Lady Ma (Qian Yuanguan's wife)
Lady Ma (馬夫人, personal name unknown) (890 – November 28, 939), formally the Lady Gongmu of Wuyue (吳越國恭穆夫人), was a wife of Qian Yuanguan (King Wenmu) (né Qian Chuanguan, name changed to Qian Yuanguan upon his succession to the throne), the second king of the Chinese state Wuyue of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period.
Background.
Lady Ma was born in 890, during the reign of Emperor Zhaozong of Tang. Her father Ma Chuo was an officer serving under Qian Liu, a warlord who then controlled the region around Hang Prefecture (杭州, in modern Hangzhou, Zhejiang), who would eventually found Wuyue as King Wusu. (She was said to be from Anguo County (安國), which might have been referring to Qian Liu's hometown Yijin Base (衣錦軍, in modern Hangzhou), as it was also known as Anguo Yijin Base.) Ma Chuo was, either by familial relations or by personal relations, was very close to Qian, as, because of those relations, he married one of Qian's younger sisters. At some point, Qian also took Lady Ma to be the wife of his son Qian Chuanguan. (Qian Chuanguan had been forced to marry the daughter of another late-Tang warlord, Tian Jun the military governor of Ningguo Circuit (寧國, headquartered in modern Xuancheng, Anhui) as a political marriage and was taken to Ningguo, in 902, and was not able to return to Qian Liu's domain until Tian's downfall in 903, so his marriage to Lady Ma would have come after.)
Marriage to Qian Yuanguan.
As Qian Chuanguan's wife, Lady Ma was said to be intelligent, wise, and diligent. During Qian Liu's reign, he banned officials from having concubines. As Qian Chuanguan and Lady Ma did not have any sons even past the age of 30, Lady Ma became concerned. She went to her father-in-law Qian Liu to ask for an exemption on Qian Chuanguan's behalf. Qian Liu responded to her happily, "My family's future bloodline is in your hands." He thus allowed Qian Chuanguan to have concubines, and they bore him a large number of sons, whom Lady Ma treated as her own sons. She had a silver deer made and placed before her seat, and was accustomed to happily watch the children play on and around it.
Over the years, apparently after Qian Chuanguan succeeded Qian Liu upon Qian Liu's death in 932 (at which time he changed his name to Qian Yuanguan), Lady Ma received titles from the emperors of Later Tang and the subsequent Later Jin, whom Qian Yuanguan was formally a vassal to. She was initially created the Lady of Yue, and later Lady Zhuangmu of Wuyue. She died in 939, while Qian Yuanguan was still king, and was posthumously honored by Emperor Gaozu of Later Jin as Lady Gongmu ("respectful and solemn").

Qian Yuanguan
Qian Yuanguan () (30 November 887 – 17 September 941), born Qian Chuanguan (錢傳瓘), also known by his temple name as the King Shizong of Wuyue (吳越世宗), courtesy name Mingbao (明寶), was the second king of Wuyue during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period of China. He ascended to the throne in 932, when his father Qian Liu (King Taizu) left the state in his hands, to 941. He was the father to all three of Wuyue's subsequent kings.
Early life.
Qian Chuanguan was born in 887, during the reign of Emperor Xizong of Tang, at a time when his father Qian Liu was serving as the prefect of Hang Prefecture (杭州, in modern Hangzhou, Zhejiang), loosely as a vassal of the warlord Dong Chang the military governor ("Jiedushi") of Weisheng Circuit (威勝, headquartered in modern Shaoxing, Zhejiang). He was Qian Liu's seventh son, and his mother was Qian Liu's concubine Lady Chen.
The first significant reference to Qian Chuanguan, historically, was in 902, when his father Qian Liu, then the military governor of both Zhendong (鎮東, i.e., Weisheng, now named Zhendong) and Zhenhai (鎮海, headquartered at Hang Prefecture) Circuits, was facing a major threat to his control of the region in the forms of a mutiny led by the officers Xu Wan (徐綰) and Xu Zaisi (許再思), who were able to obtain the aid of Tian Jun the military governor of Ningguo Circuit (寧國, headquartered in modern Xuancheng, Anhui), a vassal of the major warlord Yang Xingmi the military governor of Huainan Circuit (淮南, headquartered in modern Yangzhou, Jiangsu). Qian Liu was able to get Yang to exert pressure on Tian to withdraw by sending the officer Gu Quanwu (顧全武) and Qian Chuanguan's older brother Qian Chuanliao (錢傳璙) to Yang to persuade Yang that if Tian became any stronger, he would pose a future threat to Yang, and for Qian Chuanliao to subsequently remain at Huainan to serve as a hostage. (Yang subsequently gave a daughter to Qian Chuanliao in marriage.) Yang therefore warned Tian that if he did not withdraw, he would send another officer to take over the command of Ningguo from him. Tian was forced to withdraw, but extracted from Qian Liu the promise of a monetary tribute, as well as a son to serve as hostage (with Tian offering to give the son a daughter in marriage). When Qian Liu gathered his sons and asked them, "Who is willing to be a son-in-law for the Tians?" none responded initially. Qian Liu considered sending Qian Chuanguan's younger brother Qian Chuanqiu (錢傳球), but Qian Chuanqiu refused, drawing Qian Liu's great anger such that Qian Liu almost killed him — at which point Qian Chuanguan volunteered to go. Qian Liu's wife Lady Wu, who considered Qian Chuanguan like her own son as well, wept bitterly, not wanting to send him, but Qian Chuanguan responded, "In order to save the state from disaster, how can I spare my own body?" He thus left with Tian's army as Tian withdrew, and apparently married Tian's daughter.
In 904, Tian, unhappy that Yang was continuously curbing his desire to expand, rebelled against Yang along with An Renyi (安仁義) the military prefect (團練使, "Tuanlianshi") of Run Prefecture (潤州, in modern Zhenjiang, Jiangsu). Initially they caused much apprehension within Yang's realm, but Tian shortly after began to suffer repeated defeats at the hands of Yang's generals Li Shenfu and Tai Meng (臺濛). As Tian's situation became more and more desperate, and perhaps because Qian Liu sided with Yang in this war, each time he suffered a defeat, he considered killing Qian Chuanguan, but Qian Chuanguan escaped death as he was protected by Tian's mother Lady Yin and Tian's brother-in-law Guo Shicong (郭師從). After Tian was finally defeated and killed in battle by Tai, Qian Chuanguan was able to return to Hang Prefecture with Guo, and Guo thereafter became an officer under Qian Liu.
During Qian Liu's reign.
During Later Liang.
In 907, the major warlord Zhu Quanzhong the military governor of Xuanwu Circuit (宣武, headquartered in modern Kaifeng, Henan), who had had Emperor Xizong's brother and successor Emperor Zhaozong, and then Emperor Zhaozong's son and successor Emperor Ai, under his physical control for a number of years, had Emperor Ai yield the throne to him, ending Tang and starting a new Later Liang as its Emperor Taizu. While some independent warlords refused to recognize the new emperor, Qian Liu did so, and thereafter was created by the Later Liang emperor as the Prince of Wuyue; his state thereafter became known as Wuyue.
Shortly before taking the title of Prince of Wuyue, Qian Liu sent Qian Chuanliao and Qian Chuanguan to attack Lu Ji (盧佶), who controlled Wen Prefecture (溫州, in modern Wenzhou, Zhejiang) and whose brother Lu Yue (盧約) controlled Chu Prefecture (處州, in modern Lishui, Zhejiang). Anticipating Qian Chuanliao and Qian Chuanguan to attack by water, Lu Ji placed his fleet at Qing'ao (青澳, in modern Taizhou, Zhejiang) to defend against their attack. Believing that the better strategy was to bypass Lu Ji's fleet, Qian Chuanguan advocated, and thereafter his army did so, advancing to Angu (安固, in modern Wenzhou), landing there, and directly attack Wen Prefecture. They were able to quickly capture Wen Prefecture and capture and kill Lu Ji. Qian Liu subsequently ordered them to advance on Chu Prefecture. Subsequently, Lu Yue surrendered Chu Prefecture to Wuyue.
