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From: "Don Mcarthur" <>
Subject: Fw: Valois Madness passed to England's Henry VI ?
Date: Sun, 5 Oct 1997 13:47:45 +0200


Hi,
The latest in this thread.

Regards,
Don McArthur.

----------
> From: BRUSH FIRE <>
> To: wayne cohen <>
> Cc: ;
> Subject: Re: Valois Madness passed to England's Henry VI ?
> Date: 4 October 1997 14:25
>
>
> > Wasn't Henry V worried that the madness of his wife's father Charles VI
> > would be passed into the Plantagenet family ? Did people not have
> > thoughts like that in the Medieval period ? Even a peasant like me
asked
> > my future wife if there were any genetic problems or insanity in her
> > family ... -wayne
>
>
> I'm sure that went down very well, Wayne!
>
> As for Henry V, whom I have studied in great detail, I would say that
> several factors came into play.
>
> Firstly, Henry V was a typical "macho" Plantaganet ruler, who firmly
> believed in his own manhood, the supreme rights accorded to him by his
> Royal blood, and the fact that God was undoubtedly on his side. Even on
> his deathbed, you'll remember, he is said to have cried to invisible
> spectres, "You lie! My portion _is_ with the Lord Jesus Christ!"
>
> Until very recently, many men refused to believe it possible that
> important genetic traits could be passed on from the female side,
> particularly to a son. Therefore, it is quite possible that Henry
believed
> his own English royal blood to be the dominant, or even only significant,
> force at work on the character of their son. Plus Henry did believe that
> God was on his side, and that his marriage to Catherine de Valois was
part
> of the larger divine plan whereby Henry - in doing God's work - would
> unite France and England under one ruler (himself). Marrying Catherine
> would placate the Valois claimants and help to bring peace, therefore it
> would clearly find favour in God's eyes and could not be wrong.
>
> Another consideration is the fact that Henry did make sure that he met
> Catherine in person before the marriage took place, and he made sure that
> he did not seem too eager: for political reasons undoubtedly (he at one
> stage flirted with the notion of an alliance with an Aragonese princess)
> but also possibly in case he should find himself irredeemably fettered to
> a princess who showed signs of the madness that so fatally tainted her
> father. Henry met Catherine, and was probably satisfied that she showed
> no signs of inherited insanity. Therefore he would have felt confident in
> proceeding with the marriage, bearing in mind the above point that his
> blood would be the stronger anyway.
>
> It is a shame that he did not have more foresight, as not only was
> Catherine's father insane, but Charles VI inherited this condition
> directly from his mother Joan de Bourbon: making it blatantly obvious
that
> this insanity COULD be passed through the female line. Some say that the
> Dauphin Louis, Catherine's elder brother, showed some signs of
instability
> during his short life: this too would have been a clear warning to Henry.
>
> Michelle
>
>
****************************************************************************
*
> Michelle Murphy | "Every man has two names:
the one
> 3rd year Business Studies student | he is given, and the one he wins
> Trinity College Dublin | for himself"
> E-mail: | - "Merlin" (Stephen Lawhead)
> Web: http://www3.tcd.ie/~mmurphy|
> |"It is better to know some of the
> Treasurer of TCD Sci Fi Society |questions than all of the
answers"
> *Largest, most active society* | - James Thurber
>
****************************************************************************

>

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