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Anne Boleyn. Her Life as told by Lancelot de Carle's 1536 Letter.
In 1536, two weeks after the execution of Anne Boleyn, her brother George and four others, Lancelot du Carle, wrote an extraordinary letter that described Anne's life, and her trial and execution, to which he was a witness. This book presents a new translation of that letter, with additional material from other contemporary sources such as Letters, Hall's and Wriothesley's Chronicles, the pamphlets of Wynkyn the Worde, the Memorial of George Constantyne, the Portuguese Letter and the Baga de Secrets, all of which are provided in Appendices.
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Ford Madox Brown is in Painters.
In 1818 [his father] Ford Brown (age 38) and [his mother] Caroline Madox (age 33) were married.
1840. Ford Madox Brown (age 18). "Study for the Dean in the 'Execution of Mary Queen of Scots'". The model is described in some sources as the artist's father [his father] Ford Brown (age 60).
Ford Brown: In 1780 he was born to John Brown. In 1818 he and Caroline Madox were married. In 1842 he died at Paris [Map].
1840. Ford Madox Brown (age 18). "Study for 'Execution of Mary Queen of Scots'".
Around 1841. Ford Madox Brown (age 19). "The Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots". The moment the Mary tells Bishop Richard Fletcher to stop praying for her in the Protestant faith. His first wife [his future wife] Elizabeth (age 22) modelled for one of the figures
Elizabeth Bromley: On 10th September 1818 she was born to Samuel Bromley and Mary Madox at Butt Lane, Deptford. She was baptised 2nd October 1818. In April 1841 Ford Madox Brown and she were married. They were half first cousins. On 5th June 1846 Elizabeth Bromley died of tuberculosis in Paris [Map]. She was buried at Kensal Green Cemetery [Map].
In 1841 [his mother] Caroline Madox (age 56) died.
In April 1841 Ford Madox Brown (age 19) and Elizabeth Bromley (age 22) were married. They were half first cousins.
William of Worcester's Chronicle of England
William of Worcester, born around 1415, and died around 1482 was secretary to John Fastolf, the renowned soldier of the Hundred Years War, during which time he collected documents, letters, and wrote a record of events. Following their return to England in 1440 William was witness to major events. Twice in his chronicle he uses the first person: 1. when writing about the murder of Thomas, 7th Baron Scales, in 1460, he writes '… and I saw him lying naked in the cemetery near the porch of the church of St. Mary Overie in Southwark …' and 2. describing King Edward IV's entry into London in 1461 he writes '… proclaimed that all the people themselves were to recognize and acknowledge Edward as king. I was present and heard this, and immediately went down with them into the city'. William’s Chronicle is rich in detail. It is the source of much information about the Wars of the Roses, including the term 'Diabolical Marriage' to describe the marriage of Queen Elizabeth Woodville’s brother John’s marriage to Katherine, Dowager Duchess of Norfolk, he aged twenty, she sixty-five or more, and the story about a paper crown being placed in mockery on the severed head of Richard, 3rd Duke of York.
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1842. Ford Madox Brown (age 20). "Manfred on the Jungfrau". Inspired by Scene II of the poem Manfred by George "Lord Byron" 6th Baron Byron.
On 19th July 1843 [his daughter] Emma Lucy Madox Brown was born to Ford Madox Brown (age 22) and [his wife] Elizabeth Bromley (age 24) at Paris [Map]. Coefficient of inbreeding 3.12%. She married 31st March 1874 William Michael Rossetti and had issue.
1844. Ford Madox Brown (age 22). "The Bromley Family". His first wife [his wife] Elizabeth (age 25) bottom right.
On 5th June 1846 [his wife] Elizabeth Bromley (age 27) died of tuberculosis in Paris [Map]. She was buried at Kensal Green Cemetery [Map].
1849-1854. Ford Madox Brown (age 27). "Lear and Cordelia". Model for Cordelia [his future wife] Emma Matilda Hill (age 19).
1850. Ford Madox Brown (age 28). Self-portrait.
On 11th November 1850 [his illegitimate daughter] Catherine Emily Brown was born illegitimately to Ford Madox Brown (age 29) and [his future wife] Emma Matilda Hill (age 21).
1851. Unfinished. Ford Madox Brown (age 29). "Take Your Son, Sir". Model [his future wife] Emma Matilda Hill (age 21).
1851. Ford Madox Brown (age 29). "Pretty Baa Lambs". Models: the artist's future wife [his future wife] Emma Matilda Hill (age 21) and their daughter [his illegitimate daughter] Catherine Emily Brown.
