Ending my Blog

Hello friends.

As has probably become apparent from my increasingly rare updates to this blog, I really don’t have the time to keep this up anymore. At this point, I’m a full time visiting assistant professor at a law school and also run my own trademark law firm on the side. I’ve also just moved onto other interests and goals I’d rather spend my time working toward. This all became very apparent when I received numerous inquiries about whether I’d be blogging about the newest season of The Crown and realized that I just….had no desire to do so.

I don’t plan on deleting any content from this blog, but I will likely be allowing my custom domain to lapse here soon (as it’s hard to justify the cost at this point). RachaelDickzen.com at that point will be found at https://rachael-dickzen.squarespace.com/. (UPDATE: I clearly changed my mind on this - since I was already paying for my law firm website over at RachaelDickson.com, it’s pretty cheap to maintain it, so I’m going to keep it up).

I will try to finish out my Six song series at some point, but no promises on when that may happen (sorry - I’m really busy at this point!). I may post updates in the future if I end up doing more writing or getting something published, but I don’t really plan on doing any more in-depth pop culture history analysis content at this point.

Thanks all of y’all for reading my content and supporting me over the years! I really appreciate it.

-Rachael

Over-Analyzing Six the Musical: All You Wanna Do

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Over-Analyzing All the Historical References in Six: “Ex Wives,” “No Way,” “Don’t Lose Your Head” “Heart of Stone” “Haus of Holbein” “Get Down”The Tudor Crown Inspiration in Six’s Logo; The Tudor Fashion Elements of the Costumes in Six (with Painting References)
Six the Musical Wives 1-3: Historical and Modern Costume Inspirations; Six the Musical Wives 4-6: Historical and Modern Costume Inspirations
The Ladies in Waiting of Six: Historical Inspirations and Costumes; Details from Six Costumer Gabriella Slade’s Instagram Takeover
The Early Costumes of Six the Musical: From Edinburgh to Cambridge to London
Updated Six the Musical Costumes for Broadway!; The Shoes of Six the Musical
The Alternate Costumes of Six the Musical; How the Six Alternates Change Their Styling for Each Queen
Virtual Dance Workshops and Q&As with Different Six Cast Members!

I got to see Six on Broadway again last week! It was amazing! And it reminded me that it’s really high time for me to finish out this song series. So it’s K HOWARD TIMEEEE.

I used Gareth Russell’s “Young and Damned and Fair: The Life of Catherine Howard” while writing this blog post! Highly recommend you read it, as it’s a wonderful book full of important societal and cultural context and compassion for Katheryn as a person.

Note: As I’ve mentioned on this blog before, spellings of names were not standardized in Tudor times, and people often spelled their own names in different ways. I’m generally using Katheryn in here (as that’s how she signed her letter), but other spellings of her name as valid as well.

The writers of Six have explicitly stated that their main pop inspirations for Katheryn Howard were Britney Spears and Ariana Grande. These influences come across in her outfit, styling, persona, and the sexy but young bubblegum pop sound of her song. Remember: Britney Spears was 12 when she was cast in the Mickey Mouse Club, 15 when she first signed with a record company, and 17 when she released her first album. Ariana Grande starred on Broadway at 15, next appeared on a Nickelodeon show, signed with a record company at 18, and released her first record at 20. Both stars were sexualized by society at a young age, and Britney in particular has struggled with others controlling and dictating her life, just like Katheryn Howard.

The great part about this song is how it repositions Katheryn as the focus of her own story, which historically, has often been positioned as much more of a battle for power between her uncle, the Duke of Norfolk, and the king’s advisor, Thomas Cromwell. Although her song talks much more about men than the other songs in Six, it’s ultimately about how /she/ feels about those relationships and her rise in the world and what effect it has on her life.

The original West End cast of Six performing “All you Want to Do,” with Aimie Atkinson at the center as Katherine Howard. Credit: Idil Sukan

A 1540 miniature by Hans Holbein. Although this painting has been identified as Katheryn Howard many times in the past, it’s more likely to actually show Anna of Cleves. Credit: Royal Collection Trust

All you wanna do, All you wanna do, baby
I think we can all agree I'm a ten amongst these threes

“I'm a ten amongst these threes”: This line refers to the commonly used 1-10 scale of attractiveness, where 10 is apparently just the best and hottest. Obviously this scale is problematic, but this line simultaneously shows Katheryn reclaiming it for her own, and using her bravado to distance herself from the other 5 queens, as she has in multiple other lines by this point in the show. Over the course of the song, she’ll lose her attempts to control her narrative with flippant words when she becomes overwhelmed by all her trauma.

We don’t actually know what Katheryn looked like, as we have no portraits that are definitively identified as her. The portrait I’ve seen most commonly described as showing her is actually probably Anna of Cleves. However, contemporary descriptions do consistently refer to her as quite pretty, specifically referring to her “very delightful” appearance, and describing her as “flourishing in youth, with beauty fresh and pure.”

All you wanna do, All you wanna do, baby
And ever since I was a child, I'd make the boys go wild
All you wanna do, All you wanna do, baby

“And ever since I was a child, I'd make the boys go wild”: This lyric can often slip past you quickly before you realize how creepy this line really is. And it’s supposed to be. This song is designed to sound chipper and positive but has a dark, disturbing background that only really comes towards the end.

Take my first music teacher, Henry Manox,
I was young it's true but even then I knew, The only thing you wanna do is... *kiss* ahh

Broad, dark, sexy Manox, Taught me all about dynamics
He was 23, And I was 13 going on 30

Dynamics refer to the relative loudness or softness of notes or phrases in a musical piece.

13 Going on 30 is a 2004 rom com that follows a 13 year old who wakes up one day in the future, at age 30. In this context, it refers to the way Katheryn was forced to behave as an adult at a very young age.

We don’t know for sure when Katheryn was born, but estimates of her age at the time of her marriage to the king have varied from 15-19 over the years. Tudor Historian Gareth Russell, who wrote “Young and Damned and Fair” about Katheryn Howard, places her most likely birth year as in 1521/1522. His full reasoning on this subject is explained fully in this Royal History Geeks article.

Gareth also estimates that at most, Manox was 5 years older than Katheryn . He began teaching her in 1536, and although we don’t know exactly when their “relationship” started, it ended in early 1538. Thus, Katheryn was 15-16 when their relationship began, and Manox was at most 21, although he was 23 by the time their relationship ended.

Obviously from a modern perspective, a relationship between a teenage girl and an adult man is problematic and criminal. It was also viewed as problematic in that time, although that was more due to Manox and Howard’s class differences, the risk to her reputation, and the religious concerns with “sinful” sexual activity than their actual age difference.

We'd spend hours strumming the lute, Striking the chords and blowing the flute
He plucked my strings all the way to G, Went from major to minor, C to D

lute, flute: I don’t believe we have any evidence indicating which instruments Katheryn learned to play, but both the lute and flute were very common instruments in Tudor times. We know that Henry VIII himself played the lute and the flute, along with the organ, other keyboard instruments, various recorders, and the harp. He also sang and wrote music.

“He plucked my strings all the way to G:This lyric puns on the fact that musical instruments (in western tradition) have notes corresponding to the letters A through G + the existence of string bikinis/underwear referred to as G Strings (or thongs).

“Major to Minor” refers to the musical scales. I’m not going to explain this in depth, but essentially a song written in a major scale generally sounds brighter and happier, while a song written in a minor scale is more likely to sound sad or ominous. “C to D” refers to musical keys, which is a group of pitches, named after the starting note.

Tell me what you need, What you want, you don't need to plead
'Cause I feel the chemistry, Like I get you and you get me

And maybe this is it, He just cares so much, it feels legit
We have a connection, I think this guy is different

There aren’t any historical or cultural references here in particular, but the lyrics in general refer to the character Katheryn’s desire to be loved and appreciated. “I think this guy is different” indicates that Katheryn already has reason to distrust men and relationships, even at such a young age.

Unknown woman, formerly known as Catherine Howard, after Hans Holbein the Younger, late 17th century

'Cause all you wanna do, All you wanna do, baby
Is touch me, love me, can't get enough, see
All you wanna do, All you wanna do, baby
Is please me, squeeze me, birds and the bees me
Run your fingers through my hair, Tell me, I'm the fairest of the fair
Playtime's over, The only thing you wanna do is...*kiss* ahh

“Birds and the bees” refers to stories parents tell to children when they’re explaining sexuality and how babies are made. This not only refers to actual sexy time activities, but continues to underline Katheryn'’s relative youth to the adult Manox. Evidence indicates that while Katheryn fooled around with Manox, she was reluctant to actually have sex with him and “lose her virginity” (note: virginity is an incredibly damaging social construct designed to control and shame women, and it’s not actually possible to lose it because it doesn’t actually exist. but! that’s a rant for another day).

I couldn’t find any actual evidence that anyone called Katheryn “the fairest of the fair” in Tudor times (“the fairest of the fair” is actually a march by John Philip Sousa!). However, “fair” was very commonly used to describe attractive women at the time, and several contemporary records described Katheryn with this word. This may have literally just meant “beautiful” then, or it may have referred to Katheryn having a light complexion or light hair, but since we don’t have a definitive Katheryn portrait, the exact meaning is unclear. For the record, Gareth Russell’s book describes Katheryn with blonde hair.

But then there was another guy, Francis Dereham
Serious, stern and slow, Gets what he wants, and he won't take no
Passion in all that he touches, The sexy secretary to the Dowager Duchess

Life at the Dowager Duchess’s: Katheryn’s parents died when she was fairly young. After that, she lived in the household of her step-grandmother, the Dowager Duchess of Norfolk, and roomed with numerous other girls in the maiden’s chamber, in a dormitory type set up. Even if her parents hadn’t died, she likely would have been sent to her grandmother’s for a while; it was very common for noble children to live in a different family’s household for several years.

It was pretty common for men to sneak into the maidens’ chamber at night with wine and treats to speak and flirt with the various girls there. Apparently it was fairly easy for the men to hide behind a curtained area of the chamber if anyone came to check in on the girls in the night. Katheryn herself stole a key to the staircase up to the chamber and had it copied, to ensure that these visits could continue without issue.

Francis Dereham had been the Dowager Duchess’s secretary for about two years before his relationship with Katheryn started in 1538. According to Gareth Russell’s research, Dereham was very confident and had quite the temper. Dereham had already had a few flings with other servants at the Dowager Duchess’s home, including Joan Acworth, Katheryn’s roommate and secretary. Joan was clearly over Dereham by this time and apparently said very nice things about him to Katheryn .

Katheryn had likely only ended her relationship with Manox a few weeks before starting her relationship with Francis Dereham. She was apparently quite in love with Dereham and did indeed have sex with him, despite the lack of privacy in the maiden’s chamber. Witnesses attested to hearing both Dereham and Katheryn talk about how they knew how to have sexual relations without risking pregnancy.

Content Warning, Sexual assault: “He won’t take no”: Another ominous, creepy line delivered playfully enough that you can often miss it initially. Although some witnesses at the time said that Katheryn and Dereham seemed to have consensual relations, Katheryn herself said that Dereham coerced her and raped her. She said in a letter, “Francis Dereham by many persuasions procured me to his vicious purpose, and obtained first to lie upon my bed with his doublet and hose, and after within the bed, and finally he lay with me naked, and used me in such sort as a man doth his wife, many and sundry times.” Although she might have saved her life if she testified that there was a precontract between her and Dereham, as this would have given the king a pretext for annulling the marriage (and potentially saving her life), she steadfastly denied this.
*Note: In the initial form of this post, I accidentally left out Katheryn’s own testimony as to the nature of her relationship with Dereham in this post. Katheryn always asserted that Francis Dereham coerced and raped her, and I erred in leaving that aspect out of this post. This was a huge oversight and I apologize for it.

