The Youth Release Form. - St. Mary&Amp;Amp;#39;S Food Bank Alliance: Fill & Download for Free

Philip was in an impossible position. When we discuss arranged marriages among royalty, the emphasis is often on the woman’s experience, because usually the roles were reversed - a beautiful young princess married off to an elderly husband, like Mary Tudor’s short marriage to Louis XII of France. In this case, it was a young prince married off to an older woman…. and history has tended to be cruel to Mary in a way it rarely is to male monarchs.Philip had always referred to Queen Mary as his “aunt,” lacking a better nomenclature for his father’s cousin. Now, he was being asked to marry her. He was generally regarded as handsome (except for that unfortunate jawline!) and was in the height of his youth and vitality. Mary was nearing 40, far past the age in which a woman was considered to be in her prime. She was still thought to be fertile because she still menstruated, and so Philip would be expected to try to father an heir with her.If gossip is to be believed, he wasn’t impressed with his bride when he met her, thinking she looked older than had been reported and was “flabby.” He also thought her taste in clothing was execrable. She sent him a doublet to wear to a banquet after their wedding and he simply tucked it into his clothing inventory. Mary was too polite to ask him about it, but she must have been hurt. Years later, it was still recorded as being in his inventory, and he made a note beside it saying he didn’t think he’d ever worn it because to him, it seemed “ornate.”He tried to be polite and courteous to her, but he wasn’t interested in the kind of relationship Mary wanted. She was hoping for a loving match, as she remembered her parents’ union being before Anne Boleyn had come along and “stolen” her father away.History has tended to snigger cruelly about Mary’s uxoriousness as the lustiness of an elderly woman salivating over a handsome young man, but her desires were certainly understandable. After a lifetime of loneliness and lack of love, she wanted a husband and family of her own upon which she could lavish her affections.Philip, who saw this as a semi-temporary business arrangement, had to be uncomfortable, but he tried to treat her with courtesy and respect. But he must have breathed a sigh of relief when Mary believed herself to be pregnant shortly after the wedding. He had done his duty. He had to remain until the child was born in case she died and their claim on the kingdom needed to be secured, but he’d be able to return to the Continent soon.But despite showing every physical symptom of pregnancy, the due date came and passed with no child. Doctors pushed back the delivery date again and again, but the queen showed no signs of going into labor. Her belly began to deflate. It was a long while before she could be convinced to accept that no baby was coming. Today, it’s believed she had a tumor pressing on one of her ovaries, stimulating the release of hormones that emulated pregnancy, but in that era — and in some histories up to the modern era — Mary’s pregnancy has been labeled as “hysterical,” brought on by her intense longing for a child. And, during the era, there were those who hinted that Mary may have faked the whole thing.What Philip himself believed is unknown, but he departed for the Continent after that. Mary sent him pleading, tear-stained letters, begging for him to return, but he kept delaying. First it was because he needed to make preparations for his father’s abdication, and then it was because he needed to travel his kingdom and win over his people. He only returned for one more visit to his wife. During this visit, Philip brought with him Christina of Denmark Dowager Duchess of Milan and Lorraine, who was rumored to be his mistress, or at least a woman in which he had a romantic interest. Little information is recorded about the visit, but it’s thought Christina was politely handed her hat due to Mary’s displeasure.After that visit, she thought herself pregnant again, but Philip didn’t wait around to see if she had been correct.In all, it was a sad situation. Mary thought that the marriage would finally bring her the happiness she’d longed for since the late 1520s when her whole world had been shattered by the Great Matter. But it was not to be. She died, abandoned by most of her court, in St. James Palace, in November of 1558. Philip wrote when he heard that he felt “reasonable regret” for her death.

