New Adventures of Queen Victoria by Pab Sungenis for January 28, 2012

Anne isn’t bitter about the end of their marriage at all.

Her hubby was a real pain in the neck.

Well, a real pain in HER neck, anyway.

Good musical references; I especially love Fairport’s Cockney accent.

Syphilis has been dismissed. There is the possibility of a genetic disorder – always a consideration for in-bred European royal families.But Henry VIII’s symptoms in later years – obesity, mood swings, wounds & sores on lower legs & feet that won’t heal . . .Untreated type II diabetes brought on by new, bulk imports of sugar from the Madeira Islands and New World in the early 1500s.

I saw a British TV program a year or two ago where they did a virtual autopsy of Henry based on historical records from his court, other courts, paintings, etc. Some of the conclusions were that he suffered from gout due to diet of far too many calories and too little veg, probably suffered a traumatic brain injury from a jousting accident, the garters that were so in vogue at the time probably exacerbated the gout and the skin wounds that wouldn’t heal, etc. The leeches probably didn’t help either.

Let the good times, ahem, roll.

Pab, I can’t remember — has ’En-e-ry VIII ever made an appearance?

“The guards all think that it’s a football that she carries in, and when she passes by they shout ‘is Army going to win?’ They think that it’s Red Grange instead of poor old Anne Boleyn . . .” Or is that just in the U.S. version?

I’m thinking Anne B. needs to be celebrating with her cousin, Catherine Howard. Maybe George Boleyn & Thomas Culpepper should join in, too. And what about that Countess of Salisbury? Weren’t she and Hal “friends” also?