I finally got around to watching Margical History Tour last night and was appalled by the first segment, which, instead of parodying history, distorted it to an unnecessary degree. To wit:
1) Catherine of Aragon (Marge in this ep) actually died BEFORE Anne Boleyn did. In fact, Catherine's death directly caused Anne's beheading. After Catherine died, Henry's Lord Chancellor, Thomas Cromwell, thought an alliance with Spain would be beneficial, but knew that Spain would demand that the daughter of Henry and the Spanish Catherine be recognized in the succession to the crown. Knowing Anne B would never go for this, Cromwell devised slanderous charges of adultery and treason against her, whereupon she and five innocent men were beheaded. A Catherine did outlive Henry, but it was Henry's 6th wife, Catherine Parr, not Catherine of Aragon.
2) Henry actually got his male heir (who became the shortlived King Edward IV) through his brief third marriage to Jane Seymour, who died in childbirth. She was not executed for having a whiny voice.
- The Archbishop of Canterbury was not black.
Of course, some distortion is funny, but one should not play fast and loose with history if one is an influential educational tool like the Simpsons. I can already see the history teachers of the next generation trying to dissuade young minds of the notion that Henry VIII married a stoner dude.
While the other two segments were, to my knowledge, 100% historically accurate, I sure hope someone got fired for the first one!
nate the historian, removing my tongue from my cheek........now