The regulars of this blog know that all the entries in it are written by me and that they are not translations of the articles used as sources. Until now there was only one exception to this rule, when I gave the blog space for the translation of an article by Matthew Lewis about the princes of the Tower of London.
Today I make the second exception, with the German writer Michèle Schindler and the character of Anne FitzHugh Lovell. Michèle is the author of a book dedicated to Anne's husband, Francis Lovell, and a few days ago she pointed out on Twitter that she is courageous that women with a story as exciting as Anne's were unknown to practically everyone. Sharon Bennet Connolly, author of such interesting books as Heroines of the Medieval World and Silk and the Sword (The Women of the Norman Conquest) and creator of the blog History The Interesting Bits her, she picked up the glove and proposed to Michèle that she write an entry on her blog, in order to make Anne known. That gave me the idea to offer Michèle to translate that entry into Spanish and publish it on my blog. She accepted delighted and this is the result. The only additions on my part are the links to blog posts dealing with characters mentioned in Michèle's article.
__________________________________________________________________________________________
The discovery of the remains of Richard III in a car park in Leicester seven years ago has generated a current of interest not only in the life of this controversial king, but also in his contemporaries. the. A positive aspect of this trend has been the focus on the women who were part of Ricardo's life and, in general, on those who were involved in the Wars of the Roses. Although most of them have been treated as stereotypes if not outright ignored in recent centuries, recently many talented authors have focused on their lives, their influence and their opinions, revealing their strong personalities, something that had always been important to them. denied.
Unfortunately, however, a woman of great importance has been excluded from this stream of attention. While her contemporaries have finally been able to emerge from the shadows of history, Anne Lovell has not been given any attention. Ignored in history books, mistreated in fiction, Anne's importance has been completely forgotten.
The beginnings of her life promised the quiet existence of a woman without economic constraints and who would go unnoticed. Born in 1460, she was the third daughter and fourth child of Henry FitzHugh, 5th Baron FitzHugh, and his wife Alice Neville. Her future seemed marked by a predictable marriage to a member of the lower nobility and by an existence dedicated to motherhood and the upbringing of her children.
That at least seemed like the idea of the parents of she. In February 1465, when Anne was barely five years old, she was married to the eight-year-old Francis Lovell. He had become Baron Lovell only a few weeks before, after the sudden death of his father. The marriage was made possible by the influence of Anne's uncle, the Earl of Warwick (the almighty Richard Neville, The Kingmaker) and he must have been considered a good match for the girl.
It is not possible to know how many times Anne saw each other and Francis in the first years of marriage. What is known is that in the summer of 1466 Anne's mother-in-law, Joan Beaumont, died, leaving Francis and his two sisters orphaned. It seems that after the death of their mother, the girls grew up in Anne's parents' house with her and her siblings.
It is likely that in those years Anne knew her sisters-in-law better than her husband, who did not He lived under the same roof. It seems that only a few years later he began to live in the house of Anne's parents. There is evidence that on September 10, 1470, he was already living there, for he was included, along with her sisters and her Anne and her brothers, in a pardon granted to Henry FitzHugh for her participation in a rebellion that year. It is one of the few mentions of Anne in the sources, although it does not tell us anything about her personality. Only ten years old when the pardon was proclaimed, her inclusion is merely nominal, not a consequence of any action taken by her
The next time Anne is cited in contemporary sources is in 1473, when Great changes had taken place in his life. Already thirteen, she had lost her father the year before, thus passing the title of Baron FitzHugh to her brother Richard. Although the death of their father meant that Anne and her sisters became wards of the king, it seems that their mother was allowed to retain custody over them, and in the summer of 1473, mother and daughters joined the prestigious Corpus Christi confraternity. Christi in York.
It is interesting that Francis, Anne's husband, was present and also joined the guild. This seems to imply, though we cannot be sure, that Francis spent regular periods with the FitzHughs before Anne was old enough to become his wife in more than name. We also do not know exactly when Anne was considered to have reached that age, although we can venture something. Francis, as head of the family, made sure that his sisters did not marry before they were sixteen. It seems logical to infer that he and Anne delayed cohabitation and consummation of the marriage until she reached that age.