In 913, Li Tao (李濤), a general of Wuyue's northern neighbor Wu (i.e., formerly Yang Xingmi's domain, now under the rule of Yang's son Yang Longyan) attacked Wuyue, going over Qianqiu Heights (千秋嶺, in modern Xuancheng) heading toward Qian Liu's hometown Yijin Base (衣錦軍, in modern Hangzhou). Qian Liu had Qian Chuanguan, who was then the prefect of Hu Prefecture (湖州, in modern Huzhou, Zhejiang) command the defense against the attack while sending Qian Chuanliao to attack Wu's Dongzhou (東洲, in modern Changzhou, Jiangsu) to try to divert Wu's forces. Qian Chuanguan cut off trees on Qianqiu Heights to cut off the path of the Wu army and then attacked it, taking Li and 3,000 Wu soldiers captive. Later in the year, the Wu officers Hua Qian (花虔) and Wo Xin (渦信) rendezvoused at Guangde (廣德, in modern Xuancheng) to plan another attack on Yijin. Qian Chuanguan took the initiative and attacked Guangde himself, capturing Hua and Wo. However, when Qian Chuanguan, Qian Chuanliao, and another brother, Qian Chuanying (錢傳瑛), then attacked Wu's Chang Prefecture (常州, in modern Changzhou) together, the Wu regent Xu Wen and the Wu general Chen You (陳祐) defeated them, killing many Wuyue soldiers. Later in 913, then-reigning Later Liang emperor Zhu Zhen created Qian Chuanguan the Baron of Dapeng (大彭縣開國男), and in 914 upgraded the title to marquess.
In 919, at Zhu Zhen's order, Qian Liu sent Qian Chuanguan, who was then serving as his deputy military governor, to attack Wu's Dongzhou with 500 ships. The Wu general Peng Yanzhang (彭彥章) defended against the attack. In anticipation for the battle, Qian Chuanguan loaded his ships with ashes, sand, and beans. Furthermore, this battle also witnessed the world's first proper 'flamethrower' that used gunpowder after its recent invention in 850. Having been installed in Qian Chuanguan's dragon ship and decorated with silver, his weapon was readied in a way that would conceal it and hide it from the enemy in the event of his capture. When the fleets encountered each other at the Battle of Langshan Jiang, Qian Chuanguan maneuvered his fleet into an upwind position and then scattered ashes at the Wu fleet, making the Wu soldiers unable to see his ships, and then spread the decks of his own ships with sand while throwing beans at the Wu ships, causing the Wu ships' decks to be covered with beans and the Wu soldiers to thereafter slip and unable to act quickly. He then threw torches at the Wu ships, setting them afire and causing a general rout. Qian Chuanguan's makeshift double pump flamethrower also aided in tearing through the Wu's forces, delivering destruction they have never withstood before. When Peng's deputy Chen Fen (陳汾) did not come to Peng's aid, Peng committed suicide. Qian Liu then ordered Qian Chuanguan to attack Chang Prefecture, and Xu personally defended against the attack. At that time, the weather was dry, and the Wu soldiers were able to set fires against the Wuyue army, causing Wuyue soldiers to panic. The Wuyue generals He Feng (何逢) and Wu Jian (吳建) were killed, and Qian Chuanguan was forced to flee. Xu took the opportunity to negotiate peace between the two states by returning the captives that he took, and it was said that for the next 20 years, there were no major confrontations between the two states.
In 920, Zhu Zhen bestowed on Qian Chuanguan the honorary titles of military governor of Qinghai Circuit (清海, headquartered in modern Guangzhou, Guangdong, then under the rule of Southern Han) and chancellor (同中書門下平章事, "Tong Zhongshu Menxia Pingzhangshi"). In 923, when Zhu Zhen created Qian Liu the King of Wuyue (國王, "Guo Wang") and Qian Liu thereafter acted as full sovereign of the state, he commissioned Qian Chuanguan as the acting military governor of Zhenhai and Zhendong and put Qian Chuanguan in charge of the military affairs.
Meanwhile, by the time that Qian Chuanguan was in his 30s, he still had not had a son with his then-wife Lady Ma. At that time, there was an order by Qian Liu in effect in the Wuyue realm that officials were not allowed to have concubines, but Lady Ma went to see Qian Liu to ask for an exemption on Qian Chuanguan's behalf. Qian Liu responded to her happily, "My family's future bloodline is in your hands." He thus allowed Qian Chuanguan to have concubines, and they bore him a large number of sons, whom Lady Ma treated as her own sons.
During Later Tang.
Later in 923, Later Liang was conquered by its rival Later Tang. In 924, Qian Liu established tributary relations with Later Tang, formally submitting to Emperor Zhuangzong of Later Tang as a vassal. Emperor Zhuangzong confirmed all of the titles that Later Liang had bestowed on him. He also confirmed Qian Chuanguan's titles of military governor of Qinghai, as well as acting military governor of Zhenhai and Zhendong, and also bestowed the greater honorary chancellor title of "Zhongshu Ling" (中書令, "Zhongshu Ling"), acting "Taishi" (太師), and "Kaifu Yitong Sansi" (開府儀同三司).
In 926, Qian Liu fell ill briefly, and went to Yijin to recuperate, leaving the affairs of the state to Qian Chuanguan, until Qian Liu completed his recovery and returned to Hang Prefecture.
In 928, Qian Liu wanted to formally designate Qian Chuanguan his heir, but to make sure that the other sons agreed (particularly because Qian Chuanguan was not the oldest), he gathered them and stated to them, "Describe your accomplishments. I will make the one with the most accomplishments my heir." Qian Chuanguan's older brothers Qian Chuanchou (錢傳儔) and Qian Chuanliao, as well as younger brother Qian Chaunjing (錢傳璟), all praised Qian Chuanliao's accomplishments. Qian Liu thus submitted a petition to then-reigning Emperor Mingzong of Later Tang (Emperor Zhuangzong's adoptive brother and successor) to pass the two circuits to Qian Chuanguan. Emperor Mingzong agreed and issued an edict making Qian Chuanguan the military governor of Zhenhai and Zhendong.
However, by 929, the relationship between Qian Liu and the Later Tang imperial government had been damaged because Emperor Mingzong's chief advisor An Chonghui considered Qian Liu to be arrogant and rude in his letters to An. At An's request (after An accused Qian Liu of spying on the matters of the Later Tang imperial court), Emperor Mingzong issued an edict ordering Qian Liu to retire with the title of "Taishi" and stripping him of all his other titles (including, presumably, King of Wuyue), and further put all Wuyue emissaries to the Later Tang court under arrest. Qian Liu had Qian Chuanguan submit a petition on his behalf claiming innocence, but An (and Emperor Mingzong) ignored Qian Chuanguan's petition. (The Wuyue emissaries were released in 930 after Qian Liu submitted another petition through Pei Yu (裴羽), the Later Tang emissary to Wuyue's southern neighbor Min and this time apologized for his own faults, but the full relations were not reestablished until 931 after Emperor Mingzong forced An into retirement (and, after blaming An for the Later Tang imperial government's confrontations with Qian Liu, Meng Zhixiang the military governor of Xichuan Circuit (西川, headquartered in modern Chengdu, Sichuan), and Dong Zhang the military governor of Dongchuan Circuit (東川, headquartered in modern Mianyang, Sichuan), killing An), at which time Emperor Mingzong restored all of Qian Liu's titles.
