IS GERTRUDE (in part) LIKE CATHERINE OF VALOIS?

If the play Hamlet seeks assessment & closure for the House of Tudor,
Claudius is like Henry VIII who married a brother's widow,
but Gertrude is perhaps like Catherine of Valois,
whose warlike king-husband died,
& she joined with "a mildew'd ear": Owen of Tudor!
A lowly descendant of a Welsh rebel!

Shakespeare had portrayed Catherine of Valois in Henry V,
and everyone knew that after the death of her husband, Henry V,
her marriage to Owen Tudor was something of a scandal,
as he was not of royal blood.
But their joint lineage would lead to Henry VIII.

Did Catholics especially, in 1600,
think something was rotten in England in part because
Catherine of Valois did not remain celibate after the death of Henry V,
so she joined with Owen of Tudor,
and from her intemperance, more things became rotten and out of joint?

A recent film version of Henry V adapted for TV
stars Tom Hiddleston as Henry V and Mélanie Thierry as K/Catherine:
https://lnkd.in/e4vszQ9

What do you think?

Other historical figures Shakespeare would have been familiar with,
who may have been part of the inspiration for Gertrude?

Even the ever-remarrying Henry VIII?

(Shakespeare didn't mind gender-bending....)


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Links to a description of my book project:
On LinkedIn: https://lnkd.in/eJGBtqV
On this blog: https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2017/05/hamlets-bible-my-book-project-im.html

[Originally posted around the week of 12/18/17
on LinkedIn]