Monstrosity, monument and multiplication: The lamenting Lady Margaret of Henneberg (and her 365 children) in Early Modern England
Date
2014-08-28Author
Reid, Lindsay Ann
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Reid, Lindsay Ann. Monstrosity, Monument and Multiplication: ‘The Lamenting Lady’ Margaret of Henneberg (and her 365 Children) in Early Modern England. In Andrea Wood & Brandy Schillace (Eds.), Unnatural Reproductions and Monstrosity: The Birth of the Monster in Literature, Film, and Media. Amherst, NY: Cambria Press.
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Abstract
Extraordinary and fantastical stories about Margaret of Henneberg, a
cursed thirteenth-century Countess who had allegedly birthed 365 infants in one
day, were popular with early modern English audiences. A range of printed
sources from the early seventeenth century elaborate on the retributive nature of
the haughty Dutch Countess’ reproductive destiny and indicate that the medieval
woman’s supposed resting place in Loosduinen had even become a real life
tourist attraction for curious British travelers of the era. As numerous early
modern eyewitness accounts attest, in this village just outside The Hague one
could find material evidence supposedly confirming the various tales about
Countess Margaret and her monstrous brood of multiples. As it was developed
and embellished in various early modern English versions, Countess Margaret’s
story consistently displayed an ambivalence towards multiples and multiplication
and also gave prominence to the idea that monumentality could serve as an
indicator of credibility. A sustained exploration of how these issues of
multiplication and monument inform a relevant c. 1620 ballad entitled “The
Lamenting Lady” reveal a potent convergence of form and content: the
broadside’s first-person lyrics about Countess Margaret’s hyperfertile
reproductive plight simultaneously speak to the conditions under which “The
Lamenting Lady” and other early modern ballads were historically disseminated
and consumed.