In May 932, Qian Liu fell deathly ill, and he, to see whether his subordinates were in fact faithful, asked whom they would support as their new leader — at which time the generals and officials all endorsed Qian Chuanguan. Qian Liu thus entrusted the seals and the keys to the treasuries to Qian Chuanguan, left directions that he should serve whichever dynasty controlled the Central Plains with care even if the dynasty changed, and then died.
Reign.
As military governor of Zhenhai and Zhendong.
After Qian Liu's death, Qian Chuanguan and his brothers initially spent the mourning period in the same tent, but at the urging of the royal guard commander Lu Renzhang (陸仁章), who pointed out that then there would be no distinction between him and the brothers, he spent the mourning period in a separate tent from them. For reasons unclear, he changed his name to Qian Yuanguan at this point and also changed his brothers' names accordingly (changing the "Chuan" character in their names to "Yuan" as well). He no longer took on the trappings of king or prince in his dealings with the Later Tang imperial court, instead only using the titles due a military governor. He entrusted the governance to the official Cao Zhongda and the selection of officials to the general Shen Song. Meanwhile, the officers had long been resentful of the power that Lu and fellow royal guard commander LIu Renqi (劉仁杞) had, and one day they gathered around Qian Yuanguan's headquarters, demanding that Lu and Liu be put to death. In response, Qian Yuanguan sent his nephew Qian Renjun (錢仁俊) out to the officers to state to them:
<templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />These two generals had long served the deceased King. I was about to reward them for their service, but instead you want to, because of your private resentment, kill them; can this be done? As I am your king, you should follow my orders. Otherwise, I will return to Lin'an [(臨安, i.e., Yijin)] and yield the path to whoever is talented enough to advance.
In fear, the officers left. Qian Yuanguan subsequently sent Lu and Liu out of the headquarters to serve as prefectural prefects. It was also said that he helped to foster peacefulness among the officials by refusing to listen to people who submit reports against each other, and therefore the realm became calm. In 933, Emperor Mingzong created him the Prince of Wu.
It was said that Qian Yuanguan treated his brothers well. When Qian Yuanliao (i.e., Qian Chuanliao), then serving as the military governor of Zhongwu Circuit (中吳, headquartered in modern Suzhou, Jiangsu) went to Hang Prefecture to pay homage to him, Qian Yuanguan bowed to him as a younger brother, and stated to him, "This seat was yours, older brother. This young son sits here because of your blessings." Qian Yuanliao responded, "The deceased King selected the wisest to be the heir. Now the relationship between lord and subject is set, and all I know is being submissive and faithful." The brothers were touched by each other and wept. Still, when needed, he was willing to take actions against brothers. For example, by 933, his younger brother Qian Yuanxiang (錢元珦), who was serving as the military governor of Shunhua Circuit (順化, headquartered in modern Ningbo, Zhejiang), had become arrogant and spoiled, such that whenever there were requests he made to Qian Yuanguan that were rejected, he would submit further letters to show his anger and displeasure. Qian Yuanguan sent his officer Yang Renquan to Shunhua's capital Ming Prefecture to summon him, knowing that he was fearful of Yang. Yang was able to seize him and bring him back to Hang Prefecture, where Qian Yuanguan put him under house arrest.
In 934, Emperor Mingzong's son and successor Emperor Min of Later Tang created Qian Yuanguan the Prince of Wuyue. His mother Lady Chen died around this time, and was posthumously honored as a lady dowager by Emperor Min's adoptive brother and successor Li Congke (who overthrew Emperor Min in 934). It was said that because of Qian Yuanguan's love for his mother, he treated his mother's family well, but did not give them political offices.
In 936, Li Congke's brother-in-law (Emperor Mingzong's son-in-law) Shi Jingtang the military governor of Hedong Circuit (河東, headquartered in modern Taiyuan, Shanxi) rebelled against Li Congke with Khitan aid, declaring himself the emperor of a new Later Jin (as its Emperor Gaozu). The joint Later Jin/Khitan forces defeated Later Tang forces quickly, and Li Congke committed suicide, ending Later Tang. Qian Yuanguan apparently submitted to Later Jin quickly as a vassal, for later that year Emperor Gaozu bestowed on him the title of deputy generalissimo of the entire realm (天下兵馬副元帥, "Tianxia Bingma Fu Yuanshuai").
In 937, apparently after Qian Yuanxiang offended him more, Qian Yuanguan stripped Qian Yuanxiang of his titles of military governor of Shunhua and honorary chancellor, and demoted him to commoner rank. Later in the year, Qian Yuanguan further became suspicious of another younger brother, Qian Yuanxu (錢元㺷), who was gathering arms and trying to associate with many officials, particularly after Qian Yuanxu refused to abandon those arms and accept a commission as the prefect of Wen Prefecture. Qian Yuanguan took an opportunity, when Qian Yuanxu was in the palace for a feast, to kill both him and Qian Yuanxiang. However, when he then further considered punishing officials who were close associates of Qian Yuanxu and Qian Yuanxiang, Qian Renjun urged him to be lenient, and he agreed.
As King of Wuyue.
In November 937, Emperor Gaozu created Qian Yuanguan the King of Wuyue. Qian Yuanguan thereafter took on the same royal trappings that his father did as King of Wuyue. He created his son Qian Hongzun as his heir, and made Cao Zhongda, Shen Song, and Pi Guangye his chancellors.
In November 939, Qian Yuanguan's wife Lady Ma died.
In 940, Wang Xi the Prince of Min was having a major dispute with his younger brother Wang Yanzheng the prefect of Jian Prefecture (建州, in modern Nanping, Fujian) that developed into a military conflict. Wang Xi sent an army to put Jian Prefecture under siege, and Wang Yanzheng sought aid from Wuyue. Despite the advice of the chancellor Lin Ding against such intervention on Wang Yanzheng's behalf, Qian Yuanguan nevertheless sent a 40,000-men army under Yang Renquan and Xue Wanzhong (薛萬忠) to aid Wang Yanzheng. By the time that they reached Jian Prefecture, Wang Yanzheng had already repelled Wang Xi's attack, and he sent the Wuyue army gifts, requesting that they withdraw. Yang and Xue refused and instead pitched camp near the city. In fear, Wang Yanzheng turned around and sought aid from Wang Xi. Wang Xi sent his nephew Wang Jiye (王繼業) to aid Wang Yanzheng and had his army cut off the food supply path of the Wuyue army. Wang Yanzheng then attacked the Wuyue army, defeating them, forcing Yang and Xue to flee. Later in the year, Emperor Gaozu gave Qian Yuanguan the greater titles of generalissimo of all armies (天下兵馬都元帥, "Tianxia Bingma Du Yuanshuai") as well as "Shangshu Ling" (尚書令).
In August 941, a major fire burned down much of the Wuyue palace and treasury. As a result of trauma from the fire, it was said that Qian Yuanguan lost his mental wellness. The officials of Wuyue's northern neighbor Southern Tang — i.e., the former Wu, which had been taken over by its regent Xu Zhigao, who took the throne as Southern Tang's Emperor Liezu — all encouraged the Southern Tang emperor to attack and conquer Wuyue. The Southern Tang emperor, however, did not want to take advantage of Wuyue and instead sent emissaries to wish Qian Yuanguan recovery and also to give gifts.
Apparently, in addition to his mental wellness, Qian Yuanguan's physical wellness also took an immediate downturn. He entrusted his son Qian Hongzuo (Qian Hongzun having died in 940) to his official Zhang De'an (章德安), and then died. Qian Hongzuo thereafter took the throne and was created the King of Wuyue by Emperor Gaozu.