I nominate Count Alan Rufus of the sovereign house of Brittany, a quiet achiever who was William the Conqueror's double-second cousin and himself a first cousin once removed of King Edward the Confessor.What did Alan do? Just a few examples.He likely saved the prone Duke William's life from Earl Gyrth during the battle of Hastings, as William gave himself 28 of Gyrth's manors and another 28 to Alan. As the Commander of the Norman Rearguard and brother of Count Brian who led the Breton contingent in the army's West Wing, Alan probably coordinated the feints and cavalry manoeuvres that weakened Harold's shield wall. Somehow in the midst of the turmoil and fury of mutual slaughter, he captured and thus rescued Almer, one of the royal thanes serving both Gyrth and Leofwine.Breaking news: the Bayeux Tapestry prominently displays the scene where Alan confronts Gyrth, in the presence of a royal thegn (possibly Almaer). Alan's mount gets the worst of the encounter, an axe between the ears. It also shows Lord William de Braose about to stab Gyrth in the back with his sword, as the thegn tries to give warning. (Braose was rewarded with Gyrth's most valuable manor, Washington in Sussex.)Alan, incidentally, occurs in several other roles on the BT, ranging from Hakon’s guard to one of William's messengers to Ponthieu (Turold is holding the reins to Alan's horse, a black stallion, the same poor charger that would die at Hastings), and even as a red fox (a rebus for his name) mourning King Edward. He's also the “pointing man” in two scenes with Odo of Bayeux (a witness in his youth of a charter by Alan's father Eudon I of Brittany), namely the infamous Oath by Earl Harold and the Norman Last Supper before Hastings.In every rebellion from 1066 to 1088, Alan was loyal and in the forefront of the action, crushing the rebel armies. Yet he unfailingly urged leniency and forgiveness for those involved.He abolished the Danelaw and reformed (and moderated) the tax system. Wherever he could, he protected the English from oppression, going so far as to ban Normans from his lands in North Yorkshire, where he promoted the English to high rank alongside his own family and friends.Alan led, fed, clothed and paid, the royal household knights when the King abandoned them in a makeshift fort (Camp Beugy) in the midst of hostile territory outside the impregnable walls of Sainte Suzanne Castle in Maine for three years (1083-1085), fending off attacks by all the greatest knights of France who'd travelled from Aquitaine, Burgundy and all points between to prove their mettle against them.He founded Richmond and Middleham Castles, St Mary's Abbey in York (preceded by a successful effort to make the Conqueror say sorry to the City of York), and the great port of Boston in Lincolnshire. He was learned and well-versed in law.The largest landowner in Cambridgeshire, he held most of Eadgifu the Fair's former lands. Eadgifu is thought by many historians to be Edith "Swannesha" ("Gentle-Swan"), King Harold Godwinson's discarded but still loyal first wife who alone could identify his body on the battlefield, though she might instead have been Earl Gyrth's wife - or his older sister known to have had that name.Alan was a Lord of the town of Cambridge, and the University of Cambridge's coat-of-arms bears an ermine cross, representing Brittany. One story is that Alan founded a seminary in the town, later forming part of the University.He was a prime mover and implementer of the Domesday Survey and Domesday Books - he was one of the top few counsellors at the meeting that planned it, his name is prominent in all but one of the surviving texts, several of its early documents (the Cambridgeshire and Ely surveys and Little Domesday) are primarily about his landholdings and those of his followers, the explanations of the purposes and methods of the survey are found close to his name, he was probably a Commissioner (likely on the south-west circuit and the Exeter survey, the one exception mentioned above), many of the leaders of the survey were particularly close associates of Alan's, and the scribe who wrote most of Great Domesday worked for the Bishop of Durham with whom Alan's brother Richard had been a Canon at Bayeux.When the Conqueror lay dying, he entrusted the safety of his son William II to Alan's wisdom and care. In 1088, when the greatest and most of the Norman barons rebelled against the new king, Alan allied with the English to defeat the rebels comprehensively on land, while the Norman advance fleet was destroyed in the Channel. (Just imagine how different history would have been had Harold recruited Alan, or if Alan's indomitable father Eudon, the Confessor's surviving first cousin, had been chosen by the Witan to be King of England.) In the clamour to execute the ringleader and depose the other participants, Alan, though himself a prime target of the rebellion and a main beneficiary of the victory over it, persuaded the King to be clement, sparing Odo's life and pardoning the others.His first instinct was to protect, whatever the risk to himself: