User Profile

Name: Agatha Bole
Age: 16
Date/place of birth: 5 November, 1514 in her family estate just outside Eccleshall, England

Physical features (height, colouring, fashion sense, etc):
Agatha is of average height with pale skin and pink cheeks, dark brown hair, and blue eyes. She is also quite 'well-fed', a tribute to her family's accumulated wealth. She dresses for the occasion, not overly fond of extravagant clothing, yet has an eye for styles that will flatter her best. She does not care for jewellery aside from the two pieces she wears nearly constantly - a cross-shaped pendant that had once belonged to her mother, and a signet ring with her family's crest.

Religious background/beliefs - are they zealous? tolerant?:
While Agatha's late mother, a Howard, had been a devout Catholic, she had died too early to pass that on to her daughter. Agatha's father, Edmund, was Catholic in the public eye, but behind closed doors he was a follower of Lollardy, believing that the message of scripture was far more importance than the ceremony and worship that was predominant in the Catholic Church. Agatha was greatly influenced by her father's alternative views, and thus has a degree of disdain for Catholicism, and a penchant toward change.

Family's place/rank in society: The Boles are Landed Gentry - they have no title, but own a great amount of land.
Father: Edmund Bole
Mother: Elizabeth Howard (deceased)
Step-Mother: Catherine Watkins
Siblings: Edmund Bole, Jr. (younger half-brother)
Family Dynamics:
Agatha's mother died when she was very young, and thus until she was 11, there was none but she and her father. When her father took Catherine Watkins for a wife, who bore a son less than a year later, Agatha's place in the family was no longer a certainty. She had been the heiress to the Bole estate, but suddenly it now belonged to her half-brother. Furthermore, her father's attentions were transferred from her to the boy. She has never gotten on with her step-mother, and her relationship with her father has deteriorated terribly to the point where he is sending her off to Court if only to be rid of her.

Sexual orientation/what attracts them: Heterosexual. What attracts her is 2-fold. What her mind desires is a man that she could easily control, not for want of control over another but for want of her own independence and self-determination. What her heart craves is the masculine love that has been denied her since she ceased to be the apple of her father's eye, and thus has a tendency to become attracted to men like him - strong, self-assured, and intelligent with a keen wit.
Spouse/Lover: None
If married - nature (arranged? for love?) and relationship with spouse (caring? mutual hatred?): Not applicable.
Children: None
Friends: None yet - but we'll see ;)

Occupation/Role: Lady-in-Waiting to Anne Boleyn
Hobbies/what they do in their spare time: She is a great reader and enjoys a great multitude of subjects. Furthermore, she is fluent in Latin, and her French is acceptable. She is an appreciator of art, and has a pleasant singing voice. She also adores horses and horseback riding.

Likes: Riding horses, reading, the colours gold and green, laughing, a REALLY good dessert
Dislikes: The need to hide her religious beliefs, rats (both of the rodent and the human variety), slick men who believe they can charm away any female's honour.
Personality in a few words: Proud, determined, hopeful, keen
Where they are/where they want to be: She is just beginning her duty as new Lady-in-Waiting to her cousin, Anne Boleyn. Where she would like to be is back home on the Bole Estate, and for it to belong to her (as well as her father's regard), but she knows that will never be. So she is in search of a new life where she could have some measure of self-determination - a great challenge in a world where women had very little.

Backstory/History:
Agatha was born the first, and only, child of Edmund Bole and Elizabeth Howard. Edmund and his father had worked many years proving himself worthy of Elizabeth's hand, as he was landed gentry and her family was noble. Yet eventually an agreement was made between the families, and the marriage came to be. Elizabeth, however, did not survive long enough to see her daughter's first birthday. And thus for the next ten years, Edmund raised Agatha alone to be a daughter he could be proud of, and yet also the son he did not have. Agatha was encouraged to read the bible and many texts of political and philosophical import, and was taught to speak, read and write quite well in Latin. She was also taught her numbers and a certain level of diplomacy, all for the purpose of eventually marrying whatever man her father chose for her, and upon her father's death, taking over the family estate with her husband.

These plans came to an end when Agatha was 11, and her father did the unthinkable - he remarried. To make matters worse, within a year a son was born to this new marriage. And thus every plan, hope and dream Agatha had was dashed with the arrival of a male heir. Agatha was no longer the apple of her father's eye, which was painful in itself, but she also had to begin facing the reality that the land she had loved since she knew how to love would never be hers.

Agatha was human in her reaction, but even then her father's influence tamed what could have been a disastrous rebellious streak. Her rebellion was minor in comparison to some, never straying beyond the rooms of her family manor. In the presence of company, she would act with impeccable decorum, but among her 'family', she was willful and disobedient. When her body began changing from that of a young girl to a young woman, her attentions were thus diverted from mischief to an unconscious longing for the masculine love she no longer received from her father. Blushes turned to smiles turned to gentle flirtation, and eventually she was a common sight in the horses' paddock, for she not only adored the beasts but the handsome and strong young men that tamed and groomed them.

It was a stable boy that had eventually truly captured her attention with his shy yet winning demeanour, and it was he that had stolen from her her very first kiss. He aroused within her feelings that were strange and wonderful, yet terrifying, and she trusted him implicitly. One day she had been riding and had returned quite energized from the ride, and her boy had been there to care for the horse upon her return. He had then insisted upon helping her off with her riding boots, and with a giggle and a smile she had acquiesced. Yet when the boot was removed, his adoring hands had remained upon her ankle, gently sliding under her skirts and up her calf, touching her there for the very first time. She does not know if she would have eventually stopped him before his hand reached truly intimate depths, for it was then that her father appeared to fetch a horse, incensed at the sight of his daughter being molested in such a manner. Her pleading had been the only thing keeping Edmund from demanding the stable boy's head on a platter, yet the damange had been done.

Within days, Edmund had sent a letter to the husband of his late wife's cousin, Thomas Boleyn, inquiring to the possibility of Agatha taking a place as Lady-In-Waiting to Anne. Agatha does not know the content in the letters exchanged between the two men, but she knows her father grumbled about it considerably. However, the decision had been made - for 'her own good', she was to be sent off to strange lands and strange people in order to serve her cousin in the King's Court. Upon her departure, her father reminded her of her obligation to maintain the goodness of the family name, and despite her mischief, she had always done so. Her family honour was paramount, and she would endeavour to keep it intact.

How the King's Great Matter affects them:
Agatha sees the Great Matter as an exposition of hypocrisy within the Catholic Church, and perhaps a crack in the veneer that will allow alternative views to have a place in society. Furthermore, the divorce, if granted, would lead to Agatha's cousin becoming Queen - quite a positive thing for the family at large, even if she had not met Anne until the day of her arrival at Court.

Friends (1):

Mutual Friends (1):