JoAnn Spears

Sweating Bullets: A Story of Ann Boleyn 2/4

/ Jordyn Redwood / Leave a comment

I am so honored to have JoAnn Spears back at Redwood’s Medical Edge. Her posts about the ailments of long lost monarchs are hugely popular and entertaining as well.

This four part Monday series focuses on Ann Boleyn and the mysterious sweating sickness that had a 70% mortality rate! You can find Part I here.

Welcome back, JoAnn!

Part 2:  Running hot and cold.

Anne Boleyn retreated to Hever when an unidentified lady-in-waiting of hers contracted The Sweat in June, 1528. Butts, however, is reported to have treated Anne herself for the ailment when he was dispatched to Hever.

Butts would have been under tremendous pressure, certainly, to pull his patient through, or suffer the ire of the infatuated Henry VIII.  The prospect of that must have loomed large for poor Dr. Butts.  Since Anne Boleyn was stricken during one of the midcourse outbreaks of the disease, it would likely have been established by then that mortality rates were high with this condition–as high as 70%–even in heretofore healthy individuals.

Pressure aside, Butts would have been faced with a patient who was enduring, had endured, or was about to endure a grueling progression of symptoms.  The acute trajectory of The Sweat was rapid.  From time of onset, death or a turning point toward survival typically occurred within 24 hours or, as Caius would have it, ‘one natural day’. 

Anne may have gone through the prodromal symptoms of violent chills and a feeling of doom before Butts got to her.  It’s possible that he arrived in time to see Anne through the second phase of the illness, characterized by severe cephalgia (aching and pain in the head and neck), diffuse myalgia (pain in the limbs), and prostration.  Even if he missed these prodromals, perhaps Butts was present for the eponymous symptoms that would have followed.

Caius relates that several hours after the initial vague symptoms of The Sweat set in, more telling symptoms followed.  He speaks of the “fight, trauaile (travail), and laboure of nature againste the infection receyued (received) in the spirites, whervpon (whereupon) by chaunce foloweth a Sweate’. 

As described by Caius, profuse and copious sweating and ‘heat’ were the manifestations of the fight of the patient’s constitution against the depredations of The Sweat. Caius, and poor Dr. Butts, practiced medicine in an era in which temperature, blood pressure, and electrolytes could not be accurately measured.  It seems likely though, that high fevers and autonomic instability were part and parcel of the acute phase of The Sweat.  This phase of symptoms would be followed by cardiopulmonary symptoms, according to Caius:  heart palpitations and chest pain, labored breathing, and an overall feeling of heaviness. Gastrointestinal symptoms such as nausea and ‘wind’ might also occur.  Eventually, exhaustion and a desire to sleep set in.

Anne Boleyn survived her experience with The Sweat and eventually went on to marry Henry VIII and give birth to his daughter, Elizabeth I.  Given Anne’s mercurial ways, it’s not surprising that there are some who say that she never had The Sweat at all.  Could it be that she merely used the circumstances that prevailed in the summer of 1528 to manipulate the besotted Henry VIII and advance her own agenda?  This scenario is certainly not outside of the realm of possibility. 

The Sweat was contemporaneous with the Tudor dynasty through the reign of Mary I, known as ‘Bloody Mary’.  The Sweat bowed off the Tudor stage in time to spare the subjects of the last of the Tudors–Anne Boleyn’s daughter, the glorious Elizabeth I– from its ravages.

(An interesting side-note to the story of Dr. Butts is the fact that his daughter, Anne, married Sir Nicholas Bacon.  Historical rumor and conspiracy theory have it that two scions of the Nicholas Bacon family, Anthony and the legendary genius Sir Francis Bacon, may actually have been the illegitimate children of Elizabeth I, and therefore the grandchildren of Anne Boleyn.)
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JoAnn Spears is a registered nurse with Master’s Degrees in Nursing and Public Administration. Her first novel, Six of One, JoAnn brings a nurse’s gallows sense of humor to an unlikely place: the story of the six wives of Henry VIII. Six of One was begun in JoAnn’s native New Jersey. It was wrapped up in the Smoky Mountains of Northeast Tennessee, where she is pursuing a second career as a writer. She has, however, obtained a Tennessee nursing license because a) you never stop being a nurse and b) her son Bill says “don’t quit your day job”.

Sweating Bullets: A Story of Anne Boleyn 1/4

/ Jordyn Redwood / Leave a comment

I am so honored to have JoAnn Spears back at Redwood’s Medical Edge. Her posts about the ailments of long lost monarchs are hugely popular and entertaining as well.

This four part Monday series focuses on Ann Boleyn and the mysterious sweating sickness that had a 70% mortality rate!

