sister without his permission, was the only close friend of Henry's to die of natural causes, instead of Henry's anger. Pretty cool, huh?

     As it turns out, Mary is buried in the abbey at Bury-St-Edmunds, in Suffolk--just a village over from Gislingham. I KNEW I'd heard of that village before! You can imagine how upset I am that I missed that, because Mary and Mark would gladly have taken me to see her. *sigh* Next time...

     I hope you enjoyed that rather lengthy tidbit of history as much as I do. I really want to write a novel about it someday. Apparently, their tenants really loved them both, and their romantic story. They were kind landlords, and very much in love. OH! And another interesting tidbit? One of their grandchildren was Lady Jane Grey, the nine day queen, who I portrayed in a play last month. 

     It is now very late (or early, I should say), and I'm back in my hotel, noshing on a Cadbury chocolate bar that Mark and Mary were kind enough to buy for me (8 of them, actually. We'll see if any of them make it back to the States...) before they took me to the station, complete with a packed dinner. Aren't they the best?

Stowmarket Station. Look how old it is! 

     Until tomorrow!

Bluebells!

Yum!