#respect katherine howard

[toasty-owl-arts]

the hyperfixations are COLLIDING

[aishabellasbigblogofeverything]

(also if I see any "she should play Aragon/Cleves/Parr" comments in the notes I'm eating your shoes.)

Okay if there's ever a Six movie then Halle Bailey should TOTES play Katherine Howard, okay, I called it!

I mean look at her can't you just see it?

She's perfect!

(also if I see any "she should play Aragon/Cleves/Parr" comments in the notes I'm eating your shoes.)

[leoleolovesdc]

Okay, hear me out:

A teen girl who has had multiple experiences with sa and abuse coming from older men who she trusted. She lashes out and acts impulsively as this is the only way she knows how to cope with her feelings and because of it is deemed stubborn, a brat and immature by people. She spends her whole life trying to cope with everything that went wrong, blaming herself and feeling worthless as no one seems to respect her enough to try and hear her side of the story. Her life is tragically cut short as she is murdered at a young age and even after death everyone who met or learned about her life insists that she is the villain of this situation and had it coming since the beginning despite only being a child.

This “character description” leads me to a very simple conclusion:

Stephanie Brown🤝Katherine Howard

[finleyforevermore]

⭐HADESTOWN DREAM CAST⭐

Justin Cooley (top) or Ben Levi Ross (bottom) as Orpheus

Chibueze Ihouma as Orpheus in the picture.

Bryce Charles (top), Rachel Zegler (middle), or Kendyl Sayuri Yokoyama (bottom) as Eurydice

Eva Noblezada as Eurydice in the picture.

Josh Groban (top) or Norm Lewis (bottom) as Hades

Tom Hewitt as Hades in the picture.

Adrianna Hicks (top), Amina Faye (middle), or Danielle Brooks (bottom) as Persephone

Maria-Christina Oliveras as Persephone in the picture.

Patina Miller (top) or James Monroe Iglehart (bottom) as Hermes

Nathan Lee Graham as Hermes in the picture.

Joaquina Kalukango, Samantha Pauly, and Andrea Macasaet as The Fates (Atropos, Clotho, and Lachesis respectively)

Amelia Cormack, Lindsey Hailes, and Brit West as The Fates in the picture.

Theatre credits under the cut.

THEATRE CREDITS:

Justin Cooley - Seth in Kimberly Akimbo

Ben Levi Ross - Henry in Next to Normal, Evan in Dear Evan Hansen

Bryce Charles - Wendy Darling in Lythgoe Panto's Peter Pan

Rachel Zegler - Maria in Spielberg's West Side Story

Kendyl Sayuri Yokoyama - Angelica/Eliza/Peggy/Maria standby in Hamilton

Josh Groban - Pierre in Natasha, Pierre, and The Great Comet of 1812, Sweeney Todd in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Norm Lewis - Erik in The Phantom of The Opera, Sweeney Todd in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Caiaphas in Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert

Adrianna Hicks - Catherine of Aragon in Six, Sugar in Some Like It Hot

Amina Faye - Jane Seymour in Six

Danielle Brooks - Sofia in The Color Purple

Patina Miller - Leading Player in Pippin, The Witch in Into the Woods

James Monroe Iglehart - Genie in Aladdin, Lafayette/Jefferson in Hamilton

Joaquina Kalukango - Nettie in The Color Purple, Nelly O'Brien in Paradise Square, The Witch in Into the Woods

Samantha Pauly - Katherine Howard in Six

Andrea Macasaet - Anne Boleyn in Six

[edwardseymour]

certain six fans 🤝 certain tudor fans

ships kary for some weird unknown reason (the inexplicably juicy concept of your lover becoming ur step mother; or the guilt, and shame, and ANGER for developing feelings for your FATHER'S WIFE who's YOUNGER than you, and to top it all off, she's cousin to the woman who ruined your life. She is married, you are not. She is queen, you are not. She is everything, your just lady mary

there’s something profoundly ironic and deeply sad, to me, about mary being punished bc katherine howard stood on business and demanded her stepdaughter recognise her with due deference as respect… just as anne boleyn had done… just as her mother had done… just as mary had been punished by her father for trying to do…

anyway, i simply think wlw sex would simultaneously fix mary and also make her exponentially worse and i want to see what will happen.

