Time Travel To The Time Of Good Old King Henry VIII : Kids, Ministers and Servants! By Mr A.N.Muggins

    One thing Alfred Muggins liked about the time of Henry VIII in the 16^th century was that they had their kids under control. The kids were actually quite well behaved and followed the authority of the heads of the household (whichever one they were part of). Of course everyone was very deferent towards the top Lords of the land, and their Ladies, and in particular of course towards the King himself. Even the youngest children seemed to be well aware that they must not annoy this special person, anointed by God, and supported by the leading Aristocrats of the realm, to be the Top Man in the whole Kingdom. His reputation spread far and wide across the whole of Europe, and beyond (if there was much of a Beyond in those days? Actually the Spaniards (Catherine of Aragon’s people) had recently conquered the Aztec rulers of central Mexico in 1519, and began to topple the Inca’s from their Empire in Peru in 1532, although that took quite a few years longer than the defeat of the Aztecs. And it was nearly 300 years since Marco Polo of Venice had returned from his adventures at the Court of Kubilai Khan, the Mongol Emperor of China!)

    The children as well as the adults all seemed to realise instinctively that this man could be dangerous if you angered him. He could have your head if you did something wrong, or merely fell into disfavour. Perhaps Alfred and his wife were more conscious of this than any of the other courtiers and servants at that time, due to their knowledge of the other heads, which were still due to fall before the end of his reign. Both Alfred and Mrs Muggins did have to be very careful, in Court, not to mention any future knowledge, which they should not be imparting, and particularly not to any future victims of Henry’s axes and gibbots, many of whom they rubbed shoulders with while they were there. They particularly did not want to upset leading men such as Cardinal Wolsey or his leading accomplice Thomas Cromwell, or Sir Thomas More, with their knowledge of the future, or any Lords or servants who were later to lose their heads. None of these friends, ministers or servants had been executed yet. And particularly, they did not wish to upset any of the wives, past, present, and future, who they should occasionally (or quite often), run into.

     Returning briefly to the subject of kids, they were called children, or possibly kiddies, but never using the shortened and far too casual 20^th and 21^st centuries version. Luckily ipads, ipods and mobile phones and X Boxes etc. had not yet been invented, so the kids would at least acknowledge your existence when you spoke to them, and didn’t have fancy ideas above their station (unless they were the children of aristocrats or royalty!).

    Alfred found himself being a bit sarcastic and angry with the servants sometimes, often for the silly things they sometimes said, but he knew he should make allowances for them. They did not have the full weight of the historical knowledge of centuries behind them, to put things in a proper or an educated perspective. And yet some of them, particularly the wealthy and educated, were very knowledgeable of certain matters. They had knowledge which he did not possess, and was not sure he wanted to possess, particularly how to get all his Latin verbs completely correct, and how to speak French fluently, as if you were the descendant to a Norman mercenary who came to England originally to keep the English, and particularly the peasants, down!

    Alfred wrote down quite a few memoirs while he was in Henry’s Court, secretly of course. It would not have done to be discovered writing the wrong thoughts, or any of it being construed as being critical of the King, or any of his Ministers or Lords, or his Queens, or (God Forbid!) of any of the shifting religious certainties of the time!