Tuesday's Trivia.

Fling away ambition. By that sin angels fell. How then can man, the image of his Maker, hope to win by it? Henry VIII.

History is taught badly. I have never understood why you would teach dull things like dates when you can gossip about people. Dead people but still people with peoplely quirks & humours, personalities, likes & dislikes; people you are pleased are long dead & people you wish you could sit with & have a long chat.

Henry the VIII is one I'm pleased is long dead. He had a small ungenerous mouth combined with a sensual nature & far too much unadulterated power. You know the saying: power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely. He was a living example of corruption. His daughter, Elizabeth, was far smarter but I suspect she got her wits & brains from Anne Boleyn who took as her motto Grumble all you like; this is how it's going to be. O.K, so she said it in Latin but somehow I don't think it endeared her to anyone. Her sharp tongue lost her her head in the end. Henry's answer to most of the problems in his life was the end of an axe.

Elizabeth had quite a bit of her father's arrogance. John Dee caste a horoscope for her to give her the date of Mary's death so she could plan, you know, for her role as the future queen of England. Absolutely charming.

And it's ironic, too. All Henry's reign was about a male heir. He divorced his women over their failure to provide an heir. He fell out with the pope because the woman he'd married hadn't provided a son. He chopped of heads in his frantic need to have a son & yet he had sons & to spare. Katherine, his very first wife, provided him with two perfectly legitimate sons. She was hardly barren though her unfortunate children rarely survived. Only Mary made it to adulthood & then her sister popped her off. Mind you, Mary wasn't guiltless. Sibling rivalry was rife in the Tudor household & the stakes were high.

Then there was Edward VI, the son of Jane Seymour, who did actually become king with a privvy council as he never reached maturity.

And then there was Henry Fitzroy whom Henry actually acknowledged & John Perrot whom he didn't. Sons & to spare. The silly man should have married Bessie Blount & legitimised Henry Fitroy. Makes you wonder what would have happened to England without our Bessie at the helm.

Love him or hate him Henry was an interesting man to the very end. On his deathbed he was attended by 2 men: Archbishop Cranmer & Master Will Sommers, his Fool. Pretty much sums it up.