Abbot John Whethamstede’s Chronicle of the Abbey of St Albans
Abbot John Whethamstede's Register aka Chronicle of his second term at the Abbey of St Albans, 1451-1461, is a remarkable text that describes his first-hand experience of the beginning of the Wars of the Roses including the First and Second Battles of St Albans, 1455 and 1461, respectively, their cause, and their consequences, not least on the Abbey itself. His text also includes Loveday, Blore Heath, Northampton, the Act of Accord, Wakefield, and Towton, and ends with the Coronation of King Edward IV. In addition to the events of the Wars of the Roses, Abbot John, or his scribes who wrote the Chronicle, include details in the life of the Abbey such as charters, letters, land exchanges, visits by legates, and disputes, which provide a rich insight into the day-to-day life of the Abbey, and the challenges faced by its Abbot.
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The Diary of George Price Boyce 1851. 13th November 1851. After Clipstone Street spent the evening with Wells (age 22) at John (age 24) and Thomas Seddon's (age 30), 7 Percy Street; G. Rossetti (age 23), F. M. Brown (age 30) and G. Truefitt (age 27) were there.
1852 to 1865. Ford Madox Brown (age 30). "Work".
1852 to 1865. Ford Madox Brown (age 30). Portrait of his daughter [his illegitimate daughter] Catherine Emily Brown (age 1).
1853. Ford Madox Brown (age 31). Portrait of his daughter [his illegitimate daughter] Catherine Emily Brown (age 2).
On 5th April 1853 Ford Madox Brown (age 31) and Emma Matilda Hill (age 23) were married at St Dunstan's in the West, Fleet Street [Map]. The witnesses were Dante Gabriel Rossetti (age 24) and Thomas Seddon (age 31). Rector Edward Auriol (age 48) performed the ceremony.
Edward Auriol: On 27th February 1805 he was born to James Peter Auriol. In or before 1841 he was appointed Rector of St Dunstan's in the West, Fleet Street [Map]. In or before 1841 Edward Auriol and Georgina Morris were married. On 10th July 1880 Edward Auriol died.
1854-1855. Ford Madox Brown (age 32). "Carrying Corn".
1854 to 1855. Ford Madox Brown (age 32). "Waiting: an English Fireside". Models: the artists wife [his wife] Emma Matilda Hill (age 24) and daughter [his illegitimate daughter] Catherine Emily Brown (age 3).
In 1855 [his son] Oliver Madox Brown was born to Ford Madox Brown (age 33) and [his wife] Emma Matilda Hill (age 25).
Henrici Quinti, Angliæ Regis, Gesta, is a first-hand account of the Agincourt Campaign, and subsequent events to his death in 1422. The author of the first part was a Chaplain in King Henry's retinue who was present from King Henry's departure at Southampton in 1415, at the siege of Harfleur, the battle of Agincourt, and the celebrations on King Henry's return to London. The second part, by another writer, relates the events that took place including the negotiations at Troye, Henry's marriage and his death in 1422.
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1855. Ford Madox Brown (age 33). "The Last of England". Modelled by himself and his wife [his wife] Emma Matilda Hill (age 25). Inspired by the departure to Australia of his friend Thomas Woolner (age 29).
1855-1856. Ford Madox Brown (age 33). "The Hayfield".
1856 to 1858. Ford Madox Brown (age 34). "Chaucer at the Court of Edward III".
