#I also really liked Wolsey

[elin-moon]

Through The Tudors, I've developed an unexpected liking and appreciation for Thomas More that I did not have before.

It's even funnier when I tell you just how much my mother hated More. Like, she despised him 😅

[cosmic-walkers]

You know, I do believe there were times during the interrogation where Stephen imagined the relationship he ‘could have had’ with Thomas. Perhaps, there were even points where he “forgot” that this was an interrogation that would ultimately end in Thomas’s death, and let his mind wander to old times.

Like times when they worked with Wolsey. This is probably not the first time he’s seen Thomas hold his own in a hot seat; there had to be times when they were younger, working under Wolsey, when he sat and enjoyed seeing Thomas use his lawyer jargon, and run circles and circles around young men who think they could best him. And I mean even after Wolsey died the books, until Stephen is sent to France, they have a decent on-and-off relationship where they work together and occasionally, would spend time together.

But, I just took notice of the way he was looking at Thomas during the interrogation, the way they caught each other’s eye once or twice and held their gaze for just…a moment, as if Stephen was going to see how Thomas could wiggle his way out of this hole. He was amused because he knew Thomas more than anyone in there, longer than anyone in there. There was a time they were friends, a time where an event like this - Thomas using his wit to outsmart people - was just a common thing between them, and Stephen was impressed. But of course, when Norfolk started talking, reality came crashing down and Stephen had to accept that, this fire he enjoyed so much from Thomas, would be put out in less than what? Forty-eight hours? His friend, his enemy, the man he had hated but respected, the man he had in a way been manipulated into hating, who annoyed him so much but also brought him some forms of amusement and excitement would be dead. And he’d never see him again. Thomas was the only one imo who could both handle Stephen and bring out a more complex side of Stephen.

[fideidefenswhore]

'anne knew how to play henry' is presumptive, speculative narrative; but even where there's a place for it (fiction) ; their likely first 'meetings' (encounters? more like, same place, same time occurences, technically speaking) are almost never given the foreshadowing and hint of narrative structure that one could use...

[celestemona]

𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐘’𝐑𝐄 𝐇𝐔𝐒𝐁𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐒

and their wives were asked the mostly random places where they did it.

pairing: husband! alhaitham, cyno, kaedehara kazuha, kaveh, lyney, neuvillette, wriothesley x fem! reader(s)

cw: they're just talking about places they had/have sex. mdi. not beta-read.

𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐒 𝐈𝐒 𝐉𝐔𝐒𝐓 𝐀 𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐎𝐌 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐅𝐑𝐄𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐘𝐋𝐄 𝐈𝐃𝐄𝐀 𝐈 𝐂𝐀𝐌𝐄 𝐔𝐏 𝐖𝐈𝐓𝐇 𝐀𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐓 𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐃 𝐎𝐅 𝐃𝐈𝐀𝐋𝐎𝐆𝐔𝐄𝐒 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐆𝐄𝐍𝐒𝐇𝐈𝐍 𝐌𝐄𝐍'𝐒 𝐖𝐈𝐕𝐄𝐒 (𝐅𝐑𝐎𝐌 𝐌𝐘 𝐀𝐔) 𝐖𝐎𝐔𝐋𝐃 𝐇𝐀𝐕𝐄 𝐖𝐈𝐓𝐇 𝐄𝐀𝐂𝐇 𝐎𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐃𝐔𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐀 𝐌𝐄𝐄𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆.

𝐍𝐕!𝐖: His main seat in the court at the Opera Epiclese. We also do it in his office but Neuvi prefers to do it at home... Although I must say that in our dating days, there wasn't a single room in our house that hadn't remained... untouchable.

𝐖𝐑!𝐖: Our office. Whenever we can, of course. We've fucked several times at some expeditions to the abandoned zone of ​​the fortress as well. We were never caught. But if we're going to talk about our most unusual experiences, I can only think of the memorable time Wrio pressed me against the wall behind Wolsey's cafeteria during dinner time. We had to silence one of the guards that night.

𝐍𝐕!𝐖: My my. That's so scandalous. I like that.

𝐊𝐙!𝐖: During my husband's pirate days, we used to escape to the crow's nest a lot. If there were some goods to be transported, he’d pull me behind its boxes. I have to say that living a nomadic life taught me to overcome the fear and shyness of having sex outdoors and enjoy the excitement the environment provides. Liyue has some perfect hiding spots for this. 

𝐊𝐕!𝐖: I agree. Although I haven't had any crazy adventures like you, I must say that it was quite thrilling to seduce Kaveh while we stayed at my sister's Jade Chamber. She had given us the suite with the biggest balcony and… well… You can imagine what happened after that. The height and high exposure help to increase the adrenaline. 

𝐂𝐘!𝐖: Now I understand why you guys have such exhibitionist nighttime adventures. Thank you for enlightening us, my dear. But anyway. Just like our dear friend Lady Kaedehara, it isn’t uncommon for Cyno and I to have our intimate moments outdoors since we travel to the desert quite often. You can say that we already know the right caves and ruins where we can make it without getting caught in any inconvenience. However, my favorite adventure of ours would be that one where I rode him in the Grand Sage’s office. 

