Talking Statues: mutilated text (2nd part)

Here you have the mutilated text of the 2nd part of the interview to Henry VIII's statuehttp://sanchezbenedito.blogspot.com.es/2014/11/historias-y-humor-talking-statues.html. I invite you to fill in the blanks. To help you, I give you the first letter of every word omitted:


J: Well, it was Jane Seymour, your third wife, who finally g..... birth, in 1537, to a son, Prince Edward, the future Edward VI. You must have been very h.... the day he was born?


H: Yes, it was, without a doubt, the happiest day of my life, and the e..... was celebrated all over the country, but my happiness soon t....... to sorrow. It had been a difficult d....., and Jane died 12 days later from an infection.


J: Well, in any case, you had at last the male heir you had so l.... wished for, why then did you have to marry Anne of Cleves, your fourth wife, a German lady who cannot be s..... to have been a paragon of beauty, her face a..... being pock-marked and her laugh resembling a horse's n.......?


H: She was not as ugly and disagreeable as you are making her o....to be, but it is true that I was misled by a much too flattering p...... Hans Holbein the Younger had painted of her a.... my request, and indeed when we first met, I found she was quite unattractive. I married her n....... in an attempt to ensure my succession. I was worried about Edward. The royal doctors had told me that the Prince's health was poor, and I somehow sensed that he wouldn't outlive me b.... many years.


J: Anyway, it seems that you could not o....... the revulsion Anne's hideous looks made you feel, t..... the extent that it was rumoured you could not even make love to her. T....., less than six months after you had married her, you expressed your desire to annul the marriage so that you could w..... another. Anne had the g..... sense to confirm that the marriage had never been consummated, probably s....... her life by her admission.


H: Yes, the marriage was dissolved, but we r......... good friends. Anne received the title of 'The King's Sister', two houses and a g......... allowance.


J: Well, free again, you married for the fifth time, the woman of your c....... being now the young and beautiful Catherine Howard, Anne Boleyn's cousin and her lady-in-waiting. But the marriage to Catherine didn't l....... long either, as she was, like her cousin Anne had been, b...... But why did you have her beheaded?


H: Well, she was found guilty of a........, this time without the shadow of a doubt so, m....... to my regret, the only thing I could do was to order her e....... to safeguard my honour.


J: Finally, in 1543, four years b........ your death, you married the wealthy widow Catherine Parr, your sixth and last wife. What can you tell me about her?


H: Catherine p...... to be a good choice. She looked a..... me, patiently enduring my frequent changes of m......., brought about by my painful disease and, soon after we were married, she persuaded me to be r...... with my daughters Mary and Elizabeth who, through An A..... of Parliament, were duly put back in the l...... of succession after Edward, Prince of Wales.


J: And they both became Queens in due t......: first Mary, when Edward died when he was only 15, confirming your premonition about him, and then Elizabeth, after Mary died w........ issue. Concerning Mary, it's been suggested you may have entertained hopes that when she a....... to the throne, she would serve as a mediator between Catholics and Protestants, but she proved to be an intolerant Catholic Queen, and she had hundreds of her subjects p...... to death for religious reasons, a fact which e..... her the sobriquet of 'Bloody Mary', which is how she's known in history. Now that you know what happened, can you state an opinion about your daughter's reign?


H: It's not for me to judge her, but I can tell you that her behaviour does not s........ me in the least. I always knew Mary was a fervent Catholic, like her mother.


J: However, you may be pleased to know that as far as Elizabeth, your daughter by Anne Boleyn, is c........., it was a completely different story. 'The Good Queen Bess', as she was sometimes affectionately called, or 'the Virgin Queen', because she never wished to get married, r....... wisely for 44 years; in religion, she was a convinced Protestant, but much more m....... than you or Mary had been and, in the military domain, by d...... the all-powerful Spanish Armada, she gave England days of glory, something that you were never able to a........ Have you got anything to say about her?


H: I'm not surprised e...... Elizabeth was educated as a Protestant, and my blood ran t......... her veins. Regarding her brilliant military success, it shouldn't be forgotten that it was d..... my reign that a permanent Royal Navy was created.


J: Now, King Henry, after so many women in your life, your six wives and the g..... number of mistresses you had besides, can you tell me if there e...... was a woman you really loved?


H: Believe it o..... not, the only woman I ever really loved was Catherine of Aragon, my first wife.


J: You say you loved her, and y...... you repudiated her and had your marriage to her annulled.


H: For pure r...... of state. Much a...... I loved her, the fact remains that she f....... to give me a son. I needed a male heir, and so I had to marry s........ else, but she always had my respect, and I saw t..... it that she was treated fairly, even t..... she had refused to accept my suggestion that she r....... to a nunnery, facilitating in this way the annulment process.


J: Well, Your Majesty, the interview is now c....... to an end, but before we finish, here's my last question to you: I'm sure my readers would like to know, i..... view of the agitated life you led, if you have any r.......?


H: No, I have no regrets. I did what had to be d....... I played my role in English history and, w..... I to be born again, I would do exactly the same, with one exception.


J: What exception?


H: I spent too much time and money o..... festivals, celebrations, banquets, tournaments and t..... like. Actually, it was in the last tournament I took p...... in, in 1536, that I had my unfortunate jousting accident. I fell o..... my horse, and a leg w...... I had suffered years earlier re-opened. The doctors treated it, but it could never be h....... The wound festered and b........ ulcerated, thus preventing me f..... maintaining the level of physical activity I had previously enjoyed, giving me insufferable pain and making hell of the rest of my days on earth, my unsightly o...... hastening my death at the age of 55. Yes, you can be sure that if I were to be born again, I wouldn't make the same mistake.


