#even the way she engages in love is much more courtly than elizabeth ever wants it to be.

[emcads]

still thinking about that line. women as barometers of society’s politeness.

[the-everlasting-dream]

Q&A with Ana De Luca - Drake x MC

Summary: MC Elizabeth and Drake sit down for a post-honeymoon interview with Trend Magazine’s Ana De Luca for a light hearted Q&A session. 

A/N: I really wanted to contribute to @boneandfur​ ‘s TRR4Ever week but was too busy to commit to a full on fic/one shot so this was what came to my tired brain instead. Its probably totally crap but I kinda wanted it to be natural while throwing in a few of my own HC’s in there coz why not? Also im kinda proud of this aesthetic like its the first time i’ve made one of these

Permanent Tag list: @chantelle-x0x @choicessa @mariamatsuo @pbchoicesobsessed

For this month’s issue I, Ana De Luca, sat down with the Duke Drake and Duchess Elizabeth Walker of Atlantea for an exclusive look into married life for the recently wedded couple by asking them a series of questions sent in by our readers from what is appropriately dubbed the ’Newlywed Game' as opposed to the usual interview format.

[Ana De Luca] Hello Your Graces. Thank you for joining me today. I hope you had a pleasant vacation. 

[Elizabeth] Thank you so much for having us today Ms De Luca. We most certainly did. South America was beautiful wasn’t it darling? 

[Drake] Yes. 

 [E] You’ll have to forgive my husband -she blushes slightly as she says this, looking at him - He’s not used to being interviewed. 

[A] No apologies necessary Your Grace. I trust you were informed of the structure we will be employing today. 

[E] Yes we were and it sounds super fun, this Newlywed game. You’ll be asking us separate questions about each other, am I correct? 

[A] Yes. Shall we begin?

[D] Yep lets do it. And you can drop the whole duke-duchess thing. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to that title. 

[A] The first question is for you Drake. Where and when did you and the duchess share your first kiss?

[D] Wow straight to the point aren’t you? Ow! Elizabeth elbows him slightly in the ribs Umm our kiss actually took place at the Beaumont mansion a few months after we met. 

[A] Would I be right in assuming that was during the social season?

[D] Umm… Yes, yeah thats right. 

[A] Splendid. Now to Elizabeth. What was your first impression of your spouse? 

[E] My first impression hmm? She stifles a laugh as her husband eyes her expectantly. It wasn’t too different to everyone else’s. He was dark and broody. Extremely sarcastic and snarky, almost like he didn’t like me at first. But that quickly changed after I wore down his walls. 

[D] She basically annoyed me into loving her. 

[E] Is that a complaint I hear? 

[D] Complain? Me? Never.   

[A] Drake what adjective would you use describe Elizabeth on your wedding day?

[D] Just one?

[A] That's correct.

[D] Man there are so many…. One won’t be able to cover it... but I guess I’ll have to go with... radiant. She was practically glowing when she walked up the aisle and I felt like the luckiest man on the planet. 

[A] Wonderful. The readers will love this. Now Elizabeth do you get along with Drake’s family members?

[E] His mum is an angel. We only met after we got engaged but she is such a warm lovely person and we bonded immediately being Americans. I adore Savannah too. She and I have gotten so much closer over the engagement period and I’ve come to count on her as a second second sister. Her and her mother have the best stories from Drake’s childhood. 

[A] Can I persuade you into sharing any? 

The duchess glances at her husband who glares at her in warning. 

[E] I really value my life so I’m gonna have to decline on that one. 

[A] In that case, Drake what item of clothing does Elizabeth look best in? 

[D] Oh man… This is a hard one because she looks stunning in pretty much everything. 

[A] But if you had to pick one?

[D] I can’t there are too many to choose from… 

[A] Ok let me rephrase the question.. Is there an outfit of Elizabeth’s besides her wedding dress that completely blew you away the first time you saw her wear it? 

[D] Hmm when you phrase it like that… She’d worn tons of amazing ballgowns in the past but the green dress she wore the first night we met in New York will always be one of my favourites… He sighs contentedly, smiling shyly at the duchess. Does that count? 

