Tag: Westminster Abbey

Book Review: “The Shakespeare Ladies Club: The Forgotten Women Who Rescued the Bawdy Bard” by Christine and Jonathan Hainsworth

On By hmalagisiIn Book ReviewsLeave a comment

When we think of the greatest writers of all time, we often think about novelists like Jane Austen and Agatha Christie. There is a playwright who we know quite well in our century, but he wrote during the sixteenth century; William Shakespeare, “the Bard.” He may have been a star in his own time and is seen as one of the greats in our era, but it took a while to get him to such a status. In fact, he was forgotten for quite some time, until the 18th century, when an unlikely group of women decided to save the bard from obscurity. The story of the Shakespeare Ladies Club, its members, and the women’s impact is told in Christine and Jonathan Hainsworth’s book, “The Shakespeare Ladies Club: The Forgotten Women Who Rescued the Bawdy Bard.”

I would like to thank Amberley Publishing for sending me a copy of this book. I am not someone who usually reads about the 18th century, but the subject intrigued me. I mean a group of women to save the legacy of one of the greatest writers of all time in a time when women did not have much of a voice. It sounded like such a remarkable story that I jumped at the chance to read it.

So, what was the Shakespeare Ladies Club, and how did they save Shakespeare? For centuries, many have believed that David Garrick was the man who saved Shakespeare, as he is the one who staged the famous Shakespeare Jubilee to honor the playwright’s birth. However, the Shakespeare Ladies Club deserves the title of saviors of Shakespeare because not only did they raise the funds needed to create the statue of the Bard in the Poets’ Corner at Westminster Abbey, but they also advocated for the performance of the original, unedited plays. The four remarkable women were: Susanna Ashley-Cooper, Countess of Shaftesbury, Mary, Duchess of Montagu, Elizabeth Boyd, and Mary Cowper de Grey, Baroness Walsingham.

The Hainsworths take the time to give each woman their dedicated chapter for a mini-biography to show how extraordinary they were and to show how they became a group. Susanna Ashley-Cooper was known as the “Queen of Common Sense” and was the founder of the group. Mary, Duchess of Montagu, was the daughter of Sarah Churchill, one of the favorites of Queen Anne, and a con-artist, and was married to a practical joker. Elizabeth Boyd was not a noble lady, but she wrote like she was running out of time. Finally, we have Mary Cowper de Grey, Baroness Walsingham, a poet with a progressive husband who fought for the rights of women. While we do get a glimpse of the lives of these women, we also see how their reputation differed from another group, the Blue Stocking Society and early Shakespearean actresses. Finally, we see how Shakespeare’s legacy changed over time from the Shakespeare Ladies Club to the modern day.

This was such a fascinating book, full of brand-new stories to me and women that I had never heard of before until I read this book. It was meticulously researched, and it felt like a passion project for the Hainsworths. If you want to learn about how Shakespeare’s legacy survived for centuries and the women who helped fight for his cause, I would highly recommend you read “The Shakespeare Ladies Club: The Forgotten Women Who Rescued the Bawdy Bard” by Christine and Jonathan Hainsworth.

Biography: Owen Tudor

On By hmalagisiIn Biographies1 Comment

Full name: Owen ap Maredudd ap Tudur. (Born around 1400- Died February 2, 1461) Son of Maredudd ap Tudur and Margaret ferch Dafydd. Husband of Catherine of Valois.  Father of 4-6 children, including Edmund and Jasper Tudor.

Owen Tudor was the son of Maredudd ap Tudur and Margaret ferch Dafydd. We do not know much about his early life. Owen’s father and his uncles were involved in the rebellion of Owain Glyn Dwr, the last Welsh Prince of Wales, against the English. This rebellion was suppressed and Welshmen moved into England to find work. In 1421, he found work with Sir Walter Hungerford, the steward of King Henry V. In 1422, King Henry V would die from dysentery, leaving behind his 21 year old wife Catherine of Valois and their baby son, who was now King Henry VI. It was during this time that  it is said that Owen came to work in Catherine’s household.

Parliament passed a bill that stated that the dowager queen could not marry again unless she had the king’s permission. If she did marry without permission, her husband would lose everything, but their children would remain legitimate. It is said that the couple was married between 1428 and 1429. In May 1432, Owen Tudor was given the same rights as an English gentleman. The couple had at least 4 children; Edmund born in 1430, Jasper born in 1431, a son who is rumored to have become a monk, and a daughter who either died young or became a nun.

Catherine would enter Bermondsey Abbey to receive medical attention, where she died on January 3, 1437. Edmund and Jasper were sent to the Abbess of Barking to receive  their education while Owen dealt with the king’s Regency council. Owen was nervous about the council and so he sought sanctuary at Westminster Abbey; when he did arrive at the council, he was cleared of all charges and was allowed to return to Wales. However, he was captured by Lord Beaumont and sent to Newgate Prison.

In 1438, he managed to escape with the help of a priest and a servant; he was recaptured and held at Windsor Castle under the guardianship of Edmund Beaufort. In 1439, King Henry VI pardoned Owen Tudor, restored all of his lands, provided him a position at court, and made the Keeper of the King’s Parks in Denbigh. In 1442, Henry VI welcomed his half- brothers Edmund and Jasper to court with open arms. In November 1452, Edmund became the earl of Richmond and Jasper became the earl of Pembroke. On November 3, 1456, Edmund Tudor died from the plague, leaving his young son and wife in the capable hands of his brother Jasper Tudor.  Owen and Jasper would serve Henry VI by capturing Yorkist supporters for the king and in return gaining their estates, including John, Lord Clinton in 1459; that same year, Owen had a son with an unknown mistress named Sir David Owen, born at Pembroke Castle.

Owen joined his son Jasper’s army to raise an army in Wales in January 1461. On February 2, 1461, their army faced off against the Yorkist army at the battle of Mortimer’s Cross. It was a devastating loss for the Lancasterian cause. Jasper Tudor escaped, but Owen was captured and beheaded under the orders of Edward Earl of March, later Edward IV, at Hereford.