Henry VIII

Catherine of Aragon's own mother Isabella gave birth to Catherine when she was 32. Catherine was the last of Isabella's children to survive.

Thanks for the information. I was aware that many who served the crown had difficulty being paid , it was costly exercise fighting the Spanish, but this claim of a blockade stopping the sailors from landing and so starving them to death aboard ship, is new to me. The idea that Elizabeth gave orders to starve her sailors to death needs historical reference that can substantiate this claim.

I agree with what you wrote except for :
A little woman with a little vagina having sex with a man with a large penis can damage the cervix, opening it enough for infection to enter, which results in a miscarriage in early pregnancy. For most women, esp late in pregnancy, the doggie position is recommended...for comfort if not for safety.

Henry had a love chair , the women sat on him.

I suspect because he rapidly gained weight after his athletic activities were curtailed in his late 30s. A man reputed to weigh . . . what was it, 28 stone? . . . is probably not a good candidate for missionary position.

I based my answer on the advice I received during my own pregnancies which I double checked on line.

He must have been a lovely sight. More than posy of violets would be needed to hide his odour.

Americans have become personal hygiene freaks. Funny, when I was in elementary school, a weekly bath was commonplace . . . not a daily shower!

A woman named Jadwiga Zajaczkowa seems to run a website called gallowglass in which she quotes several REnaissance books urging the washing of hands and feet and which say that water was provided at the table at dinner time to cleanse the hands. Supposedly, the Renaissance was marked by an upsurge in an interest in medicine due to translations from Arabic writers and with it an interest in hygiene. Henry, of course, is sometimes considered the last Medieval king of England . . . but I tend to think of him as the first Renaissance king, reserving the 'title' of last Medieval king for his strange and cranky father Henry VII.

A science site claims "in England between 1456 and 1604, 115 out of 392 editions of books on medicine and regimen were issued in the vernacular."

Read more: Hygiene - The Middle Ages And Renaissance, 200–1700 C.e. http://science.jrank.org/pages/9721/Hygiene-Middle-Ages-Renaissance-200-1700-C-E.html#ixzz0sLhOEPwU

The Renaissance editor for Bellaonline, a website which seems to deal with women's history, says that people bathed weekly. I am not ready to accept that. She is contradicted by a writer on a French site who says that with the syphilis epidemic people thought dirt protected the body from disease and that water penetrated the skin. Remember that much of the water was unhealthy, so to go from water being unsafe to drink to unsafe to bathe in is somewhat logical. Answer whiz Cecil Adams backs this up and also backs up a statement that white undergarments were thought to absorb dirt and disease vectors. When your underwear turned black, it was sign it had saved your life!

A writer on Shakespeare for the University of Houston site reminds us that sewers and animal dung were serious problems.

Yes in my childhood I was the last in the weekly bath out of three children. I can still see that scum floating on tepid grey sludge. Underwear and socks had to last the week or I was classified as a fuddy daddy by father.

My answer is factual. Not widely known, but factual anyway. If pressed any gynecologist will confirm it. Sex in the vast number of instances does no harm to a pregnant woman. Promoting confidence and a normal life style is good for mother and thus good for baby. But there is not one wrong word in what I said.

Have it your way. It flies in the face of my experience, but, I have no desire to discuss this any further.

Only two of his wives were executed - Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard. The former was disruptive at court, challenged Henry and even spread rumors that he wasn't good in bed while the latter disappointed Henry as she wasn't a virgin before the marriage and had extra-marietal affairs. Catherine of Aragon was the only true queen as she was brought up to rule and knew how to run the affairs of the state. She ruled England twice in Henry's stead when he went to war. So I can see he really placed her above all his wives. She was his ideal wife only that her son died at child birth and she was getting old. His desire for a male heir led him to Anne. Jane Seymour provided him with a son but she died so he got Anna Cleves who was overweight as all the other European princesses turned Henry down as he wasn't attractive any more. He got rid of Anna by making heher his legal sister and gave her a castle. Catherine Parr was already a divorcee but she saw her role as a duty to the nation so she didn't love Henry at all. As soon as he died she married her lover.

I would saw Henry was an ordinary guy put in a tough situation. He was the second son and not expected to rule. He was trained for the clergy and was a sportsman. When his older brother Arthur died his father persuaded Henry to marry Catherine. As she was very attractive he did not object. Spain was the richest and the most powerful nation in Europe at the time so it was advantageous to marry Catherine of Arragon.

One of the really dumb things that people did in Medieval times . . . and, as I may have written, many consider Henry VIII the last Medieval king of England . . . was to marry women who had proven fertility. Divorce was common during the Middle Ages and partners were frequently traded among the nobility. Henry did not initiate the practice of divorce.

But, back to those ladies chosen for their ability to give birth to healthy infants: they were often too old to bear children by their third or fourth marriage.

Catherine was the daughter of Isabella, one of the most powerful women ever to walk the face of the earth.

Most of those princesses did not turn Henry down because he was no longer attractive. They knew what had happened to Anne and Henry was widely regarded as poor husband material. Many Americans consider Anne something of a whore but Jane Seymour possessed a considerably more flexible moral compass than Anne did.

Catherine Parr was twice a widow.

There is a little rhyme to help remember henry's wives: divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded. survived.

Well the beheading adds to the unattractive part. The professor in the document was being diplomatic and noncontroversial. Requests were sent out but the princesses did not accept them probably out of fear but never mentioned their reasons.

For amusement use Salvator(?) Dali. Show him playing the violin and music notes floating out into the fields and there is a dark cloud and rain is falling on those notes.A farm lady is picking up those nores and then in a four stringed clothes hangers she pins the dripping notes on the strings in the form of a musical score.

Sorry, wrong thread!

I'm not sure it was "murder" in Henry's mind. I think that he saw himself as a highly moral man who would not kill a wife to make way for another. I think that he was able to convince (delude) himself into believing that the allegations against Anne were true. I also think that he was quite good at it, and used this self-delusion to help him with other morally questionable tasks.

Today, I was explaining what an annotated bibliography is to my ENG 101 students. I referred them to the Purdue OWL website, and we read the material there together. The site said research should be relevant, accurate and current. Three students are working on Twelfth Night. They laughed at the idea of SHakespeare being current.

I told them the latest SHakespeare theory is that his family was Catholic. They all blinked at me. I asked if they knew who sat on the English throne while Shakespeare was writing. They blinked again. Elizabeth I and James I. I asked them what those monarchs were famous for. Blink. The King James Bible; The Spanish Armada; The restoration of Protestantism after the reign of Bloody MAry. Blink. I asked who Liz's father was. Blink. Henry a student from Africa said. What was he famous for? Killing his wives. The break from the CHurch of Rome and the Dissolution of the Monasteries.

They had not heard of the Reformation. They had no idea who Martin Luther was.

Syphilus is more likely... Explains the ulcers and the club teeth of his son, and the madness... You know, French Frying people is not usually considered normal...Of course, that was before napalm... Henry the VII was extremely sane, avoided wars like a plague, and built up home industries while refulsing to allow capital to be exported... Think of what a president like that could do for us...

I fart rituals too, and empty formalities, and some times meaningless oaths like those given by members of the goverment...

Syphilus explains it better... Look at what it did for Nietzsche, and possibly, Hitler...