Lady Yang (Ma Xisheng's wife)
Lady Yang (楊夫人, personal name unknown) (disappeared 950) was the wife of Ma Xisheng, the second ruler of the Chinese Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms state Chu.
Background.
Lady Yang was from Chu's capital Changsha, but it is not known when she was born. During the reign of Ma Xisheng's father, Chu's founding ruler Ma Yin, her father Yang Shi () served as the commander of the army of Chu's main circuit, Wu'an Circuit (武安, headquartered at Changsha). She was Yang Shi's middle daughter.
It is not known when Lady Yang married Ma Xisheng; however, it would have been, at the latest, 929, late in Ma Yin's reign, for that year, it was said that it was her family member Yang Zhaosui (), who was then serving as the commander of the Wu'an army (the title that her father Yang Shi had previously held) and who wanted to displace the position of Chu's chief strategist Gao Yu, who repeatedly made accusations against Gao to Ma Xisheng, to whom Ma Yin had transferred the reins of state by that point. This led to Ma Xisheng's persuading Ma Yin to relieve Gao of his military command, and subsequently Ma Xisheng's killing of Gao.
During and after Ma Xisheng's reign.
Ma Yin died in 930, and Ma Xisheng succeeded him as Chu's ruler. It is not clear what kind of title Lady Yang might have carried during Ma Xisheng's rule, for he himself, at the directions left by his father, did not claim any princely titles. However, it was known that because of her, her brother Yang Zhaohui () was made the prefect of Heng Prefecture (衡州, in modern Hengyang, Hunan). He gathered much wealth, built a large mansion, and had two of his sons made officers of the headquarters guard corps. It was said that because he became rich and powerful in his youth, he was arrogant and found ways to use his power to bully people, leading to the intelligentsia of the state all despising him.
Ma Xisheng died in 932 and was succeeded by his brother Ma Xifan. It appeared (based the later description of her family's fate) that Lady Yang returned to her family.
By 950, Chu was embroiled in a civil war, between then-ruler Ma Xiguang and Ma Xi'e the military governor of Wuping Circuit (武平, headquartered in modern Changde, Hunan) — both of them Ma Yin's sons and Ma Xisheng's younger brothers. In 950, after Ma Xi'e was able to persuade Ma Xiguang's general Xu Keqiong into defecting and surrendering Changsha to him, Changsha fell, leading to a general pillaging of the capital city. The officer Lu Mengjun (), who had long despised the Yangs, used this opportunity to attack the Yangs' mansion and slaughter them. However, it was said that Lady Yang's fate, after the slaughter, was unknown.

Mary Ní Mháille
Mary Ní Mháille (died 1525) Gaelic-Irish Lady.
Ní Mháille was a daughter of The Ó Máille, and a descendant of Maille mac Conall, from whom the clan took their surname. She became the wife of Mac Suibhne Fánad, and upon her death was noted as "the best wife of a constable in her time."
Among her children was Mary Ní Suibhne Fanad, who married The Ó Baoighill (O'Boyle). In 1532, she "died suddenly, after having been thrown from her horse, at the door of her own mansion, on the 21st of April."

Mary Sutton, Countess of Home
Mary (Dudley) Sutton, Countess of Home (1586–1644), was a landowner, living in England and Scotland.
Early years and marriage.
Mary (Dudley) Sutton, born 2 October 1586, was the eldest daughter of Edward Sutton, 5th Baron Dudley (d. 1643) and his wife Theodosia Harington (d. 1649), youngest daughter of Sir James Harington. The title "Dudley" and surname "Sutton" were interchangeable.Little is known about her childhood, and there were problems in the family because her father had abandoned her mother for Elizabeth Tomlinson. In 1597 her younger brother Ferdinando and her sister Anne were lodged in Clerkenwell, as wards of their aunt Elizabeth Harington and uncle Edward Montagu of Boughton. Lord Dudley was ordered to pay her £20 yearly by the Privy Council, but refused to pay.
Later, Lady Anne Clifford described Mary as her childhood companion, "my old companion" and "my old acquaintance", and said their mothers had been friends. After the Union of the Crowns in 1603, her mother Theodosia Harington seems to have been an important member of Princess Elizabeth's household and before their marriage in London, Frederick V of the Palatinate gave her a valuable gift of silver plate.
Her sister Anne Dudley (d. 1615) married Hans Meinhard von Schönberg and was the mother of Friedrich Hermann von Schönberg. Anne Dudley bequeathed to Lady Home, "a little ring made in the fashion of a heart enameled black with a little diamond". Anne Dudley was a lady in waiting to Princess Elizabeth (known as Mistress Dudley), as was her cousin Elizabeth Dudley, Countess of Löwenstein, daughter of her uncle John Dudley, both appointed to the royal household because of their Harington family connection. It is likely that the Countess of Home would later be an advocate for the cause of the Elizabeth of Bohemia in England and Scotland.
Her youngest sister, Margaret Dudley (1597-1674) married Miles Hobart of Plumstead (born 1602) in 1627 at St Ann Blackfriars, London. He was a son of Thomas Hobart of Plumstead and Willoughby Hopton, a daughter of Arthur Hopton of Blythburgh and Witham. According to Lady Home's lawyer, they lived 7 miles inland from Yarmouth. In later years Theodosia Dudley moved to Norfolk to be near her daughter at Beeston.
On 11 July 1605 Mary married the wealthy Scottish widower Alexander Home, 1st Earl of Home (died 1619), a marriage perhaps arranged by James VI and I and intended to effect the Anglicization of Scottish aristocracy. The newly created title of Earl of Home was counted in 1605 as a title in the English peerage. The wedding was celebrated by Peter Alibond, vicar of St Michael's, Chenies, at Bedford House in the Strand in the presence of her cousin Lucy Russell (née Harington), Countess of Bedford, with Bedford's usher John Stewart, Winifred Barnes, Captain Thomas Tyrie, and James Congleton. King James gave her an annual pension of £300, which she resigned in 1617. The Countess of Home frequently travelled to London. In June 1616 Anne Clifford recorded meeting her at the house of her cousin Lucy, Countess of Bedford.
Celebrating an Anglo-Scottish marriage.
The couple had a historical connection; her grandfather Edward Sutton, 4th Baron Dudley had been the keeper of Hume Castle in the Scottish borders which had been captured from Alexander Home's grandmother, Mariotta Haliburton in 1548. This link was celebrated at King James's arrival at Dunglass Castle on 13 May 1617. The poet David Hume of Godscroft wrote a Latin verse to be said on this occasion which contrasted Mary's rebuilding of the earl's houses with the destruction wrought by her grandfather during the war of the Rough Wooing. He refers to the improving work of her English hand;Mentiar; aut nullis horrendam ducimus Anglam,
Judice te; vultum respice, sive animum.
Nec fera miscemus, truculento, proelia, Marte:
Sed colimus, casti, foedera sancta, thori.
Hinc surgunt mihi structa palatia, diruit Angla
Quae quondam, melior iam struit Angla manus:
Hinc quam fausta tibi procederet UNIO, si sic
Exemplo, saperes Insula tota, meo.

Either I'm a liar, or we think that an Englishwoman is not terrible in any respect, as you judge: just consider her countenance or her mind. Nor shall we join battles in cruel war, but rather we are observing the sacred laws of a chaste marriage. Hence a castle, built for me, which an English hand had once demolished, a better English hand is now rebuilding. Hence this union will go prosperously for you and your entire island, if you grow wise after my example.
Life as a widow.
Alexander, Earl of Home died on 5 April 1619 in London in a house in Channel Row. Anne Clifford and the Countess of Bedford visited Lady Home there on 19 April. Lady Home was left wealthy, and it was rumoured the king gave her £1200 in June, but she had to defend her young son's rights as Earl of Home as owner of large estates in Berwickshire and the Scottish Borders, with the help of his guardians and curators, and leading members of the Home family.
