Tag: aethelfleds

alicehoffmans:

“Thomas Cranmer, the Architect of the Church of England, [was] burnt at the stake under Mary. Of course I realize Henry couldn’t foresee that Mary would become Queen regnant, yet smart monarchs consider such possibilities.”

@aethelfleds he dropped the ball!!

had he been a smart monarch, on his deathbed he would have said to cranmer:

Kinda playing off the “Anne played the game and lost” thing. A lot of the time it seems like her downfall is spoken of like “haha she was so stupid to stake everything on having a son lmao.” Like….hindsight is 20/20 my guy. They look at it like she just should’ve *known* when there was no reason on earth for her to doubt her child-bearing ability in say 1530. She came from some fertile families so there was no reason for Henry to doubt either. Sorry if this is incoherent, I’m so tired.

1530, 1527….people really forget that literally very few thought the ‘Great Matter’ was going to drag out that long, ultimately fruitlessly (unless we count the Anglican Schism as fruit, lmao). Kings had certainly been able to get annulments before; and nothing on equal footing to the Sack of Rome had happened before either (it was viewed as the “end of the Renaissance”).  Henry promised her in a letter their “matter” would come to pass, soon (sometime around 1528)– that’s part of why I’ve always loved the line “Promises are easy” (Tudors) so much.

But yeah the ultimate She Should Have Known…hadn’t she read TOBG??? :/