[A] It most certainly does. Elizabeth what is his most irritating habit in the bedroom? 

[D] Now thats not an invasion of privacy at all… His tone is sarcastic but he glances at his wife expectantly as she thinks. 

 [E] Most irritating habit hm? Its not necessarily irritating but I think he should be more confident in his abilities because he is a fantastic lover. 

Her words make the duke blush slightly as they share a loving gaze. 

 [A] How would you describe her first thing in the morning?

[D] Hah that's an easy one. She’s like a sleepy little puppy who doesn’t want to get out of bed. Especially in winter I’ll have to pull her out of the layers of blankets she’s wrapped herself in and if I don’t actually make sure she’s standing up with her eyes open, there’s a high chance she’ll just go right back to bed again. 

 [E] What can I say? I love my sleep. They share a short laugh.   

 [A] That is just adorable. Elizabeth, now I’m sure Drake considers himself a very manly man so tell me how does he like his steak cooked?

[E] Easy. Medium rare. Usually he’d be happy to eat anything but he’s extremely particular about his steaks, he’ll send them right back if they’re not satisficatory.  

[D] That was one time! And it was so rare it was practically walking off the plate.  

[E] One time too many. You should have known that when you married me I’d never let you get away with such diva-like behaviour. 

[A] Expanding on that now, who is the best cook?

[D] Elizabeth for sure. I don’t know how she does it but she can make an incredible dish from just what we have in the fridge that's somehow way better than some of the food at these courtly functions.  

[E] Aww babe you’re too kind. 

[D] I’m just being honest. He smiles, squeezing her hand. 

[A] So if you’ve got all the cooking covered Elizabeth, what is one thing that Drake does for you that he hates to do but does it anyways because he loves you?

[E] I rely on him mostly to do all the repairs and handyman stuff around the house because I have no idea what I’m doing if it were up to me. I don’t think he hates it though. He once installed an entire shoe rack for me just because I mentioned I was needed more space to store them. 

[A] That's kind of a coincidence because my next question is how many pair of shoes does Elizabeth own?

[D] I honestly have no idea. But I’ll install as many shoe racks as needed because she has way too many to count. 

[A] Elizabeth who would you cast to play Drake in a movie?

The duchess’ face shifts into a wide grin. 

[E] Actually we were just talking about this recently. I’d been scrolling through my Instagram and some people seem to think that Drake looks like Daniel DiTomasso from Witches of East End. Just with slightly shorter hair but I am starting to agree with them. Don’t you think? 

She pulls up a picture of the actor on her phone before handing it to me. 

[A] He does bear a striking resemblance now that I look at it.

[D] I have no idea what you’re talking about. I don’t even have blue eyes!   

[A] Alright then speaking of appearances, does Elizabeth have any pet peeves about hers?

[D] She is very very VERY particular about her hair. She sometimes plans her entire week around her hair washing schedule. 

[E] Hey don’t scoff at me! Not all of us can rock the messy bedhead look. It takes a lot of work to look this good.   

[A] And my final question to both of you now… As it is leading up to Valentines day, when did you realise that your spouse could possibly be the one? 

[E] You first. 

[D] Well I guess I’m going first then. We’d had lots of moments before this, like the time all of us snuck out for cronuts or  when we were stargazing but the first time I actually saw her in a different light was on my birthday a couple of years ago. She got us all to sneak out of the palace to go to a Western themed bar and we spent the rest of the night drinking, line dancing and bull riding with all our friends. 

[E] That soon?! I thought you still hated me back then? You barely even let me hug you. 

[D] I never hated you. I just kept you at arms length because I thought you’d never see me that way. 

[E] And look how far we’ve come since then. I think for me was a little earlier than that. Time-wise everything kinda blurs together but that moment for me was the time we were in Olivia's wine cellar in Lythikos when I finally learned that there was more to you than just cynical comments and liking whiskey. After that I just couldn’t look at you the same way again, knowing that there was a soft marshmallow heart under that burnt exterior. 

  He gives her a soft smile before clearing his throat awkwardly.

