Further reflections (WAS Sharon Penman etc)

Around 1560 Charlotte of Bourbon (minor French royal) was sent to a
convent by her father because her mother had been passing on her
Protestantism. She was 13, and made a written protest when she was
forced to take the veil. After twelve years she ran away to Germany, and
three years after that married William the Silent as his third wife.
They had six daughters in as many years. Her death is attributed to her
exhaustion nursing her husband after an assassination attempt, but I
don't suppose being pregnant nearly all the time helped....

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlotte_of_Bourbon>

Going to a nunnery wasn't considered child abuse, rather an insurance to
assist the family in the hereafter. Not all the girls who were convent
educated would stay there, and there must have been work for nuns
teaching girls things they would need to know for a life 'outside'. You
could be more ambitious with boys - George Neville, Archbishop of York
was destined for the church from childhood - poorer families saw it as a
means of (single generation) upward mobility, and adequate food (when
not fasting) without much of the hassle.

I wondered whether Elizabeth and Bridget were in the same order, as that
might have helped them keep in touch more, but Bermondsey was
Benedictine and Dartford Dominican, though they were both on the well
trodden route to Canterbury from London, so some sort of communication
must have been possible.

--
Best wishes
Christine

Christine Headley
Butterrow, Stroud, Glos