Discussion: George's Affair with Smeaton

"There's no evidence that George and Mark had an affair. As for George or Mark being gay.... there's a theory proposed by historian Retha M. Warnicke, who wrote "The Rise and Fall of Anne Bolyen", she claims that it was impossible for any of the five men who were accused of adultery with Anne Boleyn, because all five of them were homosexual. I personally find this a dubious claim, as do other historians like Eric Ives. I'm guessing Showtime might be building off the Warnicke theory, in showing that the charges against Anne and the five men were unfounded because they were either gay (Mark and George) or trying to kill her (William Brereton). That's just my theory anyway. :)"

"I'm suprise that Henry did not have a homosexual relationship since he was so free spirited with the women."

"Henry was totally into being a he-man ... Some historians say that George was actually convicted of his so-called crime with Anne because he was given a piece of paper to read (silently) during his trial. He was only supposed to say that he knew the statement to be true or false. However, George read it out loud - which indicated that Anne had told him that Henry sometimes couldn't get it up. That attack on the king's manliness was probably what got his head whacked off..."

"I don't think there is any evidence that Henry had a sex addiction just because he had relations with multiiple women (the TV show is something of a sexy soap opera ... so JRM gets to have "sex" with lots of ladies). Apparently, once Henry was older (40-ish) and fat and gouty, which he would have been about this time in the TV show we are watching, he was not the man about town he had once been but he always liked to think of himself as quite studly and handsome (despite all evidence to the contrary in later years). Personally, I think Henry was a romance-holic. He wanted the romance, the courtly passions, etc (and a son) and once he had his women and they had been around a while, he tired of them (romance wore off). BTW - have you ever seen Henry's suit of armor at the Tower in London. His cod piece is about the size of a bowling ball. He wanted to be the he-man no matter what..."

"Henry was totally into being a he-man ... Some historians say that George was actually convicted of his so-called crime with Anne because he was given a piece of paper to read (silently) during his trial. He was only supposed to say that he knew the statement to be true or false. However, George read it out loud - which indicated that Anne had told him that Henry sometimes couldn't get it up. That attack on the king's manliness was probably what got his head whacked off..."

"I've also speculated that Henry was in love with the idea of being in love. I guess one could also say that he was a romance-aholic. Do they have a support group for that? Most of all, he was in love with the chase, and once that was over he became incredibly bored. I've seen his arrmor at the Tower of London. I was only 12 at the time, so it didn't quite have the effect on me that Henry would have probably wanted. I've seen pictures since then, and the cod piece is hard to miss. What a distraction that must have been for all those noble ladies at Henry's court."