#martha-frances henry
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Another exciting two show day for Cast 14 of the Oasis of the Seas.
Some candid photos of the current Cast, with Helen Turner as Demeter, Martha-Frances Henry as Grizabella, Adam Hearn as Coricopat, Alice Rimmer as Cassandra, and Joe Hewitt as Alonzo.
(Source)
In more recent news, Peter James Lake is back with musical, having taken over the role of the Old Deuteronomy and having his first show with his new Cast today.
In other news, yesterday marked the first full rehearsal for the upcoming Cast 15! They have another one today.
16 February 2024.
#CATS Musical#CATS the Musical#CATS RCCL Cast 14#CATS RCCL Cast 15#Demeter#Helen Turner#Old Deuteronomy#Peter James Lake#Grizabella#Martha-Frances Henry#Cassandra#Alice Rimmer#Coricopat#Adam Hearn#Alonzo#Joe Hewitt
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instagram story: Nov 17, 2023
#cats oasis of the seas#martha-frances henry#grizabella#grizabella the glamour cat#stage cats#see the queue on a sunflower#i bite my tongue
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i have just found out that 2 of Martha Laurens Ramsey’s children married the 2 children on Mary Laurens Pinckney’s children… I know it was normal to bang first cousins but it’s still a shock to the system
Sabina Ramsey married Henry laurens Pinckney
Mary Eleanor laurens Pinckney Jr married David laurens Ramsey
That’s crazy to me idk why 😭
#amrev#american history#alexander hamilton#american revolution#john laurens#alexander hamilshit#henry laurens#martha manning laurens#frances laurens#Martha Ramsey Laurens#henry laurens jr
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The flower was born and died alone
I was thinking about John and Martha (his sister). Martha taking care of Frances so i made a short fic about it. And Mepkin Abbey is so beautiful so i had to do the fic which plot happens here.
https://www.postandcourier.com/features/mepkin-abbey-in-moncks-corner-offers-sacred-space-for-the-weary-soul/article_04b5b4f6-27ca-11e8-b544-f3ffba3fa711.html
https://pl.pinterest.com/pin/john-laurens-grave-site-in-the-mepkin-abbey-gardens-monks-corner-south-carolina--92605336069087693/ ^^^^photos from here :)
#john laurens#amrev#18th century#historical lams#martha laurens#frances laurens#angst#henry laurens#laurens family#my writing#stasia writes3
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Penthouse (1933)
Penthouse by #WSVanDyke starring #WarnerBaxter and #MyrnaLoy, "uses stylish visuals to offset the frank (for the time) discussions of pre-marital relations ",
W.S. VAN DYKE
Bil’s rating (out of 5): BBB
USA, 1933. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Screenplay by Frances Goodrich, Albert Hackett, based on the story by Arthur Somers Roche first published in Cosmopolitan Magazine. Cinematography by Lucien N. Andriot, Harold Rosson. Produced by Hunt Stromberg. Music by William Axt. Production Design by Alexander Toluboff. Costume Design by Adrian. Film Editing by Robert…
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#Adrian#Albert Hackett#Alexander Toluboff#Arthur Belasco#Arthur Somers Roche#C. Henry Gordon#Charles Butterworth#Frances Goodrich#George E. Stone#Harold Rosson#Hunt Stromberg#Lucien N. Andriot#Mae Clarke#Martha Sleeper#Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer#Myrna Loy#Nat Pendleton#Phillips Holmes#Raymond Hatton#Robert Emmett O&039;Connor#Robert Kern#W.S. Van Dyke#Warner Baxter#William Axt
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Hi! So this is gonna sound weird, but I’ve kinda been learning about Irish history backwards? Like, I started with the Troubles (bc of family involvement), then back to the 1916 rising which got me more interested in the people involved which took me further back and etc etc. I know I’ve been doing it “wrong” but I’m just starting to come up to the 1798. Do you happen to have any recommended readings or particular persons of interest to read? Any collections of primary sources would be more than welcome!
