Inspiring Women Winter 2017

Holbein’s had been — from “the annunciation
of our Lady during your Majesty’s pleasure.“
This annuity would continue almost every year
until her death. She was regarded as a
“gentlewoman” with a longer career in the
Tudor court and she was even paid better
than her contemporaries, Holbein and
Hilliard... She was also tutor to the King’s
daughter at the Spanish court.
I’d like to know how she found life under the
Tudors? Bravely weaving safe passage
through the intrigues of this turbulent and
dangerous court? Creating these intimate
mementoes of affection for them. Was she
ever a confidant of Queen Catherine Parr? In
1548 her champion dies in childbirth, yet
Levina managed to produce numerous
portraits of all these primary players of court
for 19 more years! How did she escape the
backlashes of Tudor life? People were being
snuffed out all around her yet she outlives
them all. There’s actually very little information
about her, herself. She must have been a
shrewd woman. Was she the primary
breadwinner of her family? Did she support
her family in Flanders (Belgium) when her
father passed away? I can’t find any
information about her husband George. Did
she have children? There was an economic
crisis in Tudor England in 1576 and London was
a dangerous place. Did she somehow help
the needy of her time? At 56 did she just die of
old age?
Tell us something interesting about yourself
that not many people know. I’m too short to
be an astronaut. I tried 3 times to master
Physics nevertheless; I’m still completely
fascinated by it. If I come back in another life
I’ll give it another go and hope to become an
astrophysicist, to boldly go where no woman
has gone before. (I’m also an avid Trekkie -
Star Trek) I always dreamt of space travel and
at the tender age of 18 realized it would
never be … I didn’t meet the height criteria.
Frida
Kahlo
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