Sunday Sum-Up: June 25, 2023

Kim @ Traveling in Books

Jun 25

Summer is here. Summer is definitely here. In the morning, going outside feels like walking into a bowl of soup. I am very much not here for this. As Green Day said, "Wake me up when September ends".

At least the nights will be getting longer? For me, that's a benefit. These long summer evenings throw me off, and it doesn't help when it stays so hot for so long into the night.

I am not a fan of summer. I endure it. That is all.

Obligatory Mina Photo:

Mina has taken to hanging out on my drawing table. I'm not sure why. The only reason I can think of is that there are interesting things that she could play with, as well as a stack of mending I haven't gotten around to fixing yet. She doesn't lay on my clothes, but she likes to use them as a pillow whenever the opportunity arises.

I suppose it's a good thing I haven't been using my drawing table for much recently because I don't think I'm going to her off of it until the weather starts cooling off.

What I Finished Reading Last Week:

The Brothers York: A Royal Tragedy by Thomas Penn, audiobook narrated by Roy McMillan

I finished exactly one book this week, and I have Thoughts about it.

First off, The Brothers York is a fantastic book about Edward IV, King of England, and his younger brothers: George, Duke of Clarence, and Richard, Duke of Gloucester, later named Richard III. It opens during the reign of Henry VI, whose weak reign caused in-fighting among the major factions of England and led to the Wars of the Roses (called the Cousins' War at the time). After the death of his father, Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York (who sought to claim the throne for either himself or his family), Edward went on to take the crown from Henry VI in 1461 and spent the rest of his life fighting to maintain his seat. He secretly married Elizabeth Woodville, whose family shot to power, which caused dissension among the old noble families. Initially, Edward treated his brothers well and gave them the sorts of lands and titles that were expected, but as he grew up, George developed the sort of narcissistic selfishness that led him to join Warwick (the kingmaker who helped put Edward on the throne, and who was later cast down after crossing Edward a few too many times) in a rebellion that sent Edward (and Richard) into exile and put Henry VI back on the throne for about six months. When Edward returned, he ended up forgiving George, and together the three brothers ended up putting an end to years of Lancastrian unrest by defeating them at Tewkesbury in 1471. Things were fine between the brothers for a while after that, but once Richard decided he wanted to marry the beautiful and very wealthy Anne Neville, George decided to be selfish again and complain about Richard's marriage and the lands that he, George, hadn't been given, he decided to revolt against his brother. Again.

Despite being fascinated by the medieval kings and queens of England, I don't actually like them very much. They tend to be awful people who spend incredible amounts of money and get thousands of people killed by going to war because they thought they'd been insulted or because they wanted some piece of land. The selfish, destructive gits. But it seems to me now like George, Duke of Clarence, was an even bigger narcissistic git than the rest of them, because despite being the second wealthiest and second most powerful man in England- behind his brother, the actual king- George thought he didn't have enough. So he rebelled, got a bunch of people killed over it, and was defeated by his brothers' forces and ultimately executed. How was he killed? It's hard to say, though the rumor that he was drowned in a barrel of wine probably isn't true.

So ended a jerk.

After that, everything was mostly okay in England for a while, though people were still peeved that the Woodvilles were calling the shots while Edward slowly ate and drank himself to death. Meanwhile, Richard was actually being a capable warrior and administrator in the north of England. Despite his worsening scoliosis, he was able to fight and just generally do things (despite the way he's depicted in the Shakespearean play). Penn portrays Richard in a fairly positive to neutral way, and I have to admit that at that point in time, Richard was being a decent nobleman. He was keeping the peace in the north, holding the Scots back, and staying loyal to his brother. The problems arose when Edward died in April 1483, at the ripe old age of 41 (having spent years overeating and drinking far too much). Initially, Richard swore to faithfully serve Edward IV's son, Edward V. But upon taking the thirteen-year-old king into his custody, Richard did everything he could to delay the coronation, and put pressure on Elizabeth Woodville, the now-dowager queen, to hand her younger son, Richard, over to him.

Yes, there are a lot of Edwards and Richards in this story. The nobility of the time didn't seem to realize that there were other names in England than 'Richard', 'Henry', or 'Edward'. But anyway.

So Richard took his nephews into his custody, shuffled them off into the Tower of London, and eventually they disappeared. It seems that most people of the time assumed the boys were murdered, and many of them assumed Richard was behind it. Most modern people assume the same thing.

