tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21031350.post4888719811438676994..comments2023-11-12T09:52:42.825-05:00Comments on Medieval Woman: Blogging with Historical Novelist Susan Higginbotham: Some Mother's Day Sympathy for Margaret of AnjouSusan Higginbothamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13517907583894026599noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21031350.post-38586709005673423562008-12-25T23:02:00.000-05:002008-12-25T23:02:00.000-05:00Glad to see a something that is pro-Marguerite d'A...Glad to see a something that is pro-Marguerite d'Anjou! Personally, I think she was a marvelous woman. I do hope to one day find a biography or something that has something positive to say about her, not drape her with old Yorkist and Shakespearean slander. I am curious though as to why the Tudors would dislike her and encourage the bad rumours about her, if she was the one, though she was a woman, who had upheld the Lancastrian cause for so long?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21031350.post-57569115454599445402008-05-13T09:07:00.000-04:002008-05-13T09:07:00.000-04:00Some people seem to think propaganda started with ...Some people seem to think propaganda started with Dr Goebbels, when it was certainly alive and well in late medieval England.<BR/><BR/>The two routine attacks on powerful women were a) dodgy sexual morality and b) witchcraft. In addition you have to allow for English xenophobia. Foreign queens were almost always unpopular (unless and until they became honorary English) and French queens were in a special class of their own.<BR/><BR/>So yes, I think there is a need to review Margaret of Anjou's reputation. I am all for getting away from lazy stereotypes.Brian Wainwrighthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16867772590464992131noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21031350.post-61595052148950593262008-05-13T09:00:00.000-04:002008-05-13T09:00:00.000-04:00Thanks, ladies! Alianore, I remember that comment....Thanks, ladies! Alianore, I remember that comment. What a jerk!<BR/><BR/>I have a copy of The Wars of the Roses: The Soldiers' Experience by Anthony Goodman where the jacket flap says that Goodman is working on a biography of Margaret. Should be interesting!<BR/><BR/>It would be interesting to see some writings on Margaret from a French perspective. I'm reading a biography of Marie-Therese, Marie-Antoinette's daughter, and at one point Marie-Therese, who was resisting Napoleon's forces at the time, was compared to Margaret of Anjou by a contemporary writer--the comparison was meant as a compliment to both. Evidently she received much better press in France!Susan Higginbothamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13517907583894026599noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21031350.post-90919758928153598812008-05-13T01:02:00.000-04:002008-05-13T01:02:00.000-04:00Very interesting post, especially the comparison b...Very interesting post, especially the comparison between recent portrayals of Margaret and Isabella.<BR/><BR/>I read a comment by a Ricardian recently, saying that Margaret's son Edward of Lancaster should be renamed 'Edward of Somerset' to reflect his real paternity. Sigh.Kathryn Warnerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00397714441908100576noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21031350.post-52276155627334593292008-05-12T12:41:00.000-04:002008-05-12T12:41:00.000-04:00Thank you, Susan. I always thought Margaret made ...Thank you, Susan. I always thought Margaret made the best of a bad situation. Henry VI accepted their son as his, so all of the rumors of adultery were probably spurious. She is one of my heroines, actually, and I believe, as you say, that she received short shrift in Shakespeare as did Richard III.<BR/><BR/>Henry VII's attempts to have Henry VI canonized may have called for the image of Margaret to be negative as well. Just a thought.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com