Line from A History of the Tudor Family, written in 1845. The line refers to "the seven", a succession of children born to Mary I between 1556 (Prince Henry, later King Henry IX of England, Ireland, and Spain) and 1564 (the "miracle child" Princess Anna, born when Mary was 48). Though Mary was pregnant only six times, one of the pregnancies resulted in twins. Three of Mary's children died of various childhood ailments, but the remaining children would have a strong impact on history. Her eldest son, King Henry IX, united the English and Spanish crowns - much to the outrage of the House of Habsburg, which had expected the Spanish crown to return to them instead of "a half-witted son of a half-witted mother and the lackwit who wed her" (as a letter from Joanna, Princess of Portugal dubbed her nephew Henry). The resulting War of Spanish Succession saw the decimation of the Habsburgs, followed by a carefully-concocted campaign of "unification" designed to reduce tensions between the two kingdoms. Unfortunately, the unification backfired in one severely important way - Henry III of France, terrified at the prospect of being surrounded by enemies, launched a preemptive strike on Spain, leading to the Fifty Year's War that would leave Europe metaphorically burned out for the better part of the following century.
"Well, I made it, Ike. I gotta say, Berlin is beautiful this time of year. Once we clean up all the dead Russians it'll look even prettier."