𝐊𝐕!𝐖: Damn girl, you are just as shameless if not more than me. 

𝐀𝐇!𝐖: I'd say the two of you are more similar with each other than you let on. Well, you see, Alhaitham prefers to have sex in environments where we won't be caught much less interrupted. That doesn't mean we haven't had our intimate moments outside of our bedroom, of course. I think the most frequented ones in this regard would be his office, my classroom, and the restricted book aisle in the House of Daena. Oh, and there was also that time we escaped out of the tavern to somewhere outdoors when we had that group dinner. 

𝐊𝐕!𝐖: I told you she wasn't feeling sick. 

𝐂𝐘!𝐖: It surprises me how you can say such filthy things with that innocent face of yours. 

𝐖𝐑!𝐖: And you, my dear? I believe that Lyney is a very romantic partner just because of the way he looks at you. 

𝐋𝐍!𝐖: He is. Although he is also a little… unpredictable. I believe it won't even surprise you if I say that we've fucked several times behind the stage or in our dressing room. Plus, Lyney likes to eat me out in places we visit for the first time so not even the office at his Father's orphanage escaped that. 

𝐍𝐕!𝐖: My goodness. Appearances really can be deceiving. 

𝐋𝐍!𝐖: Tell me about it. I couldn't have a proper conversation with his Father for an entire month without remembering her showing up at her own office and finding her son with his head between her daughter-in-law's thighs. 

𝐊𝐙!𝐖: Her? 

𝐋𝐍!𝐖: Long story short his father is a woman. 

𝐀𝐇!𝐖: Interesting.

𝐖𝐑!𝐖: Well. Needless to say we're having a pleasant talk here. I must say though that we had some very unusual experiences and others full of twists. I think we should make a toast. To our passionate adventures and for those yet to come!

𝐁𝐎𝐍𝐔𝐒

𝐖𝐑: The girls are quite noisy today, huh.

𝐂𝐘: Definitely they are. What do you think they're giggling about? 

𝐊𝐕 & 𝐊𝐙: You'd rather not know.

[historyartthings]

Is this a safe space to say that, whilst the episode overall was really well done and I enjoyed it a lot, I don’t think the ending was….. actually as good as the rest? Although I did still find that last moment, and those last words, very sad.

Ngl I would've preferred that they didn't reuse the same shots of Launde for the most part, i feel like they could've filmed some different moments of it specifically for the ending.

and I think the whole thing shouldve been longer, tbh - it could’ve done with a bigger stretch up to it. As in, they could’ve let the tension build more imo? that might just be me tho who didn’t feel it so much in all fairness. not in that last wee bit, anyway. and in relation to that i think the actual walk to the block and the execution itself would've been better served as an uninterrupted scene, as opposed to being intercut with other shots

Also for sure thought we’d get that moment with Christophe. why else introduce him for this series? alas, no.

Also also, i so wanted the payoff of 'put an edge on it'. they were happy to have him say other thoughts from the book out loud in the series, why not that one? and i wanted to see his father there! that connection was the crux of the scene as Mantel wrote it, really

Not that i'm saying the brutality that you'd need to at least hint at for that should've been shown in a very graphic sense. I don’t know the best way to go about it tbh. But those parallels were so incredibly impactful, it seems a shame to lose them. I imagine they thought it was too much? and/or too close to 'the tudors' for comfort….

I did also like Wolsey being in the crowd though, in his bright scarlet. And the music was beautiful, as always

[dukemeropide]

deep dive character sheet

stolen from: old dash game from TOA tagging: you!

NAME: WRIOTHESLEY

BODY

height: 190cm / 6′ 3

strength ★★★★☆ (the man is strong, but docking him a star because he's not the strongest; he relies far too much on his wit and catching others off their game to be someone who lets pure strength solve all of his problems)

dexterity ★★★★★ (he tinkers with clockwork meka all the time, which has small parts and requires a steady hand)

health ★★★★☆ (pretty good, probably thanks to sigewinne; biggest issue is how much tea he drinks)

energy ★★★☆☆ (work smarter not harder is his work philosophy, and he likes his leisure)

beauty ★★★★☆ (quite handsome in a rugged way, docking a star because all of his scars likely detract from from his general attractiveness for fontaineans / he covers his scars in a way that implies he doesn't like showing them)

style ★★★★☆ (he's a fontainean through and through, so he's conscious of how he dresses and makes sure that he dresses well enough to be seen in public; docking a star because his style does have a blue collar vibe to it, and he's rarely on top of the trends)

hygiene ★★★☆☆ (decent, but he does live in a prison under the sea so his standards are probably much lower than the general public / the fortress notoriously stinks so he's probably gone noseblind to the stench of sweat and other body odors; likely wears cologne when he goes to the surface, and always makes sure he stays clean-shaven to make up for it)

