Comments by "RenShiWu" (@renshiwu305) on "David Starkey: Young Henry VIII" video.

  1. Elizabeth Tudor had two examples of female queenship from which to take a lesson: her cousin, Jane Grey, and her half-sister, Mary I. Both of her female relatives came to grief because of their marriages. It was Jane Grey's father-in-law, John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, who put her into place as a claimant to the English throne via Edward VI's final will (crafted as the young king lay dying, and one which altered Henry VIII's will for the succession). Unfortunately, Mary, who was in Henry's original will, was able to garner support and take the throne. Mary herself faced serious opposition in her marriage to the Spaniard Philip. Mary was seen as too in thrall to her husband's policy initiatives, one result of which was the loss of Calais in France. Elizabeth had no desire to be a pawn to her spouse and kept to the single life.
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