Secondary sources I would recommend:
The Year of Liberty by Thomas Pakenham - about the rebellion in general
The People's Rising by Daniel Gahan - about the rebellion in Wexford
The Summer Soldiers by ATQ Stewart - about the rebellion in Ulster
Wolfe Tone: Prophet of Irish Independence by Marianne Elliott - about Wolfe Tone
The Life and Times of Mary Ann McCracken by Mary McNeill - technically this is just about Mary Ann but I think it's pretty good for Henry Joy McCracken too because there aren't many biographies of him
Orangeism in Ireland and Britain 1795 - 1836 by Hereward Senior - obviously exercise caution on whether or not you think you can mentally handle this subject but book about loyalism during 1798
Castlereagh: War, Enlightenment, and Tyranny by John Bew - about Lord Castlereagh
2 things that I would also recommend reading about for context are the French Revolution and the British radical movement of the late 18th century. for the French Revolution 1 book I would say is good is Liberty or Death by Peter McPhee and for the British radical movement... the book The English Jacobins by Carl B Cone does a good enough job
Primary sources:
The Memoirs of Theobald Wolfe Tone by Theobald Wolfe Tone - title is pretty self explanatory. It's Tone's account of his own life + his diary
The United Irishmen, Their Lives and Times by RR Madden - this is considered to be the 1st history of the rising & was written with the help of many people who lived through it, so it includes a lot of first hand accounts. HOWEVER. beware that Madden was your archetypical mid 19th century Catholic Irish nationalist and the bias created due to that shows through in every single part of these books
Memoirs of the different Rebellions in Ireland by Sir Richard Musgrave - this is another very early history of the rising, also written with the help of people who lived through, also including a lot of first hand accounts. HOWEVER. Musgrave is like Madden's Orange counterpart in that this book is also wildly biased and should also be read with a degree of caution
Personal Narrative of the "Irish Rebellion" of 1798, Sequel to Personal Narrative of the "Irish Rebellion" of 1798, and History and Consequences of the Battle of the Diamond by Charles Hamilton Teeling - 3 accounts of politics in Ireland in the 1790s written by someone who as a young man led the Catholic paramilitary the Defenders
The Drennan letters (a collection of letters that Belfast doctor William Drennan and his sister, Martha McTier, wrote to each other between the 1770s and 1820s), if you can find them, are another great primary source on both the United Irishmen & on what life was like back then in general, as are the McCracken letters, which I know are available free online somewhere I just can't remember where exactly I got the pdf from
There are a lot of them but if you're interested in primary sources you might also read some of the political pamphlets/books that were going around back then -- the most famous that come to mind in this context are Wolfe Tone's Argument on Behalf of the Catholics in Ireland, Thomas Paine's The Rights of Man, and Edmund Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France but there are wayyy more than that and at least some of them are on the internet archive
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"It is now time that I should inform you of an important Change in my Circumstances_ Pity has obliged me to marry_ but a Consideration of the Duty which I owe to my Country made me choose a Clandestine Celebration, lest the Father should insist upon my Stay in this County as a Condition of the Marriage_ the Matter has proceeded too far to be longer concealed, and I have this Morning disclosed the Affair to Mr Manning in plain terms_ reserving to myself a Right of fulfilling the more important Engagements to my Country_ It maybe convenient on some accounts that the matter shd be [secret] till you hear next from me, and you will oblige me by keeping it so_"
-John Laurens to James Laurens, in a letter dated October 25, 1776
The word "secret" at the end of the paragraph is in brackets because I cannot be completely confident in this transcription due to the smudging/shadow of text from the reverse side. The Life of Henry Laurens by David Duncan Wallace writes the sentence as "It may be convenient on some accounts that the matter should be kept secret till you hear next from me, & you will oblige me by keeping it so," but there does not appear to be enough room for "kept" to be written in the line.
