#but yeah the actual earl of northumberland (i feel like people forget this was henry percy's dad. at the time. he was just the heir)

[fideidefenswhore]

i've been thinking about this and i feel like the difference btwn anne and mary boleyn is actually most evident in the early 1520s; if anne had been more like mary she probably would have married percy regardless, damn the consequences. it doesn't make one 'better' than the other, i think just different...

altho sometimes i think mary's decision to wed stafford in 1534 in particular is understandable in context, it wasn't done to marry without royal consent of course but mary had been a widow for like six years and widows had a considerable amount of freedom in their marriage choices, certainly more than wards or women of nobility making their first marriage, had she not been the sister of the queen it might have been more easily forgiven.

also there's arguably precedent to some extent, she was hviii's sister in law whereas his actual sister had been able to make her own choice in her second marriage once widowed, of course she had to pay fines for this transgression and all this but she was invited back to court eventually after asking wolsey to intercede with her which parallels how mary wrote to cromwell, wolsey's 'successor' iyw, for her own intercession for royal forgiveness/mercy.