Welcome back, JoAnn!

Part I:  Working up a sweat, bugs indeterminate, and a man named Butts.

The courtship of Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII is the stuff of legend.  Tudor history buffs and Anne Boleyn fans alike will already know that Anne Boleyn was the first and foremost proponent of ‘if you like it… put a ring around it’.  By 1528, after about two years of courtship, Henry had yet to do so.  Anne parried with a retreat from Henry’s court to her family’s country home at Hever.  Romantically enough, she was suffering from, or at risk of contracting, a catching ailment.  There was a real chance she could die from it.  More romantically still, she hastened away to protect Henry from the contagion. 
Dr. William Butts

On a less romantic note, Henry himself did not follow Anne to Hever.  His devotion only stretched to his sending, in his stead, his second-best physician.  Less romantically still, that physician was called Butts, and the disease he was to treat Anne Boleyn for was known as ‘The Sweat’.

Life-threatening plagues and infectious diseases were a feature of life in Europe during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.  Some of these illnesses are fairly well understood retrospectively.  For example, a good deal is known today about the causation, mode of transmission, treatment, and natural course of Yersinia pestis, or Plague.  The Sweat, however, remains, like its star sufferer, something of an enigma.

The Sweat debuted in England around the same time that the Tudor dynasty did, in 1485.  It recurred in 1508, 1517, 1528 and 1551; as far as we know, it did not recur thereafter. Each of these outbreaks began in England, and four of them had little or no spread outside of the British Isles.  The fourth, the outbreak of 1528, made its way across much of northern and eastern Europe. 

Two Tudor physicians, Thomas Forestier and John Caius, are the sources of much of the extant medical information about The Sweat.  The accounts these two physicians give of the condition are like bookends to its history.  Forestier speaks from the perspective of the first outbreak of The Sweat, in 1485.  He isolates The Sweat from other pestilences and poxes of the time by identifying the primary way in which it was unlike them; the absence of rash, pustule, buboe, or other manifestation on the skin.   “The exterior is calm in this fever”, Forestier explained, “and the interior excited.” 

John Caius authored “A boke or counseill against the disease commonly called the sweate or sweatyng sicknesse” in 1552, after the last outbreak of The Sweat.  He felt confident enough in his experience and findings to subtitle the work “uery (very) necessary for everye personne and much requisite to be had in the hands of al (all) sortes, for their better instruction, preparation and defence, against the soubdein (sudden) comyng, and fearful assaultyng of the same disease”.

Prominent as Forestier and Caius were as practitioners, they do not have the same Tudor cache as the man who was on the job when Anne Boleyn commenced The Sweat:  Dr. William Butts.  Other than his Sweating-Sickness association with Boleyn, little is known about the man.  Just what would the second-best Butts encounter when he arrived at Hever to tend his King’s lady love?  It’s difficult to tell the exact point in Anne Boleyn’s Sweat trajectory at which Butts came into the picture.

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JoAnn Spears is a registered nurse with Master’s Degrees in Nursing and Public Administration. Her first novel, Six of One, JoAnn brings a nurse’s gallows sense of humor to an unlikely place: the story of the six wives of Henry VIII. Six of One was begun in JoAnn’s native New Jersey. It was wrapped up in the Smoky Mountains of Northeast Tennessee, where she is pursuing a second career as a writer. She has, however, obtained a Tennessee nursing license because a) you never stop being a nurse and b) her son Bill says “don’t quit your day job”.

A Sad Story of Royal Obstetrics: Part 4/4

/ Jordyn Redwood / Leave a comment

Today, JoAnn Spears concludes her fascinating observations on Queen Anne’s obstetrical history. I know that I sure learned a lot. You can find the previous installments of this series by following the links: Part I, Part II, and Part III.
 
Thank you JoAnn for such a wonderful look into this woman’s life.


Part Four: Was Diabetes the Cause?

Diabetes may be the most likely culprit in Queen Anne’s story. Her first three pregnancies went to term, and resulted in two healthy children. Statistically and fertilely, Anne, at that point, was par for the 17th century reproductive course. From there, though, things went terribly wrong.

The beginning of this downhill descent, 1687-88, coincided with the death of two of Anne’s daughters from smallpox. It also coincided with her father’s ascent to the throne and his loss of it during the Glorious Revolution. The familial loyalties and betrayals involved in this were deep and complex, and Anne was not a deep or a complex person. The compound stress must have been enormous. She was eating, and probably drinking, heavily. Might Anne have developed diabetes around the time of, or during, her 4thor 5th pregnancy?  Anne’s lifestyle was characterized by overindulgence. She was not very active; her preferred recreation was playing cards. She would certainly be at greater risk than most for developing diabetes during a pregnancy, and unconsciously fueling the diabetic trajectory with her personal habits.