[aelfgyvaa]

re: your post about anne boleyn merch, would be interested to hear your thoughts on the musical "six"!!

I think we were always gonna end up here eventually. To briefly summarise? I have pretty much nothing but distaste for Six.

Before I get into it, let me just say - I don't care if you like Six. If it makes you happy, that's great, I respect that. I'm not trying to tell anyone that they can't or shouldn't enjoy it, just that my personal opinion of it is... negative, to say the least.

TW - In the discussion below, I do mention child loss and child sexual abuse

────────────

The very first song in Six promises that the show is going to explore a different side of the infamous six wives of Henry VIII, rejecting the popular narrative ('Get ready for the truth that we'll be revealing'). However, it only seems to succeed in retreading the same ground we've been going over for literal centuries. I'm sure a casual viewer of Six could certainly learn something new about these women from the show - if, that is, they'd never really known about them in the first place.

To start, I'll go over some of the gripes I have with each individual representation of the wives.

Catherine of Aragon

First off - did no one pause to think that a jokey throwaway line like this in an upbeat pop track might have been distasteful when discussing a woman who lost five children?? No? Ok. Catherine had four miscarriages or stillbirths, and lost her son Henry when he was little more than a month old (and from what I've seen, none of this is mentioned at any point).

'Kiddy-less' is just obnoxious.

Anne Boleyn

In her character description at the beginning of the script, Anne is described as 'a bubbly, fun-loving gal who only wanted to snog a sexy guy'. At another point, she is referred to as 'The temptress'. Right. So we're just sticking to the exact same reductive portrayal of Anne that's been circulating forever? Cool, cool, very revisionist.

The only person who confessed to an affair with Anne Boleyn was Mark Smeaton, who did so under torture, and his story didn't even align with known facts at the time. Portraying Anne as a flirt is not 'revealing' the 'truth' - it's quite literally repeating the narrative that saw her executed.

The script and the song lyrics are littered with jokey references to 'losing your head' and I just??? Apparently, the beheading of a real person was the opportune moment to slide in a blowjob joke. Sorry, didn't realise that her execution was funny - my bad I guess.

Jane Seymour

Six seems to want to give us the impression that Henry VIII's affection for Jane Seymour, the only one of his wives to give birth to a surviving son, was reciprocated by her. Which is... certainly presumptive.

Of course, I can't definitely say anything about her personal feelings, but the fact that Henry married her eleven days after Anne's execution, and that she was reportedly sympathetic to Catherine of Aragon and Mary Tudor, paints an interesting picture of their relationship.

Other than that, there's not much to say about Jane - but that in itself isn't great. She comes off as flat, and little more than a doting housewife-esque stereotype. I understand that she was only queen for a year, but... go girl give us nothing?

Anne of Cleves

Once again... this is just so lazy. Considering one of the two writers/composers for Six studied revisionist history at Cambridge, the revisionist narrative we were promised at the beginning remains entirely absent.

The first time Henry VIII met Anne, he burst in unannounced, in disguise, and kissed her without consent. I don't know about anyone else - but if I had just arrived in a new country, was not fluent in the language, and had never seen the man I was to marry before - I'd be freaking the fuck out if that happened. Henry seems to be one of the first people to ever call Anne 'ugly', which only happened after this incident wherein she was clearly unimpressed by him. Very convenient.

Katherine Howard

Sigh...

Yeah, I hate this. I hate it so much.

Accounts are definitely murky, but I think it's safe to say that Katherine Howard had a childhood marred by sexual abuse. Whilst she was a ward of the Duchess of Norfolk, Katherine had a 'relationship' with her music teacher Henry Mannox. We don't know exactly how old Mannox was (Six puts him at 23, but yeah. We don't know), but given that their 'relationship' reportedly took place around 1536-ish, Katherine would've been about thirteen. There's an acknowledgement of this age gap in Six, but it's pretty gross how flippant it is.

