I wrote my first Catherine of Braganza post about a decade ago. In it, I expressed how a certain painting of her cracked me up.
“Catherine was bold enough to remind them [mistresses of the King] she was the only one who held the title of queen.
For example, look closely at this portrait.
An accident? It’s almost as if she’s pointing at the crown. Time went on, and most of her portraits included the crown and sovereign orb.”
That painting was still in my mind when doing the collage book. I decided the crown needed to be bigger and more visible.
(Plus the late Elizabeth II’s philosophy about being seen is applicable.)
I hope Catherine wouldn’t mind me adding some sparkly nail polish to her dress and drawing the crown and orb bigger that also includes sparkling jewelry and lace trimming tape. Part of the image she and her advisors stressed was she’s someone who didn’t care about glitzy stuff. But maybe this art work would make it super, SUPER clear that the sitter was truly the top royal woman.
Henrietta Maria, Catherine’s mother-in-law, was a very valuable mentor to Catherine. The Dowager Queen gave tips on how to handle situations with her son and how to throw get togethers.
MOM
Luisa Guzman was sly and knew how to motivate her husband to fight for the Portuguese crown. She was more than just a duchess! She even used a tiny Catherine to persuade him. According to Lillias Campbell Davidson’s biography on Catherine, Luisa hinted how wonderful it would be for their daughter if their family had the crown at two-year Catherine’s birthday party. Then Luisa was clearer when she physically presented Catherine to him. After Luisa got Catherine to kiss him, she’s quoting as asking:
“How can you find it in your heart to refuse to confer on this child the rank of a king’s daughter?”
When it came to the dangers of seeking a crown, she also said something else super important. Her famous quote was something that deserved to be a poster on Catherine’s wall:
How aware was Catherine aware of her mom’s statement I don’t know. But Luisa conducted herself with the attitude behind this quote. I believe her mom’s attitude to fight for her crown did make an impression on her.
The pages that explore personal sacrifice were a tad bit emotional for me. The top left picture shows Portugal’s grand send off of their infanta to England to become England’s Queen. (I think the artist is Dirk Stoop?) It’s a celebratory moment, but a young woman is still leaving the home she loves.
She was a sacrifice. That’s why the bottom picture is Josefa de Obidos’ painting, The Sacrificial Lamb. (More background on that painting in a future post.)
The right page is an illustration by W. Heath Robinson (1872-1844). (His actual painting is more vibrant, but my printer had low ink levels!)
Thoughts about Beauty and the Beast and Music
The Beauty and the Beast with the familiar French story motifs came into existence in 1740 by Gabrielle Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve, and then an abridged version by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont was published in 1756. But similar fairytale stores stories existed long before the 18th century.
The woman given to a man she never met before is “a tale as old as time” that is actually a straight up fact more than a cliche.
I’ve concluded that these tales have been around for thousands of years not only because the magical and romantic appeal, but because they served an educational purpose: to prepare their daughters to marry strangers for the sake of the family. And for the sake of lands, kingdoms, and countless people who were depending on the marriage for their lives. And I hope the sons listened carefully-make sure you treat your wife kindly, or you might be in danger of losing your life!
I’m not sure if Catherine or Charles heard of these types of tales, but I crazy speculate that if she heard the Broadway soundtrack of Beauty and the Beast, she would have turned up the volume of “Home” (a defiant song Belle sings after she becomes the Beast’s prisoner). Catherine was forced to accept her husband’s mistresses. In the very early days of the marriage, she loudly fought against it. I could see her blasting the song then-and maybe here and there throughout the royal union.
After a twenty-three marriage that included an apology to her from Charles on his deathbed, Catherine wanted to return to her homeland of Portugal. She got her wish seven years later.
This is where I really get speculative:
So the fluff of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast musical and two popular movies crosses my mind at Catherine going back home. The Beast/Charles experience loss and regret.
But getting back to the more serious (but still a little speculative) stuff….
I imagine that freeing Catherine was the best thing Charles could do for her—and he had to help out with that from heaven. Hopefully, he realized that Catherine—in my humble opinion—was the best thing that ever happened to him.