[D]  Is this interview over yet? I would like to leave with some semblance of dignity left before my wife decides to give away all my secrets. 

[A] I’m sure you’ll be relieved when I say yes it is. Duke and Duchess I thank you once again for your time today. You are a beautiful couple and I wish you all the best in the future. 

[D] Thank you. 

[E] Thank you very much for having us Ms De Luca. 

[A] The pleasure was all mine.

[slateroofpress]

Myth, Sonnets, and Immigration: Susan Glass Interviews Broadside Winner Armen Davoudian

Susan Glass is our blogger with interviews of fellow poets, literary journeys, and all things poetical. In this blog post, she talks with Armen Davoudian, who won the 2019 Slate Roof Glass Poetry Broadside Prize for his poem "Ararat."

 Armen Davoudian is the author of Swan Song, which won the 2020 Frost Place Chapbook Competition. His poems and translations from Persian appear in AGNI, The Sewanee Review, The Yale Review, and elsewhere. He grew up in Isfahan, Iran and is currently a PhD candidate in English at Stanford University.

 S G: Thank you for talking with me today. In “Ararat,” I hear and read a recurring theme in your poetry, the tensions between a myth and its various retellings, or between a myth and a reality — tensions underscored by parallel tensions within a speaker. In "Ararat," we have the tensions between the raven and the dove, and a shadow and an image almost touching. There's also the dove's olive branch that splinters, and can never be carried back.

 It's hard to return home after absence, to find ourselves or our homes exactly as they were before we left. Were you thinking about these tensions when you wrote "Ararat," and how they play out in your homeland and in your life?

 A D: Thanks for commenting on the tension between myth and reality. Ararat, the mountain, is an important symbol in Armenia, and for Armenians. I am ethnically Armenian, so it's been a present image since childhood. The mountain itself used to be in Armenian soil, but now it's in Turkey. So there's symbolism and tension around it. Ararat is traditionally seen as the place where Noah's ark landed. I've always been interested in that story and the story of the flood as a kind of allegory for immigration. We leave one world behind, and wash up on the shores of a new world.

Purchase the broadside "Ararat" at http://slateroofpress.com/contest2019b.html#poems

S G: The speaker in "Ararat" identifies as "prodigal."

A D: Right. The Prodigal Son is another Biblical story, and in that story he does go back home and is accepted with open arms. But maybe that's one of the tensions between reality and myth. In the real world you never really can go back. The place has changed and you have changed.

 S G: "Ararat" is a sonnet, as is "Black Garlic," the poem that opens Swan Song (see https://bullcitypress.com/product/swan-song-by-armen-davoudian/).You handle the sonnet form with flexibility, and delightfully surprising word arrangements. What intrigues you about the sonnet?

 A D: I find poetic forms musically appealing. With the sonnet, there's an asymmetry between its two unequal halves that attracts me. The sonnet was a courtly love poem that originated in the 13th century. But I feel that it's perfectly suited for the story of immigration and displacement because of that division in the middle. There's also a long tradition of the political sonnet going back to Milton. I'm interested in how this tiny form can fit such huge personal and political subjects within itself. Big ideas and feelings in a small package.

 S G: Yes. It welcomes and forces our attention on to the issues at hand because of that paradox.

 A D: I think so. One of the distinguishing characteristics of poetry is its brevity, and brevity as possibility. It's not a shortcoming, it's a possibility. Brevity allows you to do different things. It's transferable. It's portable. You can hold it in your mind and in your mouth. You can't memorize a whole novel, but you can memorize an entire sonnet.

 S G: What you are saying about the power of a sonnet's brevity reminds me of how Seamus Heaney could take the immensity of the sectarian violence happening in Ireland, and fit it into the tiny sonnet form.

A D: Heaney’s sonnet sequences have been really important to me. I admire how he fits a family story, the sequence about his mother, for instance, into this tiny form. And I like the way he fits food into his work, the way food is so sensual for him, like his references to oysters and potatoes — pregnant with meaning, but in a way that doesn't cancel out its physical properties. You can still taste it even though it stands in for a whole range of meanings.   