SKILLS

perception ★★★★★ (he's picked up most of what he knows from watching other people)

communication ★★★★☆ (he's fashioned himself into a businessman, so being able to communicate and negotiate effectively is a must; docked a star because he is notoriously avoidant and sometimes deceptive when he could otherwise be direct and forthright)

persuasion ★★★★☆ (see above re : being a businessman; when communication fails, he'll persuade via more physical means, however this doesn't always work out as we see in the fontaine archon quest)

mediation ★★★★☆ (his position within the fortress necessitates this in order to keep everyone living relatively peacefully together)

literacy ★★★★★ (has never had a formal education, but taught himself how to read and reads a lot about all sorts of topics)

creativity ★★★★☆ (he takes unique approaches to problem-solving, not to mention he's constantly coming up with new projects and ways to get people to carry them out for him when he can't)

cooking ★★☆☆☆ (he's probably... ok at it; his specialty is a spare ribs plate that implies the oven/cooking device nearly blew up on him / doesn't really have much reason to cook for himself when wolsey will whip up whatever he wants)

tech savvy ★★★★☆ (as far as meka and other machines go - he can figure out just about anything he doesn't understand though)

combat ★★★★★ (he owes his survival and his current position to his ability to box, the pankration ring is like a second home)

survival ★★★★★ (he was homeless for a while when he was a child and managed to figure out how to survive on his own + he learned how to work the system once he was imprisoned)

stealth ★★☆☆☆ (doesn't really have a reason for it)

street smarts ★★★★★ (see survival above; everything he's learned came from the streets / prison)

seduction ★★★★☆ (he's both charming and attractive; docked a star because he does also come off as intimidating, and his humility means he's not exactly strutting around)

luck ★★☆☆☆ (tentatively skeptical)

handling animals ★★★☆☆ (he doesn't have much of a reason to but he's thoughtful and perceptive, so I think he'd be pretty ok with them)

pacifying children ★★☆☆☆ (he'll work behind the scenes to try to soften whatever is upsetting, but he's aware of his demeanor and his reputation, and thinks other people are better off not seeing him)

MIND

intelligence ★★★★★ (there is nothing out of his grasp if he puts his mind to understanding it)

happiness ★★★☆☆ (he's content by his own admission, more so because he's comfortable, but he's also painfully aware of everything he's missing out on)

spirituality ★☆☆☆☆ (admits he doesn't really believe in fate or the gods, but he won't deny the unexplainable)

confidence ★★★☆☆ (relatively, but does undersell himself sometimes)

humor ★★★☆☆ (pretty dry and tends to lean serious more often than not, but he does have a sense of humor that tends to be sarcastic or ironic)

anxiety ★★★☆☆ (he gets anxious about the unknown and what dangers it might conceal; needs to know everything about a new place before he can fully relax)

patience ★★★★☆ (tends to act like he has all the time in the world and even frustrates people like sigewinne and clorinde with how roundabout he tends to be with things)

passion ★★☆☆☆ (doesn't lack passion completely but does sort of have a "you work with the hand you're dealt" mentality about the world and his own life)

nice         ☆★☆☆☆ mean (he's friendly and considerate when he's not being the terrifying duke)

brave       ☆☆★☆☆ cowardly (will sometimes use deception, backhanded techniques, and his own social power in ways that others might consider cowardly)

pacifist     ☆☆★☆☆ violent (would prefer to take the nonviolent way first but has no problem using his fists - or letting the prisoners beat each other up to send a message)

thoughtful ★☆☆☆☆ impulsive (he thinks through everything he does, has way too much anxiety about how he comes across and the dangers of the world to not think about every step he takes)

agreeable ☆★☆☆☆ contrary (quite sensible and always willing to hear someone out / give them a chance, but will also be annoying for the sake of it (drives navia crazy))

idealistic   ☆☆☆★☆ pragmatic (generally pragmatic, but has an imaginative streak that romanticizes lofty ideals)

frugal        ☆★☆☆☆ big spender (he wouldn't be the wealthiest person in the fortress if he had a habit of spending large chunks of money, but he will spend SOME money to live comfortably)

extrovert   ☆☆☆★☆ introvert (generally prefers to keep to himself, but he's constantly inviting his friends to have tea with him, which suggests that he does like spending time around specific people)

collected   ☆★☆☆☆ wild

ambitious / possessive / stubborn / jealous / decisive / perfectionist

SOCIAL

charisma ★★★★★ (a highly charming man with a talent for communication)

empathy ★★★★☆ (arguably empathy is the reason the fortress has been changed for the better; he uses his own experiences to advocate for and improve the lives of others in similar situations)

generosity ★★★★☆ (he's always willing to lend an ear and give freely if he has the resources)

wealth ★★★★★ (wealthiest person in the fortress)

honest  ☆☆☆★☆ deceptive (it's actually kind of ironic how much he hated that his parents lied to him, and yet he's often deceptive and manipulative himself; plays his cards extremely close to his chest and will do everything he can to avoid talking about himself)

leader   ★☆☆☆☆ follower

polite    ☆☆★☆☆  rude (generally polite (it's that fontainean etiquette) but has a blunt / casual way of speaking to others)

political ☆★☆☆☆ indifferent (he's the leader of a society separate from fontaine so technically he should be concerned with its governance)