Uncontrolled diabetes is associated with a host of poor fetal and neonatal outcomes. Unusually low or high birth weight, premature birth, cardiac or skeletal anomalies, neurological problems, cerebral palsy, lung immaturity with RDS (respiratory distress syndrome), and even intrauterine death are some of the sad set of possibilities that Anne may have run the gamut of. Unfortunately, medical descriptions of the babies Anne lost or miscarried are sadly lacking.

Diabetes is a progressive condition. Anne became increasingly obese and debilitated as she aged, bringing to mind her distant relative Henry VIII. Both Henry and Anne had pains in their lower extremities that prevented them from moving about well. This may have been peripheral neuropathy associated with diabetes in both of their cases. Anne and Henry also had chronic, non-healing leg ulcers, another diabetes symptom, in common.

As his desperate attempts to father sons were ended by his declining physical condition, the morbidly obese Henry VIII had lifts and other machinery devised to move his unwieldy body around. It’s said that Queen Anne had this machinery refitted for her own use as her own health began to fail. If it’s true, it’s an ironic footnote to the two saddest stories of infertility in English history.
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JoAnn Spears is a registered nurse with Master’s Degrees in Nursing and Public Administration. Her first novel, Six of One, JoAnn brings a nurse’s gallows sense of humor to an unlikely place: the story of the six wives of Henry VIII. Six of One was begun in JoAnn’s native New Jersey. It was wrapped up in the Smoky Mountains of Northeast Tennessee, where she is pursuing a second career as a writer. She has, however, obtained a Tennessee nursing license because a) you never stop being a nurse and b) her son Bill says “don’t quit your day job”.

Winner!!– And Up and Coming

/ Jordyn Redwood / Leave a comment

Hello Redwood’s Fans!

Are you getting geared up to enjoy some Halloween Spooky FUN?!?

I just started watching the last season of Dexter as a treat for finishing the rough draft of my third novel, Peril,— now its official title. I know– strange way to celebrate but I am a suspense novelist so it really is a treat. Peril will release next year about this time. So crazy to be finishing books that won’t be seen for what seems like soooo long but the time does go by quickly– at least for the author.

Congratulations, Heather! You won Michael King’s book, A Thousand Sleepless Nights! I’ll be e-mailing you.

But don’t despair if you didn’t win– I’ve got another great giveaway this week. Details below.

For you this week:


Monday: JoAnn Spears concludes her series on Queen Anne’s obstetrical history. This has been super fascinating where JoAnn offers her nursing insight into historical monarchs. Queen Anne was very fertile but sadly, none of her children lived. I’ve linked the other parts here for you: Part I, Part II, Part III.

Wednesday and Friday: So excited to host author Peter Leavell. Peter was the winner of Christian Writers Guild’s Operation First Novel contest. He’s offering a chance to win his novel, Gideon’s Call, simply leave a comment with your e-mail address on either of his two posts. Must live in the USA. Winner announced here next Sunday.

Hope you all are fabulous. Stay safe carving those pumpkins.

Jordyn

A Sad Story Royal Obstetrics: Part 3/4

/ Jordyn Redwood / Leave a comment

JoAnn Spears continues her series on Queen Anne’s very interesting obstetrical history. You can find Part I and Part II by following the links.

Part Three:  How could this happen?

One or more of the following conditions may have played a part in Anne’s hauntingly tragic obstetrical history.

Rhesus incompatibility occurs when an Rh positive baby is carried by an Rh negative mother.  The pattern with this condition, untreated, is one of normal initial pregnancy or pregnancies, followed by miscarriages and stillbirths in a progressive pattern. A normal later pregnancy, while statistically less likely than a problem one, could occur if an Rh negative child were conceived; perhaps young William of Gloucester was such a child.

Chronic Listeria infection is also congruent with Anne’s reproductive clinical picture. Listeria is associated with improperly handled cheeses and meats, and food safety in Anne’s day and age was sadly lacking. She ate, however, what everyone else at her court ate, in quality if not quantity. A coinciding rash of female infertility in the women of Anne’s court is not reported.

Cephaolpelvic disproportion occurs when a mother’s birth canal is too small to accommodate delivery of the largest part of the fetus, its head. Some believe that Anne’s anatomy may have had something to do with her troubles. A later Stuart descendant, the wildly popular Princess Charlotte, fell victim to this condition. She died after three days in unsuccessful labor with her first pregnancy.

