Elizabeth 1st, The Tudors, and an Unknown Welshman.

A schoolmaster was in his office one lunchtime, when he overheard a slightly heated verbal exchange between two boys outside. It was summer, and the Master had his office window open, therefore he could hear quite well what was going on.

The schoolmaster ventured outside and enquired of the boys as to what the problem was.

The 1st boy answered by saying "Sir, John isn't English, like the rest of us is he?"

"What makes you say that ?" enquired the older man. "He looks about the same height as you, you both wear the same coloured school uniforms, you speak the same English language, why do you say John is no English?"

"Well Sir, He´s only been in our school for one year. he used to live in Wales. He´s WELSH, Sir!".......

"Ah! And that bothers you, does it?"

"Not really, Sir, I´m only saying he´s from a different country. He´s not English."

The Master looked at the two young lads and asked .. "Have either of you heard of being British?"

Chorus of "Yes Sir". "Well, continued the teacher, picture the map of Britain in your minds

Both boys now try to tell the teacher in a simple way that England is the BIGGEST bit, with Scotland on top and Wales to the left , lower down.

Not too bad a rough description, boys.

"So here we have Scotland, England, Wales all together one fairly large island., yes? Now how is your history, boys.? Who knows who Queen Elizabeth 1st was?

Both boys answer politely that she was known as the Virgin Queen , because she never got married. One boy says that his mother admired Elizabeth 1st for being so tough as a single woman, in the 16 century. She helped make Britain Great and her sailors conquered the Spanish Armada.

"Excellent. " replied the schoolmaster., "but do you know who her father was?

Silence.

"Henry the 8th. Have you heard of him?" "Oh yes, chuckled the boys. He had SIX wives and kept chopping their heads off to get a new wife."

"I don´t think we should get quite so carried away, with that idea, but you are correct. Henry had 6 wives and 2 of them he had executed . One poor young woman was called Anne Boleyn, and yes, she did have her head removed with an axe!!!! That young woman left behind a daughter with Henry 8th........ her name was Elizabeth."

"Not the one who became Queen Elizabeth, Sir?".

"The very same, boys, yes. It was .

.

The schoolmaster ignored the "cors!" of the young boys and proceeded to play his ace card.

"So boys, you may be wondering why I am talking to you about Tudor history when we were originally discussing whether or not young John here, should be regarded as English or not.?"

"Would you agree that you are both British?"

"Yes, of course, sir,"

"OK One more question, who was the father of Henry V111 and therefore the grandfather of Queen Elizabeth 1st ? ""

Silence once more.

Well , boys. , I know that you have begun to study Richard the 3rd, who was supposedly a hunchback, and supposedly killed his 2 nephews so that he would be next in line to the throne?"

"Yes, Sir. The 2 little boys skeletons were found blocked up in a wall of the Tower of London weren't they?"

"That´s right, although it has never actually been proven that King Richard did the dastardly deed. It is certainly true that Richard was very, very ambitious to take the throne of England.

Do you know that , because there was another contender for the throne that Richard went into battle?"

"Yes sir,. He was killed in battle wasn't he?".

"He certainly was and he was fighting an army led by a brave man that had been mocked and nicknamed The unknown Welshman as though he was not even a noble. That Unknown Welshman as they called him was born in Pembroke castle of Royal blood.

It was HIS army that defeated King Richard and went on to march to London to take the Throne.! The Unknown Welshman named Henry Tudor.!!"

"Yes., Henry Tudor, or HenryV11, father of the mighty Henry V111 and grandfather to the incredible Elizabeth the 1st was a Welshman.

Only 2 months after the battle at Bosworth Field where Richard 3rd was killed, a Grand Coronation on 30th October 1485 was held to crown the King of England AND Wales.".

"You see boys, the History of Great Britain is not so simple as you might think. If you´d like to be confused completely, then remember that Queen Elizabeth had no children , so when she died the next in line to the throne was none other than King James of Scotland. So there was a Scottish King on the English Throne.

Don´t you think All being British is a little less complicated than worrying over whether John here is English or welsh.? After all the entire British Isles,( by that I mean we haven ´t even mentioned Ireland yet) is not a large place at all. You can let John love his Red Welsh Dragon, and you can love The cross of St George if you want to, but I hardly think it is worth arguing about.

After all ..There was enough blood spilled in battles to get Britain to be ONE Britain in the 1st place.