BELIEFS

higher power ★★☆☆☆ (skeptical)

fate/destiny ★★☆☆☆ (also skeptical, but will form plans / ideas with things like prophecies in mind, even if they turn out to be false)

magic ★☆☆☆☆ (magic exists in teyvat, so this is more like how much wriothesley relies on it, which is to say: he doesn't; he learned to wield the elements without a vision for most of his life, and meka creations are powered by clockwork and pneumousia)

soulmates ★★☆☆☆ (similar to fate/destiny, wriothesley would be pleasantly surprised by finding that he has a soulmate, but has his doubts that such a thing exists)

good and evil ★☆☆☆☆ (he has to deal with most of fontaine's "evil" people on a daily basis, so he believes that everything can be explained by circumstance and that even "evil" people can become "good")

luck ★★☆☆☆ (see fate/destiny, the man also makes wagers constantly and loses half of them but doesn't care)

PRIORITIES

family ☆☆☆☆☆ (killed his parents and abandoned all connections he had to his siblings; as far as he's concerned, he has no family)

friends ★★★★☆ (values making and maintaining connections because the more people he knows, the more things he can get done - definitely considers these people more like "professional acquaintances" than good friends though, but it still counts)

love ★☆☆☆☆ (keeps other people at such a distance that he believes he'll never really be able to love)

home ★★★★★ (home is the fortress and he makes sure that place runs like a well-oiled machine)

health ★★☆☆☆ (that's sigewinne's job)

praise ★☆☆☆☆ (humility means that he's generally immune to praise)

justice ★★★☆☆ (believes that the people who wind up in the fortress have a good reason for being there, whether they think so or not - trusts the courts to deliver some kind of justice)

truth ★★★★★ (always questioning and trying to understand things, especially mysteries and off limit topics)

power ★★★★☆ (he recognizes that power has given him the comfortable life that he has so he does try to maintain it, whether by fear or respect)

fame ☆☆☆☆☆ (literally avoids kameras and anyone knowing who he is / what he looks like)

wealth ★★★★☆ (with wealth comes power in the fortress, so he's constantly thinking about new ways to make money and turning a profit)

others' opinions ★★★☆☆ (conscious of how his appearance and behavior influences what other people think of him so he does keep their opinions in mind)

[cinemaocd]

The Mirror and the Light stream of concsciousness ramble on Wreckage....GO!

So the opening works really works for me I think the new footage is seamless and even the aging works because the tone shift is dramatic at the end of season one...the lighting the excessively bright lighting in the wedding scene and I'm wondering dear god Peter I hope you haven't taken to heart all our bitching about the brightness levels in season one??? Surely this is an aesthetic/artistic choice and then I remember that it matches the discordantly sunny scene at the end of season one when Henry embraces cromwell after Anne is killed. I love that Rafe and Crom just exchange one word "done" and Rafe wishing it weren't bloody and being a tad accusatory and I remember those scenes in the book when Anne flirted with Rafe in order to tease him ...So much of the dialog is very um not in the book but I like the ax quote it probably has a precedent. Love that we are diving straight into the plot and Call me is a different person but the same clothes and the dialog has to be too on the nose to help newcomers, which is a choice and I guess I'm fine with it because it's ep one. Still. Keep up people. The ambiguity continues when we don't actually know what the letter is though its implied its from Mary and if so in the next scene Crom fully lies to the king's face about it. Love the lightning in the tower scene with Chapuy, kinda wanted it to be a folly outside under the open sky like in the book but I guess they couldn't just conjure up a sunny day. the hilarious chapuy cromwell frenemy banter continues...OMG seeing Richard, even from behind I knew it was him and he looks more like historical Crom every minute and is probably closer to his age than mark but oh look Crom's wee knife. I love that we are getting bad ass crom and his knives and his bully boy moves with the poles and calling himself a dog (*dies) and especially the scene in the privy chamber when he practically tackles fitz...The scene with mary was letter perfect to the book but somehow missed the tone of the book which was funny but also tragic...and the mouse bones embrace was entirely great and lilith lesser is KILLING it and she'll pray for him and dear god he needs it...oh the cap thing was sexy when it should have been awkward but I forgive because when they are busted by lady shelton and she says "unhand the lord privy seal" it kills me...love crom and lady shelton they are another great pair of flirts. Oh and then the triumph of the signing and lording it over the other lords and norfolk having to eat shit was golden. Henry gets scarier/weirder in every scene and I love it. Margaret Douglas making the most of her two lines and being HBIC throughout was golden: FORESHADOWING. Jane continuing to be awkward as well as flirtatious with cromwell...also love the scene where they walked through a dark hallway and he leads her into the light of the dance...the light of Henry's love. Oh and the lovely reunion between Mary and her father only marred by the weirdness of Henry saying "you've loved and done as much for her as my kin" and then qualifying it...TACKY, but then jovial crom at the cheerless picnic with his boys where he is telling them all smiles about the white rose promise to Katharine and they all total bitches about it except Richard. I love you Richard. I don't remember Ghost!Wolsey having this many lines in the book but I can never get enough JP in a red Cardinal's gown so I don't care. Cromwell's orange jacket is amazing but I think Mark is actually having some kind of asthma attack in some scenes because he's wheezy, maybe they should build a fan into his suit. Same thing with Damien, though I think his breathlessness might be character work as Henry is getting progressively less fit as it goes on.

