Frolic Friday – Curious Case of King Henry’s Wives : Wife # 1 – Catherine
King Henry VIII, was the second Monarch of Tudor dynasty. He was King of England from 21 April, 1509 until his death by 28 January 1547. King Henry was famous for two main reasons – one for separating Church of England from Roman Catholic Church; and second reason, he was most notoriously famous for, was his Six Wives and their fate bestowed by King Henry. These posts are dedicated to Six Wives of King Henry VIII. It’s not a historical fact or document, rather a conversational satirical viewpoint of ill-fated Queens.
Wife # 1 – I am Catherine of Aragon, First wife of King Henry VIII
William Shakespeare called me “the Queen of earthly Queens”, now when I am in earth, I think of only that moment when I became The Queen of England.
I was just three-year old, when my parents finalized my marriage. Yes, just three, only a child, and my fate was sealed, as the future Queen of England, and to be wife of Prince Arthur Tudor.
Commoner may think, how lucky we Queens are, but just think of it, I was not even asked about my opinion for marriage. Infact, even if they would have asked me, what would a three-year old child, will say about her marriage. 😕
I was happy. Too happy. I was going to be future Queen of England. I danced, learnt all possible languages I can, history, religion, civil, philosophy… there was nothing I had not read about. I was very lucky in that sense, as many of my contemporaries were not allowed to read at that time. Some even said, that I was educated more than my Husband King Henry. 🙄
You must be thinking, how come I was contracted to marry Prince Arthur, and married Henry instead? Well, I did married Prince Arthur, but that pale looking fellow, died in just five months of marriage. We didn’t even consummated our marriage. Urggh…
I should have returned to my home, but how could I have returned to my homeland as a widow, and just a princess, not a Queen. All I was raised-up to be, was to be a Queen. This was the only thing that I knew of – to be a Queen.
I married Henry, younger brother of Arthur, and six years younger to me.
Actually, he married me. 😉 I didn’t had any say, remember. Henry and his father didn’t wanted to return my dowry (I have bought with me 200,000 crowns as dowry, along with African servants, which I was the first to do so), and to top it all, I was beautiful, way beautiful. 😀
I had fair skin and red-golden flowing hair, short height but beauty like that even Thomas Moore said that “There is nothing wanting in her that the most beautiful girl should have.” Told Ya 😆
But I was not just an eye candy, I have also fought a war for my King Henry, and won.
Henry was the love of my life. I have only loved my God, other than Henry. Even Henry could not deny my love to him. Only thing that was denied, was a male heir to England’s throne.
I had six pregnancies, but only one, Mary, my daughter survived. None of my son lived. With them, Henry’s love for me, died too. 😥
Why it’s so important to have sons? Why can’t a girl is enough, to carry on your family genes and be your rightful heir? I could never have accepted this undignified ideology towards my daughter Mary. She was the rightful heir, and I told my wishes to Henry also, quite clearly.
Guess what? It was not the question of heir, which was keeping Henry away from me. It was that b#$@h, Anne Boleyn. She was my lady-in-waiting, at my court; and she bewitched my dear husband, to fall in love with her. 👿
Not that Henry was innocent, he had 3-4 mistresses before, but this time it was different. He asked me for divorce, and for me to go to nunnery. What??? After 18 years of marriage and one beautiful child, how could he? He even forgot that divorce was not allowed in Catholicism? I will be his wife, till death do us apart.
He was not my sweet Henry anymore. I didn’t even recognized this new Henry, which he had turned into. One who rose against the Roman Catholic Church, and declared himself above the church itself. He was out of control. Killed everyone who believed in Catholic Church and Jesus, burnt them, executed them, hanged them. For what? To marry Anne Boleyn, or to have a male heir, or just to get rid of me? 😐
He divorced me. Got the marriage annulled, saying it was invalid, as I was his brother’s wife, first.
Punished me, by not allowing me to see my only child, Mary. He kept me in his castles, closed, with nearly no help and money. But, I was always a Queen and never signed to his will of declaring my child a bastard. I didn’t, and will not say, ever, that my marriage was invalid. I was born to be a Queen, and I died, on January 7, 1536, as a Queen.
I just said this to my Dear Husband, as my last words – “Lastly, I makes this vow, that mine eyes desire you above all things.”
I don’t know if I am “The Queen of Earthly Queens”, as Shakespeare had put it, but I was certainly Queen of England, and will always be remembered as Queen.
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Thursday Treats – Crocheted Crown for My Prince and Princess
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Do you know that there are 25 windows in the Statue of Liberty Crown?
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Do you know that in ancient Egypt, Royal women used to wear the Royal Vulture crown, having a falcon with wings folded?
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Do you know that Gold Crown that Queen Elizabeth donned during her coronation in 1953, does not belong to her, but rather was a property of state?
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Do you know that the oldest Christian crown in Europe is probably the Iron Crown of Lombardy?
Now I want a Crown too…. Who doesn’t want to be a Queen, unless you are a Queen in Game Of Thrones 😛
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Wednesday Words – Rape is a Sinful Crime.
I read about the Rape of a 6-year-old girl, in her school by a Teacher. It was not the first time, that I have read about such gruesome thing. Last year, a 3-year-old girl from Delhi, was in news for the same reasons. We forgot about that three old girl. We will forget about this six-year-old too.
What is the point of remembering something, which you don’t want to talk about?
Everyone of you (I hope everyone), must have felt disgusted reading about it, or watching it running as a story on news channels. But, how many of you, have talked about it? Not on Facebook, or twitter, or just making a conversation in your office or college canteens? But, at your home, with your parents with your sons or daughters, with your husband or wife, with your brothers or sisters?
