"Anne's final legacy is one of which she would have been entirely unaware. Although Anne can never have realised, she was to be only the second wife of England's most married monarch. When Anne met Henry he had been married to Catherine of Aragon, a foreign princess, for many years and Henry's marital career was entirely conventional. Henry and Catherine had no son and, after Catherine's death he would have been expected to quickly remarry, perhaps to a French princess or another lady of the imperial family. Anne Boleyn changed all this. By insisting on marriage and driving Henry onwards, she broadened the king's horizons. Marriage to Anne showed Henry the possibility of choosing his own wife from amongst the noblewomen of his court. The marriage also showed other women, most notably Jane Seymour, the possibility of becoming a second Anne Boleyn. More pertinently, the break with Rome gave Henry the ability to rid himself of wives quickly and easy whenever he saw fit. Thanks to Anne, Henry never found himself married to another Catherine of Aragon clinging determinedly to her position. Instead Henry was able to change his wife whenever the mood suited him. This was the work of Anne Boleyn although she can never have expected or wanted it." - Elizabeth Norton, "Anne Boleyn: Henry VIII's Obsession"

"Who's she?"

George can answer the question himself, but his father will do it better. A hefty, round faced girl with a broad nose and pockmarked skin, long dark braids whipping water about her shoulders as she emerges from the water. A strapless silver-blue swimsuit clings to her wet skin, her belly spilling over the waistband, a silver ring catching the sun on her sternum. Thomas' head quirks up from his book.

"That's..." He regards her from behind his sunglasses. "...Henry Parker's daughter. The poet from Bristol, you've met him once or twice."

George hums. Mary doesn't do redeye flights, so she got in after them, late last night - they shared a quick hug in the hallway before she and her entourage went to sleep, not much time for him to take stock of the girls she brought along. Glancing over his shoulder, he spots her taking shots of Blue Chair Bay at the bar, just far enough that he's too lazy to go fetch her and request she introduce him to her friend. Anne would probably be happy to, but they left her back at the hotel, rounding off the spat she and Henry got into last night: something about the face she made when Magic Mike's Last Dance came on TV, how it soured her poor bedraggled husband's mood.

Part of him wishes he'd stayed behind with her, but it quiets when he lays eyes on Parker's daughter. She's trying to get back to shore, but the current keeps tossing her this way and that, sending her stumbling back into the waves, cackling all the while. He's got half a mind to muss his hair, walk in and lead her out by the hand, but he kills the idea. It's a fine line between gentlemanly and condescending. She finds her way to land eventually, shaking her hair dry like a dog. Her thighs are strong, ridged with cellulite, brown skin coated with sand from ankles to knees

[Henry and Katherine had] a private ceremony in the church of the Observant Friars outside Greenwich Palace. She was 23 years old, and he was just short of his 18th birthday. The marriage required papal dispensation, since according to canon law it was illegal for a man to take his deceased brother’s wife, as it would be considered a sin. However, Katherine testified that her marriage to Arthur had never been consummated, and therefore was not a true marriage. Because of this, the Pope gave his permission for Henry to take her as his bride, and on 11 June 1509 (just after Henry VIII took the throne), the two were married in an intimate ceremony at Greenwich Palace. According to the Calendar of State Papers of Spain, the marriage vows at this wedding went something like this:

“Most illustrious Prince, is it your will to fulfil the treaty of marriage concluded by your father, the late King of England, and the parents of the Princess of Wales, the King and Queen of Spain ; and, as the Pope has dispensed with this marriage, to take the Princess who is here present for your lawful wife?”

The King answered: I will.

“Most illustrious Princess, (etc.)”

The Princess answered : I will.

“Just like Anne before her, Jane refused to become the king’s mistress but, unlike her, did so sweetly and self-effacingly. Probably even the Boleyns did not know exactly when Henry became besotted with the woman who was such a contrast to the spirited Anne, but Jane was on the scene by the end of February, when the king made her brother, Edward, a gentleman of the privy chamber. […] ***It was a performance worthy of Katherine in her youth.*** On hearing of it, Henry declared how Jane ‘had behaved most virtuously’, and from now on he would visit her only in the presence of her relatives. Naturally, the carefully tutored Jane declined this too. And, equally naturally, Henry admired her virtue even more.” - Hunting the Falcon: Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn and the Marriage That Shook Europe