Serendipity, Anne Beacuhamp and childbearing

To follow on from Judy's point about finding stuff in odd places, when looking through the Vatican papers on the trail of 'that man' I found a dispensation from the Pope which allowed Anne Warwick a special diet because of sickness and debility caused through pregnancy.

It was dated 1452, so between the births of Anne and Isabel. It's oft been surmised that she had problems. Any medics out there know whether it could have been an inherited disease (her mother apparently also had difficulties) passed on also to her daughters, particularly Anne?

--- In , "hjnatdat" <hjnatdat@...> wrote:
>
> To follow on from Judy's point about finding stuff in odd places, when looking through the Vatican papers on the trail of 'that man' I found a dispensation from the Pope which allowed Anne Warwick a special diet because of sickness and debility caused through pregnancy.
>
> It was dated 1452, so between the births of Anne and Isabel. It's oft been surmised that she had problems. Any medics out there know whether it could have been an inherited disease (her mother apparently also had difficulties) passed on also to her daughters, particularly Anne?
>


Indeed. This dispensation has been noted before. I think Hicks refers to it in his Anne Neville, and I also referred to it in my article on Richard and Anne's dispensation. It doesn't specifically to pregnancy, but to "former illnesses and the births of children" (plural), and allows her to eat the foods forbidden on fasting days - ie meat, eggs and dairy produce.
We simply don't know the nature of her illnesses, or how many pregnancies she had had before Isabel, and how many had resulted in childbirth rather than miscarriage. There are any number of reasons why she may have lost several children but it does sound as though he health was generally poor, and that this may have caused the failure of her pregnancies rather than the other way about. Alternatively, she had just had a lot of children all of whom had died, and she was short of iron, calcium and other nutrients, and also probably seriously depressed.
Who knows? But it's a factor to be taken into account when we consider the reasons why she makes so few appearances in the public record.
Marie

Shows how much I read of Hick's Anne Neville. Didn't know you'd done an article on that. Is it in the Forum archives? Many apologies for repeating it. There don't seem to be any similar things about Anne or Isabel but one does wonder at the gaps in Isabel's children and the loss of the child at Calais, which is always attributed to being stuck at anchor under fire. I leave this topic to others - back to the unlovely man.     



________________________________
From: mariewalsh2003 <[email protected]>
To:
Sent: Monday, 24 June 2013, 16:13
Subject: Re: Serendipity, Anne Beacuhamp and childbearing

 



--- In , "hjnatdat" <hjnatdat@...> wrote:
>
> To follow on from Judy's point about finding stuff in odd places, when looking through the Vatican papers on the trail of 'that man' I found a dispensation from the Pope which allowed Anne Warwick a special diet because of sickness and debility caused through pregnancy.
>
> It was dated 1452, so between the births of Anne and Isabel. It's oft been surmised that she had problems. Any medics out there know whether it could have been an inherited disease (her mother apparently also had difficulties) passed on also to her daughters, particularly Anne?
>

Indeed. This dispensation has been noted before. I think Hicks refers to it in his Anne Neville, and I also referred to it in my article on Richard and Anne's dispensation. It doesn't specifically to pregnancy, but to "former illnesses and the births of children" (plural), and allows her to eat the foods forbidden on fasting days - ie meat, eggs and dairy produce.
We simply don't know the nature of her illnesses, or how many pregnancies she had had before Isabel, and how many had resulted in childbirth rather than miscarriage. There are any number of reasons why she may have lost several children but it does sound as though he health was generally poor, and that this may have caused the failure of her pregnancies rather than the other way about. Alternatively, she had just had a lot of children all of whom had died, and she was short of iron, calcium and other nutrients, and also probably seriously depressed.
Who knows? But it's a factor to be taken into account when we consider the reasons why she makes so few appearances in the public record.
Marie

--- In , Hilary Jones <hjnatdat@...> wrote:
>
> Shows how much I read of Hick's Anne Neville. Didn't know you'd done an article on that. Is it in the Forum archives?


Marie replies:
Yes. You'll find it under "Dispensation Article for Ricardian 2007".