Thomas More Recants

The state of TIAH

July 6th, 2006

in 1535, Sir Thomas More, faced with beheading for his defiance of King Henry VIII's new church, recants his position and swears his loyalty to the Church of England, with King Henry as its head. Although More was a loyal Catholic who inwardly felt that the Pope was God's only true representative on earth, he felt a greater degree of loyalty to his neck. In secret, though, he began writing seditious documents under the pen name Moritius Loyola. His greatest work as Loyola was a recantation of the history of King Richard III he had written, telling the truth of King Henry VII's treachery and the virtue of the last Plantagenet king. This history, The Truth of Good King Richard and the Base Lies of Henry Tudor, was spread throughout Europe, and used by Catholics to attack the legitimacy of Henry VIII's claim on the English throne – if his father was a usurper, then he was not the true king of England. A number of English nobles, still loyal to the Catholic Church, rose up in rebellion against King Henry, who lacked any popular support to suppress them. He was deposed in 1541, and replaced with his cousin, Edward, Earl of Warwick, who had been named the royal heir by Richard III and who had escaped death by pledging his allegiance to the Tudors. Old Edward, as he was known, ruled for only two years before his death, and was succeeded by his grandson, who reigned as King Edward VII for almost 40 years, ushering in an era of enlightenment as England took its place among the great colonial powers of the world.

in 1571, Emperor Mectezuma of the Aztec Empire entertains a Spanish ambassador who has come to ask for the mighty American nation's assistance in war with England. Although the Aztec had no love for the Spanish, the Iberians had been respectful, where the English had harassed Aztec possessions and ships with pirates for decades. Mectezuma promised the Spanish ambassador, “We shall lay the British crown low for their crimes against us.” Queen Elizabeth of England called for a draft of soldier and sailors as soon as word of Mectezuma's alliance with Spain reached her country, and prepared for war against what she correctly perceived as her nation's greatest threat.

in 1982, although supportive of the peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, the United States declines to offer troops, hampering the UN's effectiveness in the chaotic country. Without enough troops to maintain buffers between the competing militias in the civil war, the peacekeepers became targets themselves, and in one horrific incident, suffered massive casualties when their headquarters were blown up in October of '83. The failed mission pulled out of the country just days after, leaving the Lebanese militias and their parent organizations in Syria and Israel to fight to the bitter end. The war finally ended in 1995 when Syria and Israel partitioned the country and moved their own troops in to quell the violence.

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