Her alleged 'relationship' with the Duchess' secretary Francis Dereham is also referenced with similar thoughtlessness.

Given that Katherine was most likely still a teenager when she married Henry VIII - and when adultery accusations resulted in her execution - the pretty blatantly sexual tone with which she is presented is incredibly uncomfortable and, frankly, super inappropriate.

Katherine Parr

First off - fucking pardon? Speaks for itself, really.

The first half of Katherine's song focuses on her relationship with Thomas Seymour as opposed to Henry VIII. Which, y'know, it's nice to move away from Henry, although Thomas Seymour is very much not off the fucking hook (child groomer👍).

Katherine's song is definitely the least blatantly offensive and/or boringly repetitive of the bunch, and I do appreciate the references to her writing (although it is pretty much thrown in without any context). To be honest, she's pretty much got the only characterisation that I'm not actively opposed to.

────────────

Six claims to be a feminist, revisionist retelling, and yet in its first scene immediately pits the six women against each other by deciding to compete for who is the 'best wife' by... comparing trauma? Even when Katherine Parr's character questions this, she's mocked by the other characters.

There's an acknowledgement towards the end of the play that comparing the women and defining them by their relationships with King Henry is reductive - but frankly, by this point in the play, the damage has already been done. No half-assed 'Hey maybe we shouldn't compare ourselves after all!' is going to erase literally everything else that happened in the show prior to this. I don't care that you've decided to pull a complete 180 right at the very end, you still populated the rest of the show with disrespectful jokes that made light of the traumatic experiences of VERY REAL PEOPLE.

Six fundamentally fails at its introductory promise of revealing any sort of 'as yet untold' history surrounding these women. Worse, it arguably dehumanises them, reducing them to a group of dancing, singing, jokey fictional characters who reflect on the misery of their real-life counterparts with a disconcerting sense of humour. Instead of fulfilling its feminist framing, it falls for the tired, repetitive method of thought that presents these women as two-dimensional placeholders.

I read Six's entire script for this post, and honestly, I hope I never have to look at it again.

[dxntloseurhead]

pink and green bracket - part five

we’ve made it to the final part of the main bracket! the last sixteen duos will face off in this part before the big finale, where the winners of all five parts will be pit against each other to determine the ultimate pink and green duo!

remember the number one rule: please be respectful to me as the poll runner, as well as fellow voters.

part five is finished! keep an eye out for the finale on wednesday! the matchups for the fifth and final part are as follows:

ROUND ONE

left side:

cure star and cure milky (pretty cure) vs. cure miracle and cure felice (pretty cure)

yuyuko saigouji and youmu konpaku (touhou) vs. makina nakajima and reina prowler (macross)

miss piggy and kermit the frog (the muppets) vs. brittany and eleanor miller (alvin and the chipmunks)

glinda and elphaba (wicked) vs. katherine howard and anne boleyn (six the musical)

right side:

hoops and yoyo (hallmark cards) vs. shelly and eustace (moriah elizabeth)

nora valkyrie and lie ren (rwby) vs. saiki kusuo and aiura mikoto (the disastrous life of saiki k.)

muku sakisaka and yuki rurikawa (a3!) vs. ramuda amemura and dice arisugawa (hypnosis mic)

wanda fairywinkle and cosmo cosma (the fairly oddparents) vs. patrick star and sheldon j. plankton (spongebob squarepants)

ROUND TWO

left side:

cure star and cure milky (pretty cure) vs. yuyuko saigyouji and youmu konpaku (touhou)

miss piggy and kermit the frog (the muppets) vs. glinda and elphaba (wicked)

right side:

hoops and yoyo (hallmark cards) vs. saiki kusuo and aiura mikoto (the disastrous life of saiki k.)

muku sakisaka and yuki rurikawa (a3!) vs. wanda fairywinkle and cosmo cosma (the fairly oddparents)

ROUND THREE

left side:

yuyuko saigyouji and youmu konpaku (touhou) vs. miss piggy and kermit the frog (the muppets)

right side:

saiki kusuo and aiura mikoto (the disastrous life of saiki k.) vs. muku sakisaka and yuki rurikawa (a3!)