Medical records from Queen Anne’s physicians are maddeningly vague. It is unclear if young William of Gloucester developed hydrocephalus shortly after his birth, or if he was born with an abnormally large head, or macrocephaly, to begin with. A spontaneous, unidentified congenital or genetic syndrome may have caused this symptom, and affected other of Anne’s babies. Interestingly, the hemophilia that the later Queen Victoria would introduce into Europe’s royal houses was probably caused by a spontaneous genetic aberration in Victoria.

Anne’s obstetrical history and her physical attributes, specifically her obesity and red, round face, are congruent with Cushing’s Syndrome, a hormonal imbalance. However, Cushing’s is associated with menstrual irregularities. One of the few clear, objective medical statements we have about Anne comes from a physician who commented that, even when she was in her 40s, her menstrual cycle was as regular as that of a twenty year old.

Systemic Lupus Erythematous, or SLE, was discussed in Part Two of this series. It can lead to issues with fetal health, but statistically not to the extent that this occurred with Anne. Flare ups of poor maternal health would be more expected.

Porphyria was the cause of the madness of the post-Anne monarch, King George. Certainly, the catch-all term ‘gout’ would have been used by Anne’s medical men for the painful symptoms of porphyria’s metabolic derangement. However, Anne’s symptoms seem to have been more of a chronic nature than those of poor King George, and she was not emotionally labile.
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JoAnn Spears is a registered nurse with Master’s Degrees in Nursing and Public Administration. Her first novel, Six of One, JoAnn brings a nurse’s gallows sense of humor to an unlikely place: the story of the six wives of Henry VIII. Six of One was begun in JoAnn’s native New Jersey. It was wrapped up in the Smoky Mountains of Northeast Tennessee, where she is pursuing a second career as a writer. She has, however, obtained a Tennessee nursing license because a) you never stop being a nurse and b) her son Bill says “don’t quit your day job”.
 

A Sad Story of Royal Obstetrics: Part 2/4

/ Jordyn Redwood / Leave a comment
 
JoAnn Spears is doing a four part series on Queen Anne’s obstetrical history. It’s very fascinating. You can find Part I here. Part III here.


Part Two:  What happened to Queen Anne?

A health history marked by seventeen or eighteen pregnancies and no surviving children staggers the modern mind, but it is only one part of the medical history of Queen Anne the Good.
In terms of childhood health, Anne was probably like she was in so many other ways–middling. She survived smallpox. She suffered from some sort of eye ailment, described as a defluxation, or preponderance of tears. It sounds like a fairly minor problem, but apparently was concerning enough for the child to be sent to France for treatment at a time when travel could be dangerous.
The young adult Anne was healthy enough to marry at the usual age, and by all accounts thoroughly enjoyed conjugal relations. Married in 1683, she was pregnant pretty much annually until 1700.
Anne’s obstetrical history is variously reported. It appears her first child, a girl, was stillborn. Her next two children, daughters, were born healthy. Unfortunately, smallpox claimed both daughters within days of each other when they were tots.

Three unsuccessful pregnancies followed. Then, in 1689, William, Duke of Gloucester, was born, and survived.

Baby William, according to medical report and portraiture, had a large head. Possibly, he had hydrocephalus, or fluid in the skull. Nowadays, hydrocephalus can be effectively treated with surgical shunting, but that was not the case in Queen Anne’s day. Brain damage of some kind would be expected.
Some sources describe young William as delicate and backward; others describe him as quite a clever child. He clearly had difficulty with balance, walking, falling down, and getting up. This was attributed by his caregivers to his disproportionate head size. It is worth noting, however, that Anne’s grandfather, Charles I, walked at a very late age, and only after his weak and rickety legs had been braced.
William’s birth was followed by at least ten pregnancies (one with twins), all resulting in miscarriages or stillbirths. Sadly, William of Gloucester eventually died in adolescence of pneumonia, leaving Anne childless.
Around the time Anne’s pregnancies ceased, other physical infirmities began. Gout was one of them. Nowadays gout refers to a specific metabolic problem that affects particular joints. In Anne’s day, it was a catch-all term for pain. Her ‘gout’ sounds more to modern medicine like migratory arthritis or arthralgia, pain making its way all around the body, caused by an autoimmune condition such Systemic Lupus Erythematous (SLE). Anne is reported to have had the facial redness or rash associated with such disorders.
Anne’s was also morbidly obese. She liked her food and drink, and was aided and abetted in overindulgence by her like-minded husband. Her being nicknamed ‘Brandy Nan’ at a time when a degree of abstemiousness was expected in women hints at the possibility of actual alcohol abuse or alcoholism.
Anne’s weight and debility necessitated her being toted to her coronation in a litter in 1702. She was unable to walk much on her own.
Anne died in 1714, a martyr to her ill health. She had become so overweight that her coffin was described as almost square; it required fourteen men to carry it. A contemporary commented that no sufferer would covet their rest as much as Anne would.
Surely, Anne’s phantom children–possibly as many as twenty of them–were on her mind at the very end. What was it that had made her reproductive history go so very tragic?

