The shackles of Rome were falling fast - Ol Henry was just in the right place at the right time, and had the right amount of ruthlessness about him.
For the first twenty or so years of his adulthood, he was a pretty devout Catholic. He wrote many essays on religious themes, and even wrote some pretty decent music. He was a very intelligent man - but spoiled and hedonistic - bad combination.
I took my RF name from his first wife - Catherine of Aragon. She was a fascinating woman and one of my personal heroes. Though her life was full of tragedy, she married Henry for love and bore him several children. They had a very loving relationship for many years. When Henry met Anne Boleyn, he was heartbroken and frustrated by his and Catherine's inability to produce a living male heir. He was a very deeply theological person and began to doubt his decision to marry his brother's widow, from a theological perspective. He wondered if he was being punished for adultery. It was at this moment that Anne Boleyn and her very ambitious family made their move for the throne. She and other political players played up the moralistic theological side of the issue in order to gain ground.
The people hated her and loved Catherine. Interesting times.
The Tudor family history is my favorite time period to study and read about. Henry was, in my opinion, a person who was full of promise but also full of appetites that he expected to be accommodated without ramifications. He died a very unhappy and unfulfilled man.
One of my other heroes, Sir Thomas More, was one of his victims. What a man! He fought for women's rights, and was loyal, honest, intelligent, and devout. He was a hero all the way to the executioner's blade, even cracking a joke as he laid his head on the block. He said, "Please let me move my beard - it has served me well, and does not deserve to be chopped." (He had grown the beard in prison and credited it for keeping him warm.)
Jane Grey, Catherine of Aragon, and Sir Thomas More died for their faith and on principle. In my opinion, they are to be admired. (Actually, Catherine died isolated and basically under house arrest, but her health was broken by the strain of her husband's divorce and his estrangement from the church - she lived only a short time after he divorced her.)
The movie Lady Jane, with Helena Bonham Carter and Cary Elwes, is excellent - I highly recommend it!
For nine politically charged days in 1553, protestant martyr Lady Jane Grey (
Helena Bonham Carter) rules England against her will, thanks to a conspiracy concocted by a band of men bent on keeping the crown away from the Church of Rome. But when Princess Mary, the daughter of King Henry, assumes the throne, Lady Jane and her husband, Guilford Dudley (
Cary Elwes), are imprisoned and sentenced to die.
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