ROUND FOUR

yuyuko saigyouji and youmu konpaku (touhou) vs. muku sakisaka and yuki rurikawa (a3!)

[fideidefenswhore]

Showtime's the Tudors (my good, I'd change the clothes, a single French/Gable hood is worth more than a thousand f*cking tiaras!)

I loved the tiaras...but my taste is gaudy.

jane seymour should've been introduced in s1 for continuity

alison weir being the unofficial source material of the script...showed. mainly in the characterization of anne boleyn (and her arc with wyatt). which was elevated by natalie dormer's performance, but the writing itself was not great, an improvement by s2, but still not as nuanced as it could have been.

the scene with katherine howard and becket's ring...what if we all killed ourselves

elizabeth darrell killing herself??? hirst, why do you hate women....

ELIZABETH (HOWARD) BOLEYN INTRODUCTION IN S1 AND SHE'S THERE FOR ALL 20 EPISODES OF THE FIRST TWO SEASONS. THIS WOULD HAVE PREEMPTIVELY CURED MY DEPRESSION.

i should probably do one about hviii as well, huh, this is a hviii blog...controversially i liked much of it, is the thing...given they were going for the man-candy angle, it is retroactively funny that they didn't choose henry cavill for hviii instead, who fit (the young) hviii's physicality better, especially respective to height...i do understand why they cast jrm tho, he fit the role better, he could convey intensity in this unmatched way...and he was better at conveying the subtle moments, too....it's that those subtle moments were too few and far between, i suppose, that would be my main criticism.

[thesinglesjukebox]

GLORILLA, MEGAN THEE STALLION, AND CARDI B - "WANNA BE (REMIX)"

Go Jukebox! Go Jukebox! Blurb 'em, Jukebox! Blurb 'em Jukebox!

[7.10]

Wayne Weizhen Zhang: Punchline after punchline, read after read, hook after hook, no fat: just three talented titans at their tyrannical, terrifying peaks.  [9]

TA Inskeep: Cardi joins Megan and Glo — clearly their spiritual daughter — for some real hot girl shit. The beat isn't anything special, but when you've got spitters this hot on the track, I don't care. [8]

Taylor Alatorre: The addition of Cardi B turns what was a fun little collab into a putative Event Song, a burden that the midtempo sameness of the Soulja Boy sample is perhaps unequipped to take on. It's a trunk rattler, sure, but it feels perpetually on the verge of starting and never going anywhere, much unlike the drop-centric "Pretty Boy Swag." The upside of this rhythmic severity is that it makes it easier for the listener to pick out the pleasing stylistic contrasts at play here: the way GloRilla splays herself out across two whole bars just to remind us that a year has 365 days in it, whereas Cardi barks the words "pop ass on jet ski" like she’s avoiding a shot clock violation. Meg’s role is as the stabilizing force between these two extremes, which is maybe the first time in history that anyone’s referred to Megan Thee Stallion as a “stabilizing force.” [6]

Katherine St. Asaph: These credits should really be in reverse order, to better represent the three rappers' respective firepower here.  [6]

Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: I’m filling out a Cardi B apology form after being down on “Miami” earlier this year — this verse is so good that when she gives herself a pep talk in the ad libs at the end it sounds deserved. Glo and Meg are also great, of course, and I’ll always be favorably inclined towards a rap hit that pays tribute to E-40, but the beat here lets the trio down — it creeps when it should at very least groove. [7]

Nortey Dowuona: I am going to repeat what a great black poet once said in regards to all my white colleagues in reference to Cardi B: Don't save her; she don't wanna be saved. (Megan and Glo are good on this, tho.) [6]

