General Chat

. . . Henry VII son Arthur had lived to take the throne, there would have been no Henry VIII and his multiple marriages and no church of England ... or would there? I think its interesting how linage and birth works. Had Henry been anyone other than 2nd in line to the thrown he would not have been made to marry his late brother Arthurs wife Catherine of Aragon and he would not have been forced to divorce her and start the Church of England so he could marry Anne Boleyn. And if Anne could have given him a son he would NOT have felt the need to behead her. How would our nation have been different if ...

the rich would still be rich and the poor still poor

If my dad had married that heiress, instead of a seamstress.............???

I guess that could be said of all of our lives. If my parents hadn't migrated to Australia and my OH's parents hadn't also migrated would we have met in England and had the children and grandchildren we have now?

Sue

Would Spain have had a greater influence upon England? Would England have been a Spanish Colony?

Some interesting reponses - if one man being crowned as King can change history how much more can anyone of us change history?

As Joy says, the rich would have kept getting richer and the poor poorer ... as they are today, maybe more than at any time in history.

But how about the next generation -- what if Henry VIII's rellie Lady Jane Grey had stayed on the throne?

I admit my only knowledge of her comes through Helena Bonham-Carter, in what I gather was a quite fictionalized account of her brief reign. ;)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Jane_%28film%29

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Jane_Grey

"Lady Jane Grey had an excellent humanist education and a reputation as one of the most learned women of her day. A committed Protestant, she was posthumously regarded as not only a political victim but also a martyr."

A very few days of history in that case certainly changed its course.