Helped him in his office, had a duty to fulfil, He even let me use his favorite quill
Spilled ink all over the parchment, my wrist was so tired
Still I came back the next day as he required

The innuendo in this section gets even more explicit. If you don’t understand it, I’m certainly not going to explain it. :)

The actual action (of Katheryn helping Francis in his office) described here likely didn’t happen, as Katheryn was a high ranking noble woman and would not have been helping a secretary with his work whatsoever. As I noted before, she actually had her own personal secretary (although she likely had very little correspondence, so that was really more an indication of her station than a necessity).

Quills and ink: In Tudor times and for many centuries after, feather quills were used to write. When properly cut, a feather’s ink can hold ink and slowly release it for the writer’s use. Quill feathers often came from geese or swans.

A 1793 copy of a 1513 depiction of Katheryn Howard’s step grandmother, the Dowager Duchess of Norfolk. Katheryn lived in her household as a child in the 1530s.

You say I'm what you need, All you want, you don't need to plead
'Cause I feel the chemistry, Like I get you and you get me

And I know this is it, He just cares so much, this one's legit
We have a real connection, I'm sure this time is different

'Cause all you wanna do, All you wanna do, baby
Is touch me, love me, can't get enough see
All you wanna do, All you wanna do, baby
Is please me, squeeze me, birds and the bees me
You can't wait a second more to get, My corset on the floor
Playtime's over, The only thing you wanna do is...*kiss* ahh

The choruses of this song are very repetitive and often have only minor variations on the same theme, so I’m not going to analyze them all in depth. There isn’t really much historical content in here anyway, it’s all characterization of the character’s thoughts on her relationships.

In Katheryn Howard’s time, corsets were actually called bodies or stays.

Yeah, that didn't work out, So I decided to have a break from boys.
And you'll never guess who I met

This song, as long as it is, concentrates on Katheryn’s state of mind and really doesn’t get into a lot of the details about what actually happened in her relationships or at the end of her life. To elaborate a bit more, Katheryn’s step-grandmother, the Dowager Duchess, eventually walked in on Katheryn embracing Francis (in the company of her friend and secretary Joan) and apparently was QUITE angry; she punched all three people and raged for a while, but never actually fired Dereham (she wasn’t the greatest of guardians, tbh). Francis adored Katheryn and very much wanted to marry her, giving her several costly gifts. She seemed to indulge him for a while, and they called each other “husband” and “wife.”

Although Dereham seemed to think that they were pre-contacted to marry, Katheryn did not. A precontract was a commitment to marry in the future, which was often used so a couple could start sleeping together before the actual wedding. Precontracts were legally considered as good as marriage, and could be used to annul later marriages or disinherit children from now-invalid marriages (Henry VIII used a supposed precontract between Anna of Cleves and Francis of Lorraine to dissolve his marriage with her).

Katheryn Howard broke things off with Francis when her uncle the Duke of Norfolk arranged for her to join the new queen Anna of Cleves’ court as a maid of honor. Francis later claimed that Katheryn wept when they parted, saying she had to do as her family ordered, while Katheryn said that she lost her temper and told him to do what he liked. Whatever the actual truth was, Francis apparently still believed after the conversation that he had a chance with Katheryn in the future, and might still be her husband.

Katheryn joined the royal court in the late summer/early autumn of 1539, and was reportedly quite enthusiastic about her new position. We don’t know exactly when she met Henry VIII, but it was probably around this time.

Tall, large, Henry the Eighth, Supreme head of the Church of England
Globally revered, Although you wouldn't know it from the look of that beard

The lines here aren’t nearly as clever or as flirtatious as her previous compliments. This is a subtle way of indicating that Katheryn isn’t really interested in Henry at all, and is struggling to say anything sexy or good about him.

Tall, large, Henry the Eighth: We actually have a pretty good idea of Henry’s size in 1540 based on the dimensions of his suits of armour. He was 6’1” in height and the armour he had made a year before his marriage to Katheryn Howard had a 51 inch waist and a 54.5 inch chest circumference.

Supreme head of the Church of England: Henry established the Church of England with himself at the head in 1536, so he had only been in this role for a few years when he married Katheryn. It might be a bit of an exaggeration to call Henry “globally revered” though. Maybe more “globally notorious.”

Made me a lady in waiting, Hurled me and my family up in the world
Gave me duties in court and he swears it's true,
That without me, he doesn't know what he'd do

lady in waiting: As I noted earlier, Katheryn’s uncle, the Duke of Norfolk, actually arranged for her position as a maid of honor for Anna of Cleves before she even met Henry. The maids of honor were the lowest ranked noble ladies in the queen’s household. They were younger than the ladies in waiting and unmarried. They accompanied the queen and served as her companions, but also supervised various servants and performed various tasks, such as dressing the queen or fetching items for her. This usage of “lady in waiting” as a substitute for “maid of honor'“ is consistent throughout Six, as presumably, the writers were concerned people would get confused by the nomenclature, given its modern meaning in a wedding party sense.

Hurled me and my family up in the world: It’s interesting that anyone would say Katheryn or her family were hurled up in the world, as she was actually very well placed already as a Howard. Although her parents died when she was young and she was relatively penniless before she came to court, as a maid of honor, she received lodgings and a decent salary, and she had numerous family members in prominent places at court. She would have been fine money and status-wise even if Henry had never noticed her, perhaps not wealthy or well known, but still comfortable and happy.

However, the king did give her many presents, starting in April 1540 (when he was still married to Anna of Cleves), so the relationship did materially benefit her. In April, she was given the property of two condemned criminals, and in May, Henry bought her 23 light silk quilts.

Although many tellings of the story of Henry annulling his marriage to Anna of Cleves and then marrying Katheryn Howard position her as the victim of her uncle’s machinations, the evidence seems to indicate that their relationship was a bit more spontaneous than that. Katheryn’s youthful misadventures at the Dowager Duchess’s home were widely known enough that if anyone had dug much into her background, they would have found evidence of them pretty quickly (as later became clear). It seems unlikely that the Howards would have deliberately put her forward to distract the king without vetting her, and she honestly wouldn’t have made it past such a vetting. The Howards did use the king’s attraction to Katheryn to their own advantage later, but there’s really no indication that they set it up themselves.

You say I'm what you need, All you want, we both agree
This is the place for me, I'm finally where I'm meant to be

Then he starts saying all this stuff, He cares so much, he calls me love
He says we have this connection, I guess it's not so different

He cares so much, he calls me love: Henry VIII considered himself a romantic at heart and really wanted to be in love with his wives. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer (who I honestly think was one of the most emotionally intelligent members of Henry’s court), even said to Thomas Cromwell pre-Anna of Cleves’ arrival in England that it would be “most expedient the King to marry where that he had his fantasy and love, for that would be most comfort to his Grace.”

The Dowager Duchess later testified that the king liked Katheryn the moment he met her. This instant attraction to a woman really fit into Henry’s own romantic ideals of love, and even if this interest didn’t result in him pursuing a relationship with her for a few more months (there’s no evidence that Henry pursued her until early 1540 sometime), this connection was probably revived anew the moment he realized he didn’t want to marry/stay married to Anna of Cleves.

The Howards moved Katheryn back to Lambeth at some point during Henry’s courtship of her for the sake of her reputation. However, Henry visited her multiple times there in his royal barge, which probably only increased the level of gossip about their relationship.

'Cause all you wanna do, All you wanna do, baby
Is touch me, love me, can't get enough, see
All you wanna do, All you wanna do, baby
Is seize me, squeeze me, birds and the bees me
There's no time for when or how 'cause you
Just got to have me now, Playtime's over
The only thing you wanna do is...*kiss* ahh

All you wanna do: We have no idea when Henry began a physical relationship with Katheryn. However, as Gareth Russell noted in his book, Henry was impressed by his past wives’ abstaining from sex until marriage (Anne Boleyn and Jane Seymour), so it’s possible that they waited until after his fourth marriage was annulled and his fifth marriage was performed.

So we got married, Woo

The annulment of Henry’s marriage to Anna of Cleves was motivated by many things (which I addressed more in depth in my post on her song “Get Down”), and was made official in early July 1540. Anna was given numerous properties and a very high rank in return for her acquiescence during the process.

Henry and Katheryn married in a small ceremony on July 28, 1540. At the time, Henry was 49 and Katheryn was probably 19. For comparison’s sake, Henry’s daughter Mary was 24 at this time (Elizabeth was almost 7 and Edward was nearing 3).

With Henry, it isn't easy, His temper's short, and his mates are sleazy
Except for this one courtier, He's a really nice guy, just so sincere
The royal life isn't what I planned, But Thomas is there to lend a helping hand
So sweet, makes sure that I'm okay, And we hang out loads when the King's away

Henry really did have a terrible temper. There are countless examples of this from throughout his life, but one of the most relevant for Katheryn’s story is the downfall of Thomas Cromwell. Although Cromwell had served on the king’s privy council since 1530 and as his chief minister since 1534, Henry was so displeased with his fourth marriage and the breakdown of the alliance secured by that marriage that he ordered Cromwell arrested in June 1540, and executed on July 28, 1540. Henry came to regret executing Cromwell and later blamed the decision on his privy council, reportedly stating: “on the pretext of several trivial faults [Cromwell] had committed, they had made several false accusations which had resulted in him killing the most faithful servant he had ever had” (this was reported in a letter by a French ambassador in March 1541).

Despite the lyrics in this song implying “Thomas” was different than Henry’s usual friends, Thomas Culpepper was very much sleezy himself. He was a gentleman of the King’s privy chamber and a close friend to the King, who gave him numerous properties. He was apparently quite handsome, flirtatious, and, as Gareth Russell described him, “unashamedly promiscuous with consensual partners.”

Content Warning, Sexual assault: We also have records indicating that sometime in 1540, Culpepper may have raped the wife of a park-keeper and killed a man when the villagers tried to apprehend him for the crime. I say “may have” because we only have one report of the case, and it is possible that the letter writer mixed up Thomas with his older brother. Regardless, whoever committed the crime, the king pardoned him for the rape and murder.

Gareth Russell’s book notes that Culpepper noticed Katheryn pretty quickly after she arrived at court and pursued her, but after she played hard to get, he moved on to someone else. This upset Katheryn more than she may have expected, as it apparently caused her to weep in front of several of her fellow maids of honor. Rumors of this did get back to Francis Dereham, who came up to court and confronted Katheryn about it. Katheryn apparently rather brutally put him down and said she would not have Francis and if he had heard anything about Thomas, he knew more than she did.

This guy finally Is what I want, the friend I need
Just mates, no chemistry, I get him and he gets me

And there's nothing more to it, He just cares so much, he's devoted
He says we have a connection, I thought this time was different
Why did I think he'd be different?, But it's never, ever different

We know that there was a LOT of evidence gathered in the case against Katheryn Howard and that many many interviews were conducted. However, a lot of these documents were lost or destroyed over the years, so we don’t quite have the full story.

Although courtly love and flirtation games were de rigeur in royal courts of the time, Katheryn’s relationship with Culpepper appeared to have crossed that line into a much more emotional entanglement than was generally accepted.

