Queen Catherine Parr

04/14/2026

This is amazing.

04/14/2026

And this is how it’s done.

Anne Young is a descendant of the Vaux of Harrowden family which makes her related to Queen Kateryn Parr and the current descendants of Anne Parr, Countess of Pembroke.

Always check your sources.

04/05/2026

Kateryn Parr gets treated so unfairly sometimes:
too ambitious,
too preachy,
too sexual,
too cold,
too manipulative,
too whatever people need her to be—

when a lot of that just does not hold up if you actually read the sources carefully.

She was intelligent, devout, politically aware, compassionate, and trying to survive an insane court while still remaining herself. People punish women like that in hindsight all the time.

04/03/2026

I totally missed that Prince Harry was even supposed to be in Maryland today.

Baltimore was home to Wallis, Duchess of Windsor, who married the late Queen’s uncle, King Edward VIII. Through my descent from the Dorsey family of Maryland, I am related to the late Duchess.

Prince Harry is also a distant cousin of mine through his many lines back to the founders of this country and the Tudor dynasty.

Serving royalty.

Prince Harry made a stop by Cindy Wolf's acclaimed restaurant, Charleston, this week during a visit to Baltimore.

📸: Alastair Grant, AP Photo, Baltimore Sun staff

04/02/2026

“For God so loved the world”

04/02/2026

2 April 1565: THE DEATH of Elisabeth Brooke, Marchioness of Northampton.

Elisabeth Brooke (25 June 1526 – 2 April 1565) was an English courtier and noblewoman. She was the eldest daughter of George Brooke, 9th Baron Cobham of Kent and Anne Braye. Her relationship with William Parr, 1st Marquess of Northampton, Catherine Parr's brother, would shape the politics of England for many years to come. As the Marchioness of Northampton, Elisabeth performed much of a queen’s role during the reign of Edward VI. Her husband was instrumental in putting Lady Jane Grey on the throne. When Mary I was proclaimed queen, she imprisoned the Marquess in the Tower and stripped him of all his titles. Her first cousin, Thomas Wyatt the Younger, was the leader of a rebellion against Queen Mary known as Wyatt's Rebellion. In the reign of Elizabeth, she became one of the most influential courtiers again.

In Aug 1562, Lady Northampton was reportedly near death from jaundice and high fever and given up for lost in mid-Sep, but by 12 Oct she had recovered. By 1564, Elizabeth was suffering from breast cancer. Don Guzman de Silva, the Spanish Ambassador, recorded that when Lady Northampton fell ill, the Queen came from St. James to dine with her and spend the day. She was still a beautiful and determined woman and was not going to give up without a fight. With her brother William and sister-in-law, she travelled to the Netherlands, looking for a treatment to alleviate her condition. She had doctors from all over Europe looking for a cure and making a quick buck from promising her a miracle. Queen Elizabeth arranged for the personal physician of the King of Bohemia to attend Elizabeth in England. In Jan 1565, the Queen’s physician, Dr. Julio, took over her treatment. Unfortunately, his man, Griffith, made sexual advances toward Elizabeth, who was still, apparently, “one of the most beautiful women of her time”, and the queen had both men thrown into the Marshalsea.

Elizabeth died, aged around 39, on 2 Apr 1565, heavily in debt. The Queen was devastated, and paid for her funeral. Five years later, Northampton married a sixteen year-old Swedish woman, Helena Snakenborg who apparently looked very like his beloved Elizabeth. In Jan 1571, Anne Bourchier died, leaving his union with Helena beyond doubt. Parr died soon after.

Hon. Elisabeth Brooke, Marchioness of Northampton. 1526-1565. AR Medal (40mm, 39.86 g, 12h). After S. v. Herwijck. Dated 1562 (though produced by Robert Ready in the 19th century). ELIZABET · MARQVI NORTHAMPTON, veiled and mantled bust left, wearing collar / · SOLA · TVTA FIDES · A° · 1562 (faith alone is safe), Faith standing facing, head right, holding. Cf. MI 104/29 (for prototype); cf. Eimer 43 (same). Good VF, toned.

04/01/2026

Good morning! ☀️

This made my morning a little brighter.

In 1634, my ancestors had just come to Maryland on The Ark and The Dove. I wonder what kind of cookies they would have made back then.

By 1634, Charles I was in the ninth year of his reign. His father was James I of England, who had also been James VI of Scotland before his cousin, Queen Elizabeth I of England, died in 1603. Charles married Henrietta Maria of France in 1625. She was the daughter of Henry IV of France and his wife, Marie de’ Medici. By the time the first settlers embarked, Charles and Henrietta Maria’s first three children — the future Charles II, the future James II, and Princess Mary — had already been born.

The province began in 1632 as the Maryland Palatinate, a proprietary colony granted to Cecil Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore, whose father, George Calvert, had long sought to found a colony in the New World that would serve as a refuge for Catholics during the European wars of religion.

The Province was named after Queen Henrietta Maria of France, who in England was styled Queen Mary by decree of her husband.