 S G: Attention to food comes through in your work too. I'm thinking about "Wake-up Call," and the tender attention you pay to tea-making, and breakfast preparation, and the speaker who is both present and yet absent. I feel as I read this poem, a lifelong homesickness, longing, tenderness.

 A D: Thank you.

 S G: I know that you are a fluent speaker, reader, and writer of Persian, Armenian, and English. This allows you access to a plethora of images, metaphors, and mindsets. In which language do you compose? Dream? Are some of your poems better suited for one language than for another?

 A D: I grew up in a small, diasporic Armenian community in Iran, so I learned Armenian first, even though the language of instruction in school was Persian. And I learned to read and write in both Armenian and Persian. But now I write exclusively in English. I also translate from Persian, and more recently from Armenian. I'm visiting my parents in Los Angeles right now, and here I speak Armenian. Persian has become an almost exclusively literary language for me, and these days I only read it or write it. So I sometimes feel out of touch with it as a living language. I'm comfortable living in and with English now, though I occasionally must think about what is the correct preposition (at college, on campus). But I think it helps sometimes to be a little alienated from what you love, or from the tools you're working with. It helps sometimes to see them as an outsider.

S G: So as you move through your daily life, what language are your thoughts in?

 A D: Mostly in English. I'm in grad school, so I'm thinking about grad school stuff. But if I'm cooking a Persian meal, I'm thinking about the ingredients and the recipe and the preparation in Persian. And if I'm remembering something my granddad said, that will be in Armenian.

S G: Several of your poems address political strife using direct, emotionally engaging language that insists we pay attention. You make us feel what too many news blasts and too much information would rather smother. I'm thinking of your lament about former president Trump and the many children stranded at the U.S. Mexican border. You write: "they are wrapping them in Mylar / and putting them to sleep where they used to house ammo." Then you juxtapose the word "ammo" to a mother calling, "te amo, te amo." You make what's political human. How important is this to your writing, and does it figure in your current projects?

 A D: Thank you for asking that. We live in a time of bombardment and desensitization. You read these things in the news and at some point they stop moving you. But I don't think this applies to political realities only. When I think of one of my favorite people ever, my grandfather, and the fact that he's dead, I can say that and it doesn't stir any kind of emotional response in me, until I put it in a poem that does excite emotion. So I think that's how I feel about the political reality too. Unless you're in it, it's distant. I feel like it's our job as writers to make it present and make people feel it. One of the ways that I try to do that is by pointing out those weird linguistic coincidences (“ammo” and “te amo”). We have this tender confession of love on a mother's part, and the exact opposite in that "ammo."

 S G: I listened on YouTube to a presentation called “Don't Look Away,” a literary series sponsored by the International Armenian Literary Alliance. You participated as a reader. I imagine you are actively involved? Can you share a bit about the organization and its work?

 A D: Yes, I’m a member of IALA. It was founded recently as an organization for Armenian writers throughout the world, of which there are many, because the Armenian diaspora is huge. A lot of Armenian writers live outside of Armenia, and it's been a great way to connect with them. They offer a mentorship program for younger Armenian writers, too.

S G: Would you like to talk a bit about the work that you are doing at Stanford? Are you writing? Are you teaching? What is it like to balance your writing and your studies?

 A D: I'm doing a PhD in English that does involve teaching. I'm studying modern poetry in English mostly, and I'm writing my dissertation on a literary device called metanoia, which means self-correction. It's a rhetorical term for what some poets do where they'll say one thing, and then retract it, or rephrase it. It can be something as simple as writing "the sky is light blue," and then writing, "no, it's dark blue." But instead of deleting one of these assertions, you keep both of them in the poem. This doesn't happen just on a lexical level. It happens more generally when poets doubt themselves or second guess themselves.

 And I find this happens to me as I write poetry. I tend to have a hard time making my mind up about things. So much in the world is ambivalent or ambiguous, and I want to know things clearly as I write, but of course that can't always happen. So in some ways, studying this device, metanoia, has been helpful. It helps to know how other poets handle this problem of trying to write out of uncertainty.

 S G: Yes. We'd like to be able to move as we write from uncertainty to certainty. But too often it feels as though we are writing into deeper uncertainty.