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JoAnn Spears is a registered nurse with Master’s Degrees in Nursing and Public Administration. Her first novel, Six of One, JoAnn brings a nurse’s gallows sense of humor to an unlikely place: the story of the six wives of Henry VIII. Six of One was begun in JoAnn’s native New Jersey. It was wrapped up in the Smoky Mountains of Northeast Tennessee, where she is pursuing a second career as a writer. She has, however, obtained a Tennessee nursing license because a) you never stop being a nurse and b) her son Bill says “don’t quit your day job”.
 

A Sad Story of Royal Obstetrics: Part 1/4

/ Jordyn Redwood / Leave a comment
I’m so pleased to host JoAnn Spears again. Her nursing musings on the medical ailments of some famous and not so famous royals has been a real crowd pleaser. In this series, she focuses on Queen Anne the Good and her very interesting obstetrical history. 
Personally, I found this fascinating.
Welcome back, JoAnn!

Part One: Who was the woman this happened to?

By the time Queen Anne the Good ascended the throne of Britain in 1702, she had been pregnant a remarkable seventeen or eighteen times. She died, twelve years later, childless. What was this remarkable woman’s story?

Part One: Who was the woman this happened to?
Henry VIII is the British monarch most associated with serious fertility issues. The failure of his first marriage to produce a surviving son led to the English Reformation, the execution of Ann Boleyn, and ultimately, six marriages. Henry in his youth was tall, healthy, vigorous, athletic and intelligent. In old age, he became markedly corpulent.
Queen Victoria is the monarch most associated with royal fecundity. Her nine pregnancies produced nine children and made her, through carefully orchestrated intermarriages, ‘The Grandmother of Europe’. Unfortunately, Victoria also appears to have been the point at which the hemophilia gene entered Europe’s royal houses. Victoria, like Henry VIII, was obese in later life.
Pretty much midway between these two extremes of royal fecundity, Britain was ruled by a queen named Anne, known as ‘the Good’. She is little remembered today. As a study in fertility and infertility, Ann deserves to be better remembered.

Ann was a Stuart, a descendant of the Tudors and of the romantic Mary Queen of Scots. Her father and mother were controversial figures. James II seems to have been always out of step. Anne’s mother, Ann Hyde, was a non-royal that James married, typically, against absolutely all advice. When Ann Hyde died–corpulent– in 1671, she had experienced eight pregnancies and left behind two living children.

The ‘good’ moniker is probably the best description of Anne as a child and young woman. In looks and intellect, it’s most likely that she was pretty average. She was a good and serious English Protestant. Her father, out of step as usual, was not. This political liability led to his losing his throne and to the reigns of Anne’s brother-in-law and sister, William and Mary. When Mary and then William died, childless, Anne ascended the throne.
At an appropriate age, Anne had married an appropriate young man: Prince George of Denmark, a cousin once removed. They were married for about twenty-five years and were a devoted couple. George seems to have been a lot like Anne, both unexceptional and unexceptionable. The wittier members of the English court found him boring, joking that the loud breathing caused by his asthma was the only way they had of knowing that he was actually alive.
Anne’s reign lasted from 1702 to 1714. It was notable for being the time when the two-party system emerged in British politics. It was also notable as a time when female friendships had more of an impact on government behind-the-throne than romantic alliances did. Anne’s friend Sarah Churchill, a distant relative of the modern Princess Diana, was a key political player of the day.
Anne’s obstetrical history was over and done with by the time she became Queen. The year 1700 had seen her final pregnancy. That pregnancy had been preceded by another sixteen or seventeen. The number of living children she had when she ascended the throne–sadly, and almost unbelievably to modern minds–was zero.

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JoAnn Spears is a registered nurse with Master’s Degrees in Nursing and Public Administration. Her first novel, Six of One, JoAnn brings a nurse’s gallows sense of humor to an unlikely place: the story of the six wives of Henry VIII. Six of One was begun in JoAnn’s native New Jersey. It was wrapped up in the Smoky Mountains of Northeast Tennessee, where she is pursuing a second career as a writer. She has, however, obtained a Tennessee nursing license because a) you never stop being a nurse and b) her son Bill says “don’t quit your day job”.

