I join the general public in thinking that the whole "Anne Boleyn climbs the ranks & is hoisted by her own petard" telling of the Tudor story has been overdone at this point. But there's so many just. Narrative twists to the Tudors in general that it's impossible not to find them interesting even though they have been done to death.
Like come on. Man is obsessed with getting a male heir, marries 6 times only for the most famous and successful monarch of his family by miles to be his daughter whose mother he had killed for birthing her and not a son. & also that daughter became the most famous and successful monarch of her family in part due to her decision to have the dynasty end with her and not pursue birthing an heir or having any husbands.
That's. Ridiculously ironic.
The first child he ever had that actually like. Drew breath. Was in fact a boy, Catherine of Aragon gave him a son and for 7 weeks everything seemed fine, & then the child died. Like a fucking portend.
The woman to actually give him a (surviving) son immediately dies.
This son, this son that two women died for, he doesn't die uncrowned, that wouldn't be particularly narratively juicy, no this precious little heir that Henry pinned all his hopes on does succeed his father... and then dies as a child without making really any meaningful contributions to the dynasty, certainly not in comparison to how his sisters shaped history.
Obsessed with his legacy and what he is known for is "divorced, beheaded, died. Divorced, beheaded, survived."
It's fascinating. It fits so well into a story about man's hubris. Like you couldn't write that and it's real history.
