KING JAMES I ON MARRIAGE. Good advice to his son.

• Be careful whom you choose as your wife, because marriage is the greatest earthly felicity or misery that can come to a man.
• Keep your body clean and unpolluted till ye give it to your wife.
• And remember the triple purpose of marriage: for staying of lust, for procreation of children…and to get a helper.
• Make sure she is not subject to hereditary sicknesses either of the soul or the body. After all, you are particular about breeding horses, how much more careful should you be for the breed of your own loins.
• Love your wife, but rule her as your pupil and teach her not to be curious in things that belong her not.  For example,
• Suffer her never to meddle with the politic government.
• And finally: make sure she keeps good company, for women are the frailest sex.

(Source, James I, Basilikon Doron, 1599)

EARLY MODERN HACKING? King James’ advice leaked to the public.

You think it’s hard to keep anything private in the age of hacking and phone tapping? Well, if it’s any comfort to you, King James I (1566-1625) couldn’t keep his private notes private either. He thought it no ways convenient that the public should know about them.

Then why did he have them printed?  The printer was sworn to secrecy, he says. And only 7 copies were in circulation.

Well, that was 7 too many. Naturally the contents were leaked to the public.

So what did James say in this top secret document meant only for his son’s eyes?

First, he had some political advice, such as

• [God] made you a little god to sit on his throne and rule over other men.
• Of course even little gods can make mistakes: I grant we have all our faults. Just keep them betwixt you and God and don’t ever talk about them to anyone else.
• Don’t be too merciful at the beginning of your reign or the offences would soon come in heaps and the contempt of you grow.
• And absolutely never pardon witchcraft, willful murder, incest, sodomy, poisoning, and false coin.

Next blog: James' advice concerning marriage.
(Source, James I, Basilikon Doron, 1599)

XTREME WRESTLING IN THE RENAISSANCE.

Luigi “Rodomonte” Gonzaga (d.1532) was celebrated by the poet Girolamo Muzio as a man who could cast the great stone and raise the mighty bar, whose wrestling none could resist.

• He had hands so strong he could break a horseshoe or tear a cord asunder. He was able to throw an iron ball others could not even lift and leap across the castle moat where it was 24 feet wide.
• In a bout against a gigantic and terrible Moor, Luigi, that most Christian champion, won a triumph reminiscent of David’s fight against Goliath. With the most marvelous skill and courage our young champion seized his mighty foe and seven times, one after the other, cast him down on to the breast of his mother earth.
• On a visit to England he engaged in a single-handed contest with a wild boar.
• He served as a mercenary captain in a number of wars and yielded in battle only in the belief that this is more honour and glory than to sacrifice his people and himself.
• His reward was the hand of Isabella Colonna who had been destined for another, but thought that this hero who saved our lives and lands had the greater claim on her. The marriage made Luigi Duke of Trajetto and Count of Fondi. He did not enjoy these titles for very long, however. A year later he died in the siege of Ancona. The poet Ludovico Ariosto called him the great glory of Italy, a terror to his foes… a man of strong heart and wise counsel who feared no danger and welcomed a noble death.

The funeral procession passed through the streets of Fondi and reached the Cathedral porch, with banners of conquered foes trailing in the dust… Isabella knelt during the last sad rites, clasping the orphan babe Vespasiano in her arms.

No, forget that last sentence. Christopher Hare, whom I’m quoting here, asks the indulgence of all the serious students of scientific history if I pass for a time into the realms of “Historical Romance” in my earnest endeavor to recreate the atmosphere.

THE GRIM AND GRUESOME PIETY OF LUISA DE CARVAJAL Y MENDOZA (1566-1614).

From her autobiography describing her childhood and adolescence:

My governess taught me to behave very chastely…She would not let me sleep on my left side, so no harmful fluid would flow straight to the heart. And she would make me cross my arms over my chest in the form of a cross. Then, pulling my nightgown to my feet, she folded it between my knees. In the summer she stitched the bed sheets together on both sides, for my health and my modesty.

She did not allow me to take any book in hand that was not religious…or to remain where romances of chivalry, love stories, and vain fictions were read.

My cousin enjoyed playing with dolls, but I did not have the temperament for it…I preferred to play grown-up ladies and nuns, which was our usual game…and we would sing psalms.

My uncle had given me a whip made from white silk, very unusual and delicate, recommending that I flagellate myself.  Since I found it too soft, I added a silver thistle.

 

Because the whipping left me with open wounds, I placed a thin folded towel on my back so the blood would not stain my blouse...My back became abscessed...I had to seek help from a servant. She tried to remove the towel, but could not do it without taking large pieces of flesh with it...I gritted my teeth and tightened my fists.

I was vigilant in words and actions in matters of chastity. I never wore a low-cut bodice or short sleeves.

 

It was my custom to wear a hair shirt of bristles whenever my uncle ordered me to,…at other times I would do so on my own. During Lent, I wore it three days a week.

At the age of thirty-nine, Luisa left her native Spain for England to convert Anglicans to Catholicism. Her “insurrectional acts” were not tolerated in London. She was arrested and died in prison.

(Source: Anne J. Cruz, The Life and Writings of Luisa de Carvajal y Mendoza; image from 2.bp.blogspot.com)

NO, NOT THAT AUSTEN. Katherine Austen ponders the world.

From the notebook of Katherine Austen (1628-1683):

• Angels: were made for the service and assistance of Man.
• Widowhood: Let me consider whether it is not possible to be happy without a second marriage. Apparently it was possible.
• What her son Thomas learned at Oxford: pride and unmannerliness. Sad to say, you now have to send your sons abroad to learn civility and sweetness of deportment.
• Young men: are guided by irregular passions and desires and folly.
• Ignorant men: are worse than beasts. It is the beast’s nature to be ignorant. It is man’s fault if he be so.
• The problem with pleasure: it’s hard to keep it to the height.
• The secret of her grandparents’ longevity:  They didn’t go to the gym. They exercised little, went at a subtle pace…and did no violence to nature by overstirring.

(Source: Pamela Hammons ed., Book M: A London Widow’s Life Writings)