The Irony of it All - Varsity Tutors Scholarship Essay by Melissa

The Irony of it All - Varsity Tutors Scholarship Essay by Melissa - February 2016 Scholarship Essay

Varsity Tutors Scholarship Essay
If you could have dinner with any historical figure, who would you choose? Why?
ENTER FROM 02/01/16 - 02/15/16
The Irony of it All - Varsity Tutors Scholarship Essay
I think I would enjoy a dinner date with King Henry VIII of England, and watch as he stuffs himself full of the bittersweet irony that would be served to him on a golden plate of karma. Henry VIII is infamous for executing wives and annulling his marriages in desperate attempts to secure England with a male heir to the Tudor throne. Ironically, his only legitimate son did not live long enough to govern his own realm.
I would love to be the first person to tell King Henry about his family’s legacy. What would he say when he found out that his throne was handed down to his only surviving daughters? His obsession with having a son drove him to extreme measures. Were all the executions and annulments worth it? Was it not an omen that almost all of his male offspring were either stillborn or died shortly after birth?
Does King Henry know that the last monarch of the Tudor dynasty was his “illegitimate” daughter with Anne Boleyn, who he had beheaded on charges of adultery, incest and treason? King Henry’s obsession led to generations of a house divided by religious unsettlement, and ultimately the dissolution of his family’s reign.
If King Henry could have caught a glimpse of his future, would he have ever had his marriage to his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, annulled? This is just one of the many questions I would love to ask if I could have a dinner date with King Henry.