Tag: answered

Would you consider Anne Boleyn a feminist martyr? Or a Protestant martyr? Or a martyr of any sort?

No, because a martyr is:

 a person who voluntarily suffers death as the penalty of witnessing to and refusing to renounce a religion

Anne Askew was a martyr, because she refused to renounce her belief that 
“the communion was a symbol of the body and blood of Christ, that the bread and wine remained thus in substance and it was a spititual memorial of the death of Christ only”; even when she was told that she would be spared if she recanted.

Anne Boleyn did not ‘voluntarily suffer death’; she was accused, brought to trial, pled ‘not guilty’, and was condemned by that trial. She was not given the option of keeping her life in exchange for something else. 

Okay, so in certain historical fiction circles there’s this thing called Forced Marriage Scenario, where the heroine is forced into marriage ( usually for her inheritance if the husband is Bad™, or to save her reputation if the husband is Good™). What’s your opinion on this trope? It seems to be quite popular in The Tudors fandom recently, there’s a surprisingly large number of fics where A Boleyn is forced to marry C Brandon or E Seymour, or M Tudor is forced to marry G Boleyn etc.

Hm, I’m not a huge fan or it, honestly? Probably just because these were real people and figures and like…it just rubs me the wrong way. Royal arranged marriages are one thing, but Anne marrying Charles, who she hated, even in fiction seems wrong to me (like I love my fic Charles Brandon’s in Modern AU’s but they’re mine only slightly inspired by Tudors and I know that wasn’t what he was really like, the real CB I am none too fond of) and for that reason I wouldn’t read it.

And George Boleyn and Mary just seems weird tbh; he’s marrying his (ex? or no?) brother-in-law’s daughter? It’s not as incestuous as some marriages and it’s not by blood I know but…odd. Also she wasn’t too fond of the Boleyns, so that strikes me as very Break the Cutie trope which is one I hate. It would potentially be interesting from the perspective of them being of different religious beliefs; but I’d rather read that tension platonically. 

Idk, this is very nitpicky probably, but there were plenty of dub-consensual relationships in this era and at this court that were real, like Elizabeth Holland (his wife’s launderess, who was likely very young) and Thomas Howard, for instance, that I wouldn’t want to read AU relationship fics for the same. 

I honestly haven’t noticed this trend, but I only read fic on AO3. Has it become popular on FF.net?

☕️☕️☕️

angel haze > azaelia banks 

reign > the vampire diaries (honestly what was even…going on, there? reign was batshit but at least it stayed entertaining,) 

that scene in tudors where henry rips up the papal bull and it transitions to one of anne’s ladies tearing a sheet during anne’s labor > almost every other scene transition ever, um…on that show. 

☕️ Henry VIII went through so many wives bc he was always trying to match them to ideal picture he got from his mother? (I’ve only seen this a few times I’m not sure if it’s unpopular or not)

Touched on this earlier; definitely disagree.

Some of that was circumstantial (KOA having not had a living son, JS dying shortly after having one), and some of it was definitely due to his own like…issues (to say the least, lol), but I don’t think those issues were closely linked with “oh, my wife doesn’t remind me enough of my mother, we’re cancelling that right away”. 

And so many similarities are more likely incidental than anything else, imo? ‘Oh, EoY and KoA were both considered beauties by the standards of the day’, I mean…not entirely out of the ordinary for a king to wish to marry a beauty by the standards of his time? And they weren’t super similar beyond that; KOA was more politically involved (and had been an ambassador) than EoY I’d say. 

Anne Boleyn wasn’t considered a beauty by those standards; and the way she’s described makes her sound like she didn’t look much like EoY did, either: “of middling stature, swarthy complexion, long neck, wide mouth, bosom not much raised[…] eyes which are black and beautiful”. 

And idea put forth by Russell (not the EoY part, but kind of ties into this rhetoric sideways– JS was his ‘favorite’ because he reminded him the most of EoY’s model of queenship) that’s used to support this is pretty weak also. 