[malkaleh]

For @herawell specifically - some of my headcanons re OT3 verse Henry’s past relationships with men pre Thomas.

This man does not in fact have any problem with the fact that he’s attracted to men and women. I really knew that from the first - there’s a line that Wolsey thinks in Rewrite The Stars 2.0 about how yes obviously Sodomites Are Evil Sinners but not people who love those of the same sex or both and that was really where Henry landed as soon as he realised I kind of just wanted to write him having zero angst about it like yes, the Lord is obviously fine with me here.

The scene I’m not writing is actually Henry’s threesome with two sex workers who later on are like ‘…WAIT WAS THAT HIS MAJESTY AND WAS HE INTO SLEEPING WITH HIS QUEEN AND HIS LORD CHANCELLOR AND WATCHING THEM…taking that one to our grave because No One Will Believe It But Holy Shit’ (Henry is like I Am Not Acknowledging My Desires At This Stage which makes it awkward as fuck also this was when he was with Jane. I think. It would contain a realistic depiction of 16th century sex work but I cannot actually write it because Trauma Brain but the headcanon is there).

Henry and Will Compton were friends who had sex with each.

People actually did not know, mostly because Henry was also really into women/he was actually faithful to Catherine for like, at least a while/it just seemed implausible to people

No really he and Will just kind of slept together as friends it was cool.

Whatever The Fuck Charles Had No Idea Thing was going on there as well (I actually don’t tend to see OT3 verse Henry as being into Charles and Charles has absolutely no conscious idea he’s into Henry but yeah, that dynamic).

His male lovers tend to be honestly, he has some as a younger man very much in the vibe of ‘goes to masked orgy’ because uh, yeah. So no one really clocks it - like sure this man enjoys sex (I’m drawing from TV Henry a bit/a lot here) but no one thinks he also enjoys it with men.

I’d say the encounter(s) in 1534-6 are just…It’s Not Great At All.

[elizabethan-memes]

Hi there,

Love your blog! Do you know much about The Duke of Norfolk's relationship with Cromwell? I'm currently re-watching the Tudors and unfortunately the Howards are cut out by Season 3 and 4. I read a theory recently that the Howards including the third Duke wanted to take out Cromwell because he took down Anne Boleyn. Is there any truth to that? Would love to know if there is.

I don't think Anne Boleyn's downfall helped, but I think Cromwell and Norfolk already had plenty of reasons to want each other out of favour. Cromwell was Wolsey's servant, after all, and Norfolk was very sensitive to hierarchy. As an aristocrat he was very aware of 'new men' like Cromwell, Wolsey, and yes- More too. More was the grandson of a baker, so in Norfolk's eyes he's only one generation higher than Cromwell, son of a brewer.

And while Norfolk supported the Break with Rome, he was a traditionalist in terms of religion. And while More, Cromwell, and Wolsey were all enthusiastic about renaissance humanism, judicial reform in favour of ordinary citizens, (and also critics of enclosures) these aren't policies that benefit the likes of Norfolk. More is often portrayed as friends with Norfolk, but the only real evidence I see for that is the hagiography written in the 1550s- at a time when Cromwell was controversial at best, while Norfolk was supporting Mary I. When More's grandson was born in the 1530s, it was Cromwell his parents chose as godfather.

Norfolk is often portrayed as boorish and uncultured, which is a gross simplification. But Norfolk preferred medieval chivalric literature to ancient literature. Erasmus called such medieval literature 'barbarous fables' and perhaps Cromwell would agree- certainly, Cromwell and More both loved Erasmus' New Testament, Cromwell learning it off by heart.

Also, Cromwell had a 'genuine and selfless' (Macculloch) friendship with... Norfolk's wife Elizabeth. If Cromwell needed more reasons to despise Norfolk, Elizabeth would give him PLENTY.

So Cromwell and Norfolk really have no shared culture, their worldviews and goals don't align. I think Norfolk would want Cromwell out, even if 1536 never happened.

