Reply #51: Same here...

[politicat]

My passion is the interaction between the Elizabethan Court and the Russian court, but now that you mention it, Elizabeth may have kept her written flirtation with Ivan going because he was a "bad boy" who reminded her of her father as much as for the political game.

Lots of women with less than stellar fathers alternately seek out and reject men who are like their fathers. It's sort of like playing with fire, seeing how close they can get without getting really burned.

I must say, though, Henry could have been a hell of a lot worse. The Clintonian parallel is a good one, I think. He seemed to be a man who loved women and loved being in love, but didn't like the work it took to make a relationship work. Part of that indulged as a child issue.

Pcat