The LORD says,  “I know you failed, and you failed badly.  But do not despair.

You have not disappointed Me.  I knew all along you would not be perfect all the time, but I still chose you.

I chose you for such a time as this.

Nothing you did made Me choose you.

Nothing you did made Me Love you.

Nothing you ever do will ever make Me love you more.

Pick yourselves up from the ground where you fell, dust yourself off and get back on your bicycle and start pedaling.

You are not disqualified.  You are needed.  I have much to show you and share with you.”

Katherine, Lady Stanhope was ‘dame gouvernante’ to Mary, Princess Royal, eldest daughter of King Charles I.  More than just a governess, she managed the princess’s household and entourage.

Aged only nine, Mary was married to the fourteen year-old son of the Prince of Orange.

The terms of the marriage treaty were that Mary would not move to The Netherlands and cohabit with her young husband William until 1645, when she was at least fourteen and he was nineteen.

Katherine had raised her children for six years as a widow, before remarrying to a Dutchman and having more children with him.

She wasn’t an obvious choice for her appointment but the King and Queen seem to have valued her abilities as a parent, more than any courtly connections or graces.

Civil war broke out so Mary had to leave Britain earlier than planned, but a lady named Mrs Abercrombie slept in her room to help prevent temptation.

Unfortunately both Prince William and his parents were anxious to get matters moving more quickly.

The King found out that his daughter had been hurried along, aged only thirteen, and he wrote reproachfully to Katherine Stanhope about this betrayal of trust.

She replied that the prince secretly arranged with Princess Mary’s nurse so he sneaked into Mary’s bedroom at night once Mrs Abercrombie was asleep.

When Katherine tried to discuss it with the prince’s mother, she dismissed Katherine’s concerns in a cavalier manner.

Neither the King nor Katherine Stanhope knew, as we know now, that Prince William was a tricky individual.  After a ‘first go’ with a woman when he was sixteen, he had been persuasively grooming and pressuring Princess Mary since she was only eleven, before finally getting his way once she was twelve.

( For some months The LORD has been speaking to me about prevailing attitudes in the 21^st. Century Church and society today still like the prince or his mother, but that is a message for another day. )

It was Katherine Stanhope’s official role, and she had failed in its most important part.

This deep failure could easily have ended her career.  But it didn’t.

Katherine remained in her post for another sixteen years, until Princess Mary’s early death, shortly after the restoration of the British monarchy in 1660.  She served other royal ladies too.

It wasn’t Katherine’s only work, either.  She was also involved in some way in finance and in intelligence.

It is only in recent years that historians have really investigated just how integral women were to intelligence services in the Early Modern period.

We don’t know exactly what or how much Katherine did, because she covered her tracks so well.

But the King appointed Katherine’s third husband as Postmaster General of England in 1663.

When he died a year later, Katherine was appointed to this office in her own right, the first woman to do so.

It was an important role, since letters could only be carried and delivered by people authorised by the Postmaster General.

The Postmaster General was also responsible for any interception of mail, as with the Black Chamber I’ve mentioned before.  (“Incline Your Ears to My Heart“)

So it is clear that Katherine was appointed precisely because it was work she was familiar with, and could be trusted to handle well.

Wife, mother, businesswoman, surrogate mother, political adviser and household manager to a princess, intelligence, Postmaster General, as well as others, in all her many roles Katherine did work that was important.

 

~ Iris Maud, UK.

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Iris Maud, UK.

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