With his nephews out of the way, Richard had himself crowned king and spent his two-year reign struggling to maintain order. Seriously. No one seemed to like him very much at all. Apparently, the bankers and many government officials in England- spurred on by Henry Tudor, who was trying to gain support for his own dubious claim to the throne- decided they didn't care for Richard, and so they just wouldn't do the king's business. Because Richard's people couldn't figure out who was being treacherous and who was just lazy, they couldn't punish anyone for it. And once Henry Tudor finally reached British shores in 1485, Richard had trouble raising an army at all.

Am I surprised that Henry Tudor won the Battle of Bosworth Field? Nope.

Clearly, I learned a lot about a time period I was already fairly familiar with. There were so many fantastic details such as:

The Duke of Buckingham's skincare routine
Edward IV was tall, even for our time, at 6'4", but there was a man in his war retinue who was 6'8"
Warwick's people found a couple of lead figurines in the general vicinity of the Woodville's estates, and he based the flimsy accusations of witchcraft he leveled at Elizabeth Woodville on that. No one fell for it.
Though authors like Philippa Gregory have tried to make up this weird romance between the thirty-two-year-old Richard III and his seventeen-year-old niece, Elizabeth of York, he "courted" her for the political shade he could cast on her family. She had to pretend to go along with his little plans because he literally had the power of life and death over her and her family. Any romantic notions that people see in this situation are just gross.

One last note about The Brothers York: I appreciate how Penn dealt with the Tudors throughout the narrative. Henry Tudor, his mother Margaret Beaufort, and his uncle Jasper Tudor were mentioned, but they were peripheral figures at best. So many histories pull them into the main narrative because Henry Tudor ended up becoming King Henry VII. But Henry's path to the throne was so unlikely- especially while Edward IV's two sons lived. Margaret Beaufort spend years advocating for her son's rights so he could 1) claim his family lands and 2) return from exile in France. He didn't start putting forth his own claim to the throne until about 1483-4. We have this tendency to look at history with the sense that certain events were inevitable, but nothing was inevitable. Minor decisions, men's vanity, and a thousand other things caused a cascading series of events that no one at the time could have predicted, and it's good to approach history with this sort of mindset- that no one living during that period of time knew the outcomes that seem obvious to us now.

So that's that. Should this have been its own post? Probably. But here we are.

What I'm Currently Reading:

Witch King by Martha Wells (351/432)
The Mirror and the Light (Thomas Cromwell #3) by Hilary Mantel, audiobook narrated by Ben Miles

I'm nearly done with Witch King. I wanted to have finished it by now because I want to know what happened to Kai before the book's beginning, and I want to know what is going to happen. I am thoroughly enjoying this book thanks to the characters- Kai and Ziede are wonderful. The settings are intriguing, too. Part of it feels like it's based on ancient Mesopotamia, and other parts of it feel like a ruined Persia by the sea. I am definitely going to read this again, as there are parts of the worldbuilding and history that I have missed due to a wacky attention span this week. I can see why people might not like this book, but I am loving it so far.

None of the audiobooks I wanted to listen to were available for immediate download through my library apps, so I decided to finally finish my reread of the Thomas Cromwell trilogy, and I can't get enough of this. Mantel's writing, the story itself, and Miles' narration are all phenomenal. So far, Cromwell has helped Mary Tudor get back into her father's good graces and then had someone make up terrible rumors regarding his reasonings for it, and now the Pilgrimage of Grace in the North is starting up, partly because of the sudden religious changes that the northerners don't like, and partly because there is a general loathing for Cromwell, a common-born man who has risen above the station God intended him to be in, and the power he wields in the kingdom.

Something I've noticed in this reread (my third, I think), is how slippery time is. The narrative moves steadily forward in time, starting the morning of May 19, 1536, but it tends to slip backward, too, as Cromwell is reminded of things that happened to him in the past. I feel like this makes sense- Cromwell is around fifty years old at this point, and he has a lot to look back upon, a lot to remember about his encounters with people like Anne Boleyn that affect him even years after the fact. And as always, I am amazed by Mantel's skill with language. She plays with its color and musicality, and its ability to combine disparate ideas and images into a cohesive whole. It's remarkable. I wish more historical fiction was this beautifully written, and keep searching for something that compares.

What I've Been Listening To:

Nothing, really. I've been listening to a few different soundtracks while I write, but I don't count those as Things I Have Listened To because they're on for the mood and as a sound for my fidgety brain to latch onto to help me focus.

I forgot to listen to the score for Wes Anderson's film The Grand Budapest Hotel, which was meant to be my Oscar-winning score for the week. Oops. Better luck next week.

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