The modern cult of celebrity is really just an ignoral, or ignorance, of history
When I was a child my heroines were all historical figures.
Elizabeth (soon to be) the First.
Florence Nightingale. Marie Curie. Mary Slessor. Violet Szabo
Who do todays young girls admire or want to emulate?
Nevertheless, who are the figures we most remember from history?
For 6 years this woman, Anne Boleyn, neither very beautiful, nor very intelligent, nor very virtuous, brought up in the lax morality of the French & English courts, her brother a libertine, her sister the Kings cast off mistress, none of her nearest relatives, not even her mother, free from the impeachment of scandal, had managed to defend her technical honour against the Kings assaults while living, during most of that time, unprotected in his household, constantly in his company, & publicly believed to be his mistress
Garrett Mattingly: Catherine of Aragon
In Britain we have witnessed in the stories of the collapse of royal marriages the emotional investment we make in our own fairy tales, & at the same time have been made sharply conscious of the power of scandal & gossip
David Lindley: The Trials of Frances Howard: Fact & Fiction at the Court of King James
