Love and Power

Sabrina D. Harris

životní příběhy úžasných žen historie v angličtině se slovíčky

Ilustrace: Sonia Pešková

http://cargocollective.com/soniapeskova

Grafická úprava: Jan Mikš
www.janmiks.com

Sabrina D. Harris
www.sabrinadharris.cz
www.houseofstories.cz

sabrinadharris@hotmail.com

ISBN: 978-80-87597-12-5
Copyright©2016 by Sabrina D.Harris

Copyright©2016 by Sabrina Harisová

LIST OF STORIES

Anne Boleyn – The Beheaded Queen

VOCABULARY

Elizabeth I. – The Virgin Queen

VOCABULARY

Anne Boleyn – The Beheaded Queen

Once, many hundreds of years ago, there was an English queen by the name of Anne. Standing on a set of wooden stairs awaiting the moment when her head would be cut off, she took the little time she had left to think about the life she was about to lose and how it all had started.

Anne Boleyn was a beautiful lady in waiting to the beloved Queen Katherine of Aragon, the wife of the King of England Henry VIII. Henry and Katherine were happy but the their one regret was not having had a son. The Queen was pregnant many times during her marriage, but no child survived except for a daughter named Mary. But the King needed a son. Henry was charming and it was believed that he was the most handsome King in the Christian world. He loved to hunt, he could play tennis, he was great at fencing and people admired him on his horse. He also loved women and they loved him back.

One day he was introduced to Anne Boleyn, a young girl who was helping her Queen with sewing shirts for the poor. She was a sister of his lover Mary Boleyn whom he had got tired of. As a king’s lover Mary received lots of gifts and the men in her family received new positions, lands and money. Thomas Boleyn, the father of Mary and Anne, didn’t want to lose these privileges. He was worried that the King would soon go and find himself a young girl from a different family to be his new lover, so he convinced Anne to seduce Henry and make him love her instead. And that she did.

As the King of England, a powerful man, he could have anything and anyone he wanted, but Anne refused his gifts and his attention. Not being used to being refused, he tried harder and harder. He even organized special evening balls to see her and to dance with her.

Queen Katherine noticed that Anne was different than his other lovers, but it was too late. Henry, madly in love, asked Katherine for a divorce. She refused. He sent his people to Rome to ask the Pope for the annulment of his marriage. The Pope refused, which angered Henry.

Anne became Henry’s best friend and an adviser. It was she who gave him that famous idea to break with the Church of Rome and create a new English Church that he could be the head of. Then he would be able to give himself the long desired annulment and finally marry Anne.

After 7 long years, Henry became the head of his own Church and immediately afterwards he married Anne Boleyn. She was pregnant at the time of her coronation and gave birth to a daughter Elizabeth as Queen Anne.

But her happiness was short-lived. After only two years of marriage and three miscarriages, Henry left her for the blonde beauty Jane Seymore. He needed a son and the freedom to have him. He accused Anne of being unfaithful with many men from the court, even of seducing her own brother. Although none of this was true, Queen Anne was sent to the Tower, which served mostly as a prison and after a short trial was executed. Henry married Jane Seymore just 11 days after Anne’s death.

VOCABULARY

to behead - setnou hlavu (komu)

to await - očekávat

lady in waiting – dvorní dáma (žena vysokého postavení sloužící královně)

beloved - milovaný

to regret - litovat

Christian world – křesťanský svět

to hunt – lovit

fencing – šerm

to admire – obdivovat

the poor – chudina (to be poor – být chudý)

privilege – výsada, pocta

to convince – přesvědčit

to seduce – svést

position – postavení, místo, postoj

annulment – anulování, zrušení

The Pope – papež

coronation – korunovace

short-lived – krátké trvání

miscarriage – potrat (to miscarry – potratit)

to accuse – obvinit

trial – process (soudní)

execution – exekuce, poprava

Elizabeth I. – The Virgin Queen

“I want to see the sun,” Elizabeth whispered and closed her eyes. It had been two months since she had been locked in the Tower with no hope for the future.

“You will, my dearest, when you are the Queen of England,” said Robert Dudley who was her friend but supposed to be an enemy. They were both imprisoned but for different reasons. He had made a wrong decision about who to support, and she was a threat to her sister Mary who was a hated Queen.

She sat down on the couch (at least her prison cell had some class) and started to think about her life so far.

She had already been through a lot: her mother’s execution, been in the care of people who wanted to use her to gain power, spent years of house arrest in various castles, been constantly worried and scared for her life, and now again not knowing whether or not she would make it out of the Tower alive.

But she did.

Her sister Queen Mary died and Elizabeth was the next heir to the throne. She wasn’t ready for it but she had it in her blood. Her mother was Anne Boleyn and her father King Henry VIII. Elizabeth surrounded herself with people she could trust like Sir William Cecil, who stayed by her side for many years as an adviser. Another adviser, to everyone’s displeasure, was Robert Dudley, her once friend from the Tower who swore his loyalty to her.

Elizabeth was young, powerful, beautiful and happy until she heard the news: her council decided that she had to marry. England needed a male heir. Elizabeth was strongly against this. She said she was already married – to England. Because she never had a husband, she was called the Virgin Queen.

It is said that she was one of the best monarchs England has ever had. Her father would have been proud.

VOCABULARY

virgin - panna

to whisper – šeptat

to be imprisoned – být uvězněn

threat – hrozba

prison cell – vězeňská cela, kobka

to gain – získat

whether – jestli, zdali

heir – dědic

she surrounded herself – obklopila se

he swore his loyalty – přísahal věrnost

council – rada

monarch – panovník, vladař