A lot of Catherine’s youth hasn’t been revealed/pieced together that well. It makes me frustrated anyway, but maybe if complied properly, she could have had her own book in The Royal Diaries series.
The next best thing for me was making her a stereotypical teenage, scrapbook type collage.
The biggest thing to stand out is a “speculative” banner that she would have held at a game that says, “LET’S GO WYVERNS.” The wyvern is the mascot of the Braganza House. Family/school spirit!
The busy collage includes possible pics of herself and modern concerts, Portuguese instruments, a modern title page of one of her dad’s musical compilations, and a mysterious and handsome man.
That man was Prince Rupert-a scandalous, handsome pirate, and a cousin to the future Charles II. Prince Rupert was at first welcomed and popular court of the court of King John (Catherine’s dad) but soon became a liability. He would have been a fun character in a fictional royal diary!
Catherine’s “Princess” Moment
I came across a pic that’s identified as Catherine as a young woman.
Portrait of D. Catarina de Bragança, Queen of England and Infanta de Portugal “Painting of Catherine of Braganza, Queen of England and Infanta of Portugal, outside the Royal Pantheon of the House of Braganza, in the Monastery of Saint Vincent Outside the Walls, Lisbon, Portugal.”
Beautiful, but I had to change it.
Originally, I wanted to leave it as is, but I couldn’t tell what was her hair or the background. It drove me crazy. I tried to adjust the lighting of a copy but no deal.
Still, I wanted to use it because it’s so pretty! My modern eyes see it as a being equivalent to a high school senior picture. Maybe it’s her before a homecoming dance or crowned Prom Queen.
So with nail polish, I hope I depicted an appropriate princess moment of the future queen of England.
The Portuguese Princess has landed! The King’s new consort!
England has a new queen-and bride!!!
Citizens were excited to know what she looked like. And many then-like now-were curious and love a royal wedding!
If you were close enough to witness the cute bride, you were gifted a bow from the bride’s wedding dress. What a wedding favor! (And a bit weird.)
Too bad for the country’s subjects (and the international wanna be viewers) that TV wasn’t invented yet to feel like you’re part of the wedding festivities!
Though the new queen wasn’t the best looking in the room, she wasn’t ugly. I think she’s pretty, and the early pics of her in England are adorable!
While I believe she was in a general a good person, her looks led some to underestimate her. A secret weapon.
Throughout the collage book, I gave insight about the propaganda that was useful to Catherine.
One thing that was involved in that propaganda-to her benefit and others’-were her angelic looks.
My own belief is she continued to use her puppy dog eyes to sometimes manipulate and placate the King-especially when she was is in danger.
I speculate all the time what these biographical subjects would like or how they feel. I can’t stand to read a lot of that fluff though, but I thought I’d get out all my fluff in a book…
A glue book!
Or scrapbook…collage book?
Whatever type of book I put together is, it’s part of a genre I call speculative bio.
This book’s official title is called, Catherine’s Collage Collection: The Life of a 17th Century Queen.
The front and back:
The literal base of the book is a composition book. The page trimmings I included were mainly lace, pearl, Washi and beads tapes. I used some scrapbook paper here and there. I’d include some stickers, very few magazines clippings, but I printed off the majority of the pictures myself. (SO many talented artists!)
The book can close thanks to velvet headbands with bows I attached to it. I also added pearl clips and bobby pins. These hair decorations were reflective as the types of outfits the Queen wore (the lace tape is also a callback to Catherine’s outfits, but that stuff was more pricey than the dollar store classy hair accessories!)
I expressed to a friend I probably have all my thoughts and speculations wrong. She pointed out that whatever the case, she was sure the Queen would appreciate the project.
So hopefully the 17th century Queen would enjoy it-and notice that I mindfully didn’t include flower embellishments. Too bad because I love flowers. Though Catherine of Braganza portraits feature flowers, she didn’t always appreciate them. I heard something about how her husband gave bouquets to his girlfriends, and flowers gave her some sort of PTSD. One could hardly blame her.
