Virginia Is For Families

Henry has returned in time for Easter and the season of rebirth. Where have you been Big Guy? I was just starting to feel better seeing the blossoms on the trees and listening to the birds sing.
Anne Boleyn is gone after telling the crowd at her beheading to pray for the King ” for a gentler and more merciful prince there never was . . . “

I’ve added Will Durant’s commentary here in a few places. And according to Mr. Durant she did say these words as she went to meet her executioner. Jane Seymour is waiting in the wings and she is “no special beauty, but she impressed all with her intelligence, kindness, even modesty”.

Henry seems to like her but he is soon up to his old tricks. He tells her to stay out of politics in his charming way (Remember what happened to Anne?) and gives her dark looks when she hasn’t produced an heir at the first opportunity.

She seems to take it in stride. I wonder how she will react when Henry starts culling the population out in the countryside? Because his Reformation is less and less popular the further you get from the big cities. London and Edinburgh are more concerned with the future prices of cattle and mirrors. But the people who farm and raise those cattle are very disturbed. They begin to revolt in short order.

Were they not paying attention when Henry had his wife and the mother of his child executed? He does not hesitate here and soon the country is at war with itself.

Henry is not happy with Thomas Cromwell either. His heavy handed minister manages to become the most unpopular person in the kingdom and eventually has his head handed to him. Much bloodshed could have been averted if he had not enraged the peasants with his policies.

I enjoyed the moment last night when Henry smacks Cromwell in the back of the head. But this was as close to comedy and The Three Stooges as we will ever get here. There is nothing funny about the reign of terror that found its way into England when Henry was King.

Durant seems to feel, however, that the groundwork was laid at this time for the much happier reign of Queen Elizabeth. Henry built “the first permanent royal navy” with some of the funds he stole from the Church. It cleared out the pirates and defended the country when Spain attacked years later. He modernized the army. He knew how to fight his enemies!

And you didn’t want to become one of those whether you were a foreign leader, a wife or a daughter. “To his friends, however, he remained kind and generous, jovially amiable, and capable of winning affection and devotion”.

Anne Boleyn referred to these qualities as she died.

He was a very contradictory fellow and Showtime does a good job of showing both sides of this leader whose mind was “keen” and judgement of men “penetrating”.

It also shows him suffering from an incurable ulcer in his leg. Also he had “syphilis, never quite cured”.

Henry is older in this third season of the Tutors. He has settled down a bit and his looks are fading. He is in constant pain and lives in the cauldron of fear that is his own creation.

One can only thank our many ancestors who managed to wrestle power away from the autocratic personality and give us a chance to enjoy the better world we have today.

Long live the King! But first let’s talk about a few changes.

Will Durant
The Story of Civilization Volume Six
The Reformation

Tomorrow evening is the season finale of The Tudors.

Do you know what that means? Yes my friends. Henry VIII is going to have Ann killed. But that is not the unusual part. Lovers quarrel and kill each other all the time.

Henry on the other hand manages to kill his wife after he obtains a legal document granting him permission to do it. And he convinces thousands of his fellow citizens that it is a good idea for their queen to be beheaded.

They all have a party. And then she is escorted to the block and they watch as a guy with a mask chops her head off. A remarkable precedent is set and as we see in the next two centuries one that is not forgotten. First the queen. Then the king.

All of this pretty much blows my mind.

Ann should have known it was time to RUN long before this fateful day. Here is a portion of a love letter Henry wrote to her years earlier. There are love letters between the two that have been saved, ironically enough, in the Vatican Library. The love smitten King of England says. . .

“No more to you at this present mine own darling for lack of time but that I would you were in my arms or I in yours for I think it long since I kissed you. Written after the killing of an hart at a xj. of the clock minding with God’s grace tomorrow mightily timely to kill another: by the hand of him which I trust shortly shall be yours.”

Henry R.

Nice. He was probably trying to tell her something.

“I love you my dear. Run like a deer! I find it necessary to kill things when I am thinking of you.”

It really is a sad tale. And a true one. I have to give Showtime credit for making history come alive in this instance. I am sure there are lots of inaccuracies but history is full of those. I give them credit for trying.

Isn’t it ironic that these two produced one of the great rulers of all time in Queen Elizabeth I.

Here is some more information about Ann Boleyn and her life.

http://englishhistory.net/tudor/monarchs/boleyn.html

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Do you enjoy history when it is brought to television? Are there any shows that you feel have been particularly well done?

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The Tudors on Showtime continues to provide rare Sunday evening enjoyment for those of us who have pretty much left the 2oth century medium of television to stew in its own reruns. Time has moved on a bit and Henry’s daughter, Elizabeth, future queen of England, looks to be around six years old.

Henry loves her very much but still would chop off his left arm for a son. Sorry. But chopping is such an integral part of this series. I am really hoping Ron Popeil will be making a guest appearance before it is over. I can only imagine what it’s going to be like when his wife  climbs those stairs and then look down into the hole on the eighteenth green for the last time.

Oh sorry once again. I am thinking about the upcoming British Open. This hole is large enough for a noggin and the director of this series thought it a nice touch to put a camera down below it so we can have a face to face with the soon to be departed.

But we have a ways to go before Ann lays out her lovely neck for the last time. She is ecstatic at the moment because she is pregnant and feels sure she will give Henry his son thus establishing her own position.