A drawing believed to be of Jane Boleyn (formerly Jane Parker), by Hans Holbein

Reports indicate that Katheryn met with Culpepper and secretly gave him a cap in March 1541, specifically asking him to keep the cap hidden until he was back in his rooms. at which point he teased her a bit about their previous relationship. A few months later, she sent food to him several times while he was sick.

When the court was on progress, Culpepper met with Katheryn and Jane Boleyn, Dowager Viscountess Rochford (wife to George Boleyn, executed years earlier) late one night in a large lavatory; Lady Rochford apparently dozed in the corner while the couple spoke for several hours, until 2 or 3 a.m. They met up in the lavatory again the second night and reportedly, this was when the two confessed their love for each other (Katheryn spoke first). When Culpepper left her, he kissed her hand and told her it was the only physical intimacy allowed.

After this, the couple was less discreet with their feelings. One witness noted that she saw Katheryn gazing dreamily out the window at Culpepper; conveniently, that same night, Katheryn told her ladies that no one was allowed in her bedchamber that night except for Lady Rochford. This was highly unusual for the time. Evidence indicates that Culpepper came to Katheryn’s rooms on many nights. We don’t know exactly what happened when they met up, but the two clearly joked with each other and enjoyed each other’s company; Katheryn sent him several gifts that referred to their inside jokes.

Katheryn Howard’s supposed love letter to Thomas Culpepper.

Katheryn also sent him a letter when he was sick that has often been described as a love letter, but could also be interpreted as a letter between friends, as passionate language was commonly used in friendly letters of the time. This is also the only example we have her handwriting, so it has to be viewed with a bit of suspicion. The letter also may contain writing from two different people, as there are several words at the beginning of the letter which look quite different from the rest of the writing. I’m really not pulling these doubts out of thin air, by the way; Conor Byrne’s “Katherine Howard: Henry VIII’s Slandered Queen” argues that Katherine neither had romantic feelings nor sexual relations with Culpepper. I haven’t read his book in depth, but will need to do so in the future to really explore this argument, which he laid out a bit in a blog post.

Later when he was interrogated, Thomas said that he had not actually had sex with Katheryn, but that “he intended and meant to do ill with the Queen and that likewise the Queen so minded with him.” Thomas was not tortured, but apparently was quite frank and open in his discussion of his relationship with Katheryn, so he really might have been speaking the truth here.

'Cause all you wanna do, All you wanna do, baby
Is touch me, when will enough be enough?
See, All you wanna do, All you wanna do, baby
Squeeze me, don't care if you don't please me
Bite my lip and pull my hair, As you tell me, I'm the fairest of the fair
Playtime's over, Playtime's over, Playtime's over
The only thing, The only thing, The only thing you wanna do is...*kiss* ahh

The formerly playful and sexy lyrics are now angry and desperate and are performed with much more intensity and disgust as the character loses her equilibrium. It’s honestly a really powerful moment of the show and leaves me breathless every time.

Because this song and the show doesn’t address Katheryn’s ultimate downfall and execution beyond noting that she was beheaded, I won’t get too much into those details. However, in short, reports of Katheryn’s pre-marital relationships ended up reaching the privy council and the king and a thorough investigation launched into the reports also uncovered her relationship with Culpepper (whether it was friendly or romantic in nature, she undoubtedly met with him in secret, which looked…bad, to say the least).

Three confessions were taken from Katheryn in the course of the investigation, which related to her pre-marital relationships. You can read those letters, along with Katheryn’s letter to Culpepper over at The History of England website.

What led to Katheryn’s ultimate fate was summarized very well by Gareth Russell in his book, who said “What happened to Catherine Howard was monstrous and it struck many of her contemporaries as unnecessary, but it was not a lynching. The Queen was toppled by a combination of bad luck, poor decisions, and the Henrican state’s determination to punish those who failed its king.” She was ultimately executed on February 13, 1542. The night before, she asked for the execution block to be brought to her so she could practice placing her head on it.

Although there’s a legend that Katheryn said “I die a Queen, but I would rather die the wife of Culpeper,” she really did not. We have witness accounts of what she actually said, and it’s not that. In addition, saying something like this would have been incredibly foolish , as if the king disliked something she said from the block, he could very well go punish her entire family after her death.

Katheryn was not the only victim of her downfall. Lady Rochford was executed right after her.

From necessity, this post can’t even slightly cover all the events of Katheryn Howard’s life. I highly recommend reading Gareth Russell’s “Young, Damned, and Fair” for more info."

Historical References in Secret London Runs' Six Queens Run Series Medals

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If you’re active in Tudor History groups or follow Tudor historians online, you may have seen a lot of us posting about Secret London Runs’ Henry VIII’s Wives virtual mileage challenges! These virtual “races,” which track your progress via fitness tracker and an app on your phone, send you on a historical journey between places that played important roles in each woman’s life. Throughout the journey, as you hit milestones, you get digital postcards from the queen telling you what they did there and what was going on in their life then (you also get a few podcast episodes, but I’ll admit that I haven’t listened to any of those, as I’ve been burned out on podcasts most of this year. Someday I’ll listen to them!). It’s a pretty brilliant concept, and I signed up for the full Six Wives challenge ages ago, back in March I think.

If you live outside the UK and sign up for all six races, the company sends you all six race medals at once. These are individually wrapped and labeled so you know exactly which one to open as you complete each race. The medals are designed to fit together in a circle, and once you’re done with them all, you get a finisher badge that fills in the center.

The medals you get as a reward for finishing up each race are packed full of historical meaning and references, and I thought I’d take a look at the ones I have so far. I’ll add these in as I go; the Anna of Cleves race is VERY LONG and is taking me quite a while to go through.

Catherine of Aragon: 99 Miles of Dismissal

Catherine of Aragon’s race follows her historical journey from The More to Kimbolton Castle, as Henry VIII banished her further and further away from the royal court, placing her into shabbier and shabbier living conditions. This covers events that took place from late 1532 (when Henry moved Catherine to The More) to Jan. 7, 1536, when Catherine died at Kimbolton Castle at the age of 50.

Outfit: The medal features Catherine wearing the dress and jewelry from her most famous portrait. We don’t know exactly which year this portrait was painted, or who the artist was, but it’s clearly of Katherine in her later years, particularly when compared to earlier portraits of her as a teenager or a child.
The undergarments, running tights, and shoes are all obviously anachronistic. I’m not an underwear expert, but my understanding is that Tudor women’s underwear consisted primarily of a smock, and perhaps split drawers or long hose in winter. Fabrics of the time just would not have given you a close enough fit for these sorts of running tights. The lacy cuff on the bloomers also looks wrong for the era. And sneakers like that weren’t invented until 1830s! I do enjoy the rose on the sneakers though!

Badge: The medal includes a small recreation of Catherine’s famous pomegranate badge, along with her motto, “Humble & Loyal.” The pomegranate was a powerful symbol of regeneration and fertility dating back to the Greek myth of Persephone, the Goddess of Spring. Catherine’s particular use of it dated back to her parents Ferdinand and Isabella’s conquest of Granada in 1492 (“granada” is Spanish for pomegranate). This victory by the Catholic monarchs of Spain over the Moors was so celebrated that the pomegranate was added into the royal arms of Spain.
Pictures of the pomegranate can be found alongside the Tudor Rose in numerous documents issued under Henry VIII’s authority during his marriage to Catherine and in works dedicated to the couple.
The medal also hangs on a burgundy ribbon which matches the pomegranate motif.

Buildings: The buildings at the start (Kimbolton Castle) and the end of the race (Manor of the More) are both reproduced on the medal. Kimbolton Castle was rebuilt in the 1600s-1700s so this isn’t actually what it looked like when Catherine lived there; only a few sections of the Tudor era building remain.
The More was abandoned after 1556 and demolished later in the 1500s and nothing remains of it now, so it looks like the designers based their drawing on a recreation by Michael Athanson, which was originally published on the Three Rivers Museum Trust Blog.

Anne Boleyn: 45 Miles of Forbidden Love

Anne Boleyn’s 45 Miles of Forbidden Love follows her historical journey from Palace of Placentia to Hever Castle. I love this one as, as it follows a time in Anne’s life that isn’t usually featured in pop culture or books. In 1523, Anne entered into a secret relationship with Henry Percy, the son of the Earl of Northumberland, against his father’s wishes. It’s possible that they exchanged vows to marry in the future in a pre-contract, as this came up several times later (Henry Percy’s wife Mary Talbot brought up the pre-contract in an attempt to annul their marriage in 1532 and Thomas Cromwell brought it up again in May 1536 as a possible reason for annulling the king’s marriage to Anne). When their relationship was discovered, the powerful Cardinal Wolsey intervened and Anne’s family sent her home to Hever Castle, away from the royal court. Anne eventually came back to court, but we aren’t sure when; probably at least by Spring 1526, as this is when Henry VIII’s traditional interest in Anne began.

Clothing: The neckline and basic design of Medal Anne’s dress, hood, hair, and jewelry are the same as two of her most popular historical portraits (seen in paintings held at Hever Castle and at the National Portrait Gallery). However, since Henry VIII had the portraits and memorabilia of Anne destroyed after her execution, this portrait may actually have been painted long after her death, during her daughter Elizabeth’s death, and we really don’t know how much it actually resembled the real life Anne.
Her dress on the medal is green, probably in tribute to the common myth that Henry VIII wrote Greensleeves about Anne. For the record, he didn’t. Greensleeves is based off of a romanesca, an Italian style of musical composition that did not reach England until after Henry VIII's death. But it’s a fun story and people like referencing it even if it isn’t true. Plus it probably added some variety to the overall look of the 6 medals all together.
The medal hangs on a green ribbon that matches Anne’s dress.

Badge: Anne’s falcon badge is recreated on her medal, along with her motto, “The Most Happy.” The falcon symbol originally came from the crests of the Butlers, the earls of Olmonde. Anne was actually originally brought back from her time at the court in France to marry a cousin and resolve a dispute over the Ormond inheritance; that marriage obviously didn’t go through, but Henry VIII eventually forced the other claimant to give up the earldom of Ormond and give it to Anne’s father Thomas. The falcon was officially made Anne’s badge when she married Henry in 1533.

Fun fact: There’s a delightful surviving bit of embroidery from Anne Boleyn’s mother Elizabeth dating from ~1530 that features Anne’s falcon badge attacking Catherine of Aragon’s pomegranate badge. This is a pretty amazing discovery, since so much of Anne’s legacy was destroyed after her execution. It also features the Latin motto “Ainsi sera, groinge qui groinge,” which Anne used for a short time in 1530; this translates to "that’s the way its going to be, however much people grumble” (essentially the Tudor way of saying “haters gonna hate”).

Buildings: The palace of Placentia was originally built in 1443 and rebuilt by Henry VII in 1500. It was demolished in 1660, but it appears that this rendition of it was based on drawings of the palace from the Tudor era.

Hever Castle was the Boleyn family’s seat of power dating back to the 1400s, with parts of the castle dating back to 1270. Anne lived at Hever until she joined the court of Archduchess Margaret of Austria in 1513. After the execution of Anne and George Boleyn in 1536, their father Thomas Boleyn somehow kept a hold of his life and his castle for several more years; after he died in 1539, Hever became Henry VIII’s property. It later was given to Anne of Cleves as part of her settlement in 1540.

