I Can't Hear You!

The First Goth Ball

For all these years a portrait on the wall has stared calmly down at me whenever we've had enough people in the house to have a party in the dinning room.

Except for an explanatory note taped to the back, that I typed up about 25 years ago, I hadn't thought much of this print of Holbein's Duchess of Milan:

Dad and I recently looked up the relevant passage in my mother's father's unpublished autobiography and found that on a visit to Gõttingen, Germany in 1912, while studying in the UK, he had purchased the above for 12.50 DM (then, the equivalent of $3.00).

Had that been the end of it, well, that's all very interesting.  But then we looked up just who was the Duchess of Milan and found that she was originally Princess Christina of Denmark, who was married off at the age of 12 to the Duke of Milan; her 'husband' then died the next year.  Again, this would be interesting in itself.  But it gets really interesting when we discover that when she was 16, England's Henry VIII had her portrait drawn by Holbein (on March 12th, 1538) with the intention of perhaps choosing her as his next wife.  In response, she wore her mourning clothes and had her rooms in Brussels draped in black; and, if one looks closely, there is a delicate arrangement to the fingers to note.  She is rumored to have said of the situation: "If I had two heads, one should be at the King of England's disposal".  Henry pursued the match (upon seeing her portrait for the first time, it is said that he was so happy he had his musicians play all day--this is understandable, as she has an intelligent look about her), but Christina's guardian, her aunt, Mary of Hungary, did not approve and, besides, Christina had strong ties to the Lutheran church.

The Duchess marries again, four years later (to the man who was originally to marry Henry's fourth wife, Anne).  He then dies and she is left to raise a son and two daughters as regent of Upper Lorraine. Her children, incidentally, become the ancestors of many of the royal bloodlines of Europe.

If you're wondering, the cuttings in the above photo are of pink dogwood.