A surprisingly successful tv series, The Tudors, is about to change the common perception of Henry VIII. The role of the fat English king who had six wives, two of them he would have executed, is played by the attractive and sporty Jonathan Rhys Meyers. Understandably every pretty woman he meets gives him the eye. Although that the truth stretches the truth pretty much, Henry does deserve some rehabilitation. He was not the woman-devouring Bluebeard we were taught to see in him. Actually he had only one quest which was crucial for his country's stability: for a son. In this quest he spent his life - and ruined the lives of his wives. By the way, the tv series, conceived, written and directed by Michael Hirst, is the best history flick I've seen in years.
Thank you for this interesting hints!
ReplyDeleteHistory is the Reign of Revisionism.
"My friend, the spirit of an earlier time,
to us it is a seven-sealed mystery.
And what your learned gentlemen would call
its spirit, is its image, that is all,
reflected in your own mind's history."
I would like to know more about the "real" differences between european courts and courts in the islamic countries. Some authors state even that the turkish custom of having more than 4 wives - which is the maximum allowed by the coran - was due to an occidentalization effect. In countries where polygamy is allowed usually only up to a maximum of 2% of the men have actually more than one woman (if this number provided by Claude Levy-Strauss has ever been right and is still right). In "the west" probably more than 2% can afford to have more than one woman (children included), even if not officially or in form of patchwork family.
One can discover always Christopher Booker's same 7 plots like with Nietzsche's "eternal return" and even reduce their number to two categories (or to one category). There is a common human condition to all countries and times (if we assume that philogenetic changes in historic times did not occure). But the richness of variations of this biologic Ur-theme is impressing, and as well the dynamic of incompatibility.
Anyway, I find "Ann and the King" is an excellent film.