Jane Seymour: 167 Miles of Bitter Rivalry

This race follows Jane Seymour from her family’s home in Wulfhallon the Royal Progress of 1535 to Windsor and then back to Greenwich. We don’t know for sure that Jane was on this trip, but since she served Anne Boleyn as a maid of honor, it’s pretty likely. We don’t actually know when Henry VIII started courting Jane. We know that she had already been at court for years, arriving sometime in the late 1520s/early 1530s and serving both Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn. The first reported instance of Henry and Jane’s relationship dates back to February 1536, when Imperial Ambassador and professional gossip Eustace Chapuys reported that Henry sent presents to Jane. In April of that year, he sent Jane a purse of money and a letter; she rather famously refused both and instead begged the messenger to tell the King that she valued her honor more than any treasure and if the king wanted to give her money, she asked him to do so when she was married. While Anne was imprisoned in the Tower of London, Henry put Jane up in a house close to his own lodgings at the time, where she was treated like a very grand lady. Henry and Jane were betrothed on May 20, 1535 (the day after Anne Boleyn’s execution) and were married on May 30.

Clothing: In the medal, Jane is wearing the exact outfit and jewelry she wore in her historical portrait. We actually know when this painting was painted and who painted it! It’s by Hans Holbein the Younger and was painted in 1536, the year of Jane’s marriage to Henry. Her outfit, hood, and jewelry are faithfully recreated in the medal, down to the positioning of her arms. In the medal, however, she is holding a green handkerchief which isn’t present in any of her portraits. It’s interestingly of the same color as Anne Boleyn’s dress, and may possibly be a link between the two queens.

Badge: A crowned phoenix rising from the fire on top of a castle, with red and white roses surrounding it. Her Motto is also featured on the medal, “Bound to Obey and Serve.”

I couldn’t find any information on the origin of the phoenix and other symbolism in Jane’s badge, but we can guess at a few things. Since Jane rose to her position as queen in the wake of Anne Boleyn’s fall and destruction, she and/or Henry may have seen a parallel in the story of the phoenix, which is famously reborn from the ashes. This also may allude to the Tudor legacy being reborn from the ashes of the Wars of the Roses, since the red rose of Lancaster and white rose of York are both prominently featured in the badge as well; Henry VIII was keenly aware of his legacy and need to have a Tudor heir, and probably saw Jane as his second or third chance at continuing the dynasty.

Buildings: As I noted in Anne Boleyn’s entry, the palace of Placentia was originally built in 1443 and rebuilt by Henry VII in 1500. It was demolished in 1660, but it appears that this rendition of it was based on drawings of the palace from the Tudor era.

The Wulfhall Jane Seymour knew dated back to 1491 (when her father became Lord of the Manor), but was extensively remodeled and upgraded in the early 1530s by the Seymour family. Henry VIII stayed there for a week during the royal progress of 1535. Alas, when Jane’s brother Edward Seymour fell from power and was executed in 1552, his son was unable to keep up the place, and it fell apart over the years. As of 1571, it was derelict. Although there are some remaining bits of the building that date back the 1550s, they’re really only fragments. An expert on the house (archival historian Graham Bathe) estimates that the surviving building today probably only occupies about 5-10% of the footprint of the original manor house. (More info over at The Tudor Travel Guide). It appears that the medal’s rendition of wulfhall is based on current pictures of the house, which date only to the 1700s or so. Given that we don’t have any contemporary descriptions, drawings, or plans, of what Wulfhall looked like then, this seems like a pretty good compromise.

I’ll be back when I’m finished with Anne of Cleves’ race (363 miles to wedded bliss) to add her info in! I’ve been working on this since…July, and am finally over the 300 mile mark, so i only have about 40 miles left to go. Did I mention that you have the option of doing this race with a friend because it’s so long?

After that, of course, I’ll come back and add in Katherine Howard’s and Catherine Parr’s races as well. :)

Other English History Posts:
An Abundance of Tudor Katherines/Catherines/Kateryns
My Favorite Thomases: A Review of and Often Arbitrary Ranking of Tudor Thomases
Six the Musical Historical Costume References: Queens 1-3 ; Queens 4-6 (I have like 20 posts about Six alone, y’all)
Henry VIII’s Jousting Accident Probably Didn’t Change his Personality
Shakespeare English History Plays Family Tree
Historical Inspirations in Game of Thrones

Over-Analyzing Six the Musical: Get Down

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Over-Analyzing All the Historical References in Six: “Ex Wives,” “No Way,” “Don’t Lose Your Head” “Heart of Stone” “Haus of Holbein” “Get Down”

My last post in this “Over-analyzing All the Historical References in Six” series was in October 2020, so it’s high time for me to keep going and finally finish these up, yeah?

Note: I sourced a LOT of this content from my friend Heather Darsie’s book, Anna, Duchess of Cleves: The King’s ‘Beloved Sister.’ I highly recommend it if you have a chance to read it!

Brittney Mack as Anna of Cleves with the Broadway cast of Six.

Brittney Mack as Anna of Cleves with the Broadway cast of Six. Credit: Joan Marcus

CLEVES: So I guess you already know what happened next. How I came to England hopeful, summoned after the king saw my portrait. And how I, with my meager looks the way they are, didn’t live up to his expectations. I mean, it’s the usual story, isn’t it? The savvy educated young princess deemed repulsive by the wrinkled, wheezing, ulcer-riddled man twenty-four years her senior.

Rejection! Rejection from a king! I mean, how can anyone overcome the fate as devastating as being forced to move into a resplendent palace in Richmond with more money that I could ever spend in a lifetime? And not a single man around to tell me what to do with it. I mean, seriously, it’s just… tragic.

You’ve probably heard the story before - at least the story from Henry VIII’s point of view. King chooses a bride based on her portrait only to be disappointed by her appearance in real life. Henry had actually been trying to get out of the marriage contract since the day he met Anna of Cleves, claiming that he did not find her attractive, but his counselors couldn’t find him a good excuse. So a reluctant Henry married Anna on January 6, 1540, and the next day, he told his advisor Thomas Cromwell “I liked her before not well, but now I like her much worse.” He claimed her breasts were saggy and said she had an unpleasant odor.

As Six points out quite rightly, Henry really had no place to talk about Anna’s appearance. Anna was a young woman who most everyone considered pretty. Everyone who saw her and her portrait said it was a good likeness of her, and Henry had chosen her based on that portrait, so he clearly considered her pretty at some point. In contrast, Henry was 25-26 years older than Anna, and had significant ulcers on both legs that were kept open most of the time; these ulcers constantly “wept” and likely were very smelly. At this point, he was in significant chronic pain and had trouble moving around. We know from a set of armor worn by Henry in 1540 that his waist was 51 inches around at this point. As I’ll discuss later, Henry, for one reason or another, was looking for a reason to get out of the marriage. Perhaps Anna offended him personally in other ways. Perhaps the political landscape had changed since the engagement was arranged. Either way, no one ever thought of Anna as repulsive except Henry himself.

Note: The use of the word “princess” isn’t quite accurate here. Anna wasn’t a princess, but the daughter of a Duke and Duchess. Her mother was the last in the line ruling the combined duchies of Jülich and Berg; since women could not hold property in their own right under Salic law, these duchies went to her husband, John III, Duke of Cleves and Mark, when they married. Thus, Anna’s father was Duke of not only his own family’s lands, but ruled as Duke over his wife’s lands as well.

Sittin' here all alone on a throne In a palace that I happen to own
Bring me some pheasant - Keep it on the bone

This song is all set from Anna’s point of view after her marriage was annulled, when she’s off on her own in her own house, enjoying her very nice divorce settlement. Henry likely gave her such a nice settlement partially out of gratitude that she wasn’t kicking up a fuss like Catherine of Aragon had, and partially to keep good relations with her brother, the Duke of Cleves, and his allies. Henry gave Anna the residences of Richmond and Bletchingley, which included houses and parks as well. She also received 8,000 nobles and many gifts, including jewels, pearls, plate, furniture, and hangings. She was officially named “the king’s sister,” and given precedence over all other ladies in England, apart from the King’s own wife and children.

Richmond was built after a previous royal residence, Sheen, burned down in 1497. When Henry VII rebuilt the residence in 1501, he named it Richmond Palace after his title of Earl of Richmond (which actually took its name from Richmond Castle in Yorkshire); the town of Sheen, which had been built up around the manor, changed its name to Richmond around the same time. The palace was placed on the River Thames and lay about nine miles from the Palace of Westminster. Before Anna was given the residence, Henry VIII’s daughter Mary lived there for a while.

Anna of Cleves

Anna of Cleves

Fill my goblet up to the brim Sippin' on mead
and I spill it on my dress with the gold lace trim
Not very prim and proper. Can't make me stop

This song is based off a classic hip hop style of braggadocio, where the singer basically tells you how amazing and rich they are. These songs are often from a male’s point of view, and the positioning of Anna as a woman bragging about her fantastic life is super empowering, particularly since she’s gone down in history as Henry VIII’s “ugly wife.”

Fun fact: The term braggadocio came from the name of a braggart character named Braggadocchio in the Tudor-era epic poem “The Faerie Queen,” by Edmund Spenser which partially praised and partially criticized Elizabeth I.

Anna actually did have a pretty great time post annulment! She was financially well off and had far more freedom living on her own in England than she did living with her brother back in Germany or as Henry’s wife in England. She was one of the highest ranking people in the country as the king’s “beloved sister.” In addition, the people of England really loved her, and she was popular with crowds wherever she went.

We have records indicating that she wore new clothes almost every day, and the French ambassador at the time described her “as joyous as ever.” She also sought licenses to order a huge amount of beer (800 tuns of beer, adding up to about 201,600 gallons) and export it, presumably for income.

Six’s portrayal of Anna as living the best life ever and having no regrets though is…alas, not quite accurate. Anna definitely made the best of her situation, and was probably quite grateful that she avoided the fate of Henry’s first two wives, but it wasn’t her ideal life. Neither Anna nor the people around her would consider her “the lucky one.”

The gold lace trim reference here may refer to the outfit Anna is wearing in her most famous portrait, which is trimmed in orange that could perhaps be read as gold and features gold fabric around the neck line that could be lace.

I wanna go hunting, any takers?
I'm not fake 'cause I've got acres and acres
Paid for with my own riches
Where my hounds at? Release the bitches (Woof)

Anna did hunt when she lived in Germany, although I don’t know if we have any evidence that she hunted in England. Hunting was a very popular past time for nobles then, so it’s quite possible.

And she absolutely did have actual acres of land!

Everyday. Head back for a round of croquet, yeah
'Cause I'm a playa and tomorrow, I'll hit replay

Although croquet as we think of it today did not exist in the 1500s, its predecessor Jeu de Mail may have been around by 1540, when Anna moved to Richmond Palace. Some sources claim it goes back to 1300s France, and while there’s a bit of skepticism about that, most people seem to think it developed in the 15th-16th century.

You, you said that I tricked ya
'Cause I, I didn't look like my profile picture
Too, too bad I don't agree
So I'm gonna hang it up for everyone to see
And you can't stop me 'cause

The chorus continues the musical’s comparison of Anna’s situation to online dating with the description of her portrait as a profile picture.

Although Henry complained to Thomas Cromwell before the wedding “Say what they will, she is nothing so fair as she hath been reported, howbeit she is well and seemly,” there’s no actual evidence indicating that Anna that the portrait was inaccurate. Hans Holbein had been specifically sent by Henry to paint realistic portraits of Anna and her sister, and everyone who had seen her and the portrait agreed it was a good likeness. Holbein himself kept his job with Henry VIII after the annulment and continued to paint portraits for him, strongly indicating that Henry had no problem with the actual painting or the artist who made it.

