43rd Issue: Mary Seymour, Montague Summers, and Googie Architecture
Hello! Today is a grab bag of three random people and concepts that I found while browsing Wikipedia that were not long enough for their own issue. Enjoy!
Mary Seymour was the daughter of Katherine Parr. Katherine was married to Henry VIII – she was his widow, and his last wife, as he died before her. She married Thomas Seymour, and Mary was her only daughter. She died soon after giving birth, and her husband Thomas was executed soon after for treason against the King, Edward VI. Mary was left a poor orphan, and was taken care of the Duchess of Suffolk, who saw her as a burden. There is no record of what happened to Mary after the age of two, so most speculate that she died, especially since she never claimed what was left of her father’s estate, but there are also other theories out there.
One biographer of Katherine Parr claims that Mary was married off to Sir Edward Bushel, who was a friend of King James VI of Scotland and a member of Queen Anne of Denmark’s household. However, the dates don’t match, and Mary would have been only six years old, way too young to be a wife. Another theory is that Mary was taken to Ireland and raised by the Hart family, who were in an arrangement with her father before his death to be pirates off the coast and share the profits with him. The evidence for this theory is “a lozenge-shaped ring inscribed "What I have I hold"…reputed to have been an early gift to Thomas by his brother Edward…passed down through generations of the Seymour-Harts until at least 1927”.
Mary probably died when she was two, after a short and unhappy childhood without parents, but it can be kind of fun to think of an alternate version of history where she grew up and had a happier life. There are several books exploring this topic. I haven’t read any of them yet, but The Phantom Tree by Nicola Cornick introduces a time travel element to Mary’s story, The Stolen One by Suzanne Crowley is a YA coming of age story where Mary learns her true identity, and The Red Queen’s Daughter by Jacqueline Kolosov brings magic into the whole thing.
Augustus Montague Summers lived from 1880 to 1948. He was an author of several books and studies on witches, vampires and werewolves. He translated the 15th century witch hunter’s manual, The Malleus Maleficarum.
Montague studied theology with the intention of becoming a priest, and was ordained as a deacon in 1908. He never advanced very far in the priestly orders, because he was interested in magic and the supernatural, which was seen as Satanic. He was also accused of molesting young boys, but he was tried and acquitted of these charges. In 1909, he converted to Catholicism and called himself a Catholic priest, but was never a member of any Catholic order, so he may have never even been ordained as a Catholic priest.
Montague worked as an English and Latin teacher at schools in London before deciding to write full time. He was interested in 17th century theater, and edited various plays from the time period. He also wrote several studies of Gothic fiction and Gothic horror stories. He was friends with Aleister Crowley, who chose to adopt the persona of a witch in the modern day, and Montague considered himself an educated Catholic witch-hunter. In 1928, he published the first English translation of the Malleus Maleficarum. Montague insisted that witches were real, and that is a part of Catholic doctrine. He considered the Malleus Malificarum to be correct and useful, whereas most of the other Catholic scholars at the time were skeptical and critical of it.
After that, Montague wrote two books about vampires, and one about werewolves. What made his books unique was that he wrote in a very old-fashioned style, and he seemed to genuinely believe that the cryptids he was writing about were real. Montague considered himself a sort of throwback to the middle ages, and was basically an edgelord. He was described as wearing a black cloak and shovel hat, often “seen entering or leaving the reading room of the British Museum, carrying a large black portfolio bearing on its side a white label, showing in blood-red capitals, the legend 'VAMPIRES'”. Montague was very religious, but he was also a member of the British Society for the Study of Sex Psychology and wrote an essay for them about the Marquis de Sade (if you want to read his Wikipedia page, please know that I warned you not to).
Montague died in 1948, and was buried in a grave that was marked with a stone with his favorite phrase on it: “Tell me strange things”. His manservant Hector Stuart-Forbes was buried with him when he died.
Googie architecture, if you don’t already know the term, is something that you probably will recognize instantly when you see it, but maybe you did not know there was a name for it - I certainly did not. Googie architecture started in the 1930s, with the mass production and ownership of cars. It coincided with the beginning of suburbia, and the need for visual imagery that was recognizable from the road, allowing customers to recognize a restaurant or hotel they wanted to stop at. To achieve this, they focused on bold styles, neon letters, and elevated signs. It was all meant to look futuristic and modern. The style of architecture was also influenced by spaceflight and nuclear power, which were in the public imagination at the time.
Googie architecture lasted till the 1960s, but then died down in popularity. Buildings were designed to blend in and not stand out. Nobody really thought about preserving Googie architecture, and now not much of it remains. The Googie style can be seen in Tomorrowland, at the original Disneyland, as well as in The Jetsons cartoons. It is now recognizable as part of retro-futurism (what people in the past thought the future would be like), and inspired many cartoons such as The Incredibles and Jimmy Neutron’s visual styles. Below are several examples of Googie architecture.
