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0c32d0d
|
I am a woman who makes things happen, and I am not defeated yet. I am not defeated by a boy with a newly won crown, and no man will ever walk away from me certain that he won't walk back.
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Philippa Gregory |
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b9ad71a
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I don't know how much we will rise," I say stoutly. "And I have no fear of falling. He looks at me. "You are ambitious to rise?" "We are all on fortune's wheel," I say. "Without a doubt we will rise. We may fall. But still I have no fear of it."
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the-lady-of-the-rivers
wheel-of-fortune
the-cousins-war
philippa-gregory
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Philippa Gregory |
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bf5efb1
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Dear god, I am only twenty seven, my cause is defeated, my husband is dead. am I to be one of the poor widows who will spend the rest of their days at someone else`s fireside trying to be a good guest? shall I never be kissed again? shall I never feel joy? not ever again?
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Philippa Gregory |
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fbe8ed1
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I have seen statues that would look stodgy beside her, I have seen painted Madonnas whose features would be coarse beside her pale luminous loveliness.
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madonna
queen
statues
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Philippa Gregory |
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75ca48c
|
I do think your brother grows more peculiar every day,' I complain to Edward when he comes to my rooms in Whitehall Palace to escort me to dinner. 'Which one?' he asks lazily. 'For you know I can do nothing right in the eyes of either. You would think they would be glad to have a York on the throne and peace in Christendom, and one of the finest Christmas feasts we have ever arranged; but no: Richard is leaving court to go back north as soo..
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Philippa Gregory |
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504953b
|
He has lost his print upon the earth; he has lost any fire.
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Philippa Gregory |
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766e50d
|
And what about Edward, is he still alive?' 'I don't know... I pray God he is.' 'But you don't expect him anymore?' 'No... If Edward is alive then I pray God he will find his way to me. And there will always be a candle in the window to light his way home, and my door will never be locked in case one day it is his hand on the latch.
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Philippa Gregory |
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9642159
|
He is a young man with a future of power and opportunity and we are young women destined to be either wives and mothers at the very best, or spinster parasites at the worst.
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women
spinsters
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Philippa Gregory |
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b9a596f
|
I am so tired; all I want to do is sleep. I want to sleep all the day, from dawn until twilight that every evening comes a little earlier and a little more drearily. In the daytime, all I can think about is sleeping. But in the night I do is try to stay awake.
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Philippa Gregory |
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6ceda67
|
I sit on the bed and kick off my shoes, and he kneels before me and takes the riding boots, holding one open for my bare foot. I hesitate; it is such an intimate gesture between a young woman and a man. His smiling upward glance tells me that he understands my hesitation but is ignoring it. I point my toe and he holds the boot, I slide my foot in and he pulls the boot over my calf. He takes the soft leather ties and fastens the boot, at my ..
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love
marriage-proposal
richard-iii
touching
intimacy
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Philippa Gregory |
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bdc260f
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God does not make the way smooth for those He loves. He sends hardships to try them. Those that God loves the best are those who suffer the worst.
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Philippa Gregory |
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0f5e255
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We stand hand-clasped, our faces quite blank, as if this were not a nightmare that tells me, as clearly as if it were written in letters of fire, what ending a girl may expect if she defies the rules of men and thinks she can make her own destiny. I am here not only to witness what happens to a heretic. I am here to witness what happens to a woman who thinks she knows more than men.
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women-s-rights
history
fear
religion
witchhunt
oppression
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Philippa Gregory |
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cde1dae
|
Poor little girl. Poor little girl," Nan says, and at first I think she is speaking of the baby, perhaps it is a girl after all. But then I realize she is speaking of me, a girl of thirteen years, whose own mother has said that they can let her die as long as a son and heir is born."
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history
women
life
personhood
|
Philippa Gregory |
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50254f1
|
In a shipwreck, it is every drowning man for himself.
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|
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Philippa Gregory |
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d5338b3
|
I will make my own future, not predict it. I don't need a charm to tell me what I hope will happen. I throw the gold charm which is like a wedding ring up in the air and catch it before it falls. This is my choice. I don't need magic to reveal my desire. The enchantment is already done: I am in love; I am sworn to a man of earth; I am not going to give this man up. All I have to do is consider how we can stay together.
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Philippa Gregory |
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ad9deb7
|
But I want to be loved. I have always been loved. I want my husband to love me with a passion, like in a troubadour tale, like a knight.
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margaret-of-anjou
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Philippa Gregory |
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88cf6a0
|
Knowing that you do not know is to ask humbly, instead of tell arrogantly. That is the beginning of wisdom.
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|
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Philippa Gregory |
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a179921
|
With this contradictory parentage of mine: solid English earth and French water goddess, one could expect anything from me. An enchantress or an ordinary girl. There are some who will say I am both.
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Philippa Gregory |
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31fc8d5
|
I won't forgive this wrong done to me and my house, whoever it was that killed my boys, I shall put a curse on their house that they will have no first born son to inherit. Whoever took my son will lose his son. He will spend his life longing for an heir. He will bury his first born and long for him, for I cannot even bury mine.
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Philippa Gregory |
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007efbd
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Jane would be the next queen and her children, when she had them, would be the next princes or princesses. Or she might wait, as the other queens had waited, every month, desperate to know that she had conceived, knowing each month that it did not happen that Henry's love wore a little thinner, that his patience grew a little shorter. Or Anne's curse of death in childbed, and death to her son, might come true. I did not envy Jane Seymour. I..