One theory of what led to Henry VIII’s dislike of Anna derives from what happened at their first meeting. Henry was a bit of a romantic and disguised himself to go surprise Anna earlier than planned; this was in line with courtly love traditions in England of the like that his previous queens and lovers had played along with. The idea was that the female target of such a disguising would somehow intuit the identity of her intended and fall in love with him at first sight. Records indicate that Anna did not know who Henry was and instead, ignored him and treated him like a servant. For a king who had been used to getting what he wanted since childhood, he probably was rather embarrassed.

There are other, political reasons that Henry may not have wanted to get or stay married to Anna. I’m not going to get into those in depth, but they basically have to do with the balance of powers throughout Europe, and those powers’ feelings toward Henry at the time. At one point it made political sense for Henry to marry Anna, as he was short on other allies; later, it made a lot less sense.

Another portrait of Anna of Cleves.

Another portrait of Anna of Cleves.

I'm the queen of the castle
Get down, you dirty rascal, Get down
Get down, Get down you dirty rascal
Get down, Get down, 'Cause I'm the queen of the castle

The chorus is based on the classic children’s rhyme of “King of the Castle” (which goes back to at least 1850), which adds a fun touch of playfulness to the musical.

When I get bored I go to court
Pull up outside in my carriage Don't got no marriage
So I have a little flirt with the footman As he takes my fur. As you were

Anna really did go to the royal court several times after her annulment. Most famously, she visited Hampton Court for New Year 1541, exchanging significant gifts with Henry VIII’s new queen Katherine Howard at the time.

Anna did relatively well after her marriage to Henry ended, and seemed to be determined to make the best of it, but we have records that she actually wasn’t very happy about it and did want to reunite with the king after Katherine Howard’s execution. She was actually in an impossible situation in a lot of ways. The annulment of her marriage was based on the assertion that she had a valid pre-contract and thus, was already married to another man. This made her married/unmarried status so tenuous that no man would be willing to pursue her as a potential spouse. Anna was very intelligent and would have realized this at the time. Thus, at age 25, Anna had to accept that she was never going to be able to get married or have children. We don’t really know if she wanted those things, but in any case, the choice was completely taken away from her.

As he takes my fur: Cleves' costume in Six actually is trimmed with fake fur! And Tudor winter clothes definitely were lined with fur at times to keep the wearer warm.

Making my way to the dance floor
Some boys making advance - I ignore them
'Cause my jam comes on the lute
Looking cute - Das ist gut

Records indicate that Anna of Cleves and Katherine Howard danced together when Anna visited Hampton Court for New Years’ Day.

Henry VIII loved music and kept a huge number of musicians on staff. Dancing music at court would commonly feature keyboard instruments and lutes.

“Das ist gut” is German for “this is good.”

All eyes on me No criticism
I look more rad than Lutheranism
Dance so hard that I'm causin' a sensation
Okay ladies, let's get in reformation

/sigh/ TL;DR Anna wasn’t really Protestant, but these lyrics are fire so I’ll excuse it.

Longer explanation: A lot of people assume Anna was Lutheran, because she grew up in Germany during the time of the Protestant Reformation. However, Anna’s very devout Catholic mother raised her children as Catholics. Cleves was allied with several Lutheran princes of other areas of Germany in the Schmalkaldic League, and was fairly tolerant of Reformist teachings, but this did not make the rulers of Cleves or Anna herself Protestant. When Anna married Henry, she started following his religious ways (which were themselves not really protestant, but more just “Catholic without a pope”), but later officially returned to Roman Catholicism when her step-daughter Mary I took the throne.

The term “Lutheran” actually was used as early as 1519, although it was originally used as a derogatory reference to follower’s of Martin Luther.

Fun Side Tangent: Henry VIII and Martin Luther kind of battled each other with words for years. Henry authored and published the 1521 tract known as “Assertio Septem Sacramentorum,” which defended Catholic views on sacraments against Martin Luther’s teachings. In it, Henry repeatedly refers to Luther as “little Monk.” Henry’s Assertio was translated into German and was actually pretty popular for a few years there. Luther responded in a 1521 work called “Contra Henricum Regem Anglie,” which mocked Henry quite sarcastically at times. One of my favorite parts is: “Where, pray, did this new God, the King of England, come from, this Creator of new articles of faith? Till now I have heard of but one God with the right to make articles of faith and to require belief in them.” He also just straight up called Henry a frivolous buffoon, so that’s fun. Translation here. Then Thomas More responded that with “Responsio ad Lutherum,” which included such choice insults as “When I began to read [Luther’s Contra Henricum Regem Anglie]—good God, what an ocean of nonsense, what a bottomless pit of madness presented itself.” It was a whole thing. Later, when Luther heard that Henry had broken with the Catholic Church, he was wholly unimpressed, and noted in letters that he believed Henry wasn’t actually a reformer but was pursuing his own desires instead.

“Okay ladies, let’s get in reformation” is a hilarious reference to Beyonce’s “Formation” (the original is “Okay ladies now let’s get in formation”) and the English reformation

[Chorus]

Now I ain't sayin' I'm a gold digger but check my prenup, and go figure

Strong reference to Kanye West’s “Gold Digger.” The original line goes “Now I ain’t saying she a gold digger,” and a later line in the song says “If you ain't no punk holla, ‘We want prenup!’”

Got gold chains - Symbolic of my faith to the higher power
In the fast lane - My horses can trot up to 12 miles an hour
Let me explain - I'm a wiener schnitzel, not an English flower
No one tells me I need a rich man
Doin' my thing in my palace in Richmond

Gold chain necklaces are often worn and referenced in songs as a way to brag about wealth. I like that in the middle of this bragging song, Anna takes a break to reference her actual religious faith.

My horses can trot up to 12 miles an hour: this plays off braggadocio songs, which sometimes reference fast cars. This line also probably is a playful reference to a cars' “horsepower” (motor lower). I read online that the average horse-drawn carriage can go up to 15 miles an hour, so this is a pretty realistic number actually.

Wiener schnitzel - wiener schnitzel refers to a type of schnitzel (a thin slice of meat, usually prepared by pounding) from Vienna, not Germany, so this is actually …a weird lyrical choice. In addition, wiener schnitzel didn’t show up in records until 1831, so it almost certainly didn’t exist in Tudor times.

English flower- Beautiful English women are often referred to as English roses.

“No one tells me I need a rich man” is a reference to a famous quote by Cher. "My mom said to me, 'You know sweetheart, one day you should settle down and marry a rich man. And I said, 'Mom, I am a rich man.'“

[Chorus, various repeated lines]

It’s Anna of Cleves

By dropping her own name at the end of the song, Cleves references yet another hip-hop trope popular in braggadocio that has been more recently picked up by pop artists (see: 2 Chainz, Nicki Minaj, Usher, Britney Spears, Jason Derulo).

All My Six Posts!
Over-Analyzing All the Historical References in Six- “Ex Wives,” “No Way,” “Don’t Lose Your Head” “Heart of Stone” “Haus of Holbein” “Get Down”
The Tudor Crown Inspiration in Six’s Logo; The Tudor Fashion Elements of the Costumes in Six (with Painting References)
Six the Musical Wives 1-3: Historical and Modern Costume Inspirations; Six the Musical Wives 4-6: Historical and Modern Costume Inspirations
The Ladies in Waiting of Six: Historical Inspirations and Costumes; Details from Six Costumer Gabriella Slade’s Instagram Takeover
The Early Costumes of Six the Musical: From Edinburgh to Cambridge to London
Updated Six the Musical Costumes for Broadway!; The Shoes of Six the Musical
The Alternate Costumes of Six the Musical; How the Six Alternates Change Their Styling for Each Queen
Virtual Dance Workshops and Q&As with Different Six Cast Members!

The Tudor Crown Inspiration in Six's Logo

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Top left: The current 3D stylized crown used in the Six logo. Bottom left: An older 2D version of the crown in the Six logo which also shows up on some merch now. Top right: The most detailed painting we have of the Tudor Crown, as shown in a 1631 portrait of Charles I. Bottom right: A replica of the Tudor Crown made in 2012. The original was melted down in 1649 after the Civil War.

Top left: The current 3D stylized crown used in the Six logo.
Bottom left: An older 2D version of the crown in the Six logo which also shows up on some merch now.
Top right: The most detailed painting we have of the Tudor Crown, as shown in a 1631 portrait of Charles I.
Bottom right: A replica of the Tudor Crown made in 2012. The original was melted down in 1649 after the Civil War.

I was wearing my Six on Broadway shirt earlier and found myself wondering about the design of the crown in the Six logo. I’ve read up on crowns a fair amount at this point for my blog, and it didn’t look like any I knew.

I examined a lot of crowns online, and briefly looked at the crown of Napoleon, but ultimately came back to the Tudor Crown. I wasn’t convinced at first, but once I found photographs of the replica Tudor Crown produced in 2012, I realized it almost certainly was the inspiration. Which, you know, makes a lot of sense for a musical set in Tudor times.

The Six crown appears to be a highly stylized and simplified version of the Tudor imperial crown. Both are “closed” crowns, which means that they contain a circlet and arches over the top. These arches tend to indicate an imperial crown worn by an emperor, rather than a king (an emperor is not only a monarch of their own country, but rules over several other territories that make up an empire as well).

The Six crown removes most of the jewels from the Tudor Crown and the cloth cap, leaving only the base gold. The remaining pearls and jewels have all been changed to gold, so you see much of the original texture of the crown, but not the colors.

Both the 3D and 2D versions of the Six crown retain the fleurs-de-lis on the Tudor crown and the top monde (orb) and cross. The 3D version replaces the crosses pattée on the circlet with a sort of outward facing spoon shape (note: a cross pattée is a cross with narrow arms toward the center intersection and broader arms at the edges). The crosses pattée may have been removed to make the whole look a little more religion neutral, or perhaps just to streamline the look overall. The 3D version also appears to stretch out the space in between the fleurs-de-lis and spoons as well, so you see a lot more space in between circlet elements than you do on the Tudor crowns or the 2d version.

Art References in the Paintings of Disney's Riviera Resort

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Disney World’s newest resort hotel, the Riviera, is a tribute to the French and Mediterranean Riviera. It’s decorated with paintings that feature Disney characters and settings in the styles of various artists! As a Disney nerd and a huge art history fan, I HAD to hunt down all the painting references possible. I know this is a bit different than my usual history content, but I hope you please enjoy this interlude into art anyway. :)

Note: It seems like almost all of the painting references are by French artists or artists who spent a lot of time in France.

(There are several other paintings on display at the Riviera that I may add in later.)

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This painting features the goose sisters Abigail and Amelia Gabble from The Aristocats (1970) with their Uncle Waldo outside the Le Petite Cafe in the style of Vincent Van Gogh. Cafe Terrace at Night is the most obvious reference, but I see elements of Starry Night in the moon in the Disney painting as well. Van Gogh was Dutch, but spent several years living in France.

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This painting features Mary Darling with her children Wendy, Peter, John, and dog Nana from Peter Pan (1953). The setting, color palette, and subject matter seems to refer to Mary Cassatt’s various paintings of mothers with children.

The characters are all wearing the outfits they wore in the film itself - the children in their nightgowns and pajamas and Mary Darling dressed up for a party. The book is a great call back to the Peter Pan stories that Wendy is telling her brothers at the start of the film. Although the style isn’t an exact match, everything else about it is similar enough that I think it has to be a Cassatt reference.

The upper right Cassatt painting is Mother and Sara Admiring the Baby from 1901 and the lower right painting is The Reading Lesson (1901).

