Way back in the dark ages, when I was buying comic books. The comic usually had a one page prose story tucked in. Don't remember many but, there was one about a frontier doctor that introduced the idea of the placebo. Don't remember what was wrong with the patient but the sugar pills worked. And introduced the idea that sometimes the problem was in the patient's mind not her body.
One story ws about a young cowboy who had spent all his extra money on a silver decorated saddle. The ranch owner had a young daughter who loved her pony just about as much as the cowboy loved that saddle. One night the stable caught fire and he could only save one thing. His saddle or the pony. And this being early sixties, he saved the pony. And had his saddle replaced.
There was the story about the Piltdown Man. Presented at a time when there were still very few hominid fossils and no way to date fossils except by analyzing the stratigraphy of a site. Most of them were from France and Germany. There was some headscratching from the start but England had her very own early human. Pride trumped asking too many questions for nearly forty years.
The skull was from a modern human, the jaw fragments and altered teeth were from an Orangutang. The whole set of fragments treated chemically to make them look old. The scientists involved with either discovery or support were safely dead and, you probably don't blush in the afterlife. It's main importance now is that it is still being dragged out by critics of natural selection. Look up the evidence you are criticizing for crying out loud.
And there was this little poem that probably stuck the longest and ignited a life long love of English history. "King Henry VIII to six wives was wedded. One died, one survived, two divorced, two beheaded. Heck this was Oregon logging town I'd never even heard of divorce. And I knew old kings had a lot of power but never heard of any that had them killed.
The devil, so they say is in the details. Henry was married to Katherine of Aragon for more than twenty years. Sons she bore him, they all died. His one daughter Mary survived. Took some study to understand why Henry was so determined to have a son. The idea of a woman reigning in her own name had only happened once in English history. Matilda daughter of Henry I, and that led to civil war. Marry a subject and the other lords are likely to be jelous at best, potential rebels at worst. Marry a foreigner and your kingdom is likely to get dragged into foreign policy decisions that don't benefit you country. Mary discovered that.
So he kept trying. Dragged England out of the Roman church to do it. Anne Boleyn gave him a daughter Elizabeth and may have had at least one, possibly two miscariages. Jane had a son, and died doing it. Anne of Cleves never had a chance to try. The political reasons for a Protestant marriage disappeared. Anne accepted annulment and a very nice settlement in exchange for cooperation. Heck, look at it from her point of view. A palace, some manor houses, three thousand pounds a year, freedom and indepencence, She was a rarity. A woman of rank with no man except the king to tell her what to do. He styled her his "sister." She must have been fairly happy. Even after Henry died a few years later she didn't attempt to either marry or return to Cleves.
Fat, ailing and ill Henry tried again. Anne may have been charged with adultery on trumped up charged but there was no doubt about the guilt of Kathryn Howard. Barely more than a teenager she was a pawn in the behind the scenes tug of war between the religous reformers and the Catholic party. Henry married one last time. Katherine Parr was twice widowed with experience dealing in older husbands with health problems. She managed to outlive Henry, barely. Wives were pawns in the religious rivalries.
But what would have happened if one or two of the those sones Katherine of Aragon lost. With a young Henry or Richard safely in the nursery the other five marriages probably would never have happened. No young King Edward being brought up Protestant by his Seymore uncles and ambitions lords. And more importantly, no Elizabeth. Navigating the tides of between Lutheran Germany, Catholic France and Spain and, Spain's rebelious provinces in the low countries. There might have been a queen Mary of Scotland but, she wouldn't have been plotting to become queen of England. No armada from Spain. Without the covert help and financial support of England what would have happened in the provinces that became Belgium and the Netherlands? Even poor battered Ireland might have had a different histoty if the religious wars had played out differently.
Perhaps no James I, no Charles I, perhaps no English Civil war and where would we be now? Interesting thought experiment. And a side note. While Henry VII raised a fairly healthy family Arthur the oldest died young. Henry VIII managed three between three wives. Henry's elder sister married a prince who became king of Scotland and only one child lived long enough to take the throne. His younger sister married a good healthy Englishman and not only lost her son early but died young herself. I'd love to see what that Tudor DNA looked like.
Like most kids I read comic books. But ours had a little extra that probably can't be found now.
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