Que sera sera.

fykylie: Anne Boleyn didn’t exactly get a ‘happily ever after’,...

Tue, 21 May 2013 11:07:35 -0400

Anne Boleyn didn’t exactly get a ‘happily ever after’, but neither did the men who so ruthlessly brought her down:

Cromwell would be executed around four years after Anne, incurring Henry’s deadly disfavor, particularly, for arranging his marriage to Anne of Cleves. It would take the inexperienced executioner several strokes to behead him.

Nicholas Carew would be executed three years after Anne, who he had worked very closely with Cromwell to bring down. He had benefited greatly from the Seymour marriage, but with Queen Jane gone, his luck was out.

Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk jumped his own niece’s sinking ship and publicly jeered her ‘incest’ with her brother. A bit more than ten years later, he would have to watch his own son executed for treason. He would be imprisoned in the Tower of London for treason, himself, spared only by Henry VIII’s 1547 death.

Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury had tremendous respect for Anne Boleyn, but annulled her marriage to Henry and agreed reluctantly to her sentence. Under the reign of ‘Bloody’ Mary I, he would be one of her first Protestant martyrs.

Jane Seymour can’t exactly be blamed for Anne’s death; upon becoming Henry VIII’s next obsession she had no choice. Perhaps as more of a punishment to her very guilty husband, she would die less than two years after Anne Boleyn, in the process of giving Henry the son he had gone to such wicked lengths to have.

Henry VIII would make his transformation into an obese, sickly old man beginning in the summer of Anne’s death. He would have but one very weak son and a broken heart from a, perhaps this time, legitimately unfaithful wife; he would be a laughingstock across Europe for his six marriages and remembered as a wife-murderer; and he would die in pain from his ailing, ulcerous leg, fat and defeated.

On the other hand, Elizabeth I, the ‘Whore”s daughter, would shock the world upon becoming Queen of England in 1558, 22 years after her mother’s execution and, even more shockingly, being pretty damn good at it. She would lead a golden age, both feared and revered unlike her father, who had mostly just been feared. Under Elizabeth’s reign, the Protestants who had so admired her mother could now do so, openly, and Anne was hailed by John Foxe as a martyr.

Today, with the exception of some absurdly ignorant who continue to slut-shame Anne Boleyn 477 years later, she is respected and hailed as a feminist icon, and a woman great in her own right who mothered one of Europe’s all-time most brilliant monarchs. Perhaps her legacy is her ‘happily ever after’?

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Thu, 16 May 2013 14:49:58 -0400

zodiacchic: ZodiacChic Post:Pisces

Sun, 12 May 2013 17:30:43 -0400

zodiacchic:

ZodiacChic Post:Pisces

seagulls By Kawee.Meksongruek

Sat, 11 May 2013 12:27:40 -0400

seagulls

By Kawee.Meksongruek

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Wed, 01 May 2013 00:59:22 -0400

15 Reasons Why Having a Cat Is Better Than Having a Boyfriend

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 12:10:00 -0400

15 Reasons Why Having a Cat Is Better Than Having a Boyfriend

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Sun, 28 Apr 2013 10:57:27 -0400

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Sun, 28 Apr 2013 10:56:11 -0400

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Sun, 28 Apr 2013 10:55:19 -0400

2headedsnake: Agostino Arrivabene ‘Full Moon’, 2006 oil on...

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 10:54:38 -0400

2headedsnake:

Agostino Arrivabene

‘Full Moon’, 2006

oil on canvas

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Thu, 25 Apr 2013 17:41:10 -0400

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Thu, 25 Apr 2013 17:40:52 -0400

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Mon, 22 Apr 2013 17:13:45 -0400

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Mon, 22 Apr 2013 17:06:58 -0400

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Mon, 22 Apr 2013 17:04:08 -0400

I just wanted to say hello miss and to wish you a wonderful day. That even though we are strangers I still genuinely want this day to be filled with your smile. That's all. If you ever want to talk, or need someone to vent to I'm great at listening.

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 17:02:37 -0400

Well thank you kind stranger! And I hope that you have a wonderful day as well :)

1910-again: Burgfräulein von Strechau, by an unknown artist...

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 11:13:19 -0400

1910-again:

Burgfräulein von Strechau, by an unknown artist from the 17th century. The painting hangs in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.

The legend (as far as I can determine from the German websites I’ve deciphered with the help of Google Translate) tells that in the late Middle Ages a damsel waited for her lover who left to the Holy Land to fight the infidels. The lady promised that if he did not return she would enter a monastery. Despite her promise, she married another man and when the bride came to the festival her face changed to a skull and devilish figures appeared and pulled her down to hell in front of all the guests.

The legend is derived from a poem.

This is also a good photograph of the painting, via Flickr.

-1910

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Mon, 22 Apr 2013 10:50:13 -0400

Abandoned Mill from 1866. Sorrento, Italy

Holey trinity

The Hotel del Salto, Tequendama

St Dunstan-in-the-East EC3R

St Etienne

Ivy Ruins

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Sat, 20 Apr 2013 13:05:36 -0400

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Sat, 20 Apr 2013 12:59:18 -0400