A Histrionic Fit 3/3

/ Jordyn Redwood / Leave a comment

JoAnn Spears returns to let her nursing prowess diagnose mental illness among long lost monarchs. This series focuses on Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots. Her popular previous series on Henry VIII’s illnesses can be found here:

1. http://jordynredwood.blogspot.com/2012/01/florence-nightingale-diagnosis-henry.html

2. http://jordynredwood.blogspot.com/2012/02/florence-nightingale-diagnosis-henry.html

3. http://jordynredwood.blogspot.com/2012/02/florence-nightingale-diagnosis-henry_03.html

Parts I and II were on Monday and Wednesday.

Today, JoAnn concludes this fascinating series.

A recap of Mary’s career is called for in arguing that she may indeed have had Histrionic Personality Disorder. 

·         The infant Queen of Scots, a fatherless political football, is punted to France.

Overall, the etiology of histrionic tendencies is poorly researched.  Early loss of a parent, or unpredictable parental attention, may contribute to it. 

·         Adolescent Mary, pampered and acclaimed for beauty and talent, becomes Queen of France.

Lack of constructive criticism and discipline may lead to the emergence of a histrionic personality in adolescence.  The pubescent Mary was almost universally doted on. Interestingly, her mother-in-law, that clear-sighted Machiavellian survivor Catherine De’Medici, was not nearly so sanguine about the burgeoning Mary.

·         ‘Frenemy’ Mary makes cousinly noises toward Elizabeth I, Queen of England, while touting her own superior Catholic claim to Elizabeth’s throne.

Dramatic statements and lack of sincerity are strongly associated with the histrionic type.  Being easily influenced by others is also characteristic; some aver that Mary’s strike at Elizabeth was incited by her scheming French relatives.

·         Tragically widowed, Mary returns to backward, barbaric Scotland to reign.  She and the unruly Scots clansmen learn the meaning of cultural clash.

Mary made the histrionic decision in choosing not to subdue the flashing of her considerable beauty, style, and elegance at the austere and Puritan Scots court, damaging her chances of political success.

·         Wanton Mary, marrying in haste, repents at leisure, heavily pregnant, when her profligate husband helps murder her Secretary, Rizzio, right before her eyes. 

Perceiving relationships as being deeper or meaningful than they are, or entering too deeply into shallow relationships, comes with the histrionic territory.  Clearly, Mary’s initial assessment of her relationship with Lord Darnley was far from accurate.   Likewise, she couldn’t or wouldn’t see how extreme and inappropriate the favoritism she showed her exotic Italian secretary was perceived by those around her.

·         Desperate Mary re-widowed via a remarkably sloppy murder.  The murderer, Bothwell, is believed to be in cahoots with Mary, if not her lover.

Dependency, the primrose path to getting others to do one’s dirty work, goes hand in hand with histrionic personality disorder.

·         Mary is abducted and raped by Bothwell; even her supporters are confused when she marries him shortly thereafter.  The legendary ‘Casket Letters’, written by Mary at this time, muddy the waters even further.  Political mayhem ensues; Mary is captured by the Scottish clansmen.

Histrionic individuals are known to rashly shift from one perspective or plan to another.  This can put them in the way of situations and relationships that are unstable or even threatening to their well-being or safety. 

Histrionic communication comes across broad and vivid, creating an abstract-art, paint-can canvas of feelings rather than a crisp, clear snapshot or a delicately layered oil painting. In light of this, the heaving emotion and incidental minutiae of the Casket Letters comes as no surprise.

·         Charmer Mary wriggles out of Scotland and over to England.  Bothwell legs it to Denmark, where he dies after years spent chained by the ankle to a stake in a miniscule basement cell.

Darnley, Rizzio and Bothwell were not the only men who came a cropper in Mary’s wake.  The poet Chastelard was executed for romantically hiding under her bed.  England’s prime nobleman, Norfolk, was brought low by scheming to marry her.  Her sex appeal blasted the career and marriage of Lord Shrewsbury, her eventual jailor. Lack of concern for the impact of one’s drama on others highlights the histrionic trajectory.

·         Mary is imprisoned in England; her earlier claims to the throne of Elizabeth I have come back to haunt her. For years, she is moved from prison to prison by her jailors, and feels justified in plotting with politicos across Europe to assassinate Elizabeth I.  She is a poor plotter, though, and falls for a sting operation known as The Babbington Plot.

Histrionic people have a strong need to be at center stage.  Fading into background, keeping a low profile, and having only a bit part to play do not sit well with them.  Mary could not allow herself to be forgotten by the European political world.  She did all she could to stay on stage with them, even at risk of her own life.

