Tyranny Is Dead. But Is Not Dead.

I originally wanted to write this on September 3 2008. This would have been the 350th anniversary of Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector who died on this date in 1658.

Always the controversial figure, he bucked the system when the system was corrupt by waging war against the Catholic King, Charles I. Of course we all know Cromwell then became corruptible after overthrowing and beheading the King. The Rump Parliament failed whilst Ireland was pillaged, then of course he did the ultimate flip-flop and shut down Parliament and assumed a dictatorship.

I've had some post-election thoughts. Though I have high hopes and the utmost respect for President-Elect Barack Obama, how much are things really going to change? Of course I hear the conservative grumblings that government will be so one-sided. My answer to that is that they should have done a better job in the last 8 years, then things wouldn't have come to this. The nation spoke, like a New Model Army or a changing of the guard, and our new leaders will take us forward.

But how much are things really going to change? Government is still government. They will still spout the same rhetoric; the same problems still plague us along with new ones. That is why I say, Tyranny Is Dead. But Is Not Dead. I do not know if Utopia can truly be a reality, if the human condition continues with corruption and deceit. It would be a good ideal to strive for, but with so many variables I highly doubt it truly can be achieved.

Catherine

Historical Series part 2 | Part 1

Catherine cried.

"I can't believe he's gone, not like that.

He's dead. . . my brother. . . he's dead.

He was doing so well, I mean, it was just months ago that he was conferred as Earl. An Earl!!! Do you know what this could have meant for this family had he not crossed...?"

Her husband Morgan comforted her. "Don't you worry, we'll be fine."

"But the way it all happened, it all happened so fast! It was only eight years ago that we were common folk. Everything was just as it was, we are simple folk. Sure your father enjoyed his closeness with the royals, he married the cousin of the king. We are but simple brewers, pulling pints in our pub. We live a quiet staid life, we could not imagine all this excitement in our lives all over again", Catherine said as she sobbed over her words.

Morgan pulled her in close to reassure her. "We are fine, he finds much favour in our son, we have nothing to be disappointed about." Mistakenly Morgan utters these words in misunderstanding, thinking only of themselves.

"But he's my brother! His head was fucking cut off, can't you see that? He did not deserve such hell!"

Morgan retreated a bit. "All I'm saying is when you're close that to anyone in a position of power - and Henry, if I can be frank here, is the most powerful man I've ever seen in action in my lifetime - you better not get on their bad side and unfortunately that's what he did."

"I don't know", said Catherine sullenly as she settled down. "I suppose he did. But still, 8 years of service to the king and it ends like this? He was a simple clerk, an office boy for Wolsey, and then It began. He just had to have Anne, didn't he?"

"Men have needs, and an insatiable appetite such as a king's cannot be quenched. You know this of men, I need not remind you of this. You know the story, the old bat Aragon was not doing it for him. She was his brother's wife and much older, as you recall. God bless her soul," Morgan reflected.

"But that whore, Anne" -

Morgan interrupted - "Anne helped get us to where we are today, like it or not. His influence has helped this whole family. Our Richard was granted the old nunnery up in Huntingdon two years ago and our nephew Gregory was allowed to marry the one true queen's sister Elizabeth Seymour, things are still looking up," Morgan waxed nostalgic.

"Yes, I suppose," Catherine replied. "But how horrible, put in the tower for treason and heresy. If only had he not pushed for His Majesty to remarry so soon, and to that ugly German, what did He call her, the Flanders Mare? Then to have his head cutoff, boiled and impaled on a spear and placed on London Bridge facing Southwark? That damned Norfolk, he's to blame for this. May he get what's coming to him and his niece Catherine Howard, whom His Majesty just married," she said angrily.

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Thomas Cromwell was executed on July 28, 1540.

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**Poetic liberties were taken in this post, it is unknown the dates of death of Morgan Williams and Catherine Cromwell Williams. They would have been in their late 60s-early 70s if this were to be true. -SJD

William and Morgan Go to London

Historical Series, part 1

William ap Ievan was an excellent Welsh archer. In those days, he was one of the best. So much so that he caught the eye of Jasper Tudor, Duke of Bedford who was the Lord of Glamorgan, sat in Cardiff Castle. William was from just outside present-day Cardiff in the Vale of Glamorgan, which to this day remains the more Anglicised part of Wales; partly due to its proximity to London and the heart of England, also due to its role in the Wars of the Roses, fought in part by Jasper.

You see, Jasper was a Tudor, before the name Tudor was made infamous by King Henry VIII. Tudor is an anglicisation of the Welsh Tewdwr, which was a common name in those days, which happened to be Jasper's great-grandfather's name. Jasper's father's name was anglicised from Owain ap Marededd ap Tewdwr to Owen Tudor, setting up what would be the Tudor Dynasty, and the lineage of the monarchs of England to go henceforth. Jasper and his father Owen laid claim to the kings of the old Welsh kingdoms of Powys, Gwynedd, and Deheubarth, having descended from Rhys ap Gruffudd (The Lord Rhys), among others.

Jasper's mother was the former Queen Catherine of Valois (valois meaning French for Fortune), who succeeded her husband King Henry V of England. Also Catherine was the daughter of the succession of French kings; her father being King Charles VI (le Bienaimé or le Fol) of France, being of the line of French kings that began with King Philip VI le Fortuné.

In the days during the Wars of the Roses, Welsh marriages were outlawed and were done in secret. Thus, Jasper's two daughters were considered bastards, although had it not been for the infighting in England between the Yorkists and the Lancastrians, and the Welsh struggle to show support for England after Richard III ascended, the marriage and the children would have been legitimate in the eyes of English law.

Anyway, this story isn't about Jasper, after all, it is about William and Morgan. William surely had impressed Jasper so much that he consented to the marriage between William and his daughter Joan Tudor. The Wars of the Roses were over at this point, their marriage legitimised, and they had a son, Morgan ap William.

Now with the ascension of Jasper's nephew Henry VII (whom much time was spent with Jasper in his younger years) to the throne of England, and William with his status of top archer, William made the obvious choice. He brought his family to London to join in King Henry VII's entourage.

As the years went on, Morgan grew up and married a woman named Catherine from Putney, just outside London, daughter of a brewer who ran his own alehouse in that town. Little did Morgan know in the years to come that her younger brother (13 years between them, as Catherine was 22 when she married Morgan) will come to work for the royal family and again alter the course of English history.