Life of William Morris. In the early part of the Long Vacation of 1857, Rossetti (age 28) went down to Oxford to see his friend Benjamin Woodward, the architect. Morris, always delighted to take a day at Oxford, went with him. The long battle between the Palladian and Gothic styles for the new University Museum had been at last decided by the Oxford authorities in favour of the latter. Woodward's plans, in a style of mixed Rhenish and Venetian Gothic, had been accepted, and the museum was now in progress. Besides his principal work at the museum, he was engaged in building a debating hall for the Union Society. That hall, now the principal library, was just roofed in. In formi, the hall was a long building with apsidal ends. A narrow gallery fitted with bookshelves ran completely round it, and above the shelves was a broad belt of wall divided into ten bays, pierced by twenty six-foil circular windows, and surmounted by an open timber roof. Rossetti was at once fired with the idea of painting the space thus given. In his notions of the application of painting to architedural surfaces, Woodward, an ardent admirer and a skilled imitator of the Venetian builders, cordially concurred ; and it was at once settled that the ten bays and the whole of the ceiling should be covered with painting in tempera. The Building Committee of the Union, who had a general discretion as regards the work to be done during the Long Vacation, were induced to authorize the work without waiting to refer the matter to a general meeting of the Society. It was arranged that the paintings should forthwith be designed and carried out under Rossetti's superintendence. He himself, and other artists whom he should invite to join him, were to be the executants. The Union was to defray the expense of scaffolding and materials, and the travelling and lodging expenses of the artists, who, beyond this, were to give their services for nothing. No sooner was this settled, than Rossetti went straight back to London and issued his orders: Burne-Jones (age 23) and Morris (age 22) were to lay aside all other work and start on the new scheme at once. He had it all planned in his mind. The ten paintings on the walls were to be a series of scenes from the "Morte d' Arthur," and the roof above them was to be covered with a floriated design. For the pidures, ten men had to be found, each of whom should execute one bay, and the work, in the first enthusiasm, was estimated as a matter of six weeks or so. Arthur Hughes (age 24), Spencer Stanhope (age 27), Val Prinsep (age 18), and Hungerford Pollen (age 36), were drawn into the scheme and agreed to take a picture each; Madox Brown (age 35) was also asked to execute one, but declined. Rossetti undertook to do two, or if possible three, himself, and Morris and Burne-Jones were each to do one under his eye and with his guidance : eight or nine of the ten bays were thus accounted for, and the remainder of the space was for the moment left to chance.
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1857. Ford Madox Brown (age 35). "Stages of Cruelty". Models: the artists wife [his wife] Emma Matilda Hill (age 27) and daughter [his illegitimate daughter] Catherine Emily Brown (age 6).
The Diary of George Price Boyce 1855-1857. 6th June 1857. Received from [his future son-in-law] Wm. Rossetti (age 27) circular of the New York Exhibition of British Art. Works to be in readiness by end of August. Augustus Ruxton projector. F. M. Brown (age 36) goes with the things.
Memorials of Edward Burne-Jones 1860. After 9th June 1860. In the unsettled week before his marriage Edward (age 26) had amused himself by painting some figures upon a plain deal sideboard which he possessed, and this in its new state was a delightful surprise to find. "Ladies and animals" he called the subjects illustrated, and there were seven pictures, three on the cupboard doors in front and two at each end, which shewed them in various relations to each other. Three kind and attentive ladies were feeding pigs, parrots and fishes; two cruel ones were tormenting an owl by forcing him to look at himself in a round mirror, and gold fish by draining them dry in a net; while two more were expiating such sins in terror at a hideous newt upon the garden path and the assault of a swarm of angry bees. Mrs. Catherwood gave us a piano, made by Priestly of Berners Street, who had patented a small one of inoffensive shape that we had seen and admired at Madox Brown's (age 39) house; we had ours made of unpolished American walnut, a perfectly plain wood of pleasing colour, so that Edward could paint upon it. The little instrument when opened shows inside the lid a very early design for the "Chant d' Amour," and on the panel beneath the keyboard there is a gilded and lacquered picture of Death, veiled and crowned, standing outside the gate of a garden where a number of girls, unconscious of his approach, are resting and listening to music. The lacquering of this panel was an exciting process, for its colour had to be bedeepened by heat while still liquid, and Edward used a red-hot poker for the work.
On 11th February 1862 at twenty past seven in the morning Elizabeth Siddal (age 32) overdosed on laudanum at 14 Chatham Place. Possibly suicide - there may have been a note that said "look after Harry (her invalid brother)" which Ford Madox Brown (age 40) persuaded Dante Gabriel Rossetti (age 33) to burn. Shortly after her death Sarah Cox aka Fanny Cornforth (age 27) moved into the family home to become housekeeper to Dante Gabriel Rossetti.
William of Worcester's Chronicle of England
William of Worcester, born around 1415, and died around 1482 was secretary to John Fastolf, the renowned soldier of the Hundred Years War, during which time he collected documents, letters, and wrote a record of events. Following their return to England in 1440 William was witness to major events. Twice in his chronicle he uses the first person: 1. when writing about the murder of Thomas, 7th Baron Scales, in 1460, he writes '… and I saw him lying naked in the cemetery near the porch of the church of St. Mary Overie in Southwark …' and 2. describing King Edward IV's entry into London in 1461 he writes '… proclaimed that all the people themselves were to recognize and acknowledge Edward as king. I was present and heard this, and immediately went down with them into the city'. William’s Chronicle is rich in detail. It is the source of much information about the Wars of the Roses, including the term 'Diabolical Marriage' to describe the marriage of Queen Elizabeth Woodville’s brother John’s marriage to Katherine, Dowager Duchess of Norfolk, he aged twenty, she sixty-five or more, and the story about a paper crown being placed in mockery on the severed head of Richard, 3rd Duke of York.
