Historical Fun

HISTORICAL FUN FACTS FOR JANUARY 6th On This Day in History in 1540, King Henry VIII married his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves.   So ugly was Anne of Cleves, the King referred to her as The Flanders Mare. A horse by any other name. But, at the end of the day, that's what you get from internet dating.   He had been shown a picture of her before the marriage took place, and hadn't met. Oh, big mistake. Although we've all been there. The picture bore little resemblance to Anne's actual likeness. They did get married though.   Yet, for some reason it didn't last long. Later that year in July, King Henry-The-Eighth-Wife-Will-Be-A-Keeper decided to get the marriage annulled and move onto the next one. He promised the marriage had never been consummated, and everyone believed him this time. Who'd pork a horse?   Anne lived happily ever after, which couldn't be said for most of Henry's wives. She was referred to, after the non-marriage, as Henry...

Historical Fun: History fun facts for November 3rd On This Day, 3rd of November, 1534, the English Parliament passed the Act of Supremacy.   The Act made Henry-Of-The-Many-Numbers (8 of them) the head of the Church of England. Prior to this, the Pope was head of the Church of England.   Basically, he was married to Catherine of Aragon, who couldn't produce a boy sprog, and, let's face it, was getting a bit old.   Henry, on his travels, discovered a pretty little innocent thing. He wanted to bump uglies with her. Bumpity bump them a lot. However, this pretty little innocent thing, let's call her Anne-I-Have-A-Plan-Boleyn, said, "You don't go down, unless I have a Crown."   So, Henry, desperate for a bit of Hide-The-Crown-Jewels-In-Anne , tried to get the Pope to annul his marriage to Arrogant Catherine so he could marry Anne-With-A-Cunning-Plan.   The Pope wasn't having any of it and denied Henry's request. Not perturbed, Hen...