Henry VIII: King of England and Very Bad Husband - Part 1

Henry VIII is definitely one of the worst husbands in history.

I am currently reading a novel entitled (somewhat confusingly) The Autobiography of Henry VIII and it certainly highlights his failings as a husband.

When Mr. B (definitely not one of the worst husbands in history) and I were happily honeymooning in England last year, I was very excited to visit Hampton Court Palace, often referred to as "the home of Henry VIII". Hampton Court Palace was where I discovered my passion for the historical re-enactment. To the delight of Mr. B, I spent a great deal of our honeymoon hunting down more historical re-enactments for us to enjoy. My secret goal was always for us to be picked from the crowd to actually participate in the re-enactment. Mr. B caught onto this pretty quickly and was always standing by with the camera so that he could photograph my enthusiastic participation.

In fact, when the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull delayed our return to Australia (thank you Iceland), I made a solo return visit to Hampton Court Palace to further indulge my passion for the historical re-enactment.

I digress.

Henry VIII's behaviour was so outrageous that it makes today's celebrity and royal scandals look as innocent as a baby lying in a pram beside her mum as she updates her blog (shout out to Miss E there).

So, as I read The Autobiography of Henry VIII, I will update you, three key points style, so you can share in my shock at Henry's bad husband behaviour.

Here is the first update:

1. Henry's older brother, Arthur, marries Katherine of Aragon. Sadly, Arthur gets sick and dies at 15.

2. Seven years pass... Henry's Dad kicks the bucket and Henry becomes King of England at 17.

3. Henry marries Katherine of Aragon. Correct. His dead brother's wife.  This was actually pretty nice of him as Katherine's future wasn't looking too bright. However, question marks start to appear on Katherine's ability to give Henry a son and he starts to doubt his decision to marry her (bad husband behaviour right there).

More to come...

Disclaimer: I am reading a novel (based on fact but, still, a novel) and am providing updates from that. I offer my heartfelt apologies to  anyone who has actually studied Tudor history or has any real knowledge on this topic.

Sitting time equals reading time

One thing I have learnt since the birth of Miss E is that a requirement of early parenting is a lot of time spent sitting. Miss E loves to feed during the day and, to do that, I must sit.

Now, I like to sit. I won't complain about it. But when you have to sit for many many hours per day, you need to have something to do.

You can spend some of the time looking at your baby and marvelling at the wonder of new human life but there is only so long you can spend on that.

I have found that a good book is essential to enjoying my sitting time with Miss E.

Three of the books I have read recently while feeding Miss E are:

1. Light a Penny Candle - Maeve Binchy: Ahhh, my old friend Maeve. It is not fashionable to love Maeve, but I do. This one is set in Ireland and London during and after WWII. It is Maeve's debut novel and I loved it. I found myself providing a daily update to Mr. B on the events of Light a Penny Candle. This one also motivated us to take inspiration from post-War London as we raise Miss E - i.e. lots of sardines on toast, listening to the radio and sing-alongs at the piano (note to self: must buy piano).

2. Afterwards - Rosamund Lupton. Oh, I loved this one. I would call it a thriller but it was the beautiful depiction of the relationship between a mother and her children that had me in tears at the end. Disclaimer: It may be "I've been a mum for five months" hormones that caused me to react so strongly to this book. I lent it to my Dad and his response was: "Hmmmmmmmm, it's okay". Right then. I read Afterwards after reading Rosamund Lupton's debut novel - Sister - which I also highly recommend. Both Afterwards and Sister were recommended to me by Amazon after I read reviews for another great debut novel - Before I Go To Sleep. Thank you Amazon, your recommendations were outstanding. And thank you to my local library who supplied all of these books to me for free.

3. Bossypants - Tina Fey. Tina Fey, I love you. My favourite chapter was "A Mother's Prayer for Her Child" which you can read yourself by clicking right here.

So, my three key points on this topic are:

1. Feeding a baby = sitting.

2. Sitting quickly becomes boring without something to do.

3. Find a fun activity that you can do while sitting. Reading is a good one.