·          Mary, touting herself as a Catholic martyr, is executed by decapitation; her terrier dog is found hiding in her skirts at the scene and dies a few days later from grief.

Constant seeking of the approval and reassurance of others rounds out the histrionic personality.  Mary, with histrionic insouciance, took herself from screaming drama queen to subdued sainthood without blinking.  Such sainthood would bring her the approval of Catholic Europe, and ultimate vindication both from heaven and earth.

Mary’s legendary terrier dog, and his sad fate, bring home the final point about people with Histrionic Personality Disorder.  View them as you will, saints, sinners, charmers, or victims, they are among the most compelling people you will ever meet.
Thank you JoAnn for such a wonderful series. Fascinating person she was!
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JoAnn Spears is a registered nurse with Master’s Degrees in Nursing and Public Administration. Her first novel, Six of One, JoAnn brings a nurse’s gallows sense of humor to an unlikely place: the story of the six wives of Henry VIII.
Six of One was begun in JoAnn’s native New Jersey. It was wrapped up in the Smoky Mountains of Northeast Tennessee, where she is pursuing a second career as a writer. She has, however, obtained a Tennessee nursing license because a) you never stop being a nurse and b) her son Bill says “don’t quit your day job”.

Drama Queens 2/3

/ Jordyn Redwood / Leave a comment

JoAnn Spears returns to let her nursing prowess diagnose mental illness among long lost monarchs. This series focuses on Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots. Her popular previous series on Henry VIII’s illnesses can be found here:

1. http://jordynredwood.blogspot.com/2012/01/florence-nightingale-diagnosis-henry.html

2. http://jordynredwood.blogspot.com/2012/02/florence-nightingale-diagnosis-henry.html

3. http://jordynredwood.blogspot.com/2012/02/florence-nightingale-diagnosis-henry_03.html

Part I was Monday.

 

There are four types of Cluster B personality disorders.  Two of them, the Antisocial and Borderline Personality types, tend toward, but are not absolutely divided between, gender lines.

Antisocial personality is a diagnosis most often associated with law-breaking males.  Disregard for the feelings or rights of others are hallmarks of this disorder, as are scorn for rules and social norms in general.

 Elizabeth I’s father, Henry VIII, went from Defender of the Catholic Faith to excommunicated renegade over non-consummation of his sexual relationship with Elizabeth’s mother, the enigmatic Ann Boleyn.  He could easily be touted as a prime example of this disorder.  Mary Queen of Scots’ father, James V of Scotland, likewise had antisocial tendencies.  His acknowledged illegitimate offspring outnumbered his legitimate children 3:1.

Borderline Personality has, in what is perhaps a gross oversimplification, been interpreted as the female side of the antisocial disorder.  Fragmentation of personality, ‘bleeding into’ significant others, and detachment from reality, often for manipulative or self-serving purposes, are associated with this disorder; when it comes to the latter, one is tempted to invite Ann Boleyn to take a bow.

Both Mary Queen of Scots and Elizabeth I could behave in remarkably self-serving and unrealistic ways.  However, each maintained, despite ups and downs, a solid and defined self from which each might venture at times, but to which stronghold each always returned, Mary on the Catholic side, and Elizabeth on the Protestant.

Where, then, do these two legendary queens fall on the personality disorder continuum?

There are two remaining personality disorders in Cluster B.  Drama is central to both.  The narcissistic personality could be said to generate drama within the self and inflict it on others.  The histrionic personality, on the other hand, often drags drama from others, or somehow incites it from them.  Those ‘others’ can be a varied lot; charmed volunteers, partners in crime, unwitting victims, or opportunists with an eye on the main chance.

Narcissistic personalities are preoccupied with issues of personal adequacy, power, prestige and vanity.  These are ego-building structures in most people, but can become ego- challenges when underpinned by extremes of parenting in vulnerable individuals.  Elizabeth I never knew her mother.  Her father, Henry VIII, vacillated between tolerating Elizabeth, neglecting her, and avoiding her.  A trusted stepmother, Katharine Parr, exposed her to exploitation by an irresponsible would-be stepfather. A fond surrogate mother, Kat Ashley, probably spoiled Elizabeth rotten, and ultimately set the stage for the conflicted personality that was inherent in Elizabeth, but yet to emerge.  The likes of Walter Raleigh, Francis Drake, Shakespeare, the Lord Essex, and many more knew what it was like to live in the glare of that drama, directly or indirectly.  For some, like Drake, it led to glory; for the likes of Essex, it led to an early death; for Sir Walter Raleigh, it brought both defeat and victory.

