Scandalous Women

You guys, this show is twisting itself in knots to try and figure out ways to keep Mary and Francis from getting married.  As you probably recall, Nostradamus predicted that marriage to Mary will be the death of Francis. And Henry, for some reason, decided that it's vitally important that Mary stake her claim to the throne of England. Diane de Poitier's plot to have Bash legitimized was discovered, so she convinced Bash to leave the court. I can't even begin to recap these episodes.  Both of them hit new heights of ridiculousness.  "In For King and Country," Mary decides that there is only one way for her to keep Francis safe.  She tells King Henry that she will stake her claim to the English throne but there is a catch.  Henry has disinherit Francis and legitimize Bash, who she'll marry him instead. Henry hesitates for only a minute before agreeing.  Seriously? This plot is so ridiculous, I can only imagine the writers were smoking somethin...

This year marks the 60 th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth’s coronation which is a remarkable achievement.    Elizabeth II is the 6 th Queen regnant in over 1,000 years of English history, following in the footsteps of Mary I, Elizabeth I, Mary II, Anne, and Victoria.   The anniversary also started me thinking about the woman, who should have been the first Queen regnant of England, the Empress Matilda.   One can’t help but speculate how the history of England might have been different if Matilda had been able to take her rightful place on the throne of England.   Would it have made the road easier for later Queens such as Margaret of Anjou who worked to hold the throne for her husband and son, or later on Mary Tudor? Or would Matilda have been seen as a fluke, an experiment never to be repeated? Matilda was the eldest child of Henry I of England, son of William the Conqueror, and his first wife Edith of Scotland.   She was born on February 7, 1102 in Eng...