John Laurens had impregnated Martha Manning about 6 months prior to this letter and chose to marry her because of the pregnancy. They would marry on October 26, 1776. It is clear in John's writing that his first priority was serving his country in the Revolutionary War, and it seems unlikely that John would have married Martha had their relationship not been complicated by the pregnancy. He states that he married her out of pity, likely not wanting her to face the judgment of being a woman with a child born out of wedlock. The fact that they waited ~6 months - until "the Matter [had] proceeded too far to be longer concealed" - suggests that one or both of them wanted to wait to marry until it was likely that Martha would carry the pregnancy to term/they could not hide the evidence of her pregnancy any longer. John would not stay to see their daughter Frances Laurens be born at the end of January 1777. We do not have any surviving accounts of Martha's perspective of their relationship.
#Throwback to that time that someone told me I was too harsh for saying that John married Martha out of pity#And I was like...that is a direct quote from the man himself#John Laurens#Martha Manning#William Manning#James Laurens#writings#Frances Laurens
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go on, have another Oasis boot 😌
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Cast 14, 23 February 2024.
No characters are missing so, this being Oasis, that means everyone's first cast:
Alonzo: Joe Hewitt
Bombalurina: Charlotte Reavey
Cassandra: Alice Rimmer
Coricopat: Adam Hearn
Demeter: Helen Turner
Deuteronomy: Peter James Lake
Grizabella: Martha-Frances Henry
Gus: Robert Wilkes
Jellylorum: Jackey Good
Jennyanydots: Jaime Mollineux
Mistoffelees: Daniel Chesnut
Mungojerrie: Samuel Lewis-Wright
Munkustrap: Ben Reynolds
Plato: Joshua Clayton
Pouncival: Jamie Armour
Rumpelteazer: Rina Punwani
Rum Tum Tugger: DevinRe Lewis Adams
Sillabub: Gabriela Rodriguez
Skimbleshanks: Tom Alsop
Tantomile: Dena Philpott
Tumblebrutus: Matthew Tratch
Victoria: Charlotte Lovell
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The end of another week for Cast 14 of the Oasis of the Seas was one of different kinds of celebration.
Daniel Chesnut as Mistoffelees shares a past memory and a backstage photo.
Joshua Clayton covered Rum Tum Tugger again, but his main focus was Martha-Frances Henry as Grizabella.
Charlotte Reavey as Bombalurina celebrates another successful week of shows.
A backstage Gabriela Rodriguez with Sillabub makeup
09 March 2024.
#CATS Musical#CATS the Musical#CATS RCCL Cast 14#Mistoffelees#Daniel Chesnut#Bombalurina#Charlotte Reavey#Grizabella#Martha-Frances Henry#Rum Tum Tugger#Joshua Clayton#Sillabub#Gabriela Rodriguez
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instagram story: Aug 3, 2023
#cats oasis of the seas#cats oasis 13#cats oasis 14#cats rccl 13#cats rccl 14#jarrad green#martha-frances henry#grizabella#grizabella the glamour cat#samuel lewis wright#mungojerrie#dena philpott#tantomile#backstage cats#stage cats#see the queue on a sunflower
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Will you permit me to congratulate with you upon the favorable appearances in our American concerns & particularly on your safe arrival in Paris_ and further to request you will forward in the best manner the times will afford, the two inclosed Letters, one to Ralph Izard Esquire & the other to my daughter in Law in London the latter if War is kindled between France & England must take a circuitous route by Holland or Flanders & under particular protection
Henry Laurens to John Adams, 19 May 1778
I can't remember who asked about this, but here's a great example of the difficulties of getting correspondence through enemy lines during the revolutionary war.
The letter to Martha Manning Laurens probably contained information about John, and possibly discussed plans to transport her to America, which would have been risky information to let fall into enemy hands – hence requiring a "circuitous route" and "particular protection".
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Do you think Laurens would have been a good dad if he met Frances?
"Good" is such a loaded term here, because what that meant back then and what it means now differ in a few significant ways. Overall, I think John Laurens would have done all of the things that were required of him as a parent, so in that way, my answer is yes - he would probably have been a good father by the standards of his day. But let’s explore a little more deeply what that would actually have meant.