We didn’t talk about Rapes, not in our homes. It’s a bad thing. It’s a shameful thing to talk about Rapes. We can talk about murders, we can talk about thieving, we can talk about corruption, we can talk about Politics, Movies, cricket; but we will not talk about Rapes. It’s a very unspeakable thing to talk about Rapes. We are living in a society where we don’t talk about Rapes.
Rape is not a Crime. Not talking about Rape, is a Crime. Not taking action about Rape, is a Crime. Asking them to keep quiet is a Crime.
Once we are in a society where it is not bad to talk about a Rape, then maybe we can say, that Rape is a crime.
We as a society are the ones, who promote Rapes. We would expect from our married sons, to have dominance over their wives. We are the ones, who give precedence to our sons than to our daughters. We are the ones, who teach our girls to be soft-spoken and polite; and our boys to be aggressive and strong built. We do not want our daughters to make friend with a rape victim/survivor. We don’t even want to see them daily around us, in our neighborhood. So, we give them looks – like you do not belong here; Or, you have done a crime because you reported Rape, or crime that you got raped. We may go and protest with you, all with scented candles and fiery slogans, but deep down, we want to forget about you, as soon as possible. Afterall, it’s your daughter who got raped, not mine.
Isn’t this a reality? I truly hope, that none of you think that way, but we do behave in this way. If you want to help, then talk about it, among your friends, your family. We can not always be with our kids to protect them, but atleast we can tell them from what they need protection from.
Rape is not bound to a specific place or country, or a city, or to a particular age group. They are happening everywhere, to every class or age of girl, as you can imagine. Only thing that makes the difference is the way people come out to support the rape survivors. We can not hang a Rapist, it’s the role of justice department and police to take the rapist to his destination; but we can certainly help the survivor. We can help, in making our schools, our neighborhood, our home, safe for women. We can help in making our kids respectful towards woman.
I was watching a documentary movie on Brave Miss World – Linor Abargil, who was Raped six weeks before she was crowned Miss World in 1998. She spoke about it and helped not only herself, but thousands of such women by helping them to speak about their ordeal. Linor survived, but it was the support of her family, her friends, and the society that supported her in every way, that contributed to her success story.
I would wish on it that no woman or man would ever get raped; but I would act on it to make my kids honorable and stronger. This is what I can contribute, and what I’ll do.
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Tuesday Talkies – Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania
This weekend, I attended a wedding…. and what a wedding it was. 🙂
Cutting short the drama – I watched “Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania”, movie starring Varun Dhawan, Alia Bhatt, Ashutosh Rana and newbie Siddharth Shukla. Produced by Karan Johar and directed by Shashank Khaitan, this should be titled “A Tribute to DDLJ”. When you watch the movie, from start till the very end, this movie has every scene reminding you of the Bollywood classic – “Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge”.
Story revolves around Kavya aka Alia Bhatt, who is getting married to Siddharth Shukla, a NRI doctor, who is chosen by her father as the perfect groom(btw, he is Perfect…. Just too good to be true). She is all happy and content about the marriage, except that she wants to wear a designer Lehnga, just like Kareena’s, in her marriage. Chirpy girl from Ambala, heads out to Delhi, to buy the Lehnga of her dream. Poor girl didn’t knew that she may or may not get the lehnga of her dreams, but she will fall in Love for sure.
Kavya meets Humpty; Alia meets Varun; and sparks fly. They do some naach gaana, and then the bride to be, returns back to her reality, her home. But, love knows no boundaries. So, our Humpty Sharma aka Varun too runs to Ambala along with his two best friends; to woo not only Kavya but also her parents, specially her Father, Ashutosh Rana.
I am not going to spoil the suspense more for you, but if you know Bollywood movies, and have watched DDLJ, then you know there is n suspense here. 😛
I really liked the movie. Even though it has the same tried and tested, boy meets girl, they fall in love, someone in family opposes, they try to convince…. kind of repeated theme, but the treatment given to this story is very refreshing and modern.
It is a tribute to DDLJ, but if you put this movie in today’s context, then “Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania”, is a better version of DDLJ, atleast more practical.
What works for the movie?
Chemistry…….. Alia and Varun being the super catalyst of this Awesome Chemistry. They look so perfect, fresh and electrifying together, that you can not take your eyes off them. Both of them are just a few movies old, but still they don’t look novice when it comes to their acting capabilities.
Alia specially in that Gurudwara scene has enacted the whole scene with such emotions even though when she is not speaking a single word; and Varun in the scene at Railway Station, where he confronts Ashutosh Rana; Marvelous. Both of them have a very good screen presence and they complement each other.
I am seeing Ashutosh Rana after such along time in a good movie, with a well defined role, and he has used this opportunity to the best of his caliber. His role is such, that every girl would want him to be her father, and every boyfriend would have nightmares of having him as his father in law.
Varun’s friends Shonty and Poplu are fun to watch. Every scene they are in, they have made me laugh. Witty dialogues delivered by them effortlessly, just like a pro. There is one eye candy too…. no, I am not talking about Alia. It’s Siddharth Shukla, television actor, debuting first time on big screen. More of his six pack debut, as he do not have much dialogues. Not that I am complaining. I am pretty content with just a towel scene. 😛
overall it’s a fun movie which you should watch if you want to relive that love and romance long gone, since the time of DDLJ.
Go enjoy wedding of Humpty along with “Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania”.
My Journey So Far.... 