Its Only Fox That Says That And That It Was Unwise / Green Of Her To Not Realize - Tumblr Posts

ok i’ll riff if no one wants to ask me anything ig, hem hem—

i think the reason koa biographers tend to be so uncomfortable with the fray diego ‘arc’ is that it doesn’t cast koa in the best light? the only biographer that i’ve read that doesn’t handle it with kid gloves is julia fox tbh.

here are basically the only two conclusions you can draw from it : a) koa was hugely exaggerating the level of her ‘destitution’ in her household, even to diplomats, and that’s why she did have the funds to buy fray diego gifts of books etc., b) she was being honest about the severe lack of funds , in which case this means she was buying gifts for him rather than paying her ladies what they were owed. which suggests she had more than a platonic attachment to him.

there’s no ‘third option’ , really, so licence and fraser sort of hem and haw and sit on their hands about it, try to have their cake and eat it too. basically they say she was always unflinchingly unfailingly honest BUT somehow she was managing to find the funds to do this as she was insisting she didn’t even have the funds to clothe and feed herself. and will yet still basically say it’s disgusting for any historian to suggest that she might have been some level of devotion and attachment to her confessor that bordered on inappropriate . and also that it’s beyond the pale to suggest koa ever lied about anything .

ps this confessor is the one that famously remarked that koa was ‘the most beautiful creature in the world.’