The primary duties of a father in the 18th century included financially supporting his family, providing moral or spiritual guidance, educating his children, and instilling the proper virtues and values that would guarantee a successful life. While fathers generally focused more of their attention on their sons, especially where it came to education, this was not a firm rule, and it was not unheard of for daughters to be actively raised and educated by their fathers.
John would have had a good role model for single-fatherhood from his own father. After Eleanor Laurens died in 1770, Henry took on the responsibility of raising and educating his children himself. His focus, unsurprisingly, was on his sons. But although Martha and Mary Eleanor did not join their father and brothers on the 1771 journey to England to further the boys' education, Henry also arranged tutors for them and encouraged their focus on intellectual pursuits in tandem with learning the skills and crafts that women were expected to know. Martha especially was known to be intelligent and curious.
John also had plenty of first-hand experience in some of the practicalities of raising children, since he had been assigned to manage his brothers' education, finances and living arrangements while abroad - not to mention the supervisory role he played for his cousin, Molsy Bremar, and various other young South Carolinians in the Laurens's orbit, like Jackie Petrie. This responsibility came with plenty of instructions from Henry, but John carried out these duties well, and his judgement was trusted.
But what precisely might John have done if a six-year-old Frances was delivered to his doorstep in 1783?
I highly doubt that John would have taken on the full scope of parental duties himself. For one, he would just not have had the time in between finishing his studies, getting involved in politics, securing an income stream in the wake of his family’s ruined finances, supporting his younger siblings and sick father, and so on. Additionally, he would not have felt he was equipped to provide the guidance Frances should get from her mother. So I suspect that Frances would have ended up precisely where she did - in the care of her aunt Martha - with John playing a guiding and supervisory role over critical points of her education and upbringing, while leaving the rest of the childcare to his sister. This arrangement would have been considered normal and sensible, and would have provided Frances with the stable home life she is unlikely to have found at her father’s side.
As for the emotional connection John would have felt, which certainly would have been part of the "good father" package, it's hard to speculate. John was considerate, loving and affectionate to his siblings, even to his youngest sister, whom he barely knew - but he did not always show compassion to his cousin Molsy, or to his wife. And Frances herself barely warrants a single mention in his surviving correspondence.
On balance, I do think he would have made an effort to show love and care to Frances, but whether it would have been a genuine feeling or just an expression of his duty and values is not something I think we will ever know.
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Top Five Douglas Rain Recommendations From Yours Truly
You want to see more of Douglas Rain, but you're not sure where to start? Well, do I have the thing for you! As the internet's most preeminent Douglas Rain expert (except for Gerry Flahive I guess, but he's kind of slow at answering emails and more focused on other stuff these days. If he wants to reclaim the title, he can meet me in the parking lot <3), I've made you a handy little list of some of my personal favourite performances by DR that I think you should see and/or hear!
And by 'little' I mean 'I got way too into this, so it's pretty long now'. I put it under a cut; you're welcome.
In the interest of fairness, I've chosen one performance from each of his fields of work (namely: ON STAGE, RADIO WORK, DOCUMENTARY NARRATION, TELEVISION and FILM). Please know, however, that I can give reviews of basically everything in the masterpost, so if you're interested in hearing about any of them, feel free to shoot me an ask!
Without further ado, let's get into it...
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ON STAGE: Henry V (1966)
Okay, this one's teeeechnically a TV movie, but it's adapted from Stratford's staged production, so I'm counting it. It's also a rare treat in that we get to see DR in colour! (Everybody say THANK YOU to David Rain, his son, for bullying the Festival into restoring this production and adding it to their online catalogue. I owe him my life.)
This is one of Shakespeare's histories, part of the Henriad (aka the collection of plays about the accomplishments of various English kings). Henry V, the main guy in this one, is actually the crowned version of Prince Hal from both parts of Henry IV, a role that DR had played previously at Stratford, so this is a fun bit of character continuity for him! The play centres around the king's invasion of France, with a lot of ruminating on hope and despair and duty and bravery. Harry - as he is affectionately referred to on occasion - is really going through it, and DR portrays him with such emotional intensity. He's proud, he's fierce, he's clever, he's a BITCH and I like him SO MUCH.