And so we are left to consider Mary, Queen of Scots, and the diagnosis of histrionic personality disorder.
JoAnn will conclude her series on Friday.
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JoAnn Spears is a registered nurse with Master’s Degrees in Nursing and Public Administration. Her first novel, Six of One, JoAnn brings a nurse’s gallows sense of humor to an unlikely place: the story of the six wives of Henry VIII.
Six of One was begun in JoAnn’s native New Jersey. It was wrapped up in the Smoky Mountains of Northeast Tennessee, where she is pursuing a second career as a writer. She has, however, obtained a Tennessee nursing license because a) you never stop being a nurse and b) her son Bill says “don’t quit your day job”.

Disorders in the Court 1/3

/ Jordyn Redwood / Leave a comment

JoAnn Spears returns to let her nursing prowess diagnose illness among long lost monarchs. This series focuses on Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots. Her popular previous series on Henry VIII’s illnesses can be found here:

1. http://jordynredwood.blogspot.com/2012/01/florence-nightingale-diagnosis-henry.html

2. http://jordynredwood.blogspot.com/2012/02/florence-nightingale-diagnosis-henry.html

3. http://jordynredwood.blogspot.com/2012/02/florence-nightingale-diagnosis-henry_03.html

Part I is today. Parts II and III will be on Wednesday.

Welcome back, JoAnn!

It’s said that good judgment comes from experience, and that experience comes from bad judgment.  England’s Elizabeth I is a fine example of this aphorism.  Early misalliances with her exploitive stepfather Tom Seymour, and the less-than-suitable Earl of Leicester, for example, cost her dearly on a number of fronts.  Nevertheless, she learned some lessons and finished the game as England’s own Gloriana, its supreme diva and arguably most successful monarch.

Mary Queen of Scots’ fund of experiences was also remarkable, even for someone of her rank and stature.  Unfortunately, the tragic Stuart queen failed consistently at making her fund pay dividends of sound judgment and good choices.  She was less challenged and far more advantaged, at the outset of their reigns, than her most famous contemporary–and relative–Elizabeth I.  Still, she made choice after choice that led to an almost unbelievably disastrous trajectory and culminated in a lengthy and ignominious imprisonment.  She died facing Elizabeth I’s executioner on what amounted to a gibbet of her own devising.  What made the difference in the way things went for these two powerful and legendary women? 

The point at which combinations of personality traits amount to health and success, or dysfunction and disaster, is not always easy to identify.  Mental Health diagnosticians use a guide called the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM), now in its fourth revision, to help them make this determination in a systematic way.

The DSM IV categorizes mental health conditions into different spectrums, or Axes. 

The first Axis contains the major mental disorders.  These are the ones non-professionals often associate with mental health and illness; bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, for example. 

The second axis categorizes conditions known as personality disorders.  These are characterized by enduring, pervasive patterns in the way individuals think, feel, relate to others, and control–or fail to control–their impulses.  There are three clusters of personality disorders.

People with Cluster A disorders tend to behave in ways that would be considered odd, eccentric, isolative, or even paranoid.  Certainly, neither Mary nor Elizabeth were ever dismissed as odd; both were far too flamboyant and vivid for that, and both were at their best performing to an appreciative audience. 

Cluster C disorders are associated with anxiety, inhibition, neediness, preoccupation, rigidity, and submissiveness.  ‘Bloody Mary’ Tudor, sister of Elizabeth I, comes to mind here.    Her religious zeal, which lead to the burning of numerous ‘heretics’, is what history at large remembers her for.  Tudor aficionados will also note the pathetic, neurotic quality of her relations with the world at large, and with her husband, Prince Philip of Spain, the prototype ‘Cold Fish’ of the Renaissance era.

This leaves us, obviously, with Cluster B personality disorders.  Dramatic, erratic, impulsive, tumultuous, and attention-getting, the folks in this Cluster are the ones who, in modern parlance, command the room.  Clearly, both Mary Queen of Scots and Elizabeth I deserve a second look from a perspective that minimizes judgment of them, and demands a full and constructive exploration of their complex and fascinating personalities.

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JoAnn Spears is a registered nurse with Master’s Degrees in Nursing and Public Administration. Her first novel, Six of One, JoAnn brings a nurse’s gallows sense of humor to an unlikely place: the story of the six wives of Henry VIII. Six of One was begun in JoAnn’s native New Jersey. It was wrapped up in the Smoky Mountains of Northeast Tennessee, where she is pursuing a second career as a writer. She has, however, obtained a Tennessee nursing license because a) you never stop being a nurse and b) her son Bill says “don’t quit your day job”.