“There is a world beyond this black world. There is a world of the possible. A world where Anne can be Queen is a world where Cromwell can be Cromwell. He sees it; then he doesn’t. The moment is fleeting. But insight cannot be taken back. You cannot return to the moment you were in before.” – [ x ]
A fairy ring, also known as fairy circle, elf circle, elf ring or pixie ring, is a naturally occurring ring or arc of mushrooms, in his case Marasmius oreades. The body of this fungus, its mycelium, is underground. It grows outward in a circle. As it grows, the mycelium uses up all of the nutrients in the soil, starving the grass. This is the reason a fairy ring has dead grass over the growing edge of the mycelium. Umbrella-shaped fruiting bodies, called mushrooms, spring up from just behind the outer edge of the mycelium.
Re: the take that Henry’s courtship of Anne was tantamount to sexual harassment…
I definitely get that there was a power imbalance there. However, just because he could definitely have taken advantage of that if he’d wished to doesn’t necessitate that he did.
This was from 1531:
His Holiness had lately letters from France in which they tell him that the king of England is so passionately fond of the Lady [Anne] whom he intends taking for his wife, that having had a quarrel with her, he sent for some of her relatives and implored them with tears in his eyes to appease her wrath, and induce her to make peace with him.
I mean…I know this is just one example, and it’s not very early in their relationship. However, he certainly could have, as king, commanded her to speak with him, or commanded her presence during what sounds like a rather heated conflict between both of them.
Instead, he asks her family members to act as messengers because he knows she doesn’t want to speak to him.
And even in 1527, he had granted her a fair amount of authority (this was literally her speaking for him, in his presence): when Wolsey’s messenger came to ask Henry for a private audience, his messenger returned with a message from Anne (who had been at this side when he’d arrived):
