The Courtier From The 21st Century Who Would Be King : The King Behind The Throne : King Henry VIII (Alfred the Great II) : Ch.5 by Alfred Muggins (himself) Part 2 : Wives

Part 2 : Wives

4/5/23 / 8/7/23

      Alfred, who is not one to ever force a woman to do what she doesn’t want to, relented. The real Henry might have used more forceful methods of persuasion or blackmail but Alfred does not have it in him. A woman’s will was her own, and to be honoured. He had in fact been well trained by Mrs Muggins, and of course by his own mother before her, to do the bidding of women without question!

     But then Anne of Cleves relented, deciding that, if she was ever to feel the full effects of marriage and become a full woman, she should perhaps agree to the King’s startling proposal, which she had never thought might happen for the second time. Maybe she had had time to view the King more kindly, and maybe the King had had time to understand his previous errors, particularly after the disastrous episode of his unfortunate marriage with the young fancy Catherine Howard, who had been far from pure, it turned out. The King’s anger and cruel judgement should have been a warning to her but after being wooed by this refreshed and revitalised King she was persuaded that it just might be worthwhile to once more submit to the indignities of the Royal Bed,  despite the risks of his disfavour!

     However there was just something about the King as of late, which persuaded her that he was now contrite about the method of his execution of the youngest bride, and would never do such a thing to any of his wives ever again!

     Alfred, as Henry, had persuaded her that he had now realised that as the Head of the new Church of England he could actually have a few wives, at once, if he so wished it, and could support them all, so there need be no need to have any of them executed ever again. Somehow wily Anne of Cleves realised the King had indeed turned a new leaf, and was genuine in his desire to honour all of his current, and prospective wives from now on, so Anne could join the current Queen Katherine Parr as yet another present Queen. And any other wives that King Henry might soon wish to collect and add to his current collection, could also join his immediate ‘family’ as full wives and Queens. Despite initial repulsion by the idea, she soon realised that she could join this burgeoning Household within a Household. She would now be far safer than before, and as Henry had become older and now had a male heir in young son Edward (to be the sixth), he no longer felt the pressure to produce sons so keenly. Knowing himself to be older, and larger, and therefore less attractive to women, he had come to accept that their union may not easily produce more heirs, but if by any chance it did, then so be it, and even Anne’s produced sons, and even daughters, would join a lengthening queue for the throne! So be it!

27/03/23 / 22/5/23 (7/8/23)

    When he wasn’t scheming, and dreaming, about how to expand his collection of Henry’s wives (Queens) Alfred spent much of his time racking his brain in order to develop policies to encourage employment and improve the living standards of the peasants or villagers (villeins!) of England. So far he had not had too much success in this, but he was working on it!

     Relaxation of the only one wife rule in the Church of England! Henry (Alfred) was now the Head of this exalted and indispensable organisation, so basically he could make up the rules as he went along, and brainwash the whole nation into believing every thing he dictated. If he wanted a little more Protestantism here or a little less Catholicism there it was completely up to him, obviously in consultation with one or two Church bigwigs as well. He wanted as many as possible of the English people to follow this tolerant and enlightened rule, without spelling it out to them, as very few of them had the vote in those days, and that was only for when he needed more money for wars and the like, which had been quite a bit recently in Henry’s French War. Previously a lot of money had fallen into his lap as he had the monasteries broken up (dissolved or disoluted!) and many erstwhile church and monastical possessions sold off! He might need, in addition, to call a parliament of the representatives of the reasonably well to do of the nation, who could vote for certain forms of taxation if required, although sometimes they might need a bit of persuasion to do that! Like Henry V and even Richard the Lionheart a King needed a bit of money to wage war abroad. Henry’s much maligned ancestor, (the one and only King John), Richard I’s greedy little brother, even tried to raise extra taxes when he wasn’t trying to save the family estates in France from the French Kings.! Of course no one exceeded Henry’s own father Henry VII in finding clever ways of raising taxes, particularly from the ‘poor’ nobles, without having to find recourse to asking the permission of a Parliament. If at all possible they all tried to finance their wars and needs by themselves or using ‘clever methods’! Summoning a Parliament was usually the last choice because they were so stingy and difficult to persuade!

     It was important to Alfred to try to stop the religious intolerance developing between Protestants and Catholics, perhaps because he knew what intolerance would bring in the second next reign after Henry, that of his daughter Mary Tudor, who was reputed  to have burned many protestants at the stake for their religious views and actions during her reign. Hopefully by ruling benignly and with foresight and caution Alfred as Henry would be able to avoid the anger and violence between the sects. By fixing the real Henry in the 21^st Century he would bring back a refreshed and hopefully more sensible and understanding Henry who would use his newfound knowledge to elongate his own life and reign and prevent the accession of his bloody daughter Mary! Perhaps young Edward could be sent to the 21^st Century too to save him from an early death? But just maybe Henry himself would live long enough to be able to pass the throne safely to Elizabeth the daughter of Anne Boleyn, she who should not have been executed! Elizabeth had a stabilising effect upon the nation for many years.. If Alfred could achieve this he would feel that he had indeed saved the Kingdom from its disunity. However he would still have to work out what to do about the Spanish Armada and how to save England from its Civil war in the middle of the 17^th Century?