Chapter 207: Queen Anne

Chapter 207: Queen Anne

“Encountered a ghost?”

Tian Lie grinned. However, his face was a mask of seriousness as he asked, “What did you see, Guild Leader Chen Xiaolian?”

“… I believe that really is a ghost, a female ghost,” answered Chen Xiaolian who shook his head.

At that moment, the white-robed female ghost re-emerged from the surface of the wall. She floated around the ceiling in a circle before finally descending down to the ground…

She descended onto the left corner of the third floor’s exhibition hall.

There was a display cabinet placed there; placed inside was a row of weapons.

Among the three floors of this White Tower, the third floor was the only one that had weapons!

Those weapons were clearly genuine articles and not imitations.

Mottled with rust, those dark coloured weapons were filled with vestiges of history.

Among them were axes, blades, swords and even bows.

The white-robed female ghost stood beside a row of weapons. She appeared to be quietly staring at one of them.

She had placed her head back onto her neck, making her look less scary.

However, when looking at her from behind, her fluttering white robes and bare foot on the ground gave her a ghastly atmosphere.

“Anne Boleyn.” Chen Xiaolian took several steps forward and whispered those words out.

The female ghost sighed and turned around. Her glazed and numb looking eyes fell upon Chen Xiaolian…

“You should address me as… Your Majesty.”

Chen Xiaolian’s scalp tingled and he replied, “… yes, Your Majesty.”

“My neck… neck…. hurts so much, hurts so much … he he he he a …”

The female ghost continued to laugh with a seemingly blank look on her face.

Her body floated around in a circle once more before descending before the row of display cabinets. Then, she continued to stare at one of the weapons inside.

She attempted to reach out with her seemingly translucent fingers. They penetrated the glass showcase with ease; however, just before she could touch one of the weapons, she suddenly cried out sharply!

Chen Xiaolian could clearly notice a trace of black qi swirling out from one of the weapons inside the showcase!

The white-robed female ghost cried out miserably and her body promptly retreated!

Black qi engulfed her hand and the glazed expression on her face finally revealed an expression of pain.

“Destroy it! Destroy it! He he he he ahh… Help me destroy it!”

The female ghost screamed sharply and her body hastily retreated. Then, she disappeared once more into the stone walls.

“Wait! What did you say?” Chen Xiaolian took two steps forward as he tried to catch up to her.

The others quickly came up behind him and asked, “What happened earlier?”

Chen Xiaolian turned around and looked at Lun Tai and Bei Tai. Then, he looked at Tian Lie and Jean.

“I saw a female ghost. She had brown hair, wore white robes and was barefooted.” Chen Xiaolian frowned. “But why am I the only one who can see her?”

Tian Lie narrowed his eyes. “Wait… just now, I think I heard you say… “I know who you are”. What did you mean by that?”

Chen Xiaolian gestured with his head. “The meaning behind those words is simple… I believe I know the female ghost’s identity.”

“Anne Boleyn. I heard you say that name earlier,” said Lun Tai in a low whisper.

“Anne Boleyn?” Bei Tai mumbled.

Chen Xiaolian turned to Tian Lie and asked, “Why, don’t you recognize that name?”

Tian Lie wore a calm expression on his face.

“It seems you really are not a Briton, Mr Conan,” Chen Xiaolian said slowly.

“Enough of that, my identity is another matter altogether.” Tian Lie maintained a relaxed demeanour and said, “What do you know? Just tell us… I mean, we are cooperating to complete this quest, after all.”

Chen Xiaolian smiled wryly and asked, “Do you fellows know about the Tudor Dynasty?”

Several of them shook their heads.

It was only the Frenchman, Jean who hesitated before answering, “I think I know a little about it.”

“Here on the third floor is a set of big armour… it is very beautiful. This set of armour belonged to a very famous King in the history of the UK, Henry VIII. His era was known throughout history as the Tudor Dynasty.”

After saying that, Chen Xiaolian paused and let out a wry smile. “Truth be told, I am not quite knowledgeable about this part of their history. Thankfully, there is a very popular drama series known as ‘The Tudors’, which tells the story about Henry VIII.”

Observing the expression of loss on their faces, Chen Xiaolian sighed. “Oh, all right. Because I liked this series, when I was surfing on the internet, I would go read up some true historical information about Henry VIII.

“How should I put it? This Henry VIII could be considered as a heroic King of England. However, the famous part about him is his… lust and infidelities. Additionally… he was also a devilish and crazy wife killer.”

“Devilish and crazy wife killer?” Lun Tai laughed.

“Indeed, that is not a joke. This King of England had the bad trait of killing his own wives in his resume. Besides… the ones he killed weren’t mere mistresses. Rather… they were… official Queens! Also, he did not only did it once!

“The most famous one among them is the one I mentioned, Anne Boleyn.

“She was the second Queen of Henry VIII.

“Let’s put it this way, Henry VIII was a very unbelievably incredible bastard.

“When he ascended to the throne, he married his own sister-in-law. His first Queen was a princess from Spain.

