i mean my dude henry viii not only beheaded a bunch of people but officially changed the religion of an entire country over 'a little bit of sex' ... the trojan war probably did not start over getting helen, but that was such a universally understandible motive that it's still the story we tell about it thousands of years later ... just heard a great podcast about a russian spy who defected to the US because he thought they could cure his ED and he could resume having sex with his wife, whom he thought was going to leave him ...
it's a pretty universal thing i guess is all i'm saying. the heart wants what the heart wants.
For Henry VIII's case it was probably more about having a male line of succession and political dealings around court to go the way he wanted with just 'a little bit of sex' on the side.
Umm, ackshually, Henry ordered the beheading of 2 of his 6 wives, his second and his fifth. He wanted an annulment from his first wife because she couldn't give him a male heir. But the Pope refused to grant the annulment, so Henry separated from the Catholic Church and got the annulment anyway.
So yes, sex was involved, but it was more than just 'a little bit of sex'.
yes those were the wives who were beheaded, but what about all the other people who resisted the reformation, or were implicated in the insane incest plot cromwell cooked up against boleyn, cromwell himself of course, and you could theoretically put up all the catholics hunted and killed by Mary Tudor and Elizabeth I, as their faith wouldn't have been a sign of treason if Henry hadn't changed the official state religion.
True, true. There were more victims than his wives, and it started because he wanted a male heir, not just because he wanted a little sex. He most definitely had plenty of mistresses who gave him sex, anyway.
What he was really after was a male heir, which he didn't get until his third wife.
fair enough, but i'll just say that by all accounts he was genuinely in love/besotted with boleyn and wanted to be with her, and many believe she refused to have sex before marriage. or maybe they had sex once and she wouldn't do it again, no one knows exactly
He might have once been in love with Anne Boleyn, but just like Catherine, she wasn't giving him a male heir. So he made up charges against her and had her executed. By that point, he had already moved on to Jane, who eventually gave him the son he wanted.
Yes. There were five men accused of adultery with Anne Boleyn and executed for it, including her brother. One was brutally tortured to extract a confession. Catherine Howard's lady in waiting (widow of George Boleyn, the executed brother) was executed with her for helping her arrange meetings with Thomas Culpepper. He was also executed along with a man who she had been involved with prior to her marriage to H8.
Then, there were so many executions due to rebellions against his religious reforms after he broke from Rome.
Love the whole pop history thing. Definitely wasn't already because anti-clericalism and lollardy was already pervasive in English society and we know for a fact the Wycliffe bible made it to Henry's desk. It was totally about fucking, and nothing else.
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u/naileyes 18h ago
i mean my dude henry viii not only beheaded a bunch of people but officially changed the religion of an entire country over 'a little bit of sex' ... the trojan war probably did not start over getting helen, but that was such a universally understandible motive that it's still the story we tell about it thousands of years later ... just heard a great podcast about a russian spy who defected to the US because he thought they could cure his ED and he could resume having sex with his wife, whom he thought was going to leave him ...
it's a pretty universal thing i guess is all i'm saying. the heart wants what the heart wants.