> OPINION ALERT! > Well, I watched it tonight - I thought the women's costuming was 10x > worse than the men's (as usual) with rather odd headdresses in > particular. In my opinion it greatly resembled the 19th century > view > of the 16th century - it was to Henry and his wives what many in the > 19th century thought of "poor Mary Queen of Scots" and "the evil > Queen Elizabeth" - their ideas (not mine!!!!). I found it to be > rather tabloid feeling in its approach to the entire thing, and > while > strictly correct in facts, attributed a lot of emotions that I think > they would be hard pressed to document. Catherine of Aragon came > across as the wronged noble, almost saintly queen, and they stated > outright that Henry went mad as he got older!
They aren't the only one, I've got a book that "proves" Henry was suffering from neurosyphilis* by the time he decided to, er, "break up" with Anne. It's pretty flimsy evidence (supposedly Elizabeth's line about being a "barren stock" after James was born meant she didn't menstruate, so obviously she was suffering from inherited syphilis), only remotely plausible because Henry wasn't exactly faithful to his spouses at a time when there wasn't any way to prevent STDs. Leah *Or tertiary syphilis, I've seen both terms -- what happens when the syphilis spirochete starts damaging your brain. _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