But Henry is a complicated guy and he doesn’t seem to be so happy. For one thing he misses Sir Thomas. And he blames Ann  for “making him” execute his friend and mentor. And then he gets a letter from his first wife who dies from lack of attention or something.

There is a strange and unbelievable scene where he sits on the floor reading this letter and holding his knees. Then he falls over and starts to cry. What’s that all about? Artistic license? Let’s not go overboard with all this sensitive king stuff.

Henry is quick to anger but he forgives his few friends after awhile because he is so isolated in his role of king and head of the new church. He would like to be sitting around with Sir Thomas and laughing about it all.

“Seriously, Sir Thomas. Do you really think you will burn eternally in flames if you whisper in my ear that I am who I think I am? You can be telling yourself I am a philandering miscreant at the same time as long as I can’t hear you. Isn’t it what’s in your heart that is important Sir Thomas. Hahahaha. Here! Have another drink. Don’t you feel even a little twinge when you see one of those beautiful young women we have around here? Hahahha.”

Henry kicks himself for depriving himself of all these wonderful moments. He feels so bad about it he sometimes sees Sir Thomas hiding behind the curtains in his room at night. He has nightmares too. And they all seem to center around his habit of beheading those who disagree with him.

He’s a gentle person at heart. Ann is the cruel one. It’s all her fault. She is an ambitious b**ch and quite shallow too.

You can tell this is the case because she is so happy at the moment. She has even stopped running her hand around her neck. And there is one more scene I must share with you. Ann and some of her friends are having a dance in a small tavern or room with a romantic fire in one corner. It is very dark. She runs into the arms of someone who picks her up and twirls her about the room just as Henry walks through the door.

Talk about your awkward moment. You can hear a pin or a pinhead drop as he walks around having a look at his “competition”. Then he grabs Ann and they start this long, passionate, angry and overly choreographed dance that ends up with a shot of them in bed.

Ann sinks one of her royal fingernails about a half inch into Henry’s back and then lets it wander down to his butt in an attempt I suppose to see if he really does have a spine. She must not have found it because then she smacks him in the face a couple of times!

Talk about pressing your luck. Henry started doing a slow burn a long time ago where Ann is concerned. He is isolated in the geopolitical sense and in the sense that he executed his best bud! How much more of this can he take?

A lot is riding on whatever is baking in the royal oven. If this does not turn out well we may see Henry’s fingernails revealed. They are very long and sharp. And they are attached to ten foot long poles in the possession of some very scary and masked avengers.

So tune in and see what happens next. And don’t forget to grab a feed so that we can discuss the finer details here when it is over.

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Here are some photos from the Showtime series

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Well we have all made it to midweek and around noontime it will be time to head back towards the barn again. Sure it may take a few days to get there. But the important thing is that we all have a barn and a horse to get us there.

Henry our Tudor friend has many barns and many horses. I hope you have been watching him on Showtime. On the last episode he dispatched Thomas More and Cardinal Fletcher to their Heavenly rewards. More was possibly his best friend and a father figure too. We can see the king screaming with pain and regret when the axe falls.

Thomas More refused to take an oath saying the King was the head of the church in England or anywhere for that matter. I was caught up in the scene where his wife pleads with him. She comes to his dungeon cell and says “Thomas, please! Just say the words. We have all done it and we will forfeit all our possessions if you remain stubborn.”

Clearly she will miss him but right at this moment she has other concerns. And he says “Yes you and the children have been my greatest concern. But I can’t endure an eternity in Hell even if it means you all become paupers” or words to this effect.

Makes sense to me. Besides shouldn’t God be the one who takes care of them? Especially since Thomas More has gone the extra mile for Him. Have faith woman and go get a job! You too kids! Let’s worry about dad because at his trial he nearly faints when they tell him what they are going to do to him.

He has this thing about Pain! And I am right there with him at this moment. He will do anything to avoid FOREVER burning in the devil’s workshop. But on the other hand the guys are going to hang him until he is half dead, cut out his bowels and burn them while he watches with interest, tear him into four pieces with wild horses and then cut off his head! Talk about being caught between the devil and the deep blue sea!

How do people even think up this stuff? But then his good friend Henry shows his soft and caring side by commuting his sentence to simple removal of the parts that have been causing him so much trouble.

Much much better! Thomas goes off after a nice speech to the crowd and Henry gets to suffer for many more years with gout and whatever else. He probably gets sexually transmitted diseases. Because he can’t control himself. He is riding through the woods with his guards when this guy and his wife come along. Immediately they are stopped and questioned. Henry goes up to the wife and sees she is young and beautiful. So he gives her a big kiss and carries her away while her husband stands there steaming.

What’s he going to do? He probably heard about what they were going to do to More! I always try to put myself in some of these unique circumstances. What would I do?

Beth! Please write when you get a chance.

I love you!

And so it goes. Human history is full of sad episodes like this. It’s a shame really. Thomas More had it about right. And so he gets to ride out the remainder of the series in his Heavenly abode in comfort and peace.

Hopefully he will somehow help his wife and kids as they struggle along the road. But they could have refused to take the oath too! I wonder what he would have said if they all came to his cell one day and said they were going with him?

Great! But I hope for your sake Henry likes you as much as he likes me?!

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