The book has been edited down slightly to fit into a two hour runtime for television, but beyond a few... very funny jumpcuts, it's not really noticeable at all. And while the sets are kept mostly simple, the costumes are gorgeous. I went in not expecting much (a mistake I keep making when approaching Shakespeare plays, for some reason lol), and was thoroughly entertained the whole way through!
It also contains the transcendentally funny line, "Tennis balls, my liege!" because Shakespeare was the most hysterical motherfucker on planet Earth. It makes sense in context, I promise.
Can be found on Stratfest@Home, the online streaming service of the Stratford Festival (there's a 7-day free trial period if you sign up). You may also check my masterpost of performances for a possible alternative, but shhh.
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RADIO WORK: Fifth Business (1980)
I love this one; it's literally so fucking funny. This radio play is a dramatisation of the 1970 novel of the same name by Robertson Davies. Fifth Business recounts the life story of Dunstable "Dunstan" Ramsay, from his boyhood in an idyllic (on the surface only) Canadian village to his experiences in the First World War, his career as a teacher and all the loves and complications he runs into, and the formative experiences peppering his life where he's never quite the main character. He is instead 'fifth business' - neither hero nor villain, but still integral to resolving the play's plot. Ramsay is clever, sarcastic and a goddamn weirdo who's obsessed with saints for non-religious reasons. He dodged a snowball as a kid and the consequences of that haunt him throughout the entire book.
The radio drama features a whole cast of actors, including of course DR as the protagonist (who also narrates everything btw), doing an absolutely delightful job. Fellow Stratford actress Martha Henry, who also happened to be his wife at the time, is in it too!
The entire drama is delightful, honestly. I liveblogged my experience listening to it for the first time, and man there is some wild shit happening in this novel. The entire things is about three and a half hours, but it really doesn't feel that long.
Can be found (in eight parts) on YouTube or on Archive.org. (Or in a junkbox on a sidewalk in Toronto. I'm still baffled by that.)
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DOCUMENTARY NARRATION: Universe (1960)
A classic. Documentaries make up a sizeable chunk of the masterpost (thanks to the NFB website and archive channels on YouTube), so there were more options in this category than in any of the others. But I decided to go with this particular gem of a documentary.
It's about - who would have guessed - the universe, featuring the most advanced scientific knowledge of planets and stars at the time. The special effects are also quite impressive - if you move around Space Odyssey circles, you may have heard that the visuals of this documentary were a major inspiration for 2001. Also, DR's narration in Universe is what brought him to Stanley Kubrick's attention. You can probably guess how that ended. (Gerry Flahive has some articles about the whole thing if you don't.)
Anyway, Universe is a beautiful and meditative look at our galaxy and the many things it contains, and DR's narration is absolutely lovely. It clocks in at just under half an hour, so not that big of a time commitment either.
Can be found on YouTube or on the NFB website.
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TELEVISION: William Lyon Mackenzie: A Friend To His Country (1961)
It's so hard to find old Canadian TV shows anywhere online and I'm forever bitter about it. Our options here are incredibly limited as a result, so you're just going to have to accept that I'm recommending you a historical short film from 1961, alright? This is as difficult for me as it is for you.
Unsurprisingly, this movie is about William Lyon Mackenzie, who was... *checks Wikipedia* "a Scottish Canadian-American journalist and politician." Yes, DR is doing a Scottish accent in this role. Yes, I adore it. I know very little about Canadian history, so I can't exactly speak to the film's accuracy, but I found it charming and DR is doing a very good job. Most of the half hour runtime is spent on Mackenzie's various political struggles (some sort of failed revolution, I gather, followed by exile in the United States and some jailtime) and him trying to protect his family. His wife is played by Canadian actress Kate Reid in this movie, which I personally find very funny for... reasons. IYKYK.
Can be found on YouTube or on the NFB website.
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FILM: OEDIPUS REX (1957)
I'm sort of cheating again, but the only other options in this category that I have access to are the two Space Odyssey movies, and they seemed like too basic of a choice. So have some more drama instead! This is also a filmed version of one of Stratford's plays, but released in theatres this time.