Julian Axelrod: "Wanna Be" feels gloriously unmoored from time, as Megan Thee Stallion and GloRilla play hot potato with the "Pretty Boy Swag" beat and shout out 2012 heartthrobs Channing Tatum and Justin Bieber. (To be fair, Channing has never looked better.) But in an era where guest verses are airdropped in from a tour bus several states away, the biggest throwback is their electric interplay on the chorus, which crackles with the kind of chemistry that can only be achieved by two baddies in the same room. Listening to them trade bars feels like walking into a conversation directly after the punchline; if you have to ask why they're laughing, the joke is probably on you. Spare a thought for Cardi, who's left to wander the empty space around them like Howard Hughes roaming his abandoned mansion. Hearing her root for herself on the outro after Meg and Glo finish hyping each other up is one of the most devastating depictions of third wheeling ever put to tape. [7]

Jonathan Bradley: The Soulja Boi flip is hot but the Project Pat flip is hotter. Glo is imperious ("Do I look like fuckin' Super-Woman" she asks, incredulous), but Megan is commanding, running a sword through a million misguided fantasies with a cutting "You ain't my daddy; I'm not your baby." (Nice Gucci Mane call-back, too; the references here are laser-focused on the early Obama era.) This is a remix, so we get bonus Cardi material. Unlike Glo and Meg, she has to hype herself up at the end, which feels kinda bad, but she could never be a third wheel, not when she's bringing fun phrasings like "hoes be chippity-chopped," which rhymes, of course, with "hickory dickory dock." [8]

Ian Mathers: The original didn't particularly feel like it was missing anything, but I'll happily take Cardi's fierce verse here for "my toes white like Matthew McConaughey" alone. And I'm not too proud to admit that at some point in the future I am absolutely going to refer to myself as "white boy wasted," either. [8]

Brad Shoup: Is Megan admitting to skiplagging? Megan, they'll ban you from the airline! [6]

[Read, comment and vote on The Singles Jukebox]

[scout-nox]

Batfam Six the musical au.

This crossover has plagued me for years and I came across this post the other day and finally decided to actually draw the art I’ve been thinking about

I started with Dick Grayson as he was what started this au. I’ve always pictured him in the role of Katherine Howard even though she’s fifth in the line up I’ve always though of Dick when listening to ‘All You Wanna Do’ with the context of his past “relationships” with Liu Mirage and Catalina. (with the exception of the song ‘Ex-Wives’ when I can’t help to picture him as Catherine of Aragorn especially with the idea of Bruce firing him from Robin and giving Jason the mantle not long after).

I think of Bruce in this au as Henry, but instead of the relationship being that of a married couple it is instead the relationship as Batman and sidekick.

I drew a lot of inspiration from Katherines usual costume

As well as her blue alternate costume mostly because I liked the shoulders and the collar (I wanted to pay a little respect to the discowing).

[floralcrematorium]

you got me thinking about Henry marrying Nyo England and getting mad when she kept coming back after he beheaded her because she can't bear children.

*reawakens from my Tudor queens hyperfixation*

I AM HERE

Get ready for the longest nonsensical ramble nobody asked for. Does this make sense? I don’t know, let’s find out together.

My personal headcanon is that Nyo!England, or Alice, wasn’t married off to other royalty but instead powerful nobles. In the 1600s after the fall of the Tudor dynasty specifically.

She hated it for obvious reasons.

On top of that, I have a feeling that she’s somewhere on the ace spectrum and is demiromantic. If she were ever to fall in love it would be the slowest slow burn of all. I also don’t see her having a gender preference, but I digress. She’s always been a bit of a prude regarding nudity and “risqué topics.”

In regard to the Tudor period, I think this is abouts when a lot of personal changes happen for Alice because of the English Reformation, her life at court, and subsequent arranged marriage(s).

As far as her relationship with the king, I don’t think Henry VIII would’ve pursued Alice as a romantic partner, but the thought of Alice continuously popping back up after being “executed” is an interesting thought.