Though reading about that and her other trials make me so depress, putting together this book was a good antidote. It was actually both really fun and spiritual.
While I did this collage book for and of Queen Catherine, I got the feeling that things worked out for her.
As I was going through some old school assignments and art projects, I found an essay from my sophomore of high school on Auschwitz. Two decades ago. In the paper, I mentioned that there were no rebellions in the camp. I’ve learned in recent years, that couldn’t be further from the truth! I’ve learned there were many ways people rebelled in Auschwitz and other Nazi camps.
Very recently, I learned about Polish ballerina Franceska Mann (born Franceska Manheimer-Rosenberg) who was a rising star who got deported from the Warsaw Ghetto.
There are reports of whether she was involved in rebellions helping or betraying her fellow Jews before being deported. What seems to be more clear is that she ended up arriving at Aushwitz on October 23, 1943 on a passenger train.
I was surprised to learn that Mann wasn’t saved for a while longer at the camps. She was beautiful and a little bit of a celebrity. Instead, she and and perhaps 100 other women (depending on account) were sent to the gas chambers.
Again, the story gets a little blurred, but there was some sort of riot that these women started. Here is the most famous one:
Franceska noticed the guards were watching her undress. While the guards were in a trance, she struck a guard’s forehead hard with her Stiletto.
She grabbed his gun and shot two guards. She killed Joseph Schillinger and wounded Wilhelm Emmerich, who walked with a limp the rest of his life.
Franceska’s actions caused the other women to fight the guards. The revolt was shut down, and the women were killed. The details aren’t too clear as there were few surviving witnesses. The main story is that there was a women revolt, and two guards were shot. There was a rebellion which inspired prisoners. She has also inspired art—and even a ballet.
The story of Franceska Mann and the other women uprising is one of the many stories about Jews who fought back, and who didn’t go to their fates as lambs to the slaughter.
I’m embarrassed and sorry with how long I’ve been gone. After a leave of absence, I came to the realization that I need certain people. Those people include you-the reader-and the people mentioned on this site.
And I hope one contribution can be a sort of museum or display. I already have wonderful art I commissioned and received from talented artists.
Now, I can’t compete with the cool history blogs out there, but I hope to contribute to your interests.
Overall, I hope to learn more and then share what I learn about our friends from the past.
I was thinking of Elizabeth Barrett Browning last night. It’s probably because as she got older as a single maid, she got more ill, but she managed to go on with her work and eventually found true love. I wrote her a note last night/this morning. I decided just to do a little research and read she was born March 6!
So of course, I’ll have to include that birthday note to her!
I still can’t believe it! I was writing today thinking I should post my note, and I was determined after I discovered it was Mrs. Browning’s birthday!
Letter
EBB~
Elizabeth Barrett Browning-I keep you in mind as I age. Maybe when I’m 40, I’ll be married, but if not, what can I do? I’m not married yet or have your talent, and so it’s depressing. You had a lot going for you, but I bet it was hard. I have spinal and head problems myself. Perhaps I’m…of what was I going to say? No, I won’t ever know your genius or exact pain, but somehow you give me inspiration and my heart reaches out to you because you triumphed when it came to love. No one ever could have predicted what you ended up doing–eloping with such a seemingly eccentric poet. Maybe your husband eloping with someone–but not you! It’s cool that he took a chance on a 35-plus-year-old woman.
Birthday wishes,
~A 35+ woman
P.S. Upon further research, I’ve discovered just how much you fought for causes with all you had. So it’s not surprising that when you found the one, you went for it.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning and her husband, Robert Browning
Further Thoughts
I noticed I lost my thoughts in the middle of the letter. I really might be getting senile.
Anyway, I don’t have enough thoughts presently to even write a poem, but hopefully Elizabeth Barrett Browning would think this post is good enough.
Happy birthday, Mrs. Browning!
Images
Birthday cake image from pixabay.com, public domain.
Photograph of EBB and Robert Browning, public domain.
Engraving EBB, engraved by Thomas Oldhan Brown, public domain.