Oedipus Rex is a breezy 87 minutes and adapts the English translation by Yeats of the classic Greek tragedy by Sophocles, with a little added prologue to set the scene. It was directed by Tyrone Guthrie, who you might remember as the Big Man from The Stratford Adventure. Or from the fact that he was a pretty famous theatre guy. If you need a refresher on your Greek myths: Oedipus was the guy who was prophesised to kill his father and marry his mother. He got done dirty by Freud somewhere down the line.
DR plays the role of the Messenger, a minor part who recounts some of the most famous plot points of the tragedy of Oedipus, which they couldn't show onscreen/onstage. Granted, he's only in this one for like five minutes, but he really rocks up to crash the party wearing the coolest outfit in the entire show. And yes, everyone in this production is wearing Greek theatre masks, so you can't see his face. You get to hear his voice though - and watch his captivating body language!
Can be found on YouTube. Or you can probably buy it on DVD if you really want to; idk, I'm not the boss of you.
(I've also clipped his scene if you really, really don't want to watch the whole play. I get it's a big ask. Really beautiful production though, seriously!)
#douglas rain#stratford festival#national film board of canada#hal 9000#2001 a space odyssey#(this is me loudly going PSPSPSPSPSPSPSPSPS)
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hello all!
I've been contemplating this for a bit and I've decided to follow int he footsteps of other artists and use my writing to help palestine!
for the forseeable future, I'll be taking comissions for fics in exchange for donations to either operation olive branch or care for gaza, alternatively you can buy an esim!
to comission a fic, use this form. I will start writing as soon as I receive the prompt, but I won't publish it until I've received proof of donation. hopefully, the fic will be written in two weeks maximum, but please remember I am only one person.
I'll do a more in depth rundown of things I write under the cut, but the fandoms I have listed are Six of Crows, Heathers the musical, Mean Girls the musical, Gilmore Girls, Osemanverse and one ship from CAOS. If you know I ship something but it's not listed here, feel free to send me a dm and ask if I'll write it!
also if you're a writer for any of these fandoms and would like to get involved, please do reach out to me! we're stronger together!
from the river to the sea, palestine will be free!
Fandoms I write for:
Grishaverse:
-romantic wesper
-romantic kanej
-romantic helnik
-poly!crows
-any friendship pairing between the crows/found family
-familial dynamics between wylan and marya, jesper and colm and kaz and jordie
-character centric: wylan, inej, jesper, kaz, matthias, nina
-romantic zoyalai
-all can be canon compliant, canon divergent, show or book canon or au (please specify if you do/don't want one of these)
Heathers:
-romantic healthy jdronica
-romantic toxic jdronica
-dunnmara (martha x heather mac)
-romantic or platonic martharonnie
-anything veronica sawyer centric
-I will also write oneshots from the not beyond repair universe or the time won't fly universe
Mean Girls:
-romantic cadnis
-platonic damian/janis/cady, platonic damian+janis
-character centric: janis
Next to Normal:
-anything natalie-centric
-romantic henry/natalie
-natalie+diana, natalie+dan, natalie+gabe
Chilling Adventures of Sabrina
-romantic theo/robin
Gilmore Girls
-romantic luke/lorelai
-romantic jess/rory
-familial rory+lorelai
-complicated familial lorelai+emily, lorelai+richard
-anything rory centric
Osemanverse:
-romantic nick/charlie, lister/jimmy, bliss/juliet, pip/rooney
-platonic aled/frances, paris squad, shakespeare squad (loveless)
-romantic, platonic or inbetween michael/tori
-familial charlie+tori(+oliver)
character centric: charlie spring, tori spring
#fanfiction#fanfic writing#onthelastrain#heathers the musical#six of crows#mean girls broadway#osemanverse#gilmore girls#next to normal#cadnis#jdronica#literati#java junkie#wesper#kanej#helnik
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Paramount Pictures 1987
From left to right - front row - Martha Raye, Dana Andrews, Elizabeth Taylor, Frances Dee, Joel McCrea, Harry Dean Stanton, Harrison Ford, Jennifer Beals, Marlee Matlin, Danny de Vito.