 A D: One poet whose work I've studied intensively who I think exemplifies this self-doubt is Elizabeth Bishop. Bishop is often seen as this poet who made perfect little lyric poems. But I don't think we have truly grasped how loose and free and prosaic they are.

S G: You are reminding me of her poem, "Manners."

 A D: Yes. She and her grandfather are riding in a horse-drawn wagon, and her grandfather says that she must say hello to everyone they pass. It’s the polite thing to do, even though I think that as a lesbian writer, she would have a lot to disagree with in terms of what is “mannerly” to do and what isn't, what is accepted and what isn't. But at the same time, she sees her grandfather's manners as one of the ways he manages to be nice to people, to keep his footing in the world. But she feels really divided about it, and the poems issue from that sense of division, and self-division. That's been instructive for me.

 S G: Yes. That speaks to your work. I'm thinking particularly of your poem, "Coming Out of the Shower." It's a poem rich in double meaning ("mama, I'm coming out") as in coming out of the shower and coming out as a gay man. But I also love its sensory richness, and how the speaker says that he's using his mother's shampoo, and will smell like her for the rest of the day.

 A D: I use Dr. Bronner’s shampoo usually, which smells like mint. But at some point it just starts smelling like nothing because you get used to it. Other people may smell it on you, but you can’t — not anymore. So using someone else’s shampoo is suddenly a shock to this senselessness. It's almost a perfect metaphor for poetry, how we get used to the world and to language, to the point where they cease to move us, until and unless a poem shakes us out of it

 S G: Are you teaching right now?

 A D: I'm putting together a proposal for a course next year on the sonnet. I'm excited about that. I want us to look at the form from Petrarch to Terrance Hayes. I'm interested in how the sonnet has survived many centuries to work so well today.

 S G: Can you describe your own writing process and your writing space?

 A D: I've moved so often — I guess that's part of being a graduate student. I try not to attach myself to a particular place or desk or chair. I don't want to feel like I have to wear a certain pair of pants in order to write. I try to write every day, first thing in the morning, for 2 hours, with coffee. I have a set of books that I keep with me, Seamus Heaney's books among them. When I get stuck, I read a poem by someone whose work I admire, and the flow usually starts again. Some, like Gertrude Stein, are experimental poets and writers who provoke me. I don't write like they do, but they help me get started. They make language opaque again. I notice it again. It's there to be worked with and through.

 S G: Whose work do you enjoy reading?

 A D: I think I became sure that I wanted to be a writer when I read Proust, first in Persian and then in English. I appreciate his sense of the importance of memory to life. I also gain from him a sense of what an artist's life looks like. I appreciate the importance of erotic tension in his work – desire, love, jealousy. For similar reasons I am drawn to James Merrill's poetry, his love of form, music, memory, and childhood. Then there is the poetry in Persian. The Asian American Writers’ Workshop recently compiled a list of 100 works of Persian literature in English (https://aaww.org/100-essential-books-by-iranian-writers-poetry-hybrid-works-anthologies/). I've always wanted to teach a course on the poetry of exile, so I read poets whose work addresses that.

 S G: What are you working on now?

 A D: I'm working on my first full-length book of poems. It starts with a crown of sonnets called “The Ring.” My dad had to get his wedding ring re-sized, but he ended up buying a new ring and he gave me the old one. The sequence is about that exchange, that passing down of a memento, and what that means since I probably won't have the kind of traditional marriage that ring was made for.

 S G: Has it been challenging or ambivalent or tender to talk to your mom and your dad about being gay?

 A D: Yes. They had such a different upbringing in a different place, but still they've been very loving and open. Sometimes I feel like it's taken away one of the tensions that used to drive my poetry!

 S G: Will some of the poems from Swan Song find their way into your new book?

 A D: About ten of them will. This new book has two long sequences of sonnets, so I'm hesitant to put in any more.

 S G: Thank you so much for talking with me today. Is there anything I haven't addressed that you'd like to talk about.

 A D: Just thank you so much for the beautiful broadside! My parents were really happy to have it. My mom has framed one and it's in their living room. Thank you for this conversation.

