When Constantinople fell, the Hundred Years' War between England and France was also drawing to a close.
Beginning in 1453, Henry VI suffered intermittent mental breakdowns. Richard, Duke of York, was named Regent and Lord Protector, and not long afterward, the Wars of the Roses began.
When the red rose and white rose merged into one, England entered the Tudor dynasty, and the age of the Plantagenets seemed to have ended.
If one traced the genealogy of Elizabeth Howard, Anne Boleyn's mother, the Norfolk family could be traced back to Edward I of the Plantagenet dynasty. Through marriage with the Buckingham family, their lineage was then connected to Edward III. After the Duke of Buckingham was beheaded in 1521, the Norfolk family became the greatest noble house in Britain.
By comparison, Anne Boleyn's father's family was far more ordinary. Her great-grandfather, Geoffrey Boleyn, had merely been a silk merchant, though he later became Lord Mayor of London.
She had not initially set her sights on the king, and likewise, few could have imagined that the "Plantagenet" would bloom again in the British court in such a manner.
There was a Greek word, "apatheia," meaning "without desire." This absence of desire did not merely mean bodily pleasures, but also abandoning passion and becoming "one's own master" through that renunciation.
"I beg you, tell me plainly and clearly what is in your heart. Are you willing to love me? I must have this answer. Cupid's arrow has struck me, and the wound has lasted for more than a year. Yet I still cannot know whether I may have a place in your heart."
The king had used the word "beg" in his letter to Anne, as though Anne were now his "master."
When one was thirsty, one wanted water. When that desire