There’s a painting of Merida and her mother from Pixar’s Brave (2012) that seem to be rather Cassatt-ish as well, although I’m not as certain on this one. I’m nearly positive this is flashback Merida as a little kid rather than the age she is most of the film.

Mary Cassatt was American but spent most of her adult life living in France.

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This painting, which features Cogsworth, Lumiere, Chip, and Mrs. Potts from Beauty and the Beast (1991) is a clear homage to Pablo Picasso’s cubist style. Still Life with Candlestick (1944, bottom left) seems to have most inspired the Riviera piece - the two have a similar layout, line structure, colors, and even both feature a cold mirror in the background. There seem to be similarities in Jug, candle and pot enamelled (1945, bottom right) as well.

The line drawings of Minnie and Mickey look to be directly inspired by Picasso’s minimalist animal line drawings. I don’t think he gave most of these drawings names.

Pablo Picasso was a Spanish painter who spent most of his adult life in France.

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This painting, featuring Marie, Toulouse, and Berlioz from The Aristocats (1940), is by far my favorite of the paintings I’ve seen out of the Riviera. It also was one of the most difficult for me to find a reference for. When I finally did find it though, I actually gasped out loud.

That very specific positioning of the table, the swirls of the metal balcony, the building in the background, and even the very specific mint green color of the ball of string all seem to be a clear reference to French painter Henri Matisse’s Interior with a Goldfish Bowl (1914). The Riviera version however, features the actual design of the Riviera window balconies and a view of the hotel beyond.

It’s funny, when you look for this painting, you actually find a version of it that adds a cat in. Perhaps whatever Disney artist made this painting googled Henri Matisse and cat, found the parody, and was inspired to produce this homage.

These two large colorful paintings (at top) which live in the Riviera lobby seem to be homages to some of Matisse’s later works. The bottom two Matisse cutout works are both from 1953 and are respectively known as The Sheaf and Decoration with Masks.

This painting of Minnie and Mickey is a very direct parody of a Moulin Rouge poster painted by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Minnie takes the place of the dancing girl, Mickey takes the place of the silhouetted man at the forefrong of the poster, and he profiles of the men have been replaced with profiles of various cartoon characters. The words and typography of the words are almost exactly the same, except for a few areas where Mademoiselle Mouse replaces “Moulin Rouge” and the removal of “La Goulue.” This actually makes a lot of sense, as “La Goulue,” meaning the gormand, was actually the stage name of Louise Weber, the French can-can dancer featured in this painting.

The Moulin Rouge, of course, is a famous historical cabaret in Paris, France, near Montmartre. Toulose-Lautrec is French.

This painting features Remy from Ratatouille (2007) inserted into a classic still life of fruit. Lots of French painters have paintings like this, but the ones that look most likely to have inspired this one are Basket of Apples (1895) by Paul Cezanne (middle) and Bowl of Fruit and Tankard Before a Window (~1890) by Paul Gauguin.

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I’m pretty sure this Riviera painting on the left is inspired by a 1953 poster by French graphic designer Jacques Nathan-Garamond promoting Côte D’Azur (which literally means Azure Coast and refers to the French Riviera), along with the real super colorful houses in Menton, France. The Disney touch is added via the Disney Cruise line ship in the background of the painting.

This poster featuring characters from The Princess and The Frog appears to directly reference another Cote D’Azur travel poster by French painter Jean-Gabriel Domergue.

The wording “Au bout du rêve toujours de l'avant” actually are directly quoted lyrics from The Princess and the Frog’s French version of “Almost There”. I don’t speak French at all, but I found a translation of it online that interpreted this as meaning “I will fulfill my dream” and “Always forward.”

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These two paintings, featuring Wall-E and Eve and the starship Axiom, all from Pixar’s Wall-E (2008), both directly reference Vincent Van Gogh’s Wheat Field with Cypresses (1889).

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There are also a few paintings that are interpretations of castles in Disney films without any particular clear artistic inspiration. This painting (left) is of Cinderella’s castle from the 1950 cartoon. The castle in the film is at the upper right, and Neuschwanstein castle, the real life Bavarian castle that inspired it (and also the one in Sleeping Beauty) is at the upper left.

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This painting (upper left) is an interpretation of Eric’s castle from The Little Mermaid (1989). Lower left shows the castle as it was in the film, with the real life inspiration to the right (Château de Chillon, on Lake Geneva in Switzerland).

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Quick, Low Research Historical Thoughts on "Anne Boleyn" Episode 3

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Quick Thoughts on Channel 5’s Anne Boleyn: Episode 1; Episode 2; Episode 3

 It took me forever, but I finally finished watching Channel 5’s Anne Boleyn! I’ve had some rough mental health periods in the last month and frankly it just took me a bit until I was in the right mind to watch an episode about a woman judicially murdered by her husband. (I’m fine, don’t worry – I’ve had clinical depression for a decade and a half now and know how to deal with it. Sidenote: If you have depression and therapy and medicine hasn’t helped you too much, highly recommend the Fisher-Wallace Stimulator! It honestly really changed my life. More in my blog post here).

The final episode of this show closes out with an almost total focus on Anne. This was true in the earlier episodes, but is more obvious here, as Anne is now so isolated and away from everyone else. I actually think it benefits from the close up look at Anne, as Jodie Turner-Smith is frankly the best part of this show by far.

As advertised, this is a brief look and I’m not doing a ton of research, but I did look up a few items in Alison Weir’s “The Lady in the Tower” just to remind myself of some facts (edit: OKAY I may have done a bit more research than originally planned. This still was relatively low research for me). It’s a good read when it comes to Anne’s last days at least, although it’s good to keep in mind that Weir has some of the same anti-Anne bias as most other historians. For a balanced view at the historiography around Anne, I highly suggest The Creation of Anne Boleyn by Susan Bordo.

This episode takes place over the last 2.5 weeks of Anne Boleyn’s life. Anne was sent to the Tower on May 2, 1536 and was executed on May 19, 1536.

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Credit: Anne Boleyn, Channel 5

  1. Anne is taken quietly to the Tower of London, at what looks like dusk. In real life, she was taken there in the late afternoon, and the news of her arrest had spread enough that there were large crowd on the riverbanks watching her arrive there. They also set off a cannon when she arrived.
    At the Tower, she meets the constable of the tower and is taken to her chambers without much conversation. In real life, she met the constable’s deputy, not Kingston himself. In addition, some records indicate that Anne may have suffered a bit of a nervous breakdown upon her arrival at the Tower (as ANYONE would, honestly), and fell down on her knees to pray. When the councillors left her at the tower, she spoke to them and asked if they would beseech the king to be good to her. 

  2. In the show, Anne’s rooms in the Tower of London are small and rather simple, though well furnished and certainly nicer than any prison we’d think of today. In reality, Anne was imprisoned in the same Queen’s apartment that had been built for her coronation only a few years prior. These were very large apartments. The Queen’s great watching chamber alone was 70 foot by 30 foot! The apartments also had a presence chamber, a privy chamber, a closet/oratory, a bedchamber, and another large chamber which may have served as a dining room. The rooms in the episode have bars on the windows; I’m honestly not sure if Anne’s room had barred windows or not in real life.  Yes, it was a really fancy, newly refurbished royal apartment, but at the same time, the Tower of London was a fortress and a prison. So it’s hard to tell.

  3. As Anne enters her cell, she states, ainsi sera, groigne qui groigne’, ‘grumble all you like, this is how it’s going to be.” This is…an odd choice.
    Anne adopted this defiant statement as her motto in 1530, when people were highly anti-Anne and pro-Catherine of Aragon, and had it embroidered on her servants’ livery coats at the time. However, the new liveries and the new motto were laid aside in only a few weeks. The Spanish version of the story (courtesy of gossip monger Eustace Chapuys) has it that that Anne chose the motto because she had heard it in France and stopped using it once she realized it was actually an imperialist Burgundian motto, but since Anne spent several years abroad in the court of Margaret of Austria and in France, it seems odd that she would not have known this initially. I think it’s more likely that she realized the defiant motto was just causing more tension and was more trouble than it’s worth.
    So contextually, it just…doesn’t quite make sense in this scene? Perhaps they were intending to say something along the lines of “que sera sera” (whatever will be will be).

  4. Anne’s red dress at the start of the episode may have two different meanings. This could refer both to her scandalous reputation and also to her post-death reinvention as a Christian martyr in the reign of Elizabeth I (the color red traditionally represents martyrs in protestant faiths).

  5. Lady Anne Shelton is told to keep a full report on everything Anne does. Constable of the Tower William Kingston’s letters identify five women that were with Anne during her imprisonment: his own wife Mary Scrope, Margaret Dymoke Coffin (married to the Queen’s Master of the House) the Queen’s aunt Anne Shelton, and another of Anne’s aunts, Elizabeth Boleyn. Anne had two domestic servants, two menservants, and a boy to serve her as well.
    Some records indicate that those serving Anne were all forbidden to speak with her unless Lady Kingston was present, indicating that she was really the ringleader reporting back to the Constable and Cromwell, not Lady Shelton, as shown in this show.
    In one of her letters from the Tower, Anne stated that it was unkind for the king to put women about her that she never loved and she would have preferred ladies of her own privy chamber. It’s unclear whether it was some of these women or others that actually went with Anne to the scaffold for her execution. Madge Shelton shows up later in the episode and is with Anne at the time of her death, but there’s no actual indication that she was there in real life. There were some women with her at the scaffold that Anne seemed to actually care for, but we don’t know their actual identities.

  6. Throughout the episode, Anne’s first priority is her daughter Elizabeth. She dreams about her daughter crying, she asks whether Elizabeth is safe multiple times, refuses to eat until she knows that her daughter is well (I don’t think there’s any evidence that Anne actually did this, by the way), and worries about her daughter’s birthright if she signs the annulment papers. As I said in an earlier blog post, this lines up with actual records – Anne truly was a very doting mother by Tudor standards. This also aligns with Jodie Turner-Smith’s statements in interviews in which she said she identified with Anne as a mother.
    Anne is told that Elizabeth was taken back to Hatfield, where Elizabeth spent some of her early childhood. Elizabeth was moved between several palaces throughout her life, however, as the royal households never really stayed put very long in Tudor times.

  7. Anne is seen reading the Bible and praying. She specifically reads: “For thou art my defender and helper, and has preserved my body from destruction, and from the snare of the slanderous tongue, and from the lips that forge lies, and has been mine helper against mine adversaries:” Ecclesiasticus 51:2. (i know it sounds like Ecclesiastes, but it’s different).

  8. In the show, the Constable tries to dine with her and Anne refuses to eat. She asks him to tell Cromwell that she won’t touch food until she has news of Elizabeth.
    In real life, we know from Kingston’s letters to Cromwell that Anne did take her meals with Kingston regularly, and apparently made a very good impression on him. Much of what we know about Anne’s last days come from these letters. His letters revealed that Anne asked for holy communion, worried over the men who had been arrested with her, became agitated over the possibilities of their deaths and her own (even from early on in her imprisonment), and also worried a great deal about the effect her arrest was having on her mother. She also repeatedly told the constable that she was innocent and that there was no reason she should not be able to take the sacrament. There apparently were…some muttered ramblings as well, honestly, because of stress and fear. This does show up a bit later in the show, when she starts muttering about dead man’s shoes and wanting to see Henry.
    Thus, overall, she talked a lot more and was much less …stoic than she is portrayed in the show. I love that she’s shown with so much dignity in the show, but historically, she was much less composed. She was completely terrified, and it showed in her conversations with others, which were rather manic at times.