 S G: Thank you! I look forward to hearing you read on April 12.  

[minervacasterly]

Secrets of the Six Wives: Anne of Cleves -Knowing Your Worth:

“Henry VIII, an aging King is looking for his fourth wife” and who does he turn to for advice? His favorite painter of course! Hans Holbein the Younger does a flattering portrait of Anne of Cleves, one that is turned more beautiful by Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII’s top man, singing praises of her, heightening Anne’s status to the point of turning her into the most beautiful woman that ever walked the Earth.

At this point, Henry VIII was a sickly obese man who surrounded himself with sycophants. A man who had turned his back in reality in return for safe spaces. But what his court, especially those who had been made by Henry, failed to notice was that just as quickly as he could turn them into powerful men, he could easily unmake them and their families.

Thomas Cromwell thought he was playing the same game he started playing when he became Wolsey’s aide. But the rules of the game had changed. Henry VIII was no longer a man who needed an heir, he now needed “a spare” as Dr. Lucy Worsley put it, to secure the Tudor Dynasty. He was after all the spare to his father’s line. If it weren’t for him, the Tudor line would already be finished and the Stuart regime would have become the ruling dynasty of England a century earlier. He was also a man who needed someone beautiful, someone who in his view could provide him with a perfect prince because for the royals, it was all about appearances.

When Henry VIII finally met Anne, in the New Year of 1540, he was shocked. Anne asked to dine with her new English ladies and the ambassador, and be taught how to play cards, so she could be ready for her future position as English Consort. Sadly though, everyone had failed to mention that Henry VIII was still fancied himself the great prince of Europe, handsome and strong, who loved to surprise his women, disguising himself as Robin Hood, and with his band of merry men, ask for their favors. This is a huge contrast to Henry VIII’s first foreign bride. Despite what people think about Catherine and her family, the Spanish Princess had grown up in a cultured court where they also engaged in courtly love. Henry VIII’s disguises, along with Catherine’s are well documented. The two also loved going on picnics and play various role, the helpless maiden, rescued by the knight in shining armor and she never failed to give him her favors during the jousts.

Anne of Cleves had never had that. She had been given a simple education, a domestic one. The Cleves court was very strict, emphasizing more on female virtue than they did in England and Spain. It is no then, why Anne of Cleves was immediately taken by surprise when the elder monarch came to her chambers, surprising her and her ladies, asking her for a kiss.

“A blind date proves to be a disaster.”

Indeed. Anne was immediately repulsed by the sight of him. Not so much because of his appearance, but because here was a stranger who for no reason is asking a woman of high birth for a kiss. Who does he think he is? The King of England? As soon as she realizes her folly, she tries to remedy the situation by paying him simple compliments. Henry is not satisfied. “I like her not.” He allegedly says and immediately seeks ways to undermine his marriage, starting with bringing up the matter of her pre-contract which doesn’t become useful until much later when he no longer needs the Cleves and other Protestant counties and duchies alliance. And England needed those allies, because Henry’s break with Rome and Spain’s recent alliance with France, had left England isolated.

But soon problems start to arise. Henry tries to consummate the marriage and surprise, surprise! He can’t! Oh no! What will he ever do? Where does the fault lie? It can’t be with him. He is the King, God’s representative on Earth. It must be with somebody else. And voila! He is back to his safe space again when he summons his royal physician, Doctor Butts who tells him that nothing is wrong with him. He is in perfect health. And to prove that His Majesty is still the dashing prince, he says that Henry has been having “nocturnal pollution” aka wet dreams. It must feel good to have a royal space, just imagine, if the sky is pink -even when it isn’t- you can still be told it is by your personal physician and loyal courtiers.

“My theory is he couldn’t manage it” Lucy Worsley states and to support her theory, she reminds us of Henry’s weight and the ulcer in his leg, rendering him “probably impotent.”

To humor the King, everyone agrees that the King’s new foreign wife is everything he says she is. Ugly, and plain. But in private, they think differently. Foreign envoys are puzzled as to why would Henry say these things of her when their eyes are telling them otherwise. As far as they can tell, Henry VIII’s fourth consort is good looking. Not drop-dead gorgeous, but attractive.