Abraham Hume, a recent graduate of St Andrews University, was her chaplain around the year 1630, and he is said to have composed "remarks" objecting to London life and public affairs based on his experience of the Caroline court with his patron. Hume was subsequently chaplain to her son-in-law, John Maitland, 1st Duke of Lauderdale, then called Lord Maitland, and accompanied him on a Grand Tour.
Thomas Hope of Craighall.
The Countess of Home employed the lawyer Sir Thomas Hope of Craighall and he recorded some details of her business in his diary. On Tuesday 1 April 1634 she came to his lodging in Edinburgh with her family, the Earl of Lauderdale, John, Lord Maitland, James, Lord Doune and his wife, her daughter Margaret Lady Doune. They offered him 2,000 merks as an inducement in a legal process. Hope noted that she spoke to him first apart from the others, but offered £2,000 Scots as if she were unfamiliar with Scottish money.
Coldingham Priory and the Hirsel.
She disputed the ownership of lands of Coldingham Priory, and particularly the Northfield of Coldingham and the teinds of Auldcambus and Fast Castle, with Francis and John Stewart, sons of Francis Stewart, 5th Earl of Bothwell before the Privy Council of Scotland in 1620 and the issue continued in following years with interventions from James I and Charles I.
The house and estate at the Hirsel was part of the lands of Coldstream Priory. William Ker, a younger brother of John Ker of Littledean, wrote to Francis Stewart, son of the Earl of Bothwell about the Priory lands in July 1632. According to Ker, Coldstream had been obtained by the crown lawyer Thomas Hamilton, Earl of Haddington. He worked to Lady Home's benefit regarding the teinds of the Hirsel estate during her son's minority. Ker described their interaction as collusion. He hoped that Sir Robert Ker could agree with the young Earl of Home about details of the Hirsel estate.
Cockburnspath.
On 14 August 1634, she contracted with John Arnot, the postmaster of Cockburnspath near Dunglass castle that he would repair and rebuild the teind barn and barnyard of Cockburnspath and keep it in good order and have the use of it for 20 merks yearly, allowing her servants to use the barn to stack her teinds. Lady Home paid the minister's stipend at Cockburnspath, in 1638 the minister was George Sydserf.
A loan for the Scottish army.
In May 1644, the Countess of Home was able to lend £7,300 sterling towards the expenses of the Scottish Covenant army in Ireland. The merchant financier Robert Inglis accepted the loan and its equivalent in gold was sent to Carrickfergus Castle. The soldier Sir John Ruthven was involved in this transaction.
Many sundry particular things.
Mary maintained houses in London and in Edinburgh, employing Nicholas Stone and Isaac de Caus to work on her house in Aldersgate, which was later known as Lauderdale House. This house was used by the Spanish ambassador Carlos Coloma in October 1635. She built a summerhouse at Twickenham Park and decorated it with blue gilt leather recycled from her Scottish houses. At Highgate she extended an existing house, obtained from the queen's silkman William Geere, which survives and is known as Lauderdale House.
In Edinburgh she rebuilt the house in the Canongate now called Moray House, employing the master mason William Wallace and the painter John Sawers. She had two sets of chairs made in London in the latest Italianate fashion. There was a suite of three garden vault rooms with a black marble banqueting table. A gallery room was furnished with a couch bed and hung with at least 30 pictures. There was a balcony at the back of the house, overlooking the garden.
The garden included terraces, a mount, walks and wilderness, and two summerhouses. She had cherry, plum, apple, apricot, fig, and damson trees. Lady Home wrote an 8-point list of conditions for the employment of her gardeners, John Simpson and Christopher, forbidding them to sell any garden produce. She owned a copy of John Parkinson's "Herbal", an influential work by an apothecary and botanist who supplied plants to Charles I and Henrietta Maria. With her cousin Lucy, Countess of Bedford, she can be associated with the artist Nathaniel Bacon who painted still lifes of fruit and vegetables, and a network of women connected with the court who were enthusiastic fruit growers, including Alethea Howard, Countess of Arundel at Tart Hall. In February 1633, the Earl of Morton obtained her permission for the house to be at the disposal of Charles I during his visit and coronation in Scotland, but the plan was cancelled due to the death of her son.
She kept detailed inventories of her houses which record purchases made in London, listing beds, tapestries, and her books including volumes of sermons and a work penned by Esther Inglis. She had distilling equipment, loadstones, telescopes, a weather glass, and bronzes by Francesco Fanelli. She listed paintings by subject and noted that some were bought from George Geldorp, others from the New Exchange, many with religious subjects including the "Nativity" and "Christ and the Samaritan Woman". She acquired items with Harrington knot heraldry from the sale of the effects of her cousin the Countess of Bedford, and a set of silver candleholders that had belonged to Marie de' Medici, mother of Henrietta Maria.
These inventories include notes she wrote for her housekeepers and their written replies which form short dialogues. Lady Home wrote of an unsatisfactory inventory that it;"has byn wildely tacken in & are no way to bee trusted tow for comparein them with my own little book. I find in some roomes that neather in theare notes of what they say wants nor in that they say restes will bothe make up togeather which is sayde to bee in my booke of maney sondre partikeulor thinges."
The housekeeper at Floors near Kelso, Jane Descheil, was married to the coachman, she paid cleaners, fed the cat and the turkeys, brewed ale, made honey, bleached cloth, supervised a carpenter mending buffet stools, and sewed a featherbed, while Lady Home was away. At Twickenham Park, the housekeeper Judith Plummer was the wife of the gardener, and she embroidered shadow work on a bedsheet which the Countess treasured. A letter from Dorothy Spence, the Canongate housekeeper, was intercepted in 1645 and printed in a Royalist pamphlet. The male servants and the gardeners mentioned in surviving papers were all paid less than these female housekeepers. Food was bought in Edinburgh by the butler James Simpson. A servant Adam Young had a room in Edinburgh but also witnessed contracts in London.
In the 1630s and 1640s it became fashionable to own free-standing "trompe d'oeil" portraits of servants, family members, and children, now called "dummy boards". Lady Home had some of these made and painted for her in London. These included a shepherdess, a chamber maid, a man playing a viol, and a drawing chamber at the Canongate near her daughter Lady Doune's nursery overlooking the garden was inhabited by three "standing picktours" representing her two grandchildren and their attendant, the dwarf Meg Candie.
Nicholas Stone.
In 1638 she discussed the design of a tomb in white and black marble for her family to be built at Dunglass with Nicolas Stone in person at his workshop in Long Acre, which was not executed... my will is to have the tombe made with our pictures to the waist in white marble and three through stones to be laid upon us, I, my lord, my dear son Home and my selfe, & I would be laid betwixt them, & so my picture sett, Mr Stone the stone cutter that dwells in Long Acre showed me a tombe he had made for a knight & his wife in that maner ... Dunglass Castle was destroyed by an explosion in August 1640 and among the fifty two dead was John White, an English plasterer who also worked for her at The Hirsel, and at Winton House for George Seton, 3rd Earl of Winton. She sold Twickenham Park that year.
Marriages of her son, James Home.
In May 1622 at Whitehall Palace her son James, Earl of Home, married Catherine Cary daughter of Henry Cary, 1st Viscount Falkland (c.1575 – 1633) and Elizabeth Cary née Tanfield. John Chamberlain noted that the marriage had been arranged by the king. In Scotland, before the wedding, following the king's instructions, the lawyer Thomas Haddington convened a meeting of the six lairds of the Home surname to tell them about the marriage plans. They promised to help the earl, but had reservations, hoping that Lady Home would "make her intentions and courses known to them" and she would "hear and respect their faithful advice" concerning the earl, and if she neglected to consult them, they could have "no contentment in the business." In December, Lady Home wrote to Leonard Welstead, an agent of Lord Falkland (and formerly, with Matthew Lister, a trustee of the Countess of Pembroke), about dowry payments, and the toothache suffered by Lord Home and Catherine.
