Her mom sure didn't, though.

Well, that's debatable. She died young, but she sure left her mark.

She would have died older if it was a boy, and her mark was mostly made on the headsman's block, but she was one of his most interesting wives, I'll give her that.

She was also the hottest one on the show. Well, her and Anne of Cleves, but to be honest, their choice for AoC kind of pissed me off. Joss Stone was delightful, but AoC was supposed to be a hideous CHUD, and there's no way in hell any British monarch would pass up a lady as fetching as Joss Stone.

Well, except maybe Edward II...

Yeah everyone's disgust at Anne of Cleves being "hideous" was the most unintentionally hilarious part of the series.

It made Henry look like one of those satiric internet PUAs, who takes a photo of a lovely young girl, notices she's got a small mole on her knee, and strts shouting "3/10 WOULD NOT BANG". Which come to think of it not have been far off from what Henry actually was, but all the same, the historical record agrees that Anne was legitimately ugly.

Not that I think Ms Stone was miscast, mind you! I could kind of see what they were going for, looks-wise, as she's not a "conventional" TV beauty; she's got a certain exotic lioness quality to her, which MIGHT, with great artistic license, suggest to the audience that her physical appearance is somehow "out of place" in Henry's court. A little suspension of disbelief is forgivable, like how we were supposed to accept Jonathan Rheys Meyers as a gouty old pig later in the series.

Also, I think Ms Stone nailed her role perfectly; she really sold the idea that Anne was a witty, caring, highly intelligent sweetheart, lovely in every way but the face, and would have made the perfect wife had Henry's tragic flaws not blinded him to her inner beauty until it was too late. The fact that Ms Stone was legitimately cute also, I think, made it a bit easier for the audience to accept Anne as a great catch, given the time restraints imposed by the medium. We of course cannot spend weeks or months getting to know Anne of Cleves inside and out, so maybe a little bit of cheating is acceptable in order to ensure that the audience gets the message?

Didn't the show at least hint that Henry had problems performing in the sack after the death of Jane Seymour and that he just used the "she's ugly" excuse as a way of blaming someone else for his sudden inability to keep it up?

I always thought that the Holbein portrait of Anne of Cleves made her look like Henry's prettiest wife by far. Didn't look anything like Joss Stone, but still bangable.

The show is pretty ridiculous for who it tries to portray as the "good" and "bad" guys. Henry's Duke buddy, Thomas More, and Bloody Mary are framed as virtuous. Cromwell and Anne Boleyn are shown as monsters despite their (in-show) actions being far less evil than the "good" character. It passes off every staunch Catholic as a living saint, every Protestant as evil or weaselly, then frequently cuts to the Vatican and Papacy being as corrupt as fuck. What the hell?

More interesting than the Pendragons?

Served.

>>I don't like this show because I'm a pedantic stickler for facts and this series plays fast and loose with the truth, but everyone should do themselves a favor and find a few documentaries about the Tudor dynasty.

David Starkey is all over this, and all over YouTube. There's actually something on YouTube called the Henry VIII channel.

I just like documentaries better. Nothing pedantic about it. Facts are usually more interesting than drama, especially when the history is relatively recent. iClaudius would probably seem a lot more like bullshit if the era it covered was only 500 years ago, instead of 2000. All that stuff about Messalina having a contest with a prostitute to see who could fuck the most meen. That was probably propaganda, don't you think? There were stories like that circulating about Anne Boleyn.

>>her mark was mostly made on the headsman's block,

I was thinking of Elizabeth. The two women barely knew each other, but they were both so amazing, it tells you something about genetics. Elizabeth's intellect has been compared to Mozart, and she's been the focus of some of the more outlandish anti-stratfordian theories. (Shakespeare's plays were an inside job!)

Also, Church of England