  9. We see Anne starting to write a letter and than pause when she hears someone come in. We do have a letter that supposedly was written by Anne Boleyn to Henry while she was in the tower, but its authenticity is questioned. You can read more about that letter here.

  10. In Anne’s conversation with Cromwell, he reveals that five men were arrested along with her. The men arrested for adultery with Anne were Sir Henry Norris, Sir William Brereton, Sir Francis Weston, Mark Smeaton, and Anne’s own brother George Boleyn, Lord Rochford. The show doesn’t mention this, but two other men – Sir Thomas Wyatt and Sir Richard Page – were also accused of adultery with Anne but were later released.
    Anne straight up suggests that Cromwell tortured Mark Smeaton to get his confession. This really did happen. Records indicate that Smeaton was the only one who was tortured.

  11. In her meeting with Cromwell, Anne ends up losing her temper at Cromwell (as frankly, anyone would). Kingston grabs her and pins her down to restrain her and calm her down. I have never heard of this happening and do not think it at all possible. Everything I’ve read indicates that Kingston actually came to regard Anne Boleyn with respect and would not have grabbed her or restrained her physically.

  12. In the show, Madge Shelton came to the tower to be with Anne and comfort her friend. I so wish this were true and that Anne had a close friend with her in her last days, but I don’t believe it is. There are lots of traditions that a few of her friends were with her on the scaffold, but we don’t have any evidence as to their identities beyond “four young ladies” (more on that later!).

  13. When Kingston tells Anne her trial date, Madge instantly suggests they prepare. Anne correctly notes that she cannot have counsel in a trial for treason. In accordance with legal practice of the time, Anne also was not allowed to question any of the witnesses, summon witnesses to speak for her, or give evidence on her own behalf.  [On several occasions I’ve thought about making a blog post about various Tudor incidents that demonstrate the essential lack of human rights that we now have in most countries in modern times, and this would be pretty high on the list]
    Madge suggests they prepare for the trial, but Anne says no and that God will guide her speech when the time comes. Thus, this show again highlights Anne’s faith.

  14. At one point, Anne slices a pomegranate in half. Catherine of Aragon’s badge included the pomegranate. This perhaps is a symbol of how Anne supplanted Catherine of Aragon, alluding to the current situation where Anne is supplanted by Jane Seymour. Red juice runs down Anne’s hand in a clear reference to blood.

  15. Timeline Note: Most of the accused men were tried on May 12. All of them pled not guilty but Mark Smeaton. The jury pronounced them all guilty and sentenced them to be drawn, hung, and quartered. The finding of their guilt pretty much sealed Anne’s fate; Henry VIII seemed to agree and actually ordered her household to be broken up and dissolved on May 13. Anne and her brother George were tried on May 15, due to their status as nobles. All the men were executed on May 17 and Anne was executed on May 19.

  16. Madge helps Anne put on a black dress and hood for the trial. In real life, Anne wore a black velvet gown over a petticoat (like an underskirt) of scarlet damask, with a small cap that had a black and white feather. She was attended at the trial by a few of the ladies staying with her in the trial (and perhaps a few maids of honor from her household, but we don’t know for sure).

  17. Anne’s uncle, the Duke of Norfolk, really did preside over Anne’s and George’s trial in his role as Lord High Steward. The jury was made up of 26 peers of various ranks (of the 62 peers in the land). The jury may have actually included Anne’s father, the Earl of Wiltshire, but the records on that are pretty unclear (some people said he was there as a judge, but his name wasn’t on the official record).

    In the show, the trial appears to take place in a hall with spectators, but not an overly large one. In real life, they held the trial in the King’s Hall in The Tower of London, which was 80 feet by 50 feet. They actually built platforms and put in benches to accommodate the many spectators they expected to come watch the trial. Ambassador Eustace Chapuys claimed there were 2,000 spectators at the trial.

    In the episode, Anne stands during the trial. Common prisoners really did stand up to hear their charges read at Tudor trials, but since Anne was the Queen of England, she was given a chair to sit in for the whole time.

  18. Cromwell gives a few particular dates of alleged acts of adultery and incest. The historical trial was based on indictments handed down by two grand juries, one based in Middlesex (intended to address “unlawful acts” that had taken place in Middlesex, at Hampton Court Palace and at Whitehall) and one in Kent (intended to cover unlawful acts that had taken place in Kent, namely, at Greenwich Palace, East Greenwich, and Eltham Palace).  Some of the dates align with those in one or both of the indictments; some do not.
    Anne defends herself against one charge by noting that she was not in the place stated at that time, as she was in Greenwich recovering from the birth of Elizabeth.

    The gross line about Anne and George having their tongues in each other’s mouths is almost verbatim from the Middlesex Indictment.

  19. The charges and evidence against Anne Boleyn were honestly ludicrous and the vast majority of them are easily disproven by records. And people even knew that at the time! Imperial Ambassador Eustace Chapuys hated Anne with the fire of a thousand suns, but even he said that there was no valid proof or confession against her.
    As Alison Weir said in The Lady in The Tower, “Close scrutiny of the facts suggests that thirteen out of the twenty-one charges were impossible, and that if, four and a half centuries later it can be established that only eight were even plausible—which in itself suggests that even these were not genuine offenses—then the case against Anne is shaky indeed. Furthermore, allegations that a number of unspecified offenses had been committed ‘on diverse days before and after’ the stated dates on which the crimes had purportedly been committed would be difficult to disprove, and Cromwell was doubtless aware of this; it was a catchall guarantee…In no fewer than twelve instances, either Anne or her alleged accomplice can be shown not to have been in the specified location.”
    Weir also pointed out that on all but one of the dates cited, Anne was pregnant. At the time, sex during pregnancy was super scandalous. People believed sex while pregnant threatened the health of the unborn child.  
    Some of the alleged dates of adultery also occurred very soon after Anne gave birth; she likely was not physically up for sex at that time, and would still have been secluded with her ladies. There was also a very strong taboo against having sex after a woman gave birth but before she was churched.

  20. It appears that detailed records of the trial were taken at the time, but those records were lost or destroyed. We don’t have actual trial records, witness statements, or interrogation statements. The show’s portrayal of Anne being very dignified and composed during the trial is accurate. Records indicate that she defended herself very well, with clear logic.

    Lady Rochford and the Countess of Worcester testify against Anne at the trial in the episode. It’s a little unclear whether there were live witnesses at the trial in real life. Ambassador Chapuys claimed there were no witnesses against her, even though that was standard practice. Statements may have been read instead.

  21. It’s been accepted for a long time that Jane Parker, Lady Rochford (George Boleyn’s wife) was a witness against Anne Boleyn, but I don’t believe we have any contemporary evidence proving this. The records stating that she testified against him dated from years later (although they were based on extensive research and witness testimonies, so they can’t be completely dismissed either).
    The evidence against Anne regarding George is super paltry. It was pretty fashionable at the time to kiss women on the mouth as a greeting; this wasn’t unusual.
    We don’t know exactly what Elizabeth Browne, Lady Worcester, said about Anne, but various letters do seem to indicate that she did give evidence against her. Honestly, there are a lot of letters back and forth referring to Lady Worcester and it seems like perhaps she just said something false about Anne’s morality just to distract attention from her own behavior (her brother was chiding her at the time) and it may have just gotten…really really out of control.

  22. I don’t believe we actually know exactly what Anne said at the trial, but people reported that she spoke very well and defended herself with logic and dignity. She likely did not make any comments about her own personal ambition, as that is much more of a modern feminist spin, but the line about being loyal and faithful to her husband and God being her judge sounds much more accurate.

  23. In the show, the verdict is determined and given to the Duke of Norfolk in a piece of paper. I believe in real life, each juror had to individually give their verdict out loud. Every peer sitting in judgment of her gave their verdict as guilty, probably out of intense fear of the king.
    I definitely thought the bit where Norfolk said her crown and titles were removed forthwith was made up, but actually, it’s more true than I realized! Records indicated that Anne was asked to resign her crown; she likely wasn’t wearing it at the time, but it may have been placed ceremonially nearby for this purpose. Anne resigned the crown, and then agreed to the removal of all her titles.

  24. In real life, apparently the Duke of Norfolk actually did cry when he read the death sentence for his niece Anne, although it’s unclear whether this was due to grief for her or his family or shame (they had been on bad terms for months before the trial).

  25. Various records indicate that Anne may have spoken after her sentence was given. There are different accounts, but the gist is that she was ready to die personally but was saddened that the innocent men accused with her would also die. She also stated that she suspected there were other reasons she had been convicted, as she had always been faithful to the king.
    They didn’t show anything of George’s trial in the show, but in real life, he was tried immediately after Anne, in the same room. 

  26. Cranmer did go to see Anne in the tower in order to get her consent to dissolve the marriage. We know from Kingston’s letters to Cromwell that after her meeting with Cranmer, Anne said she might be able to go to a nunnery and that she was in “hope of life.”
    In the show, Cranmer says god could not accept her into paradise if she chose death – oh ffs. I don’t think that’s how that works in the theology of the time! I would need to consult with a pastor to know for sure though.
    Cranmer was actually a really amazing guy and extremely forward thinking for his time; there are letters indicating that he really did not believe Anne was guilty and may have at least thought about begging Henry to have mercy on her, even if he didn’t actually quite get all the way there. I don’t love this portrayal of him, as his character seems to believe Anne is guilty, based on some of his comments about hell.

  27. In the show, Kingston brings Anne out to have one last look at her brother before George is executed. This is sweet. I doubt it happened though. We’d never have any knowledge of it. People in the tower did occasionally get to see their loved ones with bribes and such.

  28. All five of the men accused of sleeping with Anne had their sentences of being drawn, hung, and quartered commuted to beheading by the axe by Henry. It was pretty notable that he did this even for Mark Smeaton, a lowly musician. But like, he doesn’t get brownie points for killing these people in a slightly less gruesome way.

    In the show, it’s noted that it took 3 strokes of the axe to kill George Boleyn. Unfortunately this is true. Executioners of the Tudor era were not known for being particularly skillful or fast in decapitating the condemned. This is one reason why it was considered merciful for Henry to send for the executioner of Calais, a famous sword executioner, to kill Anne Boleyn (note: he did not do this for his fifth wife, Catherine Howard, who was executed by the axe).
    This is all from Anne’s POV, so we don’t see any of the actual executions of the men condemned with her. In real life, they were all executed one after another, in front of each other. The order went – George Boleyn, Lord Rochford; Henry Norris; Sir Francis Weston; William Brereton; and finally Mark Smeaton. It must have been terrifically bloody and terrible, particularly for those that had to watch their fellows die in front of them.

  29. I sincerely doubt that Anne told off Cromwell as magnificently as she did in the show, but wouldn’t it be nice? My favorite line: “When people speak your name they will think of mine and the lengths you went to sully it. You will never be rid of me.” That’s arguably true! Although we’ll never know exactly who orchestrated Anne’s downfall (and I personally think some of the false evidence is too sloppy for Cromwell to have made up himself, when his other work shows a meticulous attention to detail), Cromwell has always been the chief suspect, and played a huge role regardless.

  30. The show leaves out one of the real life horrors of Anne’s execution, namely, how her execution was actually delayed several times. Anne was all ready to die at 9 am on May 18. She had been praying for several hours before the scheduled time and took mass from Archbishop Cranmer at that time. At the time, she swore on the sacrament in front of Cranmer and Kingston that she had not been unfaithful to the king. [This is really compelling evidence of Anne’s innocence actually; people very seriously believed in God, heaven, and hell at the time, and Anne knew she was about to die. Lying, while swearing on the Sacrament, right before her death could danger her immortal soul, and Anne really wouldn’t have done that.]
    When 9 am came and went, she asked Kingston whether she would be executed at noon; he deflected and did not tell her. After noon had passed, Kingston told her that her execution was delayed for a day. She would not be executed until around 8 am on March 19.