I see her being a well respected lady at court, in rank nearly equivalent to Anne of Cleves’ following her divorce (Anne of Cleves was the highest ranking English woman after the Queen Consort and Henry’s daughters, who had by this time been reinherited. If I’m wrong, then at least Mary was reinherited thanks to Jane Seymour). Imagine whatever Arthur’s rank would be at court, but the feminine equivalent for the early 1500s. Alice relished being at court, it gave her a feeling of power she hadn’t felt growing up. She had more freedom in her adolescence, but this was the first time she had political sway (she was part of the Queen’s household).

She would have had a rather positive relationship with Catherine of Aragon. I think they’re actually both very similar; Well educated for women of the time, smart, enduring, and headstrong. Alice also would have been Catholic, seeing as how England largely practiced Catholicism until Henry VIII formed the Church of England and mandated the practice of Protestantism.

I think the English Reformation shatters Alice on a variety of levels; Her relationship with religion becomes difficult, she is reminded yet again that women are not safe regardless of their social rank (albeit royal and noble women had it far better than the average person — Tudor England had the highest rates of educated women among the nobility in Europe), and finds herself endangered as well.

The Wars of the Roses had been a tumultuous time politically and I haven’t figured out Alice’s role before the 1490s other than the ye ol’ horse girl to court gossiper pipeline.

This is when a lot of things click for Alice. This is when she’s no longer the perfect “English Rose,” an ideal lady of the court. I think this is when she starts to become more cynical, especially as she’s probably near reached physical adulthood (I haven’t figured out how she ages yet smh). She honestly probably would have gotten executed at least once for having a similar attitude to the progression of England’s governing and religion that Catherine of Aragon and Mary did. Clearly seen in Anne Boleyn, Katherine Howard, and other high ranking women’s case, nobody was safe from the executioner’s block.

I don’t think she would have been unkind to Henry’s future queens (my personal bias), but there may have been some resentment. I have a soft spot for young Katherine Howard, though I feel like she would’ve been Alice’s least favorite.

Following the death of Henry, Alice would’ve fared alright during the reigns of his children. I have no clue what she was doing during Edward’s reign. She would’ve been fine during Mary’s reign considering her support for her mother. I also think she would’ve been fine during Elizabeth’s reign.

Admittedly my knowledge about English history and royal history fizzles out when the Stuart dynasty comes into play (1603 w/ death of Elizabeth I), but it’s around this time when Alice is used as a political pawn in marriage.

I could see her having formed some sort of deep connection with a human who is a constant presence in her life, or maybe another nation (you can take the person (me) out of Hetalia fandom, but you can’t take the FrUK out of the person). This is ripped away from her when England tests the waters with marrying Alice off for the first time. She’d had brief arranged engagements before, but they’d never gone through.

This one did and he was terrible.

He’s some made up man and all I know is that he’s terrible enough that Alice is willing to consider killing him to get out of the marriage and inherit his land.

Alice convinced her husband to have a nice countryside vacation, she studies some plants because she likes gardening, and one thing leads to another — he’s been poisoned and Alice is being tried for witchcraft in the 1660s/70s.

She gets put through ordeal by water.

She is very, very reluctant to return to court life, seeing as how the last time she was there she was treated like property. I’m unsure if she would retain her ex-husband’s estate after her second attempted execution.

She eventually does return to court because it’s a. her only choice and b. the allures of the potential for personal power and greed (enter the colonial period and imperialism).

Alice leaves the 17th century with newfound fears of arranged marriage (marriage at all tbh) and being fully submerged in water, a desire for some sort of control, and a discomfort living in rural areas despite her upbringing having been in small villages.

If she’s ever to marry again, it wouldn’t be until the late 20th century or beyond.

I also feel like her relationship with Arthur is. Difficult. They coexist but he will always be the main personification of England. They’ve had similar experiences, with both being immortals who age so slow that they don’t seem to age, but they can’t ever fully understand each other. In my head they’re related in some vague way, but have a strained sibling sort of relationship.

