#draw constrasts between his relationship / the influence he granted coa vs anne . if you're interested.

[fideidefenswhore]

@hyacinths-cottage Interesting Your thesis suggests that Henry didn't loose his emotional viriginity throughout his lengthy marriage with Kathy of A? Explanation?

naur, i'm saying that was julia fox and john guy's thesis, in between the lines.

i'm definitely not saying (and i don't believe they were trying to, either, if you read julia fox's biography of coa, that's's especially clear), that he didn't love or have an emotional connection to his first wife. he chose her against the advice of (some) of his council, he chose her after he was at least somewhat (i mean, i do think it's interesting they weren't really overfamiliar with each other, she was far from a fixture at henry vii's court once widowed) familiar with her, and they married and were crowned together and had, and lost, children, together. they lived together, they shared their faith. this obviously all creates a bond, and they obviously had a bond, an emotional bond, a bond of intimacy, all that.

but his relationship with anne was ...something different. they definitely argue that what he had with anne, and felt for anne, doesn't really match what he had and felt for catherine, at any point (and, actually, they argue, that this did not match what he had with or felt for, any other woman he sought as a romantic partner, at any other point in his life). not to say that wasn't 'love'...but (and this does sound strange when you know the end, nonetheless:) rather that he seems to have esteemed anne's counsel far more, that he seems to have esteemed her as a partner far more, and that he envisioned something for her coronation and status as queen that surpassed that which he had for catherine.

the not directly articulated thesis of hunting the falcon is that while catherine of aragon took henry's literal virginity, anne boleyn took his emotional virginity.