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1867. Dante Gabriel Rossetti (age 38). Drawing of Ford Madox Brown (age 45).
2nd April 1871. Census. 37 Fitzroy Square.
Ford Madox Brown (age 49). Head. 49.
[his wife] Emma Matilda Hill (age 41). Wife. 36.
[his daughter] Emma Lucy Madox Brown (age 27). Daughter. 26.
[his illegitimate daughter] Catherine Emily Brown (age 20). Daughter. 20.
[his son] Oliver Madox Brown (age 16). Son. 16.
Charloote Kirkby. Servant. 29.
Mary Ann Edwards. Servant. 19.
Oliver Madox Brown: In 1855 he was born to Ford Madox Brown and Emma Matilda Hill. In 1874 he died.
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1872. Ford Madox Brown (age 50). "The Convalescent". Model [his wife] Emma Matilda Hill (age 42). When he made this pastel, the artist wrote, "Now that she is lying in bed thinned with the fever she looks very pictorial and young as ever again."
On 3rd September 1872 [his son-in-law] Francis Heuffer (age 27) and [his illegitimate daughter] Catherine Emily Brown (age 21) were married. She the illegitmate daughter of Ford Madox Brown (age 51) and [his wife] Emma Matilda Hill (age 43).
In 1874 [his son] Oliver Madox Brown (age 19) died.
On 31st March 1874 [his son-in-law] William Michael Rossetti (age 44) and [his daughter] Emma Lucy Madox Brown (age 30) were married. She the daughter of Ford Madox Brown (age 52) and [his former wife] Elizabeth Bromley.
On 9th April 1882 Dante Gabriel Rossetti (age 53) died. He was buried at All Saints Church, Birchington on Sea [Map]. There is a Celtic Cross marking his grave commissioned by his mother Frances Mary Lavinia Polidori (age 81), designed by Ford Madox Brown (age 60) and erected in the presence of his brother [his son-in-law] William Michael Rossetti (age 52) and sister Christina Georgina Rossetti (age 51) as written on the base of the cross.
On 11th October 1890 [his wife] Emma Matilda Hill (age 61) died.
5th April 1891. Census. 1 St Edmunds Terrace.
Ford Madox Brown (age 69). Head. Widower.
[his illegitimate daughter] Catherine Heuffer (age 40). Daughter. Widow.
[his grandson] Ford Madox Ford aka Heuffer (age 17). Grandson. 17.
[his grandson] Oliver Madox Heuffer (age 14). Grandson. 15.
[his granddaughter] Juliet Catherine Emma Heuffer (age 10). Granddaughter. 10.
Charlotte Kindy. Servant. 31.
Margaret Mullin. Servant. 23.
Ford Madox Ford aka Heuffer: On 17th December 1873 he was born to Francis Heuffer and Catherine Emily Brown On 26th June 1939 he died.
Oliver Madox Heuffer: In 1877 he was born to Francis Heuffer and Catherine Emily Brown On 22nd June 1931 he died.
Juliet Catherine Emma Heuffer: In 1881 she was born to Francis Heuffer and Catherine Emily Brown In 1944 she died.
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On 6th October 1893 Ford Madox Brown (age 72) died. He was buried at St Pancras and Islington Cemetery.
Henrici Quinti, Angliæ Regis, Gesta, is a first-hand account of the Agincourt Campaign, and subsequent events to his death in 1422. The author of the first part was a Chaplain in King Henry's retinue who was present from King Henry's departure at Southampton in 1415, at the siege of Harfleur, the battle of Agincourt, and the celebrations on King Henry's return to London. The second part, by another writer, relates the events that took place including the negotiations at Troye, Henry's marriage and his death in 1422.
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Diary of Ford Madox Brown. The Diary of Ford Madox Brown edited by Virginia Surtees. Published in 1981.
GrandFather: John Brown
Father: Ford Brown
GrandFather: Unknown Brown
Mother: Caroline Madox