Violent Ends (Violent Delights Book 19)

Afterword for Part 3

There's a bit more liberties taken here, as H6 is rather an unreliable narrator, given he often misinterprets people's motives. That made it fun to write, however, historically yes the War of the Roses was happening and he missed a lot of it. Also a lot of people who he says have good intentions, did not. The Duke of Exeter (Harry) and Jasper were both pretty ruthless and tough, Exeter building torture machines in the tower, Jasper breaking multiple sieges and participating in many battles.
That said, as usual, times, dates, and locations are all as accurate as I can manage. H6 did give Margret a lion as a wedding present. The Middle Ages 'when you can have sex' thing that he quotes is accurate. So, a couple of talking points then, that ending.
I do not know if he particularly liked ceilings. He did build King's College which has the highest vaulted ceiling. He was highly religious. Sadly we don't have a lot of his other interests (unlike his dad), so I wanted to flesh him out more.
The anecdote about the topless dancers, and the men at Bath, are apparently true his uncles did that to him. I don't know if it was a sexuality test but it feels like it. They did do it pretty quickly one after the other too, which is funny, and both times the precious angel cried.
H6 apparently was sensitive to touch. That does not mean he never slept with his wife. Plenty of people with sensory issues regarding casual touch have no issue with romantic partners.
Being repulsed by other's bodies, or being very sensitive to it, does not strictly mean he was sex repulsed or did not sleep with his wife, as is commonly thought. He may not have ever had a very high sex drive (nor did his father...), but that doesn't mean he wasn't the father of his child.
Similarly, being asexual/sex repulsed, does not mean he didn't sleep with his wife. Many asexual people become involved in sexual relationships. He may or may not have enjoyed it but being religious he'd have seen it as his duty to sleep with her as a husband. Many asexuals or even sex repulsed individuals have families and spouses.
Prince Edward was born in October, with Henry (by most accounts) falling comatose around August. If both those dates are accurate, Margret was 6–7 months pregnant when Henry became incapacitated. There's no reason to believe he was unaware of the pregnancy, or that he wasn't the father of their child. As with anything we don't technically know, but they had a good relationship, and were together around the time of conception. Now, Margret was small and quite thin, she may have had a hard pregnancy where they worried or didn't announce it. Henry was naive so to speak, but the man wasn't unable to function. If he'd not slept with his wife he'd have certainly been suspicious of a pregnancy. As with anyone we don't possess DNA tests for, could Margret have had a sperm donor, as it were, since she was having trouble conceiving? Yes maybe but that's conjecture. Also, if so Henry likely would have known, as again the man was perfectly lucid.
Harry, H6's friend, was a real person, he did die a year after H6's marriage, cause unknown. They were boyhood friends.
And so, that ending.
H6's fate is a mystery to this day. We know he was in the Tower. Sometime later Edward IV announced he was dead.
Centuries later Henry's body was exhumed and reburied. Blood was found matted to the skull with blonde hair stuck in it.
Here's the thing.
Henry 6, likely didn't have blonde hair. And bashing his head in, is a terrible way to assassinate him. Poison the man! Strangle him! Anything would be easier to cover it's the Middle Ages just smother him there is zero forensics and he doesn't even fight back when attacked (he was in battle once and legit got stabbed as he refused to be violent).
And he wasn't fair haired. All portraits show brown hair, dark brown. His mother had likely dark brown hair given her parents did and her effigies had it, we know H5 had very dark brown hair. So where does H6 get off being blonde, especially when by all pictures he's not blonde? Lightening with age isn't likely. Not if it was pale hair not white or silver but blonde. Genetics being what they are yes he could be blonde..but he's also usually depicted as having brown eyes. Brown eyes and fair hair is very rare genetically, Richard II had red hair and brown eyes which was so unusual it was noted down a lot. Henry doesn't get that sort of attention. Also, in portraits and descriptions, he looks like his father with kind of a long nose, close set eyes. His brother, Jasper Tudor, was called the 'Black Bull' which probably meant he had black hair, and he's pictured with very dark hair. Owen Tudor was fair haired and green eyed...meaning Catherine likely had black or very dark brown hair like her mother and father, for her son to have dark hair. Her brother, Charlies VII had black hair as well. Ergo, Henry VI had dark hair on both sides. His paternal grandfather was a red-head, but that's it and that's a recessive gene. Not completely impossible, but statistically unlikely for him to be fair haired.
Jasper was with Henry in London. We do not know his movements till he and his nephew show up in Wales.
So, it is my personal theory that H6...didn't die in the Tower at all. His brother, the craftiest man in England, is at hand. The body that is in the tomb doesn't match his description by the hair color. So, did Jasper smuggle him out to an abby? Where he died a couple years later or something? Henry was forty nine and had had poor health he wasn't going to live many more years likely anyway.
I had him struck in the head and murdered to keep with tradition. But to be clear, that's possibly not what happened. I mean, he died shortly here as there's no record but stranger things have happened and we don't really know where he went. He was in the tower, yes, but it's not even clear who killed him, though Edward IV likely ordered it.