Oh man, reading these Memoirs...

[guardians_song]

Authentick Memoirs of the Life and Conduct of Her Grace, Sarah, Late Dutchess of Marlborough: Containing a Genuine Narrative of Her Grace's Conduct, from Her First Coming to Court, to the Death of Her Royal Mistress Queen Anne, and ... to Her Grace's Death. Likewise All Her Grace's Letters to the Queen, and Her Majesty's Answers. To which is Prefix'd, the Last Will and Testament of Her Grace, from a True Copy of the Original, Lodg'd in Doctor's Commons

Due to the Will and Testament, it actually begins only on page 70 or so. But it's hilarious. The woman is so full of herself and the points of sleight-of-hand are so obvious.
Screw ~realistic~ fiction, I prefer history.

For a woman who claimed that Queen Anne was a lesbian (with her replacement as the queen's favorite), the intro sure sounds like yuri. *snerk* 'Oh, our friendship was so great that she couldn't bear addressing me as a lesser, so we invented usernames pennames that were on the same level!'
(And should you say that 'well, they had very strong platonic relationships back then' - the Duchess of Marlborough prodded Queen Anne about the charge, not me.)

...Jeez, this is melodramatic and slashy. Admittedly Anne was dead at this point, so she couldn't gainsay anything she was claimed to have written, but, if it were made up, surely the Duchess of Marlborough grasped what this looked like.

Then again, this is the woman who thought it was a good idea to TELL THE QUEEN OF ENGLAND to shut up during a heated argument. Yes. Sarah Churchill in a nutshell.

*crying with laughter* And her excuse is 'I never did anything wrong, everyone's just mad that I bashed Abigail Masham!' Oh man, the chutzpah! Oh, this is GLORIOUS...

(This is a more readable version of the main part.)

What annoys me is that it wasn't as catty as I was led to believe. 'Tis a pity. Perhaps the catty parts were elsewhere?
(Apparently it was in a letter I can't track down through Google Books. Oh well.)

Yeah, yeah, I know, THAT could be Just friendly...


And that...


Uh...


...Or not so much.

Yep. Verrrrry slashy. 'Close female friendships' or not - very slashy indeed. Especially with Sarah Churchill throwing an absolute shitfit over the possibility of Anne having a close friendship with Abigail Masham. And, I must ask - if her relationship with Anne was solely platonic, why did a close friendship with another woman throw her into utter rage and panic? Surely she should have just appreciated that, sometimes, women just have close friendships, eh? ;)


The below screencap has nothing to do with the relationship and is included just because I find it amusing.

Hah! Truly, things never change, do they? ;)

 

Comments

[lliira]

Nearly all personal letters between unrelated people of the same gender, but especially of women, before about the early 20th century (and very many after) read as seriously slashy. Most of it is probably just that they were more open about expressing affection and emotional need than we are. But some of it is also... well, for the obvious reason.

I love the early 18th century. It was absolutely prime for gossip and their worldviews are easy for us to understand today.