[companion-showdown]

okay, the idea of companion's companion seems like a really popular idea, so after the upcoming tournament I'm making the executive decision that we will do that next (provided the list of characters gets to at least 32, but ideally 64

Suggest Characters by leaving a note on this post or sending me an ask

The only rule is they must appear in the main show (or a story where the Doctor is a main character in the case of the EU)

The list so far is

Rory as Amy's Companion

Mickey as Rose's companion

Dan as Yaz's companion

Adam as Rose's companion

Rigsy as Clara's companion

Duggan as Romana's companion

Ace's girl of the week #1

Ace's girl of the week #2

Ace's girl of the week #3 (no more than that, Ace has many girls and I have to draw the line somewhere)

Luke Smith as Sarah-Jane's companion

K9 as Leela/Romana/Sarah-Jane's companion

Ianto as Jack's companion

Gwen as Jack's companion

Brian Williams as Amy and Rory's companions

The Doctor as River's companion

Jake(? the guy from the parallel world) as Mickey's companion

The children Clara nannys as Clara's companions

Courtney Woods (Clara's student) as Clara's companion

Jericho(? other guy who gets stuck in the past with Yaz and Dan) as Yaz's companion)

Ashildr as Clara's companion

Tom as Martha's companion

Jenny (Dalek Invasion of Earth) as Barbara's companion

Anne (The Massacre) as Steven's companion

King Yrcanos as Peri's companion

The DJ from Revelation of the Daleks as Peri's companion

Rodan as Leela's companion

Benton as the Brigadier's companion

Yates as the Brigadier's companion

Nardole as River's companion

Tentoo as Rose's companion

Unnamed Hath as Martha's companion

Bill Filer as Jo's companion

Riley Vashtee as Martha's companion

Erimem as Peri's companion

Hex as Ace's companion

Alex Campbell as Lucie's companion

Jason Kane as Benny's companion

C'rizz as Charley's companion

Isobel as Zoe's companion

Ben as Polly's companion

Jenny as Vastra's

Strax as Vastra's

Miss Evangelista as Donna's

Heather as Bill's

Wilf's minibus of elderly people as Wilf's

Bill as Missy's

Spaceship farm kids as Nardole's

Wolsey as Benny's

Panda as Iris Wildthyme's

I'll update this with any new suggestions

Also don't worry about there being too many suggestions, I will run a group stage to get down to an appropriate number if need be

[cosmic-walkers]

We really needed a book/episode of the working life of stephen, thomas and wolsey because i just think there is so much potential to show wolsey and thomas not taking anything seriously, and stephen taking everything seriously, but then stephen being so bossy to them you would think he was in charge.

he'd be the type of person that if his desk broke or whatever, somehow thomas and wolsey would be the ones to fix it, put it back together, spend the whole day really getting into fixing stephen's desk/chair or what have you, and stephen would just be sitting, not lifting a finger.

he would just be sitting there persumably in wolsey or thomas's desk watching them be little bob the builders the whole time.

and then on the other hand - they'd get on stephen's nerves. they would purposely try to do so just because seeing him get upset is funny. thomas and wolsey would make bets on who could make him so angry he turns red or he takes off his hat. wolsey would win most of the time, but thomas would come very close - at least when it came to making him red.

[fideidefenswhore]

There is a saying that when Anne Boleyn was not the queen, she had greater power than the queen's three years. What do you think?

I think this rather limits the sphere of influence of royal woman (or, as it was for the former period, royal-in-waiting, Anne was a noblewoman, not a royal one, until she became Queen); to, how to put this...the 'domestic'?

Ie, it's known that Henry had mistresses while Anne was Queen, but not queen-in-waiting; I feel like when this is argued that's mainly what the gist of the argument is, she was his ultimate priority and singular love, then they married and the 'chase ran out' and the disillusionment was quick and debasing. And so her influence reduced concurrently.

And...while I find that summary rather specious anyways on whole, for the sake of argument, even if the former part were true, political power is something else. Queen-in-waiting was Anne at "I beseech your grace with all my heart to remember the parson of Honey Lane for my sake shortly", Queen Anne was Anne at seven of her own evangelical clients appointed bishops. After the fall of Wolsey we get "above all, the Lady Anne" re: Henry's councilors from the French ambassador, after Anne becomes Queen we get the contemporary remarks that she has the most influence with the King, beyond any other person, her time in power is referred to as her "reign". Even contemporary remarks after her fall are testament to the influence she had as Queen, "the fall of Queen Anne was like the fall of Lucifer", a parallel to God's most favoured angel being cast down...nobody remarks that it was evident her power had diminished once she married Henry.

Tl;dr, even following the paradigm of loss of love = loss of influence, I don't think...we have that much evidence of the former; the narrative is popular...well, because it's popular, if that makes sense? There's not much of an attempt to understand Henry as his own person, as an individual, particularly when it comes to his relationships with his wives. He was very ostentatious about what he felt for Anne: he "preferred the love of the queen to half his realm", he would "beg alms door to door" before he would forsake her, it's easy to dismiss this all as Henry being glib, knowing the ending, however...I believe he felt and meant these sentiments in the moments he said them, despite that, I think even had the ending been different, these expressions were both to Anne's benefit and detriment, really-- she was regarded as someone whose favour it was important to gain and keep circa as early as 1528, at the latest, all the way through to the end... but because of the common bruit of them, she was also, sometimes solely, blamed for Henry's unpopular decisions.