After Catherine's death in childbirth in 1625, James married Grace Fane, daughter of Francis Fane, 1st Earl of Westmorland (1583/4–1629). James still had legal guardians called "curators" including the Earl Marischal, the Earl of Morton, and Sir Robert Kerr of Ancram, a gentleman in the king's bedchamber. Mary wrote to Morton (who was in England) for help over dowry payments, wanting an installment of £1000 Sterling cash sent to her in Scotland rather than allow the Earl of Westmorland to invest the money in a project in England and buy land. She hoped the rest of the curators would agree with her, deferring to their "wiser judgements" but insisting "I will bee the last consentor to such a bisnes". She wanted the cash for dowries for her daughters.
Mary Mildmay Fane, Countess of Westmorland wrote letters to her daughter Grace in Scotland solicitous of her health, including passages in cipher, one referring to loss of her hair through illness. She hoped Grace would come to London to take her sisters to see the masques at court in 1631, "Love's Triumph Through Callipolis" and "Chloridia". Grace was treated by an Edinburgh physician, David Arnot. James Home died in London in February 1633, attended by the court physician Théodore de Mayerne, and Grace died soon afterwards at Apethorpe. The two countesses continued a bitter lawsuit over their children's properties. Westmorland was her daughter's executrix. She complained that the Countess of Home had the advantage in Scottish courts from her continual residence and acquaintance in Edinburgh. Charles I wrote to the Court of Session in Westmorland's favour on 5 May 1634.
The earldom passed to a distant cousin James Home, 3rd Earl of Home (1615–1666). Mary wrote to Sir David Home of Wedderburn from Aldersgate after her son's death about the future of the Home family, name, and "ancient raice", asking him to "express your love both to the living and to the dead".
Lady Moray and Lady Lauderdale.
A Scottish author Patrick Hannay (fl. 1616–1630) dedicated "A happy husband or, Directions for a Maide to choose her Mate, As also, a Wives behaviour towards her Husband after Marriage" (Edinburgh, 1618/1619?) to Mary's eldest daughter Margaret Home (d. 1683), who married James Stewart, 4th Earl of Moray in 1628. Hannay's title refers to Sir Thomas Overbury.
In 1632 Mary's younger daughter Lady Anne Home married John Maitland later Duke of Lauderdale. Anne inherited her mother's properties and furnishings in London.
Lady Home's will.
Mary made a will in 1638 reflecting her English and Scottish properties and identity. She hoped her granddaughters would inherit her furnishings and collection, dividing house contents in London and Scotland between them, according to the inventories of each house. She was aware that this was problematic, writing "And I am not ignorant that my houses both in Edinborough as Canongate and in Aldersgate Street being inheritance I cannot dispose so of them by this my late will neither by the laws of England nor Scotland". Amongst personal bequests to her family and servants, she left a purse of gold coins to her nephew, Frederick Schomberg, 1st Duke of Schomberg, the son of her sister Anne (Dudley) Sutton. The will appointed her granddaughter Lady Mary Stewart (d. 1668) as executor, but she was still a minor when the countess died in London in March 1644. Her body was shipped to Scotland and buried at Dunglass. Her daughters and their husbands instead acted as executors and "administratices". An account of the financial settlement to 31 March 1646 was made by the merchant financier Robert Inglis.
The will and the Commonwealth.
In 1648 Lauderdale's share of her possessions and furniture in London was forfeited by his delinquency and sold. Claims that the furnishings belonged to his daughter or had been sold to a Scottish merchant in London, Robert Inglis, were disregarded. Some goods at Aldersgate were sold in October 1648. It also came to light that Mary had lent £2,000 to the Earl of Cleveland and obtained property in Hackney and Stepney, and £1000 to Elizabeth Ashfield, a neighbour in Aldersgate, gaining her lands at North Barsteed in Suffolk. A challenge to the administration of the will by a third-party William Dudley, demonstrating that goods belonged not to Lauderdale but to his daughter, and that the executors had not been lawfully appointed, failed in 1658. Lauderdale was enabled to recover his property at the Restoration. It is due to the complexities of dividing her goods and this legal battle that her inventories survive to give a unique insight into the material culture of Anglo-Scottish aristocrat in the 1630s. The inventories include a set of portraits after Van Dyck now at Darnaway Castle.
Children.
Lady Home had seven children, all of whom were born in Scotland attended by Mrs Cuthbert, an English midwife. Three reached adulthood; James, Margaret and Anne. One child was born in Scotland in October 1612. Anne of Denmark sent instructions to the chamberlain of her Dunfermline estates, Henry Wardlaw of Pitreavie, to distribute presents of money at the christening, and Anna Hay, Countess of Winton was to be her representative. The child was probably Anne, the queen's namesake. The Earl of Home was a Catholic, and in December 1615 the Archbishop of St Andrews objected to his choice of tutor for his children.
References.
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Journal Kyaw Ma Ma Lay
Burmese writer
"Journal Kyaw" Ma Ma Lay ( ) is widely acknowledged as one of the greatest Burmese writers of the 20th century. Her stories are known for authentic portrayals of modern Burmese society. Along with Ludu Daw Amar, Ma Ma Lay was one of a few female authors in Burma. She died in 1982 at the age of 65.
Personal life.
Ma Ma Lay was born Ma Tin Hlaing in Karmaklu Village, Ayeyarwady Division, Myanmar in 1917. Her literary career began in 1936 when her article "To Become Knowledgeable Women" was published in the "Myanma Alin" newspaper. She later married Chit Maung the chief editor of Myanma Alin in 1938. Together, they founded "The Journal Kyaw" newspaper in 1939. She began writing articles and short stories under the pen name "Journal Kyaw Ma Ma Lay".
Ma Ma Lay was just 29 when her husband died in 1946, leaving her with two sons and a daughter. Despite being a young widow, Ma Ma Lay displayed her talent and ability as a writer and a publisher. Not only did she not close down the "Journal", she published another one named "Pyithu Hittaing" or "The People's Voice Newspaper", in accordance with her husband's last wish.
Unfortunately, she could only run the press only for a few years due to the situation in the country. Troubles began when a group of students destroyed her publishing company's printing house for her papers' perceived leftist slant (and perhaps for her family's ties with leading Marxists like Thein Pe Myint.) Not one to back down, Ma Ma Lay continued to publish her two papers by going deeply into debt. Though she was able to repay part of the debts due to the commercial success of her 1947 book "Thu Lo Lu" (Like Him), she couldn't keep the presses going for long.
Ma Ma Lay continued her career as a writer and was also the president of the Writers Association in 1948, which was most unusual for a female. Traveling the world was not easy for a woman at that time but Ma Ma Lay managed it. She went to India, Japan, China and Russia, attending conferences and touring the countries. She continued writing until the 1970s. She would not get back into the publishing business again but ran a small printing business in the 1950s.
Ma Ma Lay married Aung Zeya in 1959. She died in Yangon on 6 April 1982. She was almost 65.
Her eldest son Maung Thein Dan became an actor. Her daughter was Dr. Daw Khin Lay Myint, a noted French scholar who died in 2007. She translated two of her mother's works into French, and some French classics into Burmese. Her youngest son was the poet Moe Hein.
Literary career.
Ma Ma Lay wrote nearly 20 books and many articles and short stories in the monthly magazines. Many of her contemporaries and even younger writers describe her as a genius who could make simple everyday matters into readable, interesting books which reflected the lives and concerns of her readers.