Second row - Olivia de Havilland, Kevin Costner, Cornel Wilde, Don Ameche, Deforest Kelley, Tom Cruise, Charlton Heston, Penny Marshall, Bob Hope, Victor Mature, Elizabeth McGovern, Robert de Niro.
Third row - Andrew McCarthy, Henry Winkler, Anthony Perkins, Robert Stack, Mark Harmon, Faye Dunaway, Buddy Rogers, Gregory Peck, Debra Winger, Timothy Hutton.
Fourth row - Jane Russell, Mike Connors, John Travolta, Janet Leigh, Charles Bronson, Ted Danson, Lou Gossett Jnr, Ryan O’Neal, Rhonda Fleming, Leonard Nimoy.
Fifth row - William Shatner, Peter Graves, Molly Ringwald, Dorothy Lamour, Olivia Newton-John, Cindy Williams, Matthew Broderick, Gene Hackman, Walter Matthau, Robin Williams.
Back row - Ali MacGraw, Burt Lancaster, Scott Baio, Rhea Perlman, Bruce Dern, James Caan, Glenn Ford, Fred MacMurray, Shelley Long, James Stewart.
Photo by Terry O'Neill.
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Remember, an elephant is not just for Christmas!
If you are a medieval ruler like Henry III who received an elephant from his brother-in-law (St) Louis IX of France in early December 1254, be prepared to spend:
£6 17 shillings 5 pence (refund to the sheriff of Kent for transporting the elephant from France to England)
£22 20 pence on a multi-purpose elephant house at the Tower of London
£24 14 shillings 3½ pence on food for the elephant every nine months
By comparison, a laborer might earn just 1-and-a-half pence per day, while a well-to-do knight might live on £15 per year. (For more, see Cassidy's and Clasby's article from the Fine Rolls of Henry III Project.) And don't forget, you will have to pay for the elephant's keeper, too! The monk-chronicler Matthew Paris helpfully depicted Henry III's elephants alongside one of its keepers for scale. The man is labelled as Henry de Flor, "mag[iste]r bestie" ("caretaker of the beast").
Sadly, Henry did not have these expenses for long: although many medieval legends emphasized elephants' longevity, this elephant only lived until 1257 in the inhospitable northern climate. When it died, it was initially buried in the tower, but Henry later had its bones transferred to Westminster Abbey.
Despite these difficulties and costs, elephants had a notable history as diplomatic gifts in the Middle Ages, even in regions where elephants did not naturally live. Charlemagne's elephant Abul Abbas is a very early example of the phenomenon, and by the eleventh century Byzantine emperors were receiving elephants in Constantinople. In 1228, the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II received an elephant from al-Kamil, the ruler of Egypt, and King Louis IX probably also received his elephant from an Egyptian ruler before regifting it to Henry III.
Side note: although the "white elephant" gift exchange claims to be based on a southeast Asian ruler's practice of punishing courtiers with a gift that would cost them a lot of money, there is not much historical evidence for this before the story was shared in the Anglo-American world in modern era.
Some elephants fought back over being passed around as gifts, though. In the early 15th century an elephant and other rare animals arrived in Japan. (Martha Chaiklin has suggested that they were intended as a diplomatic gift for someone else, but were blown off course and ended up with the Ashikaga shogun.) The elephant was extremely grumpy and trampled some courtiers, so the shogun regifted it to Taejong, ruler of Korea. The elephant continued to trample courtiers in Korea and was expensive to feed, so Taejong exiled it to its own private island, where it continued to live.
Materials: parchment, ink, and pigments
Contents: Matthew Paris's Chronica Maiora
Origin: St Albans Abbey (made by the scribe-illuminator-chronicler-monk Matthew Paris)
Now Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 16 I, f. ii r
#elephant#elephants#medieval elephants#illuminated manuscript#13th century#medieval#elephants as gifts#unique gifts#medieval gifts#global middle ages#diplomacy
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