There is one envoy in particular that takes this too personal and that is the Cleves Ambassador.

“Madame, this is an outrage.”

We do not know for sure what Anne of Cleves must have thought of all of this. She was a woman who was bred to be a royal bride. As such she knew her worth and Lucy Worsley manages to recreate this by having her tell the Cleves ambassador that if Henry is going to annul their marriage, she is not going to go empty-handed. She also reminds him: “This is King Henry.” Meaning, that like the townsfolk of South Park in season 19, when they hung reality, he doesn’t care about what is convenient, as long as he is happy. And in the end, isn’t that what all of his wives were trying to do? Keep him happy? Of course, Anne was one step ahead of most of them, knowing full well that if Henry wanted something, he was going to get it no matter what. So as soon as her marriage was declared null and void, she brought her own set of rules. She would agree to everything as long as she was well paid off.

“She becomes the King’s sister … Here is the good bit. Two palaces … Huge entourage of people and lots of money.” One of these two palaces is none other than Hever castle, the former Boleyn stronghold and where Anne and her siblings had grown up. Anne becomes comfortable in her new position. Being the King’s legal sister suits her. She is freer than any woman in the kingdom to live her life how she wants to live it. She starts hosting parties in her homes, and as time goes by, she is granted more manors.

“She never remarried but she did become one of the richest women in England. Anne outlived all of Henry’s wives, and Henry himself.”

The segment ends with Lucy Worsley’s summing up Anne of Cleves’ life perfectly after she lays a rose on her tomb at Westminster Abbey. She was the one wife who outlived her husband and her successors, and her stepson. During Edward VI and Mary I’s respective reign, she continued to figure prominently. When Mary became the first Queen Regnant, she had her as part of her female entourage, in a carriage of gold and silver trappings, taking precedence, along with her youngest stepdaughter, Elizabeth, above the other women. When she died, she was laid to rest in Westminster Abbey, given a funeral fit for a royal princess and former consort.

Recommended reading: Anne of Cleves by Elizabeth Norton, The Wives of Henry VIII by Antonia Fraser, Six Wives: Queens of Henry VIII by David Starkey, The Six Wives and the Many Mistresses of Henry VIII by Amy Licence and the Private Lives of the Tudors & Thomas Cromwell by Tracy Borman (while she does lends credence to the myths that Anne was ugly, which by the way, mostly stem from secondary sources, she makes a fine point, emphasizing Thomas Cromwell's stretching the boundaries of everyone's imagination by heightening Anne's beauty more than anyone ever did).

[minervacasterly]

Secrets of the Six Wives -Deconstructing Anne Boleyn: * "Headless Queen Anne"

“Henry will defy the church to marry Anne Boleyn … I am going to show you a driven, highly intelligent queen who thought she could take the King of England … but Anne miscalculates”

^This sums up the tragedy of Anne Boleyn perfectly. Yet, her defiance of the King didn’t have much to do with her intelligence as with the way she was raised, and what was expected of her as a merchant and nobleman’s daughter. Thomas Boleyn is often vilified in historical dramas because it is easier to turn women into Mary Sues than men into Gary Stus, especially when it comes to the sixteenth century when the role of women was downplayed in favor of their male counterparts.

“Soon as Henry VIII had his eyes” Lucy Worsley states, “her destiny was set.” What she was different from other women, it was that she set the tone for other women. Though she wasn’t the first one to try that approach, she was the first one to try it while her future husband was already married and motivated him to break the church when several popes were wary of declaring in Henry’s favor because they feared his first wife’s cousin’s wrath.

Anne was -to paraphrase various historians- raised as a courtier. She was raised among the most prestigious courts in Europe and even if there are some historians who question this, there is no denying that Anne had a stellar education; but it was nothing compared to those of her higher female peers. Anne’s actions were nothing out of the ordinary and she must be seen as the product of her times. Furthermore, there are also such things as attitude and ambition. To quote Lucy Worsley again, Anne did not want to put up with Henry’s affairs. Why? The answer is simple. Unlike her predecessor, she wasn't raised to be Queen, and there is also her attitude. Some people tend to behave differently when it comes to certain situations and given that Henry was betting everything on her, she must have thought herself on top of the world. On the other hand, she might have also acted out of desperation.

