Oh I Wish...

Now that all of you all are wondering what my wish is, I suppose I should tell you! Sometimes I wish I lived in the 16th century England. It would be so cool to see the sights and be able to be in the middle of it all!
I bet you are all wondering why I wish this wish, right? I thought so! Recently I have been reading the biography of Anne Boleyn, the second wife of King Henry VIII. They have pictures inserted in the book and I love all of their dresses! They are so beautifully made and the women always look so beautiful in their fancy clothes.
If I did live in this period, I would of course want to be rich! If you were poor or a servant, life would not be fun at all!!!! There would be disease, the homes would be disgusting, and the only hope left for you in the world is to marry one of your kids off into a wealthy family! But if you were rich, life would be sweet! You have almost unlimited money, beautiful castles, beautiful clothes, and everyone serves you left and right! You say jump, they say how high!
There would be a downside to living as a royal back then. There was so much treachery going on! You couldn’t trust anyone around you. If you let one thing slip or if you say the wrong thing to the wrong person, you are dead.
As Anne Boleyn tragically learned, you NEVER cheat on a king. It has been suggested that Anne Boleyn cheated on King Henry with five men including her own brother George. I guess in those times everyone was with everyone if it meant more power for them! But don’t only pass judgment on Anne, Henry had a numerous amount of mistresses, many of which bore his illegitimate children! One of his mistresses just so happened to be Anne’s older sister Mary. Can you say incest?
One more of the downsides to being a royal would most certainly have to be that the women have no choice in who they marry. If you are a princess and your father the King feels he needs to form an alliance with the French, you get to marry a fifty year old King! Congratulations! This very thing happened to King Henry’s sister, Mary Tudor. She was promised to marry King Louis XII of France. The trouble was, she already loved a man. She made Henry promise her that as soon as Louis died, she would be free to marry who she chose to marry. Once the king died, she did just that.
Wouldn’t it be scary if you said one thing or made one little mistake, and the next thing you know you are stuck in the notorious Tower of London? (For those who don’t know what the tower of London is, it is a famous tower where prisoners were kept) Anne Boleyn never expected that to happen to her, but tragically it did. She was locked away in the tower and later executed by King Henry in 1536. If you ask me, she did not deserve to be guillotined. The reason why, besides having five affairs, is because she was unable to produce a male heir for the thrown. She had one daughter, Elizabeth, who later became Queen Elizabeth I. You might be wondering why I know all of this. The truth is, I have always loved European History, especially the Tudor court. I hope to visit all of these marvelous places some day and I hope to learn even more as time progresses. As for now, my wish still stays the same. I would love to have been able to meet Queen Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, Mary I (sometimes known as Bloody Mary, we’ll save that story for another time) and all of the other fascinating people who helped shape this wonderful time period.