Her famous works are:
Ma Ma Lay won two top Burmese Literary Prizes for "Not Out of Hate" and "A Slow Stream of Thoughts and Burmese Medicine Tales".
Life as a Burmese traditional medicine practitioner.
Ma Ma Lay was a practitioner of traditional Burmese medicine. Her interest in traditional medicine began after her family's poor experience with Western medicine. In 1945, her seven-year-old daughter's leg operation was botched by a British Army doctor. In 1946, her husband suddenly died within 12 days of uncertain cause.
Ma Ma Lay studied traditional Burmese medicine for 15 years under Saya Hlaing (open at No.20, Kyaik Latt Street, Sanchaung township, Yangon), and opened a clinic in Yangon. She traveled frequently to other regions and treated patients with tuberculosis, cancer, high blood pressure, hepatitis B, leprosy, diabetes, paralysis, mental disease, dropsy, elephantiasis.
Ma Ma Lay was said to have cured her youngest brother Tin Win of VD Venereal Disease in three months. Later, Tin Win too studied Burmese medicine and became a traditional medicine practitioner in Mandalay.
References.
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Lady Grace Mysteries
Historical detective fiction series
The Lady Grace Mysteries is a series of children's detective fiction novels initially written by English author Patricia Finney, with Sara Volger and Jan Burchett later joining as co-authors.
Written as a diary, the story follows Lady Grace Cavendish, a maid of honour to Queen Elizabeth I, attempting to solve various mysteries within the royal court.
Characters.
There are a number of recurring characters throughout the series, while the main characters are Lady Grace Cavendish and Queen Elizabeth I.
Lady Grace Cavendish, Maid of Honour.
Lady Grace Cavendish is the youngest Maid of Honour to Queen Elizabeth I of England. In the first book, "Assassin", she is thirteen years old; by the eleventh, "Keys", she is fifteen. She is the Queen's dearest goddaughter and rather a favourite with her at Court.
She is an orphan like her friends Ellie and Masou. Both her parents, especially her mother, play memorial roles in all the books and both died heroic, tragic deaths. Her father died when she was two, fighting a war in France, and her mother unintentionally drank poison intended for the Queen, put there by the Papist Guises.
Her best friends work at Whitehall Palace and follow the Queen on progress. Ellie Bunting, an orphaned laundry maid, and Masou Al-Ahmed, an African acrobat from Will Somer's acrobatic troupe, are both very close to Grace. However, they have to keep their friendship a secret due to the vast difference between their stations in life. The only time Grace mentions them is in her daybooke.
Sharp and clever, Grace always solves a new mystery in a short deadline and is quietly rewarded by the Queen. Grace has to keep her investigations a secret, but she nearly always informs Masou and Ellie, and they are her trusty friends who help her with the investigations when she needs a companion and they sometimes try to do some of their own investigation in their spare time. She is always very discreet about her being the Queen's Lady Pursuivant and her adventures are closely guarded secrets.
Grace never wants to get married as she wants to be like the Queen and stay at the Royal Court as long as she wishes to. However, in the 1st book ("Assassin") she has three suitors, Lord Robert, Sir Gerald and her horse riding instructor Sir Charles. Fortunately, she does not have to marry one of them after a murder case when Sir Gerald is found dead with a knife in his back and Lord Robert is under suspicion.
Ever since the death of her beloved mother, Lady Margaret Cavendish, all of the Maids of Honour, Ladies in Waiting and especially the Queen have been kind to her. The Queen, who was very close to Grace's mother, took Grace on as a Maid of Honour at the age of twelve.
Unlike all the other Maids of Honour, Lady Grace loves to climb trees in orchards when she walks the dogs. In Whitehall, she mainly climbs a cherry tree that reminds her of her mother. When Grace walks the Queen's dogs, she always goes to visit her friends Masou and Ellie in a hideout. Every time the Queen wants to move to another Palace, Masou and Ellie find a little hideaway in the orchard to go in there in their spare time, when they are not helping Lady Grace solve a new mystery.
The thing that Grace hates is when Ellie and Masou have to treat her like a Maid of Honour, and call her "mistress" and "lady". When Masou does, he performs elaborate bows. Grace states she always finds it hard not to laugh when he does.
Queen Elizabeth.
Elizabeth I (7 September 1533 – 24 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in early 1603. Sometimes called "The Virgin Queen", "Gloriana", or "Good Queen Bess", Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty.
Elizabeth was the daughter of King Henry VIII and Queen Anne Boleyn. Elizabeth was born a princess, but her mother, Anne Boleyn, was executed three years after her birth on false accusations of treason, heresy, witchcraft and infidelity, and through her mother's disgrace Elizabeth was declared illegitimate.
In 1558 Elizabeth succeeded her half-sister, the devoutly Catholic Mary I of England, during whose reign she had been imprisoned for nearly a year on suspicion of supporting Protestant rebels. It was a difficult time for Elizabeth. She was known to take a diamond from her jewels and scratch into a Tower window the words,
"Much suspected of me, nothing proved can be, quote Elizabeth, prisoner."
She was a very fond and helping godmother and guardian to Lady Grace, but whether or not that's true in real life nobody knows the truth. She was certainly a devoted and protective woman to her Ladies-in-Waiting and Maids of Honour.
Dr Cavendish.
Dr Cavendish is Grace's loving uncle and the head physician at Court. He is a fond uncle of Grace and one of her only relatives. He is very upset by Grace's mother's death and for many years after the tragedy he is known to be lost in his own world.
He is usually in one of two states – drunk or hung over. Despite all this he loves Grace very dearly and Grace is very fond of him and loves him a lot more than she realizes. Dr Cavendish is always careful to upgrade Grace's physical state and regularly check her health standards.
Olwen and Fran.
Olwen is Lady Sarah's tiring woman. She is kind and cheerful and comforts Lady Sarah when Sarah is upset. In "Betrayal", Olwen is abducted, threatened, tied up, treated despicably, and used as hostage to lure Lady Sarah unwittingly into abduction too.
Cruel Captain Derby, Olwen's captor, threatens to cut off Olwen's hands if Lady Sarah refuses to marry him, and throws her into the brig. Naturally, this is the cause of much distress for both Olwen and Lady Sarah.
Fran is Mary Shelton's tiring woman. She is not mentioned much in the series and she also helps Lady Grace along with Olwen.
Penelope Knollys, Carmina Willoughby and Lucy Throckmorton.
Penelope Knollys is one of Grace's fellow Maids of Honour. She follows the Queen on progress and shares a bedroom with Lady Jane Coningsby and Carmina Willoughby. Penelope always cowers away from the antics of Lady Sarah Bartelmy and Lady Jane Coningsby. Penelope is quite small and plain, and always follows Lady Sarah and her advice on clothes. In Book 7, "Gold", Penelope gets married, thus leaving the Queen's service.
Carmina is bright and bouncy. In "Feud", she suffers from poisoning from Orpiment, given to her by Lady Horsely for revenge on her son's accidental death through jousting. Also, after the crisis of a fire at St Bartholemhew's Fair in Smith Field, Book 10, "Jinx", she becomes very superstitious and jumpy, full of dire warnings. She is friends with Lucy Throckmorton and loves having a good chatter over a mystery, she and Lucy both share the love of gossip.
Lucy Throckmorton is a terrible gossip. She appears to replace Penelope after her marriage and is not in all the books - considerably startles some readers by popping up suddenly in Book 10! Lucy is best friends with Carmina, gossips all the time and likes having long, boring, detailed conversations about sleeves and gowns in the latest styles.
Ellie Bunting.