[brokenbluebouquet]

Van Dyck, Archbishop William Laud, 1636, National Portrait Gallery, London

Even someone with a natural talent for sycophancy like van dyck could not make Laud look anything other than thin skinned and awkward. Despite this, you really should not underestimate this man, as too many did in his own lifetime.

William Laud (1573-1645) pronounced “lord” not “loud” (I learnt this the hard way) is probably the most important Archbishop of Canterbury of the period bar Thomas Cranmer from the previous century. Modern Anglicanism/Episcopalism is as much his vision as it is Cranmer’s.

He’s often associated with a movement called Arminianism which sought to reverse some Calvinist excesses such as the doctrine of predestination and a renewed emphasis on sacraments, liturgy and hierarchy. It, in Laud’s variant anyway, also emphasised royal power and was a theological basis for Charles’s vision of sacredotal kingship.

Laud’s strategy and vision was to return the Church in England back to its pre reformation status and wealth, albeit purged of “Romish” errors and puritan troublemaking. This was music to both Charles and George’s ears who were looking for allies and tools to shut down opposition and increase crown revenue.

Christopher Hill was on to something when he said that what Charles and Laud were doing was using the tools of the Catholic counter reformation to build an ostensibly Protestant autocratic monarchy boosted by a hierarchal authoritarian church; at the expense of the Calvinist aristocratic grandees, landowners, and merchant class who dominated the governance in the three kingdoms and their parliaments.

All this was part of a larger ideological programme of turning back the erosion of crown power and church wealth in both kingdoms, as well as the elimination of resistance theory and popular sovereignty as ideological alternatives to authoritarian monarchy and hirachical religion.

You don’t need to be a church historian or a theologian to see how grossly unrealistic and needlessly provocative this was. It all came to grief in Scotland where Laud and Charles’s hubristic ambitions met reality and their attempts to impose a revised liturgy for Scotland (really a copy and paste of the BCP) led to the Covenanter movement and the Scottish invasion of northern England, supported by treasonous lords like Warwick, Manchester, and Essex in England as a way to force Charles hand into recalling parliament. Soon Charles lost his authority, the country was engulfed in civil war. Laud was impeached, arrested, imprisoned on bogus charges of promoting “popery” and executed in 1645.

Laud was a thin skinned man who was often the subject of much criticism for his “low born” origins. Even Charles would later state that he was too indulgent of Laud’s “peevish humours” and that his obsession with ceremony and order was unnecessary. He often argued with others in council meetings and had a reputation for vindictiveness, as evidenced by the treatment of puritan pamphleteers like Burton, Bastwick, and Prynne, and the reliance on prerogative courts and church courts to enforce uniformity and punish dissent. This was summed up be Burton himself saying he’d been strangled by lawn sleeves and prynnes claim that the brand of SL was not “seditious libeller” but “stigmata laudis.”

Laud was out of place at the female dominated court of Charles I as he was deeply uncomfortable with women, and despite later claims, him and Henrietta could not stand each other. There is an old story that he was offered a Cardinal’s hat by pope Urban VIII but I’ve never seen any evidence for this and Laud also made a point of ostentatiously avoiding the Queen’s papal envoys and priests despite their best efforts to engage him.

He’s often believed to have aspired to in effect be a second Wolsey or an English Richelieu, there’s simply not enough evidence for these claims; besides lacking meaningful interest in foreign policy or military affairs, Laud did not have the self confidence, emotional discipline, or strategic vision for that kind of role, nor the appetite for it.

You would not guess that he had erotic dreams about George from this portrait (Laud was almost certainly gay - his own diary is the source of the dreams as well as sexual encounters with other men) and that he was a proud cat dad in an age of dog people (Richelieu was a cat dad too).

He also left the most withering judgement on Charles, before his execution in 1645, namely that he was “a mild and gracious Prince, that knows not how to be or be made great.” Ouch.

[boleynqueenes]

For the dvd commentary meme…the first five hundred words of Nowe Thus 👀

Hm...well, that's really more the intro/prologue than anything else (honestly, why didn't I start just in the midst of the action?). I guess I was trying to establish Anne as a player with a keen political intelligence that was also personally invested (which she acknowledges...'I am rather partial') in the outcome of the GM. And I was also trying to establish how her opinions of these people she's never met (such as HVII) have been formed by her experiences and insights of him from other figures (Princess Mary, his daughter, although uhm...it seems she didn't actually attend her in France which I didn't find out until later...whoops...might have to retcon that into conversations Anne's merely overheard in KOA's household, as Mary was a frequent feature and visitor, Henry Percy, not as explicitly but by and about HVIII as well obviously, Wolsey, et al). I do this with other figures later in the fic as well, both hers and her parents' opinions of Elizabeth Wydeville, and Wolsey, what she's heard about Perkin Warbeck from various quarters ('some uncourageous man of puckish pretense', i heart alliteration), etc...

Also just an acknowledgement of potential AUs to break the fourth wall in what is about to be a literal AU, I'm quirky like that:

"If you were not here, what would you think?" "Where else would I be?" she asks archly. Still smarting at Hever, traipsing through the fens of Ireland, freezing in Northumberland— "Lille, Guisnes, Mechelen," he lists, high tone glittering with playfulness, "Château Amboise—" "Oh, if I were still there?"