There is some evidence to this effect, such as a letter from Elizabeth Stonor, dated early March 1477. This letter was refers to her and Francis as neighbors of the Stonors in Oxfordshire. The text of the document makes it clear that the relationship between the neighbors, although friendly, was still recent and not very trusting, which is perfectly consistent with the fact that the Lovells, 20 and 16 years old, had moved about six months before the date of the letter to Minster Lovell Hall, the Francis family home.
The letter also includes an interesting little mention of Anne, as the recipient (as well as her husband) of a gift with which her neighbors intended to make a favorable impression on them. This indicates that the Stonors knew or assumed that she had some influence with her husband or that she meant something to him, as well as that Anne had some value in her own right and that her friendship was as worth cultivating as Francis's. br />Unfortunately, as happens with much of Anne's life, there are few references to what happened to her in the following years. She often visited her mother, usually accompanied by her husband. It is quite likely that he frequently saw his sisters (both named their first daughter Anne) and brothers.
What is certain is that he met his older brother Richard at court on January 4, 1483, for he was one of Francis's godfathers when Francis was granted the title of viscount. This meant that Anne became a viscountess, a circumstance that must have been very significant for her.
It was the beginning of a meteoric career for her husband and the events of the following months would also boost Anne, who became the focus of attention in a way that I had never experienced before. Only four months later Edward IV died, and just two months after his death, Edward's brother, Richard III, succeeded to the throne in a way that is still controversial today. As the new monarch was the best friend of her husband, he was greatly elevated, a royal favor that also extended to Anne.
Anne is known to have been present at Richard's coronation. She was in the retinue of the new queen, along with her mother and her older sister. Like them and other ladies of high nobility, she was given "a long dress of blue velvet with crimson satin" and "a dress of red velvet and white damask" for the celebrations.
Unlike her mother and her sister, Anne was not made a lady-in-waiting to Queen Anne Neville, who was her first cousin. It also doesn't seem that the queen favored him in any other way, as she did with his mother and her sister. It appears that after the coronation she was not even part of the queen's household service, which means that her presence at the coronation was somewhat exceptional due to the specialness of the occasion.
As to why Anne she did not join her mother and sister in their status as favorites of the queen, we can only speculate. It is possible, of course, that the two women simply did not like each other. If Anne had wanted to be a maid of honor, it is almost impossible for the queen to deny her, since she was the wife of one of the most important figures in the government. It seems rather that Anne decided that it was a position that did not interest her, although we do not know why.
Anne chose to stay close to her husband whenever possible, implying that she was often at court and that it was for This witnessed facts that remain controversial today. His views on the matter will never be known, but apparently he did not have a bad opinion of Richard III.
As is known, Richard's reign was not long and only two years after his accession to the throne he was met with a directed invasion by a Lancastrian nobleman named Henry Tudor. Ricardo counted on Francis Lovell, among many others, to repel the invasion. Surely aware of the danger of the entrusted task, Lovell put in writing his will that Anne receive various properties in the event that she died, not only to have the use and enjoyment of them for the rest of her life, but also to be of her property and passed to her descendants when she died. These were unusual provisions and he was not obliged to take them, which indicates the value that Anne had for her husband.
That this document contemplated the possibility that Anne bequeathed her properties to the heirs it also reveals a strange circumstance. Although Anne did not have a child with Francis after some nine years of marital cohabitation, he did not seem to blame her for this fact nor, as the content of her writing shows, did he doubt that Anne could have children by her. Bearing in mind that this provision could harm Francis's children and benefit those she had with another man, it seems that he was aware that the lack of children was attributable to him, although we cannot know why.
Again, one can only speculate on what Anne thought of this action by her husband, although it seems that she did not blame him. Nor does she seem to blame him for the fact that, after the death of Richard III on the battlefield at Bosworth, Francis decided not to accept a pardon from the new King Henry VII. She may have wished that, like her brother Richard FitzHugh, Lovell would accept Henry VII, but once her husband made his decision, she supported him.