Ellie is a laundry maid at Queen Elizabeth's court, who later in the series (the book "Haunted") becomes Lady Grace's tiring woman by way of reward for an act of bravery in defeating a villain in broad daylight, in front of the rest of the Court.
She is very good friends with Grace and Masou and she often assists them in solving the hardest of mysteries. Ellie is very superstitious - in "Jinx" and "Haunted" she insists upon carting a massive bag of amulets around with her, even when sailing down the Thames and walking the dogs through muddy fields! She is very considerate, as looks are concerned she is thin as she is fed little. She has brown hair and a rounded face with many scars.
Like her friends Grace and Masou, she is an orphan as her parents died of the sickly plague. In Feud, she talks about how her parents died, pushing back tears as she shows Grace the scars on her neck.
The deputy laundress, Mrs. Fadget, treats Ellie badly, forcing her to work long hours without a break, and tries to suck up to Grace when Grace visits the laundry to make up excuses to drag Ellie out of her work to talk to her. (These excuses often involve numerous unwashed chemises and precious silk handkerchiefs that need scrubbing from ink stains.) In the second book, "Betrayal", Mrs. Fadget treats Ellie so badly she gets quinsey. While Grace is on a Captain Drake's ship, Mary Shelton cares for Ellie until Grace comes back with Lady Sarah. By that time Ellie is much better.
In "Exile", Book 5, Ellie is falsely accused of stealing the Heart of Kings. The Heart of Kings is the most famed and fabled jewel in the world and is the most treasured possession of the Court's noble foreign visitor (Banoo Yasmine from Sharkand, A.K.A. The Holy Lands). Luckily Ellie is proved innocent and Grace is the one to give out the "good tidings".
Ellie is later upgraded to tiring woman after she catches a criminal and she takes great care and time with Grace's hair and appearance and often accompanies her on her missions.
Masou al-Ahmed.
Masou is a Muslim boy and a skilled tumbler in Queen Elizabeth's court. Like Ellie, he is rewarded later in the series and becomes one of the Queen's very own Fools after performing an act of bravery. He is good friends with Grace and Ellie and helps them solve mysteries. When Lady Sarah was captured by Captain Derby in "Betrayal", Masou helps Lady Grace save her and her tiring woman Olwen. Masou is from Africa and never knew his mother, who died at his birth. His father died of consumption after arriving in England when he was very young. He is cheeky, fun and boastful about his skills. He is especially good at juggling with fire. In the third book, "Conspiracy", Masou looks after Gypsy Pete when he was hurt by a firework. He likes to try and scare the girls and in "Haunted", Grace says it is the first time she has seen him speechless (when he is granted the honor of Court Fool, and quickly becomes the Queen's favourite).
Lady Sarah Bartelmy.
Lady Sarah Bartelmy is one of Grace's fellow Maids of Honour and shares a bedchamber with Grace. She is two years older than Grace and is a lively and flirtatious girl. She is exceedingly picky over her makeup and hair and drives her chambermaids mad with her constant fussing over pearls and hair arrangements. She is the wealthiest of all the Maids of Honour and spends a month wearing every gown before begging for a new one.
Not much is known about Lady Sarah's past, childhood or family except that she is an exceedingly wealthy young heiress and her family owns a large estate called Bartelmy House a hundred miles away from the Queen's residence.
Lady Sarah is very pretty, with becoming copper coloured locks and a large bosom. She is the poor Maid of Honour who has to sit for hours on end while the Queen's artist paints her because Queen Elizabeth has no time to spare. She also pretends to be the Queen at a masque where the Queen plays a cunning prank on her courtiers.
In the second book, Lady Sarah and her tiring woman Olwen are captured by Captain Derby.
Lady Sarah's enemy at Court is her fellow Maid of Honour Lady Jane Coningsby. In "Deception" Sarah creates a rude rhyme mocking Lady Jane's lack of skating technique, which she sings in front of six young gentlemen, a large congregation and Lady Jane. Grace writes it down in her daybooke. Lady Jane then sings one back about three large spots (interpretative the 'three blind mice'), staring at Lady Sarah whilst singing it. They constantly vie each other for the most men following them
After the tenth book, Lady Sarah is wooed by a Gentleman of the Guards named Daniel Cheshire. He writes love poetry for her, which she receives very happily, and by the end of the twelfth book they are hand-fasted to wed. They are extremely happy together.
Lady Jane Coningsby.
Lady Jane Coningsby is a new Maid of Honour at Whitehall Palace who took the place of a banished Maid of Honour, Katharine Broke, who was sent home in disgrace after a scandal with the Duke of Norkfolk's young nephew. Lady Jane is not the most popular amongst the other Maids of Honour.
Lady Jane's number one enemy at Court is Lady Sarah Bartelmy, her fellow Maid of Honour. They both despise each other. Since Lady Jane lately came to Court, she has had countless squabbles with arrogant Lady Sarah. Lady Jane despises Lady Sarah, and fights with her almost constantly. She is always searching for ways to outdo Lady Sarah in gaining the attention of the young gentlemen.
Lady Jane is very pretty, as is her rival Sarah Bartelmy. Jane has an exceedingly tall elegant figure and long, carefully styled blonde ringlets 'foaming down her back', as one of the dafter court gentlemen wrote in a poem.
Her father was the ambassador to the French Court at one time, so she gives herself fancy airs and graces. Jane often uses her eloquently superior way of public speaking to demean her rival Lady Sarah and update herself as supposedly the most beautiful and attractive of all the Maids at Court.
Jane also thinks she knows more about fashion than anyone else because the French Court was so fashionable at the time her father was ambassador and wears a lot of French-style apparel. She is very jumpy about her clothes and her reputation for her beauty. Every other Maid of Honour is very fed up of Lady Jane and Lady Sarah quarrelling.
Like many other Maids of Honour and Ladies in Waiting at the Court of Queen Elizabeth I, Jane's dreams are to find a man of money and rank to marry. She has a love of flirting, and uses her reputation of ultimate beauty to propel and strengthen that love.
In "Betrayal", Lady Jane is jealous of Lady Sarah because Lady Sarah attracts two piratical but nevertheless gallant, flirtatious, generous, handsome, dashing young sea captains to her beauty and wealth on a visit to Tillbury Docks while Jane herself, who constantly considers herself ultimately beautiful, is positively ignored, even when she deliberately steps into a muddy puddle wearing her best shoes, simply in the hope of attracting a little attention from Captain Drake and Captain Derby.
Jane is very attractive and has a little group of young courtiers following her, wherever she goes. Jane constantly complains that Lady Sarah has all the gentlemen to herself, but despite her steadfast complaints, she does know that men of the Court go positively moony over her for a range of different reasons: her flirtatious manner, her beauty, and her wealth, the fact that she is an heiress, that she is exceedingly well-born, and that she has wealthy parents.
In the 12th book, "Loot," before the celebrations for the Queen's 12th year on the throne, Lady Jane and Lady Sarah have a fight over who gets to wear a crimson velvet dress. They have a tug of war, suggested by Lady Sarah, over it which results in Lady Jane ripping the dress in half.
Mary Shelton.
Mary Shelton is a Maid of Honour at the Court. She has been very kind to Lady Grace since Grace's mother died. When Ellie is sick with quinsy and Lady Sarah appears to have run off with a piratical sea captain, Mary stays at Whitehall and nurses Ellie. Meanwhile, Grace is away at sea with her hair cut short, pretending to be a boy.
Mary is not entirely clueless about Grace's secret role at Whitehall Palace as Lady Pursuivant, and is Grace's sidekick when necessary. However, she never questions Grace's activities.
Mary is quiet, loving, gentle and friendly. She loves to gossip and hates climbing trees and walking the dogs. She doesn't like mice. As Grace quotes in her daybooke,
"She doesn't like mice, rats or lizards, or any small scuttly