Greetings.
For everyone who’s dropped by to visit me at my Castle on Facebook, I thank you. Christmas can be a stressful time, as well I know. Family members do not always see things in the same way, and the results can make life difficult.
As part of my way of thanking you for your support in the Year of Grace 2012, I thought I would share a Christmas from many years back.
‘Twas the year 1468.
If I told you that my family were forced to sit near the windows where icy fingers of air crept under our heavy clothes to chill our hands and feet, while my daughter in law and her family – her six brothers, her nine sisters with their stolen husbands – were ensconced by the fire, you will understand that our family gathering did not begin well.
If you now imagine how one of the Serpent’s sisters (yes, I referred to my daughter-in-law as a serpent) made unkind comments about my sister Cath, who was married at the great age of sixty-seven years to the Serpent’s nineteen-year-old brother John, you will see why I became angry, though I hid my feelings behind a mask of politeness.
When the Serpent then invited my darling son George to play cards with her, and goaded him into blurting out that he was engaged to be married, you will sympathize with my anxiety on his behalf.
When Edward, the King, expressly forbade George to marry his cousin Bella in front of the whole court, you can empathize with my dismay. For George could not marry without the permission of his brother the King, and yet this was the second prospect Edward had turned down. What was George to do?
I rose to my feet and confronted my eldest son. What followed changed my life forever.
If you wish to read about this Christmas long past, and how my words came to haunt me, please visit my library on Amazon, where I invite you to peruse my memoirs.
Next year, I am taking my memoirs on tour.
I would be delighted to meet you personally. I leave you with some information of that event: 
Adieu and God Bless You and Yours
Lady Cecylee de Neville
Duchess of York
Queen by Right
Abbess
On May 3, 1415, Lady Cecylee Neville was born at Raby Castle to Ralph, First Earl of Westmorland and his second wife, Lady Joan de Beaufort.
, please stop by Lady C’s Chateau on Facebook, and hit the “Like” button!