[thebraxiatelcollection]

I'm really interested in reading Human Nature with the 7th Doctor from your fic, but is Sanctuary necessary to understand the premise, or is it easy to follow without it? Also, is the book like the television episode with 10, and it has McCoy instead of Tennant? Apologies for the questions, just curious is all.

Please don't ever apologise for showing interest in the virgin new adventures! I love to talk about them; the good and the bad!

Short answer: Yes. You can absolutely read Human Nature without having any prior knowledge of Benny and the Doctor's previous adventures. This book is arguably one of the best ways to dive into the vnas as it's one of the more memorable and iconic vnas on the list.

Long Answer:

If you're like me, and want as much Bernice Summerfield knowledge as you could possibly get your mits on, I'd highly recommend reading Sanctuary before reading Human Nature. Although both are hisotircal settings, I actually enjoyed Sanctuary more as you get to see a deeper side to Benny, and her and Guy's relationship develop and you get to see what a bad ass she is and is not afraid to throw those punches if it means saving people (And quite possibly just to impress Guy too).

Sanctuary is essentially a novel about Benny and the Doctor meeting the Spanish Inquisition (And nobody expects that!) And the author David Mcintee really knows his stuff. I will say, it starts off slow in the beginning, but it really does draw you in later on.

And like I say with any virgin new adventures books, I always mention any trigger warnings in related to these novels. These novels like the edas, do take a darker turn than to the modern bbc doctor who books. Trigger warning list: Sanctuary: Mentions of abortion. Human Nature: Bullying, death by hanging and period-racism. As for the differences between the novel and the Human Nature/Family of Blood? I would say there is drastically a hell lot of differences without giving too much of the actual plot away. For example, the wonderful characters of Alex Shuttleworth-a queer icon of his time being best friends with Bernice Summerfield, Constance an iconic suffergate and Anand. Those three side characters stood out most to me when I read the novel. <3 And of course, Wolsey.

But yes, Human Nature is a must for all Doctor Who fans. Sanctuary as well!

[cinemaocd]

Thomas Cromwell's big book, The Valor Ecclesiasticus

Reading this morning in History Today about the Valor Ecclesiasticus, a massive survey of all religious holdings that was begun in 1535, and completed in less than 18 months (or at least it was completed enough to be acted upon as 1/4 of the religious houses in England were closed by the end of that period). It details not only the holdings down to every last bone of every last saint, but maps, and the detailed accounts of the tenants, as the Church was the largest landlord in England.

This document was probably Cromwell's greatest achievement, just in terms of sheer output, as it covered not only the 800 religious houses and their tenants' activities, which often required tracing people across county lines, etc. something that had never been done at that point. The data was collected rapidly, from a wide variety of sources. In many cases, church officials simply refused to meet with Cromwell's commissioners. In those cases the commissioners took matters into their own hands and made broad guesses about holdings based on what they could observe.

After the Valor was completed and the associated religious houses closed, it was set aside and forgotten until 1800, when Parliament funded a team of scholars led by John Caley to "translate" the document into some useful information, attempting essentially turn it into a modern ledger book. Caley took 38 years to do this, spent thousands of pounds more than he was meant to, held the documents hostage in his home and then promptly died as soon as the last volume was published. The government found the results "a mischief of confusion" and it was never used. Historians largely ignored the Valor and Caley's "translation" for the most part, except, fascinatingly, around the time of the Russian Revolution, some Marxists attempted to use it as a blueprint for modernizing Russian agriculture!

Now it is being digitized for the first time.

One thing that I gleaned from the article, was that special attention was paid to dams on rivers, which were used by many religious houses for private fisheries. This interfered with Cromwell's general scheme of improving the navigability of waterways (no son of Putney could love a dam that stops a barge moving on a river). This right of the government to take private property away from the church was critical to create a modern government that could conduct nationwide schemes like improving the navigability of the waterways.

The leap from not having fishing dams on every river, to the profitable canal system borrowed from the Low Countries in later centuries, was not dramatic after the legal impediments were removed. And you really can't have the industrial revolution in England without it.

I have for a long time characterized Cromwell as someone had multiple motivations for almost every decision he undertook. Usually there would be a personal profit motive as well, which is unseen. It really depends on the political leanings of the historian as to which of those motives people have tended to see, be they greed, Lutheranism, Machiavellian political maneuvering etc, but as far as I'm concerned, his motivations could simply be: I find fisheries on the Themes and its tributaries annoying because they interfere with my daily commute.

Another interesting thing in the article was the discussion of class mobility provided by unseen parts of the monastic system. There was a class of clerks, agents, etc. that were enriched by managing the church's land holdings. Cromwell's agents often came from this pool of men, and he himself, given his start assisting Wolsey, could be seen as also coming from this class. Putting the overall management of this class of people into the hands of Parliament and away from the Pope was a huge improvement for them and you can see it as the bedrock on which the British Civil Service was built.