What is this, Tatooine? Is not Tudor England the most outrageous wretched hive of scum and villainy one can ever imagine? Friends, it is that, hands down.
This tale, one of the many involving King Henry the Eighth, who is most famous for being the fat guy who was Queen Elizabeth 1st’s father, focuses on his second queen, the first beheaded one. (Ain’t gonna lie, ain’t gonna cry.) But mostly it is the story of the Boleyn siblings, Anne, Mary and George. These three never had a chance at a normal life, since their families saw them early on as a meal ticket, a chance to bed or marry who they had to in order to amass power and wealth for their family. This was their job, and Anne, above all, stuck to the plan.
Mary, the first to arrive at court, was the youngest of the three. She was a fresh pretty face, a lady in waiting to Queen Katherine of Aragon, and had no problem catching the King’s eye. A husband was found for her for plausible deniability and she went on to have a daughter and a son by Henry. Henry moved on, which was not a matter that overly fussed Mary, but the family had bigger plans, and here was Anne, newly arrived from the French court and far more ambitious than her sister. Her path to the throne was a tedious slog, playing Henry just long enough to ensure Katherine was divorced first and Anne could become the legit though highly unpopular queen. From there on, it was the matter of giving the king a son (Princess Elizabeth wasn’t enough. Hah.). And we all know how well that turned out. Poor George was collateral damage, but Mary escaped to the country life with her children and a husband who doted on her. Lucky girl.