  31. In the show, Anne asks her ladies to give her prayer book to her daughter Elizabeth, and wrote a little bit in it to her. Anne did have a prayer book that she wrote in, and may have brought to her execution. What she actually wrote in it was her signature and ‘Remember me when you do pray that hope doth lead from day to day’. It’s unclear exactly what happened to the prayer book after Anne’s execution, but it likely did not go to Elizabeth, as Henry VIII went on a “destroy everything that ever belonged to Anne” rampage and likely wouldn’t have allowed his daughter to keep anything of hers.
    Some amazing new discoveries involving Anne’s prayer book have recently come to light and if you're not familiar with them, I highly suggest you go read about them over here!

  32. In the show, Anne is accompanied to the scaffold by Madge Shelton and her mother Lady Shelton. In real life, eyewitness accounts say that Anne was attended by “four young ladies.” We do not know their identities, but this pretty conclusively rules out Lady Shelton and most of the other older women that were with her in the tower. Madge might have been one of them but there’s no evidence for it. It’s possible that Margaret Wyatt (sister of the poet Thomas Wyatt, who was arrested and then released) may have been there; there’s a tradition that Anne actually gave her a prayer book, but this is likely a rumor and not accurate. There are also stories that Anne’s niece Katherine Carey may have attended her, but a twelve year old child would almost certainly be considered far too young to serve Anne in the tower and on the scaffold.

    Both in the show and the real life, the executioner did actually ask Anne for forgiveness and she gave it to him “willingly,” not quite “with all my heart” as in the show.

  33. I will literally never forgive this series for not letting Jodie Turner-Smith give Anne Boleyn’s scaffold speech. Sure, we don’t know for SURE what Anne said, but we have a pretty good idea based on people’s various recollections. And Jodie would have KILLED  that speech. Fun fact: Jodie Turner-Smith agreed! I tweeted about this and she responded “me too,” which just about made my life.

  34. The epilogue mentions that Anne’s daughter Elizabeth had a locket ring with pictures of Elizabeth and Anne Boleyn. This refers to the Chequers Locket Ring and is….sort of true. The second portrait isn’t conclusively identified as Anne Boleyn, but like, probably.

  35. The epilogue again is presented over a banner with Anne’s heraldic badge of a falcon on it and the stupid ainsi sera, groigne qui groigne slogan that she only used for a very brief time several years before her execution, but okay, fine. It’s a cool theme to come back to, and we know that she was attached to the slogan at one point.
    I’m pretty positive this is an invented banner, as I couldn’t find anything like it when I did a quick google search. Let me know if you know differently.

Royally Lit: "Red, White, and Royal Blue"

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A lot of novels featuring royals have come out in the past few years, with some of them becoming huge bestsellers. Every time I read one of these books, I end up nerding out over all the English royal references and combing through how much these fictional royal families and systems resemble reality. I figured I might as well actually write these musings down for your entertainment.

I had kind of a rough week and really needed some escapist fiction, so I finally picked up “Red, White & Royal Blue.” This best-selling 2019 romance novel features the first son of the United States falling in love with a British prince. It’s super sweet and funny, so if you like romances and/or just need something fun to read, I highly suggest it.

Note: Because I’m talking about a lot of fictional AND real people and it could get a bit complicated if you don’t know them all really well, I’m going to italicize the names of fictional characters to make things easier.

Summary: As the story begins, it’s Fall 2019, Alex is 21, in his final year of college at Georgetown, and has an long-lasting grudge against Prince Henry of England. After Alex and Henry manage to knock over the wedding cake at the royal wedding, they’re forced to pretend to be best friends for a while to avoid causing an international incident. The charade turns into actual friendship and later, love.

The First Family of the United States: This book is an alternate history, but only slightly. On the US side, everything /seems/ to line up with actual reality up through the Obama period (Alex mentions at one point that his bedroom used to belong to one of the Obama daughters). However, in this world, the 2016 election was won by Texan Ellen Claremont. Ellen’s a Democrat and the first female president. She has two children with her ex-husband Oscar Diaz (a senator from California and the son of Mexican immigrants) - June and Alex Claremont-Diaz. Ellen’s second husband is Leo, who is briefly described as an eccentric and ultra-supportive millionaire inventor.

The Royal Family of the United Kingdom: Prince Henry George Edward James Fox-Mountchristen-Windsor of Wales is 22 and on a gap year (post college) when the book begins. He’s the youngest child of Princess Catherine and Arthur Fox, a former James Bond actor, and a grandson of the current Queen. Henry has an older brother Philip, whose marriage kicks off the book, and an older sister named Beatrice, who is sober after previously struggling with cocaine addiction after their father’s death.

Queen Elizabeth Parallels: In the world of the book, Queen Mary is described as in her early 80s (in 2020) and has been on the throne for 47 years. This places her as ascending to the throne in 1973, sometime in her 30s. In real life, the current queen Elizabeth II was born in 1926, was 94 in 2020, and ascended to the throne in 1952 at the age of 26.

Succession: During an argument with his brother, Philip snarls that if Henry married Alex, the first son of the US would be fourth in line to the Queen of England. This indicates that Henry is, himself, fourth in line to the throne. His mother Catherine is first in line, his brother Philip is second in line, and his sister Beatrice is third in line.

Names: Every royal’s name seems to relate somewhat to real life royal’s names.

  • Queen Mary is likely a reference to Queen Mary of Teck, who was queen of consort from 1910-1936 as the wife of King George V and the grandmother of the current Queen.

  • Princess Catherine may refer to Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, who has been married to Prince William since [2010].

  • Prince Philip refers to Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, the late prince consort of Queen Elizabeth II.

  • Princess Beatrice refers to Princess Beatrice of York, Prince Andrew (Duke of York)’s daughter and a granddaughter of the Queen.

  • Henry George Edward James Fox-Mountchristen-Windsor of Wales. It’s totally realistic for him to have this many names, actually. Prince Charles’s name is Charles Philip Arthur George; Prince William is William Arthur Philip Louis; Harry is Henry Charles Albert David.

    • Henry - Eight English monarchs have gone by Henry. The most recent Henry is of course, Prince Henry, Duke of Sussex, who has gone by Harry pretty much his entire life.

    • George - Six English monarchs have gone by George and Prince William’s eldest son is named George.

    • Edward - Eight English monarchs have gone by Edward, and Elizabeth II’s youngest son is named Edward.

    • James - Two English monarchs have gone by James, and Prince Edward’s son is also named James.

    • Mountchristen-Windsor - The name of the real life Royal House is Windsor, but the surname Mountbatten-Windsor belongs to all the children and male-line descendants of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip. The name Mountbatten is an anglicisation of the German “Battenberg” (which literally means Batten Mountain and refers to a small town in Hesse, Germany) and was adopted in 1917 due to anti-German sentiment during World War I. “Mountchristen” is actually a pretty brilliant reference to this, as there is also a hill in Hesse, Germany known as Christenberg - so in the book’s universe, this was anglicized to Mountchristen, presumably also during WWII.

      When Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark married then-Princess Elizabeth, he gave up his titles and took the surname Mountbatten from his mother’s family when he became a naturalized British subject.
      It’s used by those who do not have the style of Royal Highness. Prince Edward’s children technically have the surname Mountbatten-Windsor, although they tend to go by the title “Windsor.” Most recently, Prince Harry’s two children with Meghan Markle have had Mountbatten-Windsor as their surnames.
      The name is also used by Royal families without a surname, when a surname is required. For example, when Prince William filed a lawsuit in France, he used the surname Mountbatten-Windsor.

    • “of Wales” - This is pretty true to life. Although no one in the book is technically ever referred to as The Prince of Wales, it’s implied that Princess Catherine, as first in line to the throne, has the title. In that case, all her children would go by “of Wales” as well. Both of Charles, Prince of Wales’ sons were styled “His Royal Highness ____ of Wales” from birth until they were given their own titles at the time of their weddings (William was made Duke of Cambridge, Earl of Strathearn, and Baron Carrickfergus in 2011. Harry was made Duke of Sussex, Earl of Dumbarton, and Baron Kilkeel in 2018).

      Prince Henry also states at one point that his brother used “Wales” as his last name while he was in the military. This is pretty close to how things are done in real life. Prince Harry was known as Officer Cadet Wales and Prince William was Lieutenant Wales while in the military.

Miscellaneous Historical References:

  • A Relative’s Abdication: Henry yells at one point that they have a great uncle who abdicated because he was a Nazi. This is an obvious reference to Edward VIII, who abdicated in January 1936 so he could marry Wallis Simpson. Simpson had already been married twice, was pursuing a divorce from her second husband. The government completely opposed the King’s plan to marry her.
    Edward and Wallis Simpson visited Nazi Germany in October 1937 against the advice of the British government and met Adolf Hitler.

    The book’s family lines here don’t quite line up with real life. Edward VIII was the uncle of Queen Elizabeth II, and thus would be the great-great uncle of her grandchildren, not a great-uncle.

  • A Royal marrying someone the Crown disapproves of: Princess Catherine married Arthur Fox, who played James Bond in the 80s, against the will of her family. Arthur apparently continued to act after his marriage (as Philip says angrily that their father spent half their childhoods making films) and died of cancer when Henry was 14.
    This could refer to Princess Elizabeth being determined to marry Philip against her family’s advice (and eventually gaining their acceptance of him) and Princess Margaret wanting to marry the divorced Peter Townsend against the will of many in the government and the Church of England (and ultimately not being able to gain acceptance).
    However, this reads most like an homage to the real life marriage of Hollywood actress Grace Kelly to Prince Rainier III of Monaco in 1956. Prince Harry also married a Hollywood actress, Meghan Markle, in 2018, but the author has noted that this book was written before that happened.

    • In case you didn’t want to look it up, the James Bond actors in the 1980s were Roger Moore, Sean Connery, and Timothy Dalton.

  • First Royal with a doctorate: Catherine is described as the first princess with a doctorate (in English literature). Charles, Prince of Wales is the first heir of the British throne to receive a university degree. A few royals have been given honorary doctorates, but none of earned them through a program of study.

    I’m not terribly well versed in other royal families but there are a few royals out there with doctorates. King Mohammed VI of Morocco has a PhD in law. Queen Letizia of Spain (married to Fleipe VI of Spain) began to work toward a Phd but did not finish her thesis.
    Fun fact: Emperor Emeritus Akihito doesn’t have a degree, but actually has done ichthyological research and had several scholarly papers published. A genus of goby has been named Akihito in his owner.

  • The death of a royal’s spouse/parent: Arthur Fox died when Prince Henry was 14. Eight years on, Henry still mourns his father and has difficulty with his absence.
    In real life, Diana, Princess of Wales, died when her sons were 15 (William) and 12 (Harry). They have both openly talked about how much they have missed their mother in the years since and how much her loss affected their lives.

  • A royal grieving the death of a spouse to the detriment of their duties: Catherine is described as having mourned so much over the death of her husband that she basically was checked out of her children’s life for ~5-6 years. This may refer to Queen Victoria’s famous mourning over her husband Albert. After he died in 1861, Victoria did not appear in public for two years. She didn’t appear again to open Parliament again until 1866. Victoria wore black after his death for the final forty years of her life.