The regretted

On January 15 1569, Catherine Knolly,  née Carey, Henry sister (and probably his closest blood relative alive) died. She is an interesting character in her own right, but I always had certain trouble talking about her until now (yea the time she bite the bust truly the best moment!). I always thought the idea of exploring the relationship between the brother and sister was a good idea, but most of my research resulted in very little result. I'm not even sure they had much crossing together in their youth (Catherine was put on a path to becoming a lady in waitting for Anne of Cleves and Catherine Howard and his own education seem to have been taken place in another location). Hell if you look at calendar, at the time Henry does seem to mention her death, though remember most of his correspondence seem to be lost.

I will recommend reading the being bess article as it give interesting account of the whole Elizabeth/Catherine/Francis Knolly relationship. (Though its nice to see that Apparently her husband quite loved her)

Going down the 1568

A big important event that happened in Henry Carey is the northern uprising in 1569, but since I feel it would almost require more than one article I can't help but go through the early months or so that Henry went through before all that happen. I'm skipping on a lot fo thing.

The cecil paper are interesting enough because I've seen one reference in April of 1568 (entry 1171), where he seem he confered with the first Early of Moray. Which would be a somewhat earlier foray of into scottish affair by him (though It don't really seem to relate to his appointment at Berwick all that much).  

A rare apprerance by Anne Morgan here at 1210. 

The foreign papers gives a serie of instruction to Henry as soon as he appointed to the job. (2454 to 2458) and tell us of John Foster who will probably pop-into our story into the future. Supplies seem to be a pretty important thing for the job cause if you look at 2473-2474, it the first thing he talk is apparently him waitting for ammunition to be given to him (though its hardly like he don't need it) and apparently he felt the need to mention what he ate. Especially that 2481 he started asking the name of the scottish lord against Elizabeth and well the raids seem to be putting quite a strain on the ammo supplies (source, 2504).

At 2496 you'll him relate him a meeting between his son George (who would be about 21 by that time),  which interessting considering that some planned to marry the two. Though here he seem mostly being a proxy between his father and Mary Stuart.   Mary Stuart clearly being diplomatic with him on the matter of the raiding.

Well its kinda cool that Henry try to get a  pardon a man for apparently unjusticied accusation(2524) hopefully it was the right thing to do.

Ok I have to admit its really stupid but at 2534, it sorta can't help but imagine Knolly going to Berwick soley to criticise his brother in-law.  As for the fortication Hunsdon would say to the queen that he though the main wall was fine, but the town was disorganisne. (1211)(thugh they had some common ground as both of them were affected by the disease of the place and they were a pretty big problem on the marches)

Though in november Knolly would come up with the plan to mary George with Mary (2625),   with Henry being quite pissed about it and as he mention doing it out of his own initiative even though the boy wasn't his own. His interest in the matter was that he was in charge of Mary Stuart in her detention. I'd say Knolly plan male certain amount of sense, mainly securing that Mary stuart be tied to a protestant noble, the close ties between Carey family and Elizabeth line also help (as he mention in 2626), but also considering he'd be related to the king of the Scots probably wouldn't hurt him. (I'll try to write some around the scheme if possible though it doesn't seem to have gone further than that)

With all the talk of wall and how terrible the living condition are you'd think Hery Carey a guy in the Night Watch in game of throne. Mind you despiste the complaining he never seem to go want to leave. (it be hard to characterise him as a complaining since its pretty much a job that suck)

Good Evening gov'nor

On august 25 1568 was appointed as governor Berwick a post he would reside for almost 20 years (source, though he planned for the job about a month earlier for entry 2335). It wasn't exactly a prestigious assignment, the border between the Scotland and England was lawless, suffering from economic problem, disease and essentially it was in the interest of both the England and Scotland to keep it that way as they could have people (source. Chapter 1, which tell you how much that job suck) . Also it didn't pay very well (Henry Carey will ask for more money almost as soon as he got into charge). 

I sorta tried to find the exact the reason has the why of his appointment, I can't pin it. The thesis would go telling us it came that the (page 47 of the pdf) tell us that it boil down that Henry was someone the queen could trust (I think it make sense considering not only his indefectible loyalty to her, but also he was experience in diplomacy and as later would later show), but like I said before I think you can add in the fact he seem to have hold the officepreviously, which only made him better.

Also a little note, but should you at the thesis at page 38 of the pdf (34 in page page number) he got a license for gun to hunt bird. So I can't help but notice that he got it shortly before being sent and if you remember he is the master of the queen hawkes, which make me imagine (in a humorous and unlikely scene) where he essentially got mad at the queen birds and shot them down, which landed him a post on the frontier no one could want.

Mid-life crisis

Ok I know we technicallly went past the mid-life point in 1562, but 1566 is the point where he hit his forty. For some reason the year 1565 and 1566 seem to be completely hollow in term of particular event I could talk about. The best I got was that apparently his son Edward was matriculated of trinity college in 1566 (source, page 41-37 in the footnote). George, the elder actually got his degree before his father at age 13 in 1560 (source). I suspect they had the same speedy attribution than his father. 

I looked into the assassination attempt on Elizabeth, but most of them seem to have taken place when he was out in the North (i'd insert a joke about how once he's out of the picture all the assassins seem to rush in, but that's probably not very accurate).

But hey next time we can actually focus in on something very important, him being sent in the eastern marches for the next decade or so!