Sitting down at the table for six, entrees just placed in front of us. Bone-in strip steak with caramelized onions and shitake mushrooms atop polenta. Snazzy music playing, second glass of Volte just poured for me.
I ask the man to my right, "and ... so... how are you so knowledgeable about syphilis?"
Thankfully his answer didn't go down the AWKWARD MOMENT path. He stated that he's an Ob/Gyn. Phew.
And how do we find ourselves in such alluring dinner time conversations, you might ask? By talking about Wolf Hall of course.
The scuttlebutt at the table was that Henry VIII had syphilis. All these potential heirs that died, despite the ultimate in prenatal care, at least for 1500's in England.
That little corkscrew virus which had recently found its way from the New World to Europe, can travel through the placenta and wreck havoc on the developing baby.
Stillborns. Weak in health infants. Or even premature births due to physical defects.
And the clues in Henry VIII himself were there: multiple partners, open sores not healing, eventually loss of acute mental function.
Just a thought.
We also talked about books and television series glorifying Henry VIII. Which none of us thought this book did.
Actually, I am amazed at how two dimensional he is in Mantel's writing. We see him in person only briefly when Cromwell comes in to speak with him. We hear of his demands. And of his antics.
It is really Cromwell who is the star of this show. We see him in full force. As I mentioned before, we see Cromwell in more than three dimensions. Love that.
So here are some coats of arms.
The first being the Tudors. Henry the VIII. The saying is French for "God and my right" (a fuller version of the motto is also quoted as "God and my right shall me defend")
This motto comes from Richard I in 1198. It was his battle cry, and they won the battle. It stuck.
With Henry VIII you get the idea he might be thinking, it's my DIVINE right...
Katherine of Aragon's crest is next.
Black eagle for St John. And also the black eagle is from her father's crest.
Lots of symbols for Spain - castle is Castile, pomegranate for Granada, etc.
Then Anne Boleyn, as she will soon be marrying Henry VIII.
Flanking the shield, she has a gold leopard (from Aquitaine), and a white male griffin (her father's crest.) Now I know what a griffin is.
Other symbols (such as blue and white checks for the Warennes of Surrey) are of distant relations of Anne's.
Remember Cardinal Wolsey's coat of arms?
He has two Cornish Choughs (blackbirds) and a Tudor rose. The red lion in the center of the silver cross is for Pope Leo X who made Wolsey a cardinal. The blue leopard heads are for Suffolk, Wolsey's birthplace.
I couldn't find a good image for Thomas Cromwell's coat of arms. You see, he wasn't nobility. The book says he had an azure horizontal bar (fess), then three gold lions standing up (rampant), a Tudor rose (smart move Thomas!), and two Cornish choughs (blackbirds, tipping his hat to Cardinal Wolsey.)
Off to read....
I ask the man to my right, "and ... so... how are you so knowledgeable about syphilis?"
Thankfully his answer didn't go down the AWKWARD MOMENT path. He stated that he's an Ob/Gyn. Phew.
And how do we find ourselves in such alluring dinner time conversations, you might ask? By talking about Wolf Hall of course. The scuttlebutt at the table was that Henry VIII had syphilis. All these potential heirs that died, despite the ultimate in prenatal care, at least for 1500's in England.
That little corkscrew virus which had recently found its way from the New World to Europe, can travel through the placenta and wreck havoc on the developing baby.
Stillborns. Weak in health infants. Or even premature births due to physical defects.
Just a thought.
We also talked about books and television series glorifying Henry VIII. Which none of us thought this book did.
Actually, I am amazed at how two dimensional he is in Mantel's writing. We see him in person only briefly when Cromwell comes in to speak with him. We hear of his demands. And of his antics.
It is really Cromwell who is the star of this show. We see him in full force. As I mentioned before, we see Cromwell in more than three dimensions. Love that.
So here are some coats of arms.
This motto comes from Richard I in 1198. It was his battle cry, and they won the battle. It stuck.
With Henry VIII you get the idea he might be thinking, it's my DIVINE right...
 |
| Katherine of Aragon |
Katherine of Aragon's crest is next.
Black eagle for St John. And also the black eagle is from her father's crest.
Lots of symbols for Spain - castle is Castile, pomegranate for Granada, etc.
 |
| Anne Boleyn |
Then Anne Boleyn, as she will soon be marrying Henry VIII.
Flanking the shield, she has a gold leopard (from Aquitaine), and a white male griffin (her father's crest.) Now I know what a griffin is.
Other symbols (such as blue and white checks for the Warennes of Surrey) are of distant relations of Anne's.
Remember Cardinal Wolsey's coat of arms?
He has two Cornish Choughs (blackbirds) and a Tudor rose. The red lion in the center of the silver cross is for Pope Leo X who made Wolsey a cardinal. The blue leopard heads are for Suffolk, Wolsey's birthplace.
I couldn't find a good image for Thomas Cromwell's coat of arms. You see, he wasn't nobility. The book says he had an azure horizontal bar (fess), then three gold lions standing up (rampant), a Tudor rose (smart move Thomas!), and two Cornish choughs (blackbirds, tipping his hat to Cardinal Wolsey.)
Off to read....
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