J: Well, I thank you, Your Majesty, for the s......... of your answers.


H: You are w.......

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Talking Statues: mutilated text.(1st part)

Here you have again the first part of the interview to Henry VIII in my story 'Talking Statues'http://sanchezbenedito.blogspot.com.es/2014/11/historias-y-humor-talking-statues.html, but the text is mutilated. I invite you to fill in the gaps. To help you, I give you the initial letter of every word omitted:


Journalist: Well, Your Majesty, I'm a reporter from The Times, and I'm here to ask you a few questions about your life and r......... I hope you don't mind, as some of my questions might s...... too personal to you.


King Henry VIII: Whether I mind or don't mind is beside the p......., since I've been programmed to answer, to the b........ of my knowledge, any questions I'm asked, no m....... how personal they may be.


J: OK, Your Majesty. Well, we'll s........ the general data everybody knows about, such as date of birth, duration of reign, date of death, etc., and concentrate on those i....... about which you can express an opinion.


K: All right, I'm ready, f......!


J: Well, Your Majesty, generally speaking, History doesn't hold a f...... opinion of your person or your reign. To start w....., you've been accused by some historians of getting rid of anyone who d...... oppose you by charging them with treason and having them b......., even when some, like Thomas More or Cromwell, had previously rendered useful services to the Crown. What do you have to say to this?


K: It is t...... that I ordered the execution of many knights of high standing, including Sir Thomas More and Thomas Cromwell, but you have to b...... in mind that those were turbulent times and the security of the state had to be the king's p........ And I, as King of England, had then p........ enemies: Charles I of Spain, following the annulment of my marriage to his a......, Catherine of Aragon, and P.... Clement VII, after my rejection of papal authority, being the most formidable, though b..... no means the only ones.


J: Well, on the face of it, it seems quite obvious that your reason for rejecting papal authority, initiating the English Reformation was the Pope's refusal to declare your marriage to Catherine n...... and void, but there are historians who argue that you would have finally decreed the separation of the English Church from Rome in any case, because you n..... were a true Catholic. Is that so?


K: No, that's completely false. I was a devout and well-informed Catholic, t..... the extent that my 1521 publication Assertio Septem Sacramentorum('Defence of the Seven Sacraments') earned me the title of Fidei Defensor ('Defender of the Faith), b...... upon me by Pope Leo X. And if Pope Clement had not been so dull-witted,

clearly ill-advised by Charles I of Spain, Catherine's nephew, England would have probably remained Catholic to the p...... day, though I must say that the dissolution of the monasteries would have been inevitable so that taxes once payable to Rome could be trasferred to the Crown, together w..... the riches the religious orders had amassed.


J: Now, for my readers' benefit, I'd like to ask you a few questions about your wives, who played such an important r..... in your life. As is w..... known, you were married six times: first, to Catherine of Aragon, the youngest surviving child of King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella I of Castile. Catherine gave you a d....., Mary, and remained your legitimate devoted wife for 24 years, but still you had the marriage annulled, why?


H: It is true that she gave me a daughter and, before that, she had given b..... to a son - Henry - who unfortunately died seven weeks later, but after 24 years of marriage, it became clear to me that she wouldn't be able to give me a son, and I needed a m..... heir and so did England. In addition t.... that, when she married me, Catherine was the widow of my brother Arthur, and though we had a papal dispensation, I was beginning to feel that we were c...... incest.


J: Come on, Your Majesty, don't be ridiculous! That's a poor pretext. Catherine and Arthur had indeed been married for 20 weeks, but Arthur d...... at the age of 15, which makes it practically impossible for their marriage to have been consummated. And b....., remember you had the papal dispensation, which your father, Henry VII, and the Spanish ambassador, had obtained when you were betrothed to Catherine in 1503, that is six years before you married her, and they had made sure that the dispensation would be valid even if Arthur and Catherine's marriage had been c..........


H: That is as it may be, yet I felt that in marrying Catherine I had acted. c...... to Leviticus 20:21: "He that marrieth his brother's wife, doth an unlawful thing..."


J: But when you married her, she was your brother's w......, not his wife. Isn't it more true then that you wanted your marriage to Catherine annulled because you had f....... madly in love with Ann Boleyn, an attractive young woman in the Queen's entourage, and you were determined to marry her at a..... costs?


H: No, that's w...... As I've already said, I badly needed a male h..... - I even contemplated the possibility of legitimising Henry FitzRoy, the bastard son I'd had by Elizabeth Blount, one of my m..... - but I finally decided to reject Catherine and marry a woman of child-bearing age.


J: Well, be it as it may, in the end you h.... your way, and Anne Boleyn became your second wife. She also gave you a daughter, Elizabeth, but she too f..... to give you the son you desired, but why did you have her beheaded?


H: She was accused of adultery, incest, witchcraft and treason. She was tried, found g....... and condemned to death.


J: You know very well that none of those charges was ever proved, but you were in a hurry to get r..... of her. Actually, the day after her execution, you became engaged to Jane Seymour, one of Anne's ladies-in-waiting, with whom you were having an a......, and whom you married ten days later. But, please tell me, are you really sure, d...... in your heart, that Anne was unfaithful to you?


H: I know she flirted with some men at court but, to be honest, I don't know for sure w....... she actually cuckolded me or not, and I reckon that will r...... a secret for ever.

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