History

Love History. Always have. As a child, History was a collection of wonderful, fascinating stories, and they were all real! What can be better than that? What's not to like? Honestly, that is still History's appeal, but now I also have an appreciation for how the world I live in was shaped by what came before. One real regret is that I will not be around to see the way the events that have occured in my lifetime will shape the future.

But I digress ...

I've been watching the Tudors on Showtime, which awakened my interest in Henry VIII and all things Tudor. The series is interesting to watch, but I always have to wonder how much poetic license they're taking. The actor playing Henry, although his performance is very good, doesn't look anything like Henry Tudor, so I know they're fudging on some details. (Nothing against Jonathan Rhys Whoever, but I think Kevin McKidd would have been a much better choice for the part.) It's been a long time since I've studied the Tudors, so I wanted to do a little reading on the subject. There is a lot of material available on the time period, but with the popularity of the show, the market is probably flooded with books that focus more on fluff than fact. So, I decided to send an email to my History professor from college. I got the idea, because I see him on TV sometimes doing lectures on the SLU channel. (That is such a cool idea, I have to wonder why UNO, LSU, Tulane, Loyola, etc., don't have their own channel.)

I sent an email to Dr. Robison, asking him for reading suggestions. He was kind enough to say that he remembered me, though I kinda doubt it. Anyway, he gave me a nice long list. I purchased three of the books. So far, two have arrived. The first books are on the Reformation and Europe. To understand why people do the things they do, you must first understand the world they live in, so if I want to understand why Henry did the things he did, I have to understand the issues effecting the world he lived in.

In my humble opinion, the real fascinating thing about Henry VIII is not that he had six wives and decapitated two of them, but that he kicked the Pope out of England, and placed himself as head of the English Church. The problems of modern day Irish Protestants and Catholics stem from that single action. For the non-historically inclined, let me put it this way ... Did you see Patriot Games? The reason Sean Bean and pals are pissed off at the English in the first place is because of what Henry VIII did.