I get to do a detailed exploration into the life of somebody from 1500-1600 in England. This person must have been at least somewhat important in the grand scheme of things.
I know two people who are going to do Henry VIII, so I don’t want to do him. I’m thinking about picking one of Henry VIII’s wives, either Catherine, Catherine, Catherine, Anne, Anne or Jane.
I’m wondering who your favorite person is, and why? It doesn’t have to be one of the six wives of Henry (though my paper probably will be), but in general: during the sixteenth century in England (1500s), who stands out to you?
I do have a special place in my heart for Drake and the Armada. I don’t know what it is, but that’s one of the few Euro History stories that really struck a chord with me.
The Spaniards in their giant, foreboding ships. Drake and his smaller, faster, more agile ships. It was a combination of rotten luck for the Spaniards and brilliant tactics by Drake and his lot, and Drake won the day.
(Just in case it’s missed, due to lack of inflection/body language, this is, in fact, sarcasm. Drake was a prick. Bloody interesting, though. And hey, history is written by the victor, right? So Drake’s a hero! Just don’t tell that to the Spanish, Irish, slaves, Thomas Doughty, etc.)
If I was picking between the wives, I’ve read a bit about them, I’d pick Anne of Cleves.
She was smart-smart enough to realize that he didn’t “fancy” her, had a history of “spousal abuse” on a grand scale, and she better do something quick. “The Great Flanders Mare” had enough wit to befriend old Henry and survive the marriage.
If I wasn’t limited to the wives, I’d probably go with Thomas Cranmer, if for no other reason than he wrote my favoirte- Rite I in the Book of Common Prayer
Good choice. In university a friend of mine who was doing an advanced history reading course spent a summer in which she read her way steadily through the Calendar of State Papers of the reign of Queen Liz the 1st. (this is a summary of all or most of the official correspondance of the queen, that is, government of the day.
Every day she’d come home with amusing stories about what Shane O’Neill had gotten up to next, and the wild (but amusing) excuses/promises he was making to the queen in explanation.
As it turned out, her actual research focus had nothing to do with any of this. As I recall she also came home with stories of the ratehr pathetic pleas of some poor english cleric/scholar, who’d been sent by the queen to be bishop of somewhere or other in Ireland, and who hated every minute of it and sent home desperate pleas to be permitted to come home. The Irish, he said, had no interest in his preaching, particularly as he spoke English and latin but not irish, and in any case they were catholic and he C of E. So no one came to his sermons and he couldn’t pursue his own scholarship because of the lack of libraries and other scholars. @0 or so years later, he died in office, still pleading to be allowed to return home.
Of henry’s wives, I go for Catherine of Aragon - the only one with a functional backbone.
For you history experts, a question - my wify has really gotten hooked on the cable series The Tudors. How much of it is true and how much writers’ license?
