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The Tudor Heart: Romance or Propaganda? · Mark and Pete

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  The Tudor heart, romance or propaganda?
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  Welcome to Mark and Pete. Today we're firmly in Tudor
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  territory where everyone is either getting divorced or
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  executed and pretending it's all for the good of the nation.
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  Yes, it's Mark and Pete, 2 blokes with half an opinion.
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  Now here's our first thought. The King and Queen of Hearts,
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  Ode to the bee, to the Tudor heart, a symbol of Love's token.
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  Until the chain then tears apart and eternally lies broken.
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  Yes, extraordinary. Now the British Museum has
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  successfully raised to £3.5 million to keep a pendant which
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  is made of gold. Which is is associated with King
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  Henry the Eighth's marriage to his first wife, Catherine of
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  Aragon. Now this is an incredible
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  finding, an extremely important artifact.
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  Not only does it reflect the romance of King Henry the
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  Eighth, but also there is an underlying trend here.
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  There's something that we need to to explore a little bit more.
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  Love is on one side, propaganda the other.
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  Mr. Pete, this particular pendant is of historical value,
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  but it isn't just about a pendant of love, is it?
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  Well, no, not if by this we mean romantic love, like is sometimes
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  expressed on Valentine's Day. Not that not not necessarily
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  that sort of love because of the political connections that were
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  forged because of the marriage. So Catherine was a Spanish,
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  Spanish royalty and and also Roman Catholic.
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  Now that's important because you then got a joining together with
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  the, the continental church. And it's, it's a way of
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  embedding Britain into, into good relationship with Spain and
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  therefore with other countries in Europe and having a good
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  trade protection against invasion, all that sort of
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  thing. So it, it it would seem then
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  that it's cynical, except for, yeah, you could say slightly
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  cynical in that. Well, maybe the the people who
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  saw this, it's because of love between Henry and Catherine.
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  Well, Catherine, though, was always certainly all for it.
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  You know, she was a political operator herself.
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  You must assume that she didn't know what was going on.
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  She's known to be well respected in political circles.
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  She was first married, of course, to to Prince Arthur, but
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  he had died by this point. So, you know, it was had he died
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  by this point? My, my, my history.
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  He's going to. Yes.
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  I think you had. Yeah.
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  And so. So here's here's the here's the
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  issue. Yeah, I think that it it is more
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  propaganda than romance, but it's two sided.
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  It's an agreement. It's not Henry taken advantage
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  of Catherine. It's two people coming together
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  for political reasons, which can develop into love or could have
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  developed into love, depending on your view of what happened
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  next. Well indeed.
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  Now a metal detectorist found this particular pendant in
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  Warwickshire Field way back in 2019.
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  A remarkable find. The actual pendant itself is in
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  the shape of a heart, but what it does have embedded in it are
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  old French words which simply says toussiours, which it means
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  always. Now it's, it's true.
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  It's an exquisitely crafted piece of jewelry made of gold
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  encrusted with other jewels. And I will say that just purely
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  or from the point of view of the artistry, it's a it's a
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  magnificent piece. But to your point, what does it
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  really sort of reflect? Yes, it's the betrothal of, you
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  know, Henry to, to Catherine. But really, as we all know, as
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  history is highlighted, that really didn't last very long
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  because as we know that what was very important at that time is
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  that Henry wanted a son. What he had was his daughter,
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  Princess Mary. And whilst obviously that was
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  fine for the first born, he still needed a son and an heir
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  at the time. And, and so I think that Mr.
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  Pete, when we look at the religious side of this and what
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  this heart actually really symbolises is also the political
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  shenanigans of going on, of course in the Catholic Church at
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  the time and the allegiance between England and of course
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  Rome. Yes, Now this, this is an
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  important point that's often lost here.
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  Yeah, it it wasn't that there was this big church, the
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  Catholic Church and then Brit Britain was part of it and left.
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  In fact, I misspoke earlier and saying Britain again then is
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  slightly incorrect. I just think as I said it, I
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  regret it. It's not Britain, it's England
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  we're talking about. So I mean, Scotland was a
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  separate Kingdom at the time, but a different king, you know,
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  and different relationships with countries in Europe.
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  So with the but coming back to the point at hand, yes, the
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  England had the English Church, which with its own Archbishop,
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  which had a relationship with the, the Bishop in Rome known
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  these days strongly as the Pope. That was one of the names that
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  he was called. But that wasn't there wasn't
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  sort of this idea that you had the Catholic Church.
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  It was actually the Roman Church.
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  All the church around was Catholic.
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  There was the English Catholic Church which had a relationship
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  with Rome. It wasn't as simple as that.
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  But the Roman Catholic Church was very powerful and it had not
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  only power in it's own right and it's own military, it had
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  influence over the the military, militaries of other countries
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  around. So therefore it was very, very
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  useful for for Spain and England to be aligned and have having,
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  having a, a Roman Catholic marrying Henry was brilliant.
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  And in fact, Henry wrote, or possibly people say had someone
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  write for him, a treatise which defended the Roman Catholic
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  faith, Roman Catholic view of, of theology, which is rather
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  ironic, isn't it, considering what happened later with England
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  leaving the Roman Catholic Church.
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  But the, the, this gave him the title defender of the faith.
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  That's where that term comes from for the English king.
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  So this was very much not only a political but a religious
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  marriage bringing the two sides together.
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  And as I say, you know, it was both sides working together even
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  when they were married. Was it was it?
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  I think there was love there. It was also respect because I
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  think I'm right in saying there was a war with Scotland in 1513
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  and 1513. Yep.
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  I just see a note here that it is was 1513151513.
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  There was a battle against the Scots where Henry went and
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  commanded the the military. So therefore leaving Catherine
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  in basically in charge of the country at the time.
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  So obviously it was it was there was some trust there as well.
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  So it so this, it gives this pendant the Tudor heart more of
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  a meaning it and it makes it more poignant that just simply
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  because Mary wasn't a boy and in those days you weren't allowed
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  to just choose your gender. So Mary not being a boy made it,
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  made everything difference and changed history.
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  Well, it's interesting, isn't it?
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  Because at that very point is, I think the, the, the core to this
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  because as you say, that particular pendant was a symbol
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  of affection. But what would have happened, of
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  course, if Mary had turned out to be a boy?
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  We probably would have been looking at the entire world's
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  history in a different light. And, and I think that that
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  really would have changed the, the meaning of the pendant
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  itself, because now it's sort of looks like, you know, the sort
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  of broken parts of history and relationships.
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  But had many been a boy, maybe we'd be sort of talking about
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  society in a different way. Yes, it's interesting.
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  I I think my view is from a a Protestant point of view, the
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  religious changes that happened later under Harry were a good
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  thing, even though it or rather possibly because it caused so
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  much turmoil, changes in religious thought that opened up
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  the Bible, Christian and spiritual experience to all the
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  people rather than being so controlled by the Roman church.
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  I think that the Roman church and its and, and similar
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  churches such as the English Church, but that it's impossible
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  to say whether that wouldn't have happened, perhaps in a more
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  peaceful manner had we not had this issue of Henry being
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  without male issue. And so he he couldn't, couldn't
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  have his line perpetuated. So, yeah, it, it really is.
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  Then it's one of those poignant, sad reminders of how political
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  allegiances can just result in sadness and disaster.
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  Not, of course, there were absolutely no ramifications or
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  reflections on what's happening today.
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  Well, it's interesting that Henry the Eighth was known as a
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  tyrant. We know exactly what his
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  motivations were. The pendant was, of course, a
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  symbol of love, but at the end of the day, when it came to the
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  bottom line, he chewed a heart and spat it out.