I know this issue was quite short, but I was wondering if you have a preference for shorter, more frequent newsletters, or longer but less frequent ones. Please let me know if you care a lot one way or the other and I can adjust accordingly. Oh, also, in case you were interested, I wrote a piece about medical cannibalism recently that you can read here. Have a good day!
Mary Seymour was the daughter of Katherine Parr. Katherine was married to Henry VIII – she was his widow, and his last wife, as he died before her. She married Thomas Seymour, and Mary was her only daughter. She died soon after giving birth, and her husband Thomas was executed soon after for treason against the King, Edward VI. Mary was left a poor orphan, and was taken care of the Duchess of Suffolk, who saw her as a burden. There is no record of what happened to Mary after the age of two, so most speculate that she died, especially since she never claimed what was left of her father’s estate, but there are also other theories out there.
One biographer of Katherine Parr claims that Mary was married off to Sir Edward Bushel, who was a friend of King James VI of Scotland and a member of Queen Anne of Denmark’s household. However, the dates don’t match, and Mary would have been only six years old, way too young to be a wife. Another theory is that Mary was taken to Ireland and raised by the Hart family, who were in an arrangement with her father before his death to be pirates off the coast and share the profits with him. The evidence for this theory is “a lozenge-shaped ring inscribed "What I have I hold"…reputed to have been an early gift to Thomas by his brother Edward…passed down through generations of the Seymour-Harts until at least 1927”.
Mary probably died when she was two, after a short and unhappy childhood without parents, but it can be kind of fun to think of an alternate version of history where she grew up and had a happier life. There are several books exploring this topic. I haven’t read any of them yet, but The Phantom Tree by Nicola Cornick introduces a time travel element to Mary’s story, The Stolen One by Suzanne Crowley is a YA coming of age story where Mary learns her true identity, and The Red Queen’s Daughter by Jacqueline Kolosov brings magic into the whole thing.
Augustus Montague Summers lived from 1880 to 1948. He was an author of several books and studies on witches, vampires and werewolves. He translated the 15th century witch hunter’s manual, The Malleus Maleficarum.
Montague studied theology with the intention of becoming a priest, and was ordained as a deacon in 1908. He never advanced very far in the priestly orders, because he was interested in magic and the supernatural, which was seen as Satanic. He was also accused of molesting young boys, but he was tried and acquitted of these charges. In 1909, he converted to Catholicism and called himself a Catholic priest, but was never a member of any Catholic order, so he may have never even been ordained as a Catholic priest.
Montague worked as an English and Latin teacher at schools in London before deciding to write full time. He was interested in 17th century theater, and edited various plays from the time period. He also wrote several studies of Gothic fiction and Gothic horror stories. He was friends with Aleister Crowley, who chose to adopt the persona of a witch in the modern day, and Montague considered himself an educated Catholic witch-hunter. In 1928, he published the first English translation of the Malleus Maleficarum. Montague insisted that witches were real, and that is a part of Catholic doctrine. He considered the Malleus Malificarum to be correct and useful, whereas most of the other Catholic scholars at the time were skeptical and critical of it.
After that, Montague wrote two books about vampires, and one about werewolves. What made his books unique was that he wrote in a very old-fashioned style, and he seemed to genuinely believe that the cryptids he was writing about were real. Montague considered himself a sort of throwback to the middle ages, and was basically an edgelord. He was described as wearing a black cloak and shovel hat, often “seen entering or leaving the reading room of the British Museum, carrying a large black portfolio bearing on its side a white label, showing in blood-red capitals, the legend 'VAMPIRES'”. Montague was very religious, but he was also a member of the British Society for the Study of Sex Psychology and wrote an essay for them about the Marquis de Sade (if you want to read his Wikipedia page, please know that I warned you not to).
Montague died in 1948, and was buried in a grave that was marked with a stone with his favorite phrase on it: “Tell me strange things”. His manservant Hector Stuart-Forbes was buried with him when he died.
Googie architecture, if you don’t already know the term, is something that you probably will recognize instantly when you see it, but maybe you did not know there was a name for it - I certainly did not. Googie architecture started in the 1930s, with the mass production and ownership of cars. It coincided with the beginning of suburbia, and the need for visual imagery that was recognizable from the road, allowing customers to recognize a restaurant or hotel they wanted to stop at. To achieve this, they focused on bold styles, neon letters, and elevated signs. It was all meant to look futuristic and modern. The style of architecture was also influenced by spaceflight and nuclear power, which were in the public imagination at the time.
Googie architecture lasted till the 1960s, but then died down in popularity. Buildings were designed to blend in and not stand out. Nobody really thought about preserving Googie architecture, and now not much of it remains. The Googie style can be seen in Tomorrowland, at the original Disneyland, as well as in The Jetsons cartoons. It is now recognizable as part of retro-futurism (what people in the past thought the future would be like), and inspired many cartoons such as The Incredibles and Jimmy Neutron’s visual styles. Below are several examples of Googie architecture.
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