“Unfortunately, or rather unacceptably, the first Queen had a court maid known as Anne Boleyn. She was an aristocratic lady who entered the palace to be the Queen’s lady-in-waiting.

“In the end, the King took a fancy to her…

“The next part of the story is basically the stereotypical struggle within the palace drama.

“Anne Boleyn and the King came to love one another. Naturally, though, the Queen became unhappy with that. Thus, the two of them waged a war within the palace…

“Let’s put it this way, you fellows have seen ‘Legend of Zhen Huan’, right? [1]”

Chen Xiaolian turned to look at Lun Tai and Bei Tai before letting out a wry smile. “Basically, this Anne Boleyn was a real life Zhen Huan. Only, she was a brutal and vicious Zhen Huan. Her ending was also more miserable compared to Zhen Huan’s.

“Simply put, Henry VIII became obsessed with this British Zhen Huan. In order to marry her, the King made the decision to depose his own Queen.

“However, that was not an easy thing to do because the Queen was not an ordinary person. She was a princess from Spain and her nephew was the King of Spain, who was also the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire at the time.

“Therefore, the actions of Henry VIII to get depose his own wife were met with strong opposition.

“You know, these European royal families are all Catholic. According to the law at the time, the King’s marriage, be it the act of marrying or divorcing, must receive the consent of the Pope. Otherwise, it would be considered invalid.

“Several years passed and Henry VIII’s requests for a divorce were all rejected by the Vatican’s Pope.

“It had to be said, this British Zhen Huan, Anne Boleyn was extremely attractive. She made Henry VIII so obsessed with her that he decided that he must have her as his Queen.

“Thus…

“Henry VIII did something that left a great impact on history.

“You, the Pope refuse to give me a divorce? The law states that a King’s marriage must receive the approval of the Vatican’s Pope?

“Screw your mother! This senior is THE KING! This senior will change the laws!

“Henry VIII did something incredible!

“He ordered, from henceforth, the Church of England will separate from the teachings of Catholicism! It would no longer be subject to the leadership of the Vatican’s Pope!

“He directly split away from the Roman Catholic Church! He had the Church of England set up their own holy teachings. Although they still believed in God, their relationship with the Vatican’s Pope was severed completely.

“Additionally, Henry VIII also announced that the in the future, he who was the King of England would become the Supreme Head of the Church of England!

“In other words, he became the Pope of England.

“He did a very, very thorough job.

“After making the announcement, the Bishop of the Church of England would be appointed by him – previously, the appointment would be done by the Vatican’s Pope.

“Moreover, at that time, the Vatican’s teachings were spread throughout Europe. They possessed lands and assets there, even in England.

“Each year, England would give a church tax to the Vatican Pope.

“Henry VIII had them all… dissolved!

“He appropriated everything that belonged to the Catholic side and sent them into the royal coffers. Furthermore, future church taxes to the Vatican were canceled.

“All of this for one reason, because the King wanted to divorce his wife and marry another woman!

“The impact of this decision is still in effect today… the present Church of England is not subject to Vatican leadership.

“One could even say that this British version of Zhen Huan, this Anne Boleyn had changed this world’s history of religion!”

“Holy shit!”

Bei Tai was unable to stop himself from exclaiming out. “This bitch is even more awesome then Zhen Huan ah!”

“However, her ending was also worse off compared to Zhen Huan.” Chen Xiaolian said coldly. “This Anne Boleyn was not a good person.”

“After Henry VIII separated the Church of England from the Roman Catholic Church, he named himself as the Supreme Head of England’s religion. He announced the annulment of his marriage with the Queen to marry Anne.

“However, this woman was very powerful.

“After ascending to the position of the Queen, she did many things. The first was to kill off those who had opposed her becoming the Queen.

“Additionally, there was this daughter that Henry VIII had with the previous Queen. Anne saw the daughter as a thorn.

“She had the girl imprisoned for a time before having her abused in the court. She had the princess become a servant. She was simply a real life version of the evil stepmother.

“However, she had a relatively unfortunate ending.

“Henry VIII was a lustful fellow. He had a change of heart after a few years.

“Back then, Anne Boleyn was a lady-in-waiting who seduced the King.

“A few years later… Anne Boleyn also had a lady-in-waiting… that woman did the same thing Anne did back then, seducing the King.

“After the King changed his mind, he decided to annul his marriage with Anne Boleyn.

“However, Anne Boleyn was a very powerful woman. She had colluded with several influential ministers of England. Thus, the King was incapable of simply annulling the marriage. He gave the order to have her executed!

“You fellows might not know this, but this order to kill a Queen was the first in the history of the UK.”

As he spoke, he pointed outside of the walls. “If I am not mistaken… Anne Boleyn, at the lawn that we had just walked past earlier… she was executed at the guillotine platform there. Additionally, she should also have been imprisoned here for a period of time.”

…

1. ‘Legend of Zhen Huan’ is a fictional drama series set in the Qing Dynasty. The story revolves around a concubine name Zhen Huan who had to struggle for power within the imperial harem.