Admittedly I have a lot of research to do before I can feel comfortable with using my canon-divergent Nyo!England for anything. Most of my knowledge regarding English history comes from my AP European and World History classes in high school or my personal research into the royal family (Tudor and Victorian-Windsor period specific). My knowledge more so comes in the form of factoids about various English royals and not politics or culture, so I have a lot of blind spots. I’ve done my fair share of research into Tudor court life, but even then I’m not even sure if anything I’ve said above is valid.

Anywho, that’s the end of my ramble. Alice is a WIP because I have a lot of work to do regarding her role as a nation through each century. Hopefully when I’ve done the proper research I can do something with her, but my focus is on the Margaritaville AU right now. I’ll come back to her, though!!

[glassprism]

What do you think of Six?

I love Six! Six is to me what Hamilton is to others, I suppose (and I do feel like Six is riding on the shoulders of Hamilton in that it takes a historical person, or people in this case, and tells their story in a modern style - pop songs - and with modern casting). I enjoy Hamilton a lot and I highly respect what it's done in terms of casting diversely, buuutttt... I'll admit, I don't care much about American history. (I'm an American, I can say that.)

But Six? That musical feeds directly into my Tudor obsession. I enjoy most if not all of the songs, though my favorite is hands down 'All You Wanna Do', the song of one of my favorite of Henry VIII's queens, Katherine Howard, not the mention the most harrowing in the entire musical. The visuals took a bit to get used to (I was expecting, you know, actual Tudor gowns, and instead I got this), but they definitely grew on me and I love how colorful it is. I like that each queen gets a song, and while the idea of a story of women reclaiming their own story and going from fighting one another to working together has been done a lot, it was still something I appreciated.

And sure, they could have dug deeper into some things - at one point we hear the line, "All that we know is that we used to be six wives," addressing how each of those women are known to us mainly because of their connection to Henry VIII, but there's definitely a really good argument to be made that the fact that we know that much about them, is because the queens were the pinnacle of the class hierarchy in their day - think of all the lower classes below them who don't have even that. But that's ultimately not what the musical is trying to do; it's not trying to address every little inequity. It sets out to have a fun time about some English queens and they did that.

I do have one other major complaint though, and that's really about their portrayal of Anne Boleyn, who they portray as kind of a ditzy party girl. There are apparently theories that she's just playing that side of her up because it's what expected of her, or to hide her trauma, or what have you. But historically, and whether you love her or hate her, Anne Boleyn was one of the most complicated and interesting of Henry VIII's queens, highly intelligent, legitimately religious and interested in reform, magnetic and charming and hot-tempered, attracting all sorts of wildly divergent interpretations, and I really wish the musical had leaned into any one of these more. (Like have a song about how ambitious women are demonized, how the mistress is always shamed or seen as leading the guy on, I dunno.) I think in this case, the writers were a bit pigeonholed by their song inspirations ("queenspiration"), which for Anne Boleyn was Lily Allen and Avril Lavigne, and ended up writing her song more to fit in with those singers' styles rather than the other way around.

But like I said, I enjoy the musical for what it is, a fun time with some history and "take down the patriarchy" themes thrown in. And I'll admit, knowing what I know about the sources of the time and how people have interpreted and re-interpreted these women and will likely never truly know them, in all their complexity and humanity, simply because that kind of knowledge wasn't valued at the time, the line near the end, "But we wanna say before we drop the curtain / Nothing is for sure, nothing is for certain", legitimately brings me to tears at times.

Anyway... come hear me talk about the musical sequel to Six that will be called Twelve, about the twelve women claimants to the throne after Henry VIII died!

