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 1 : Caretaker King

8/7/21

     Alfred had been entrusted with Henry’s Kingdom while the King was away in the future, but the real Henry would eventually return, when fixed by the NHS, (like another version of the ‘Once and Future King!’) to his true inheritance in 16^th Century England.

    Alfred modelled himself on Henry’s appearance, and his habits and ways of speech. He knew the King so well by now, in person as well as by reputation and study. Certain key people were privy (Council!?) to Henry’s plan, and would follow Alfred’s decisions as long as Henry sanctioned this secretive caretaker monarchy. The general Court and Populace were completely ignorant of the fact that there was a new Caretaker Monarch behind the façade of aging King Henry!

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

     The first thing Alfred aimed to do when he acceded (secretly!) to the throne was to stop all campaigns against the poor much maligned French (by Henry). The English Army would continue to defend Calais and Boulogne, of course, which Henry laid siege to and captured, but there was to be no more unnecessary war if Alfred could possibly help it.

     Instead he suggested a meeting with the French King Francis I (who was due to die according to Alfred’s vague memory of history from the History Books of the future on March 31st 1547, having reigned in France, ‘alongside’ Henry since 1515! The French King’s death was due to be very (uncannily!?) close to Henry’s, just 2 months after Henry in real actual history Time. They had met a few times, most notably at the Cloth of Gold festival/ meeting in 1519, but would the wily Francis recognise that the man who purported to be Henry was not actually him? He would have to risk it. Francis had not met his erstwhile enemy for many years, as far as Alfred knew.

     Maybe the sensitive modern monarch behind the mask would be able to win the aging French King around to a new friendship based upon mutual interest, and the real interests of every man woman and child within their Kingdoms? He would concede no ground to France, but would promise to conquer, or reconquer no more!) and a new rapprochement (to use a French word often used amongst the educated English!) (of course French was often spoken at Court, as it remained fashionable despite the wars, particularly at the time when Anne Boleyn was the object of Henry’s desire and fascination at Court, and during her period as Queen, when she famously held French lessons for the courtiers who wished to get into her good books, and offered the prospect of French kissing lessons, which never actually happened in practice, as Anne Boleyn was actually innocent of all charges!)).

    Alfred was too ‘savvy’ to publicise his new policy, particularly as hatred of the French and their King was in those days a sentiment oft heard in the English local pubs, particularly after archery practice on a Sunday afternoon! (Being a (lazy?) child of the 20^th Century he much preferred Lazing On a Sunday Afternoon to archery practice, which he was no good at, since he once nearly pulled his arm out of its socket, when he once tried archery without strengthening his arm muscles first! After that he knew he would never try it ever again, but as an aging Henry he would surely be able to get away with that, even in the 16^th Century! Anyway his soldiers were even using cannons now, and it would not be long before they would swop to gunpowder and guns completely!).

8/7/21

    Alfred decided that he would not be content with just having Katherine Parr as King Henry (Alfred)’s wife. Maybe the real Henry had behaved himself and only had one wife at a time, but he certainly went through them, and changed them when he felt like it. Henry was very fickle, and he did have mistresses sometimes, in addition to his Queens.

    Alfred as Henry would not be so cruel as to ‘get rid’ of wives, but he might like to collect them! Unfortunately most of them were gone now. Catherine of Aragon, whom he had known, and still been the Queen when he and Mrs Muggins had first come to Court, had died some time after his marriage to Anne Boleyn, in January 1536 (not too long before Anne’s demise!).

    Anne Boleyn, of course, had been famously beheaded, more’s the pity, a bit later, in 1536. Alfred would have loved to restore her to be one of his Queens, but she who had rocked the boat so much, and stolen the King’s heart, was long gone, but she would remain in position in memory as a key wife of Henry!

    Jane Seymour was also very much dead and gone (having died in the childbirth of the young Prince Edward, who was indeed the next monarch in line to the throne after Henry, as Alfred well knew from the history books!) But Anne of Cleves, the German Princess from the Rhineland, she was very much alive and ripe for some man’s attention, if it could be allowed.

    Alfred in his Royal Caretaker guise, soon could not help himself but to send messages to Anne (of Cleves!), and determined to meet her. He had indeed met her briefly once or twice as a Minister and Courtier of Henry, which had not put him off the prospect of meeting her as her Monarch and Master. She could not refuse her benefactor Henry, even though he had divorced her (or more properly annulled her, due to lack of consummation!) Finding her friendly and receptive he developed a natural fascination towards her, and did everything he could to persuade her to ‘remarry’ him. This time she had lived for a few years in Henry’s generous splendour, the wife he had spurned but kept as a friend in the end, to whom he was generous in separation. As in ‘The Tudors’ glossy drama he found her a lot more attractive than the real Henry had, and worth a lot more consideration! If he managed to persuade her to become his wife again(!!) he would try to make her a more fulfilled and complete wife this time.

     Of course she was reluctant, particularly at first. This ‘changed’ Henry was not the same as the one he had used to be! Alfred, as Henry, showed a strong natural interest and more patience, and he told her, in no uncertain terms, that he was the King, and that he was the leader of the new Church of England! He did not have to pay any attention to Popes or to the old practices of the Catholic Church, which had been proved wrong by Martin Luther and by Henry’s new Archbishop Cranmer. He could do what he wanted! As Henry he could dissolve the Monasteries and Abbeys, so surely he could adjust the rules to give himself more wives if he wanted. In the Muslim World to the East and South it was well known that the Sultans of Ottoman Turkey could keep as many women as they chose in their hareems, and wealthy muslims could have up to 4 wives if they chose, as long as they could afford to look after them! The later Mormon religion would, for a time at least, practice Polygamy too!!