“The final humiliation comes when Catherine is forced to give up the Queen’s jewels so Henry can give them to Anne. Catherine was sent to St. Albans, Mary to Richmond Palace.”

This might not have been easy to Catherine, a woman who unlike Anne, had been raised to be Queen since she was a child and was deeply convinced that only death could take that title away from her. But in spite of Henry trying to rid himself of her, “she remained his legal wife.” Anne’s next move was giving Henry what he wanted: her virtue. This led to a pregnancy that forced Henry to marry her, and with the religious reformation in full sway, Henry decided that he could do better by making himself head of his new church so he broke away from Rome and did what he wanted. Anne was a supporter of Reformist ideas although the accusation from one of her enemies that she was "more Lutheran than Luther himself" is a bit too much. She, her brother and father certainly supported the Protestant reformations, but not necessarily Luther's ideas. Luther was one of many other preachers who preached a simpler form of worship, one that took the bible literally and where Mass would be heard in the people's native language. In the middle of the episode, when Anne is about to marry Henry, Lucy Worsley does a brilliant job showing Anne's reluctance. This is right after Catherine has been forced to give up her jewels and been dismissed from court. She is not sure if she ready for her future role but she is assured by her lady-in-waiting that she is. Lucy Worsley then states that the minute Henry had his eye on her, there was little Anne could do except deny him as far as she did and then when she realized that the more she did, the more the King pursued her (and the less marriage prospects she'd have), she decided to play along. Given how religion and ambition go hand in hand, Anne might have seen herself as the biblical Esther, using her new position to spread her new faith. But unlike Esther, she soon realized that things were not so simple ...

“The power that she had with him began to slip away … She expects him to be faithful to her while she is locked away … Anne wasn’t going to put up with this.” And once again, Anne’s behavior must not be mistaken as something that points to her being ahead of her times, but rather as something that proves her to be a woman of her times. Attitude, her environment, not to mention desperation after she gave birth to Elizabeth, made her act that way. She wasn’t popular with the English people and now more than ever, she needed a son to maintain her position. Ask yourselves, if you were a woman in the sixteenth century, filled with strong religious convictions, a queen who is considered a usurper in the eyes of many Catholics, and don’t have any friends in high places like your predecessor did; and weren’t born for that position, in dire need of a son to keep yourself and your loved ones safe; how would you have behaved once your husband’s eye started to wander?

“Nervous people do strange things” Lucy Worsley says and she is right. Driven to desperation, people do and say stupid things. In Anne’s case, it was her continuation of courtly love. Something that was typical of courtiers, kings and queens to engage in: “According to chivalry, a Queen was supposed to behave flirtatiously with young knights … but fear made her go too far.” When Henry began to look for ways to rid himself of her, he ordered others to do his work. Although she was not the popular figure she is today, people were scandalized to find out she was going to be executed. The Imperial Ambassador, Eustace Chapuys, reported after he heard of her execution, that she was to be greatly admired, because no other person, could have faced death the way she did. He also added that it was ridiculous that she should be condemned on almost no evidence. Before Anne died, she confessed her innocence to Thomas Cranmer. If there are a few who still believe she was guilty, take it from Lucy Worsley, when she points out how important religion was to these people. They believed that if they lied upon confession, their souls would be damned for eternity. Given women’s strong religiosity, there is no reason to cast doubt on Anne’s confession.

Anne was beheaded afterwards on the 19th of May 1536. She was the first English Queen to be beheaded. At the time, no one could have foreseen that someone so damned who would continue to be vilified for decades to come, would be turned into the opposite caricature centuries later, nor that his daughter would become one of the greatest monarchs in British history.

*The title "Headless Queen Anne" comes from something Anne supposedly said during her stay at the Tower when she joked that she would forever be known as that, when she was told she'd be executed by an expert swordsman.