Arbella England’s Lost Queen January 2022 book
Book Club Crown
In January, the book club read a brilliant biography about a foot note of England’s royal history, Arbella Stuart. Who was also a Tudor… Unfortunately, as seems to be her lot in life and now in death, she got cheated. Our book club discussion was unfortunately not possible due to snow storm. A very real issue in this region of the US in the winter months. These things can do and will happen from time to time. The roads were bad, so for reasons of safety we did cancel this meeting. So no fun photos, just this shot of a crown we were going to use for a game of trivia pulled from the book about Arbella’s life. Not too much to say about this book as I really like having a group discussion before I speak too much here about any of our reads.
Arbella England’s Lost Queen was written by Sarah Gristwood, to whom I give great props. She has a wonderful and highly informative writing style. Her word choice is broad and her vocabulary vast. You can’t read her work without walking away from it significantly more educated for having read it than you were before you read it. Which to me, is what makes some authors and writers the truest of lights in this world. So Sarah, has my deepest gratitude, for that. She also has my deepest respect. A work like this… Where clearly so much research went in… Is truly a gift to the world. A priceless gift of a piece of where humans have been so that we might learn from our own story. Of which Arbella, is a small but important piece, most particularly for Great Britain. But for everyone.
Arbella, may have been part of something that was a but of a long game Bess of Hardwick her grandmother was playing. She was produced strategically is might seem in a union that was unsanctioned by the crown, of some very royal young people. Who met because they were set up and the result was Arbella. Who was so royal, that she was in many respects one of the best candidates to follow Elizabeth 1. For some time she was in fact recognized as the predecessor of Elizabeth 1.
Arbella’s parents tragically passed young. leaving her to be raised by her grandmother Bess. She spent some time in a house likely with some regular contact with Mary Queen Of Scotts. Her grandmother and queen Elizabeth, kept her out of the lime light in effect keeping her prison till she very well may have lost her marbles. During which time she was promised in marriage again and again, she was used as a pawn by Queen Elizabeth. None of the marriages ever quite panned out due Arbella’s value as a pawn for Queen Elizabeth 1.
A number of times Arbella got herself in some trouble before Queen Elizabeth 1 passed. In part for these reasons the support wasn’t there when the monarch died, and the crown wound up on the head of James of Scotland. Also due to his being a man. Arbella, was also less supported due to her gender and no one really wanted another woman on the throne. Sexism for the win. We still see it happen today. it has not left us. Even after all these years.
James, gave Arbella her freedom, and made her part of his court. She fell in love with a man and found herself in an unsanctioned relationship wanting to marry. So they tried to flee England and escape to France, to be together. Only to be captured. Arbella, died in the tower, when her cousin James now king of England sent her there. She was only 39 when she perished.
One thing we see reading this book… Is not just the high education this woman had in a time before women were educated. But how intelligent she was. how her yearnings and desires reflected in her writing are so similar in many respects to modern women. A desire to simply be who they are and to live life freely.
There is a lot to unpack in this book unfortunately as we did not unpack it, I will not be discussing beyond this here.
This genre, is not one I tend to read much. But for this genre, this book is absolutely fantastic and exquisitely well done. There is a lot to be learned from the life of Arbella Stuart.
Wildflower Farm, is a small New England homestead, B&B and AirBnB, in the Baystate. We came out here 7 years ago, when we returned from the better part of 10 years as peripatetic aristotelian nomads, for my husband's post docs. Upon our return, we had a plan. We had a lovely home. Everything was so clear. Then, I got sick. Things I used to eat all the time during our travels elsewhere in the world and even here before I left almost 10 years earlier made me ill. It took a couple trips to the ER and a trip to specialist... It became clear, something had changed in the way food is processed in this country since last I lived here. Some off label things was inevitably going to be my demise.
My husband and I looked around to see the clear path we were on, had exploded in front of us. We decided we had to create a new path for ourselves. We put children on hold. We found a small piece of land with a house we loved in a rural suburb in a right to farm area. I began researching how to do it ourselves. Grow it ourselves, make it ourselves, survive on our own as much as possible. We bought the property, and began plotting a new course. One that didn't involve off label chemicals. Closer to nature, with a lot more DIY, gardens, and animals for the products they provide. We created a life we loved though it hasn't always been easy and has of course come with compromise with each other, and even with ourselves.
Our family thought we had lost our minds. What were we doing leaving the city? We had no idea how hard this would be. They thought we would be back in 6 months. That was over 7 years ago, now. We have been making it work. They were not wrong, it isn't easy. But has anything worth doing ever been easy? And for us, avoiding as much store bought food as possible was simply necessary so I could live given how sick I was getting.
Then Covid hit.... We were lucky to have this place. It has allowed us a lot less need for public use territories which has kept us a lot safer and spared us much of the risk others face daily. This place, has given us a privilege through this of great meaning to us. To be of use in a difficult time. We have been able to help friends family and even strangers in need when things couldn't be found on store shelves. Or money was tight due to not working, rent being due and a child at home, or some other draining situation. We are so very grateful to have been able to not be helpless like so much of society through this miserable time. Our families, got used to it some time ago, us being out here. They made peace with it the day there was no bread and they had to ask me for some. Or when fresh vegies were rotten due to supply chain issues but they could find plenty in my garden.
Wildflower Farm, was a place I dreamed of. One of those sweet pastoral dreams a city dweller grows up knowing will never come true, that became unavoidable when I became ill. I never expected to get to do this. I never thought I had what it takes to make this work. I have learned pacing myself is important, compromise is critical, hard work never ends, burn out is real so breaks are just a necessary evil.
We are not fully self sufficient, but we work hard in that direction as we create a new path through life for ourselves, always reaching to do even more ourselves and to get closer to the ideal we envision. We are however far more self sufficient than many in this world. 7 years in, we continue to learn and grow in this homesteading lifestyle. We welcome comments and advice and ideas and questions.
We welcome visitors from all over to our home with strict covid policies in place. We spend our time learning to live all over again in a more environmental and sustainable way though even there we are far from perfect always learning and growing doing better as we know better.
This little homestead farm is a magical place named for the New England wildflowers that grow all around. A place where a physicist, watches the night sky on clear nights with the aide of mirror and glass, and a woman, works endlessly in the gardens, the kitchen, and a variety of projects to create and to keep a very unique life style running and functioning. Wildflower Farm, has become so much more than simply a piece of land we can grow a few vegetables on. The longer I spend here, the more alive the land seems, the more I learn about it's function and the more meaning it has. My place in the universe and the next steps on our new path become ever more clear.
We welcome you on this journey with us.
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