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henry-viii
|
Philippa Gregory |
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60428e5
|
My honour and my pride are in my heart, and not in what the world says.
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Philippa Gregory |
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6c98104
|
I wil not heat treason from my own daughter
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woodville
elizabeth
plantagenet
fight
|
Philippa Gregory |
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8149bcf
|
You're not cursed daughter, you are the finest and rarest of all my children, the most beautiful, the most beloved. You know that. What curse could stick to you?' The gaze she turns on me is darkened with horror as if she has seen her own death. 'You will never surrender, you will never let us be. Your ambition will be the death of my brothers, and when they are dead you will put me on the throne. You would rather have the throne than your ..
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|
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Philippa Gregory |
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7a82aea
|
Have you ever wondered, Anne, in your untiring dance of seduction, whether you might not be dancing to Henry's tune instead of your own? I know how clever you are. How enticing. People whisper the word "witch" whenever you smile at him. But which of you is pale and hollow-eyed from too many scheming, sleepless nights? Which of you is growing more feverish day by day? Which of you is truly bewitched, Anne?"
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seduction-strategy
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Philippa Gregory |
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b779264
|
My mother? My own mother told my lady governess that if the baby and I were in danger then they should save the baby.
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history
women
life
personhood
|
Philippa Gregory |
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56afe5c
|
And then the sword came down like a flash of lightning, and then her head was off her body and the long rivalry between me and the other Boleyn girl was over.
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|
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Philippa Gregory |
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10327dd
|
If it was not in your interests to betray me then you would have been loyal.
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|
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Philippa Gregory |
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3b8680b
|
I told you, I don't want you riding with me." "Which is why I waited," Frieze explained patiently. "To see what direction you were going in, so that I could make sure I took the opposite one. but of course, there may be wolves, or thieves, highwaymen or brigands, so I don't mind your company for the first hour or so."
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luca
|
Philippa Gregory |
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5dc8c39
|
They arouse in themselves a wild vicious hunger more like animals than men. I did not know that war was like this.
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Philippa Gregory |
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aae6673
|
He must desire the scent of the smoke of their sacrifice.
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|
|
Philippa Gregory |
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90ec40b
|
I had never seen a woman in such despair before. It was worse than death, it was a constant longing for death and a constant rejection of life. She lived like darkness in her own day.
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|
despair
|
Philippa Gregory |
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0f2fb21
|
I cannot know what the future will bring us," he says in a rapid undertone. "I cannot know where you will be given in marriage, nor what life might hold for me. But I can't let you go without telling you--without telling you at least once--that I love you." --
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Philippa Gregory |
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c4462a6
|
Say yes,' he whispers. 'Marry me.' I hesitate. I open my eyes. 'You will get my fortune,' I remark. 'When I marry you, everything I have becomes yours. Just as George has everything that belongs to Isabel.' 'That's why you can trust me to win it for you,' he says simply. 'When your interests and mine are the same, you can be certain that I will care for you as for myself. You will be my own. You will find that I care for my own.' 'You will ..
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marriage
trust
love
equality-between-partners
husband-and-wife
richard-iii
loyalty
|
Philippa Gregory |
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af73347
|
I think it is unkind of me to stand there with my hands by my sides and a frown on my face. But I let him go without a blown kiss, without a blessing, without a command to come back safely. I let him go without a word or a gesture of love, for he is going out to fight for my enemy and so he is my enemy now.
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|
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Philippa Gregory |
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b0344c6
|
A troubadour to a distant mistress.
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|
margaret-beaufort
|
Philippa Gregory |
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40c43a3
|
What better way could they spend the last days of the world, than falling in love?
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|
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Philippa Gregory |
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8c66912
|
I am sorry for you. And I am sorry for me. When you are sent back to me, perhaps a month from now, perhaps a year, I will try to remember this day, and you looking like a child, a little lost among all these clothes. I will try to remember that you were innocent of any plotting; that today at least, you were more a girl than a Boleyn.
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Philippa Gregory |
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d64778d
|
I have overturned the order. Nothing will ever be the same for any woman in this country again.
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Philippa Gregory |
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f8a63e8
|
Another husband, another new house, another new country, but I never belong anywhere and I never own anything in my own right.
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|
women
|
Philippa Gregory |
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b536daa
|
Mother, before God," I say, my voice shaking with tears, "I swear that I have to believe that there is more for me in life than being wife to one man after another, and hoping not to die in childbirth!"
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women
personhood
|
Philippa Gregory |
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5a29f0c
|
The baby should always be saved in preference to the mother. That is the advice of the Holy Church, you know that. I was only reminding women of their duty. There is no need to make everything so personal, Margaret. You make everything into your own tragedy.
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women
religion
personhood
|
Philippa Gregory |
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659c458
|
A parcel--taken from one place to another, handed from one owner to another, unwrapped and bundled up at will--is all that I am. A vessel, for the bearing of sons, for one nobleman or another: it hardly matters who.
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|
women
personhood
|
Philippa Gregory |
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71c9ec4
|
Life is long, and if a woman survives, she can take her pleasures one way or another.
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|
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Philippa Gregory |
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0c2a37c
|
We will have to cut our coats to suit our cloth, and wait and see.
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Philippa Gregory |