The Making of “Wives of Agency” (Progress Update #1)
Update
As you’re aware, I intend to make an educational video game prototype that teaches Tudor history from the point-of-view of Henry VIII’s wives. But that prototype won’t be ready until around August. Currently the plan is to have an interactive timeline go out this May, which will allow me to research and structure said research for the eventual video-game product, while also allowing me to learn about timeline creation.
For the timeline software, I chose a program called Tikitoki, which is a highly customizable template for making interactive timelines. I really enjoyed how the software was used on a variety of topics including the creation of a fictional timeline for Netflix’s The Witcher. The flexibility, and ease of making a visually attractive product drew me in.
Currently, I’m in a research and writing phase of the project, with a few sample events added to the W.I.P. timeline, just so I understand what it will look like to fill in my writing.
Challenges
Any project is not without its challenges. While their husband is very famous, Catherine, Anne, Jane, Anne, Katherine, and Katherine are not entirely famous in their own right. Nonetheless, I want to be able to illuminate their legacies and accomplishments, and mention Henry as little as possible, since he’s already stolen the spotlight for five-hundred years. Of course, this is not easy, these women had a role to play in their environment, which often left little time for extracurricular activities. In addition, the records of some of these women were purposefully destroyed, like Anne Boleyn, whose record was destroyed after she was (likely falsely) declared guilty of adultery and incest, and subsequently beheaded).
In addition, dates get a bit wonky the further back in history you look. When making a timeline, you often want the most specific date possible, yet for Katherine Howard’s birthday I have a year range of 6 years, between 1518 and 1524, without any month or day associated with it.
There’s also the consideration that while I’m working on a timeline currently, this will eventually become a prototype or proof-of-concept for an educational video game, so while much of the research will overlap, there’s also a lot of research that only applies to one medium but not the other.
Next Step
Moving forward is going to be a lot more research, so far I’ve found interesting and major accomplishes for Catherine of Aragon (leading England while Henry warred in France), and Katherine Parr (being the first woman to publish a book under her own name in England), but I need a similar accomplishment for each wife if possible. The early matrix above is also very barebones, including birthdates, wedding, end of marriage, death, and viable childbirths, but I feel like there are many more categories I could add.
I would also like to begin to read more in depth about these women’s lives in order to find more information to write the event labels, including anecdotes and potentially interesting legends, or misremembrances of history. (Where Anne Boleyn’s sleeves really green like the legend? Did Henry actually compare Anne of Cleves to a horse?)
As this is a highly visual project I also want to find more media such as images and videos which I can use in conjunction with the events and spans to make the user experience more dynamic.
