Charlie Fenton’s Reviews > Sexuality and Its Impact on History: The British Stripped Bare > Status Update

‘had the new rules been applied, might have created a different history in England. Imagine if Henry VIII had not succeeded his father, Henry VII, since his sister Margaret Tudor was older than he was. There might have been no break with Rome over Henry VIII’s divorce, Catherine of Aragon would have been just another widow (from her marriage to Arthur), and Anne Boleyn might have lived to be an old woman!’

I really wish this book had proper references so I could look them up and see whether their argument makes sense. It is clear they have all done a lot of work, but it means that I have to rule out using books like this for university, despite their being some quite interesting points made, as it is not academic.

‘Naturally, when Henry VIII was informed that the Scottish Parliament had formally broken the Treaty of Greenwich and that the Dauphin of France, rather than his son, was to marry Mary, he was furious. With the treaty in tatters, there was no chance of him uniting the two crowns or gaining enough control over Mary or Scotland to get them to break their ancient alliance with France.’

‘He tells us he cannot unsee the bloody truth of that sunny day in May. But the poem is not just a reaction to his own narrow escape... There is an underlying sense of guilt; perhaps an unwritten acknowledgement that he should have died with them. Today, there is a condition known as ‘Survivor’s Syndrome’ in which sole survivors of a traumatic incident cannot come to terms with being the only one spared.’

‘little doubt that Elizabeth was a bitter and vengeful woman. In denying herself a marriage for love and children, she did not see why anybody else should have those things. Her own family members in particular might produce male heirs to challenge her position. This is borne out in the case of the queen’s cousin, Katherine Grey... Once Elizabeth discovered that Katherine was pregnant, she had her imprisoned’

‘The Church had laid down that the age of consent for a boy was fourteen and a girl, twelve. By that time, boys were men in the economic world; it was also the usual age for entry to the universities. Girls were arguably able to conceive, but everyone knew the risks of early pregnancies... In practice, Tudor marriages usually took place when the partners were in their later teens or even twenties.‘

‘Marie was the daughter of Eleanor of Aquitaine, and the great-granddaughter of William IX of Aquitaine, the earliest troubadour whose work is still in existence. From her court at Troyes, she had a hand in commissioning Chrétien de Troyes’ work, notably the Lancelot-Guinevere romance, The Knight of the Cart, and her conversations with Andreas Capellanus resulted in his writing De Amore’

‘Edgar’s love-life was certainly complicated. Most history books have it that he had two wives and one concubine. He might have been doing the same as many kings before him had done, and putting aside a concubine for a wife; Harold Godwinson did the same thing when he became king in 1066... Edgar might simply have been following an accepted pattern, which would have gone unremarked upon in different circumstances.‘

‘Godiva’s name appearing within the Domesday Book is one of only three English names to appear in the 1086 listings. Even though she was likely to have been dead by this point, she is still listed as the tenant in chief to three groups of land, Coventry being one of them. To think that such a figure of legend walked in such circles and at such a tumultuous time and yet she is only known only for a naked ride’