In March 1486, less than a year after the accession to the throne of Enrique Tudor, Francis initiated a rebellion against him, with the support of the brothers Humphrey and Thomas Stafford. It was a complex and ill-considered maneuver, probably born more out of desperation than political motivation, and, predictably, it failed. The Stafford brothers were arrested and faced the consequences of their actions, but Francis was never arrested, apparently due to Anne's help. After the failure of the rebellion, the Countess of Oxford revealed the place where Francis was hiding, but it turned out to be incorrect information. Shortly afterward, Anne's brother Richard FitzHugh was removed from various positions and the entire FitzHugh family, including Anne, was considered suspect by the new government. Given that the Countess of Oxford was Anne's aunt and was very close to her mother, it is not at all unreasonable to assume that the false information about Francis's hiding place came from Anne.
Anne remained suspicious, and indifferent to this, at least during the following year. In 1487, with the support of Margaret of York, Dowager Duchess of Burgundy, and John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln, Francis started another rebellion, known as the Lambert Simnel Rising. It was a much better planned move than that of 1486 and it seems that once again Anne was in contact with her husband and supported him in his actions.
In a letter to John Paston written on May 16, 1487, Sir Edmund Bedingfeld warned him that it was rumored that he had met with "Lady Lovell" and advised him to act intelligently in relation to said rumor. Only three months earlier Paston had been reprimanded by the Earl of Oxford, one of Henry VII's closest retainers, for unintentionally passing on false information about Francis's movements. It is not out of the question that Anne was suspected or even known to have once again provided misinformation. It cannot be proven, but it is striking that two people related to Anne were given false leads about Francis's situation at crucial moments for his escape.
It is clear that the rebels, while in Ireland and Burgundy, they had a contact in England, for when they landed in June 1487 there were followers waiting for them. There is some clue to suggest that that agent in England was Anne, and it seems that after Henry VII's men won the battle, she was quietly investigated. But whatever she did, there should have been no evidence, because the government took no punitive action against her. stronger than her fears, because in 1488 we find her looking for her husband (missing after the Battle of Stoke Field). The proof is found in another letter to John Paston, this time from Anne's mother, in which she mentions that Anne is looking for Francis with the support of unnamed benefactors. To this end, Anne had sent Edward Franke, one of her men and a partner in rebellion, to look for him, but his efforts had not been successful.
It is striking that at that time Edward Franke was guilty of treason, for what contacting him without denouncing him made whoever did it also a traitor. That Anne risked herself in this way to find out what had become of her husband shows not only that her feelings for him were very deep, but also that she was a brave woman determined to know the truth.
The mention of benefactors whom she seemed to trust and who supported her in this risky task, suggests that she was an appreciated woman and that she had several close and trusted friends.
We do not know if Anne ever knew what happened to her husband. It appears that sometime before December 1489 she gave up the search, for we know that on that date she took religious vows, for when the government of Henry VII granted her an annuity of £20, she is referred to as "our sister in God." ”. This means that with her at most 29 years old, Anne was sure that she did not want to remarry. Although it is true that her attractiveness as a marriage partner was clearly diminished by the fact that she was the widow of a traitor, she could have found someone interested in marrying into her family or even entered into a love match, but she decided not to. Again, it can be taken as an indication of her feeling of affection for Francis.
We don't know what kind of vow she took, nor what happened to her after that moment. The last mention of her in the sources is in a second treason sentence against Francis in 1495, in which she is quoted as still alive. She may have died in 1498, although it is certain that she had died in January 1513.
About me:
I am a language teacher and teach German and English as a second language. Before that, I studied at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität in Frankfurt am Main.
Links to the book
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lovell-our-Dogge-Viscount-Regicide/ dp/1445690535/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=michele+schindler&qid=1552127644&s=books&sr=1-1-catcorr
Links to my social networks
https://www.facebook.com/MichiSophieSchindler/?modal=admin_todo_tour
https://twitter.com/FLovellInfo