'You never stop learning strange things, do you? For instance... in the year 1612, the heir to the throne, James I's son Prince Henry, rather foolishly went for a swim in the Thames, caught typhoid, and died...
And who became king of England instead? Why, only Charles I, who got himself executed in 1649, in the midst of a ferocious civil war between himself and his severely angered Parliament. That I had heard about. Prince Henry was apparently, and in fascinating contrast to his younger brother, a Protestant:Henry was quite the Protestant - when his father proposed a French marriage, he answered that he was 'resolved that two religions should not lie in his bed'.
You can't help wondering: What If? What if Prince Henry had not gone for that swim, and had become the King instead of Charles I? How might English history have turned out then?'
What indeed?
Strangely enough I wrote an alternate history of the reign of Henry the Great for a history forum.
ReplyDeleteHad interesting charact3ers like Robespierre and King Gustav of Sweden in it as the British crown retook Normandy as well as turning back the Caliphate at Vienna.
As an adjunct Henry also allowed the Jews back into Britain as well as allowing them passage to the New World
I even got an award for it, still here on my hard drive too
Have you thought of publishing it online?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.changingthetimes.net/samples/17th/henry_ixth.htm
ReplyDeleteAlready there
Cheers I shall read...
ReplyDelete