6:06 pm
August 12, 2009
I suppose it would depend on how she came to be regnant, as opposed to regent or consort. If she had been royalty in her own right, she would have bypassed the whole drama (understatement!) of KOA, the papacy. etc. OTOH, that would probably mean no Elizabeth I. So I'm not sure. How were you thinking that this 'alternate universe' would play out? This 'what if' could make a heck of a novel!
"Don't knock at death's door.
Ring the bell and run. He hates that."
3:26 pm
August 12, 2009
Hmm, this is intriguing me as a 'what if' type of story. If you want to preserve Anne as doomed, wronged queen, you could have her making enemies with her assertiveness and lack of 'womanly' docility and by pushing too hard for religious reform, much as Mary pushed too hard to restore allegiance to the papacy. This would be complicated by the people's unease with a queen regnant, so you could still have the political factions conspiring to topple her and replace her with some ambitious Howard relative.
Maybe Norfolk takes the throne as Thomas I! Anne is slandered and either executed or shut up in a nunnery. Elizabeth still has to tread cautiously and avoid plots and threats to finally ascend the throne, vindicating her mother and restoring her reputation. In the latter scenario, Anne survives long enough to see Elizabeth crowned and dies happy.
What do you guys think?
"Don't knock at death's door.
Ring the bell and run. He hates that."
This is not as far away from the truth as you think. I have written before that the events after the jousting accident of Henry VIII in January 1536 when he was in a coma for a period had a bearing on Anne's fate. I would suggest that Court must have been in a frenzy at the time if Henry was to die, who of his offspring would be next in line and there would have to be with a regent if Henry died. The Boleyn's and Anne would have been to the forefront of this, one would have to imagine. I think that this possibility un-nerved the factions of court and the plans for the demise of Anne possibly started from here. It was difficult to keep secrets in court and how these plans regarding succession were served up to Henry was the key. The embellishment of the charges against Anne I think was a quick and badly planned afterthought. I do wonder if Anne's enemies expected the outcome? Or maybe when the wheels were set in motion it gained a momentum of its own. The co-accused must hold some clues to what really was going on behind the scenes or Thomas Boleyn would also have been a head shorter rather than a head hung in shame.
If it was not this, then it would be something else?