for instance, despite being the chief arresting officer, he faced down the wrath of the King and the entire royal court of England in the Bishop of Durham's treason trial and personally escorted the Bishop everywhere to ensure his safety.Alan made good use of St Calais’s persuasive talents by sending him into exile in Normandy as a kind of 1088 Christmas present to the Duke. To all appearances an ally of Odo’s, once in Rouen, St Calais found clever arguments to oppose Odo's plans and thus paralyse the duchy’s government.For the next two years, Alan built an army of Bretons and Englishmen so powerful that after it landed in Upper Normandy in early February 1091 the Duchy surrendered without a fight. The French King was so alarmed that he summoned the French Pope, Odo of Chatillon, known to history as Urban II, to intercede.According to Christopher Clarkson (1821), Alan persuaded William II to assemble the first "High Court of Parliament" (under that very name) in 1089, at York which is why Westminster doesn't know about it.Alan died on 4 August 1093, quite possibly in that year's London fire: his epitaph uses "cineratur" ("turned to ash") to describe his death.He was gentle and beloved of the ladies of the court: Queen Matilda greatly favoured him, William I's sister Adelaide held lands beside his in both Normandy and England, and the King's daughter Princess Matilda was so close to him that she donated Alan's lands on his behalf. He donated Sibton Manor to his childhood wet-nurse, Orwen, and approved her marriage to his similarly elderly Chamberlain, Mainard, who had served Earls since King Edward's reign.King Harold Godwinson's orphaned daughter Princess Gunhild wrote two letters to Archbishop Anselm of Canterbury, declaring that Alan and she had dearly loved each other. This is one possible origin for the Lancelot and Guinevere story which was written a few decades later: it's notable that Lancelot is a charming Breton knight of surpassing skill, a fair, if understated, description of Alan.So, Alan was not only exceedingly great as a knight of renown, he contributed to defenceless individuals and a troubled society in positive ways that have few parallels on that scale by a single person then or since.Moreover, many of the other great knights of medieval times owe their opportunities to Alan. For example, William the Marshall was trained and knighted by William de Tancarville, hereditary Chamberlain of Normandy, whose mother Tiphanie was the daughter of Count Stephen of Treguier, Alan's youngest brother and eventual heir as Lord of Richmond.Many of the Robin Hood stories refer to locations founded by Count Alan - not surprisingly as the Earl of Huntingdon was related to Count Stephen. The Magna Carta also owes much to others of Alan's family who fought against King John, and to John's adviser Alan of Galloway who was named, in his own Cumbric family tradition, after the good Count.Or how about this fellow: Arthur III de Richemont, one of Count Alan's numerous 15th century heirs as descendants of Count Stephen. Arthur was a step-brother to Henry V of England, but was for political reasons denied his inheritance, the Honour of Richmond. So Arthur fought for the French at Agincourt and was captured.After five years in prison, he was released on condition that he persuade his brother John, Duke of Brittany, to ally with the English. This he did, and was made Duke of Touraine.However, two years later, in 1422, he still hadn't been granted Richmond, so he reverted to the cause of the Dauphin. His brusque and impatient manner made him unpopular with other courtiers, so he was expelled from the court.He then took up with Joan of Arc at Orleans, which she had just liberated. He subsequently rode with her at Patay. When she was captured by the Burgundians, handed over to the English, then burnt at the stake outside Alan Rufus's Church of Saint Sauveur in the market square at Rouen, because the French government declined to make any real effort to rescue her, Arthur became determined to change France.With support from the Queen Mother who favoured him as she had Joan, Arthur eventually ousted his rivals, took control of the French financial and military training systems, and reformed them along Breton lines.He also arranged for Brittany and Burgundy to change loyalties from England to France (Treaty of Arras). He led the Breton cavalry and the French army at Paris and in Normandy, and drove the English out of northern France.His nephew Duke Peter administered the coup de grace to English hopes of retaining Gascony in the Battle of Castillon in 1453. The Hundred Years' War was now over, and, thanks to Arthur, the Kingdom of France rose from its miserable condition as a weak and ailing rump state and emerged as the greatest and wealthiest power in Western Europe.Incidentally, the English governor of France whose rival hopes Arthur ruined, John, Duke of Bedford, Earl of Richmond, was married to Jacquetta of Luxembourg, another descendant of Count Stephen’s. Moreover, Arthur's late wife had been Jacquetta’s sister.