I.e., Henry didn’t want a politically involved wife, and “Anne becomes Catherine” (Tudors pushed this narrative also):

“A similar pattern had been played out with the King’s first marriage when, for the first four years, Henry had revelled in Katherine of Aragon’s role as Spain’s de facto ambassador to London, but then, after 1513 – perhaps upset at her success as Regent during his absence – he accused Katherine of duplicity and set about deliberately sidelining her from politics.”

What is the basis for this comment about ‘sidelining’? Or jealousy, for that matter? 

In 1520, a French ambassador said KOA had made more representation than he’d expect from a Queen Consort, “as one would not have supposed she would have dared to so, on this account she is held in greater esteem by the king and council than she ever was.”

In 1534, Anne Boleyn was described as “[having] the name to be as a mediatrix between your Grace and high justice.’ 

There weren’t ever, to my knowledge, similar comments made about EoY, and I think KOA likely serves as the best example against this idea because that was his longest marriage.

I’ve been thinking about The Tudors (the family not the show) and I find some opinions from the general public about them to be very ill founded. For example: them being very paranoid about being dethroned and people saying it was a flaw of their character or because their line wasn’t legitimate in the first place. Henry VII and Elizabeth I had every right to fear it. (Perkin Warbeck) (Lady Jane)(and many other events) Mary Stuart herself was dethroned and she was queen since she was only days

[part 2] and her claim was never put in question but there she was – losing her crown. Like… they had a solid reason to be paranoid about that. Or The Tudors being very jealous and dynastic but of a “barren stock”.  

Yeah, I agree there are a lot of generalizations that are taken as gospel that are…you know, digestible but oversimplify a lot. 

I mean, “not legitimate in the first place” I read a lot but like you can’t have it both ways? 

By which I mean, dynastically it’s so messy like…that post that went viral about how MQOS was the ‘true queen’ and Elizabeth I was ‘the pretender’ (i.e. from the dreaded BASTARD LINE~).

Like there were definitely people that thought that, just not enough for it to matter (like, was she overthrown by her own people, or ever, for that matter? Non), but this argument be like a souffle– it falls apart as soon as you poke at it. MQOS was descended from Margaret Tudor. Margaret Tudor was the daughter of Henry VII (who’s royal line through Catherine of Valois I guess ‘ “ didn’t count “ ‘ because it’s through CoV making it with a Welsh thot) and EoY (who even some others say wasn’t a ‘ “true royal” ‘ because Edward IV ‘shouldn’t have been king, rightfully Henry VI was’ and then her mother was an English noblewoman and only royal/Queen Consort by marriage– like four out of six of Henry VIII’s wives).

Anyway, all that to say that if the Tudors are an ‘inherently bastard line’ and any fruit of that tree will only live to be bad, illegitimate apples unfit to rule– then MQOS is also precluded from the ‘fit to rule’ basket by that same argument. 

Frank Randall?

I haven’t gotten past like– a few episodes into s2 of Outlander?

So far that I, too, think Claire is hot. Interest in history bordering on obsession and love to research. Dissimilarities…idk, they haven’t really gone much in depth on his character and I kinda don’t want to find out 😂 (I’ve heard he becomes the worst, so,)

Henry ocho, either show or hf

Alike:

Hypochondriac, for sure– I’ve literally gotten to the point where if I’m in like the student lounge or computer lab and someone sits near/across from me and starts coughing I just get up and leave lmaodshjs I don’t care about them being offended like…at all.

Not very forgiving.

Pedantic/obsessive/anxiety-prone.

Unalike:

Don’t have any homies 😔 (My Pastyme W/ Good Company is documentaries, by myself shshshhs)

Haven’t ever had someone killed, lol, so I have that going for me.

Less intelligent probably, monolingual rather than multilingual (wotever tho…we can’t all afford prep school/private tutors skjsjsjs)

Non-athletic.

mary qos (from reign…or the hf too)

Ummm hmm bad taste in men (lol)? Bad decision-making at times. I also have chronic pain issues, as she did later in life. Can relate to her emotional turmoil, and also that she often actually physically collapsed when very upset– been there.

Unlike her in that she was said to be very charming, and I’m on the opposite end of the spectrum– awkward, not great at interactions and painfully shy. Nor am I especially religious.