[unwrittenemmy]

Day three hundred and sixty five of posting every six queen

Audrey Fisher as Katherine Howard

aaand that’s a wrap folks! when i started this series i didn’t think it would last a whole year, but ive decided this is a good stopping point. i know that I’ve been spamming the six the musical tag and the tags for the respective queens, and there’s a lot of stuff i wish I’d done differently. i have some plans to pick it back up in a different way (starting all the way over lolz) but it definitely won’t be a daily thing anymore lolz. anyways, thanks for liking/reblogging these for a whole year 💕

[richmond-rex]

[Elizabeth of York], meanwhile, was one of the major reasons why that regime stood a chance. She was Henry's key to the Yorkist backing, without which he could not survive. Margaret and Elizabeth seem to have worked harmoniously together from the first. They often wore similar dress at court festivities to emphasize their closeness, and Margaret walked immediately after Elizabeth in formal processions. Henry often referred to them in the same breath, 'the Queen and my mother'. It is characteristic that when, in May 1487, Henry heard about the rebellion in Ireland, his first thought was to send 'for our dearest wife and for our dearest mother to come unto us.' These women were as valuable to him as any loyal magnate.

Lucy Wooding, Tudor England: A History

Their account books indicate that their favour and patronage were sought through gifts given by the political elite. In 1495, when anxieties were running high, Elizabeth brokered the marriages of her sisters Anne and Katherine to Thomas Howard and William Courtenay, sons of the earls of Surrey and Devon, respectively, thus drawing two powerful noble families closer to the Crown. When John Skelton presented verses to the king on St George’s Day, 1488, he included the queen and the king’s mother in his description of the knights of the garter all sumptuously arrayed for the feast day, noting ‘the queen’s grace and thy mother clothed in the same’. They made a formidable team.

[edwardseymour]

AU when Katherine Howard is sent to serve Mary but history still happens oh and the kiss sometimes if that helps

the idea of katherine becoming mary’s stepmother after serving in her household and having some kind of toxic wlw situationship is absolutely diabolical, actually. the way that would reframe their historical falling out over mary not showing katherine adequate respect into the absolute worst breakup of all time… screaming crying throwing up etc.

[heta-micronomics]

I've bounced the idea around since like 2020 of the micronations putting all their talents/specialties together to make a ragtag theatre troupe. Specifically, I think they'd put on an amazing amateur Six.

Catharine of Aragon: Seborga

Seborga as Catherine just makes sense to me. Aside from the easy Catholic/Vatican motifs, it also works since he was the "first" micronation of the group. He's the oldest and arguably the most rational. They have similar vibes.

Anne Boleyn: Aerica

I headcanon that he's fluent in Quebecois French, so I think he'd like to have a role that nods to it. Plus, his over-the-top personality and eccentricity remind me of Anne. He's bold and fun and creative, yet like her, he's a nervous kid looking for the right thing to do.

Jane Seymour: Hutt River/Molossia/Sealand

I really want to say Hutt River because it would work SO well if he used this as a way to say a final goodbye. He's done his best and stayed with Australia, his boss, etc, but now he's dying. He's leaving Wy behind. It also fits his general vibe, and he'd love a huge, dramatic number.

It would be a really interesting take on Molossia's relationship with America. His official notes say he's independent "for now," and he's made it clear that he loves (it at least respects) America. He wouldn't leave him even if he could. But at the same time, that's basically signing his own death certificate.

Sealand. Dear God, this works so well. Aside from the literal "heart of stone" references to both the fort and his human name, Sealand is loyal and determines to a fault. He's stayed with his bosses and friends, and despite all he says, he canonically does care about England—or, at least he doesn't hate him as fanon can suggest. He just wants to be with people, but that's the very thing that killed Jane. Also, blue motifs lmao.

Anna of Clives: Kugelmugel

My main rationale is that he's German (well, Austrian). Though it also works on a meta level, too. Design-wise, he reminds me a lot of Prussia. Having Kugel sing about just loving himself feels so sweet, both for himself and for his... brother? Cousin? Uncle?

Katherine Howard: Hutt River/Sealand

I really want to say Sealand. The song intentionally uses more "kiddy" language, and having someone physically younger would highlight that in a terrible poetic way. Plus, Sealand's tried over and over to get someone to love and care (or literally buy) for him. It's like his whole thing. The irony of seeing him finally give up as Katherine has such literary potential.

Hutt River would also be great. His personality fits very well, and again, him "giving up" can work on the micronation level as well since he was dissolved.

Catherine Parr: Wy

I can't think of anyone better. It feel like the obvious choice.