Catherine did have to get special dispensation from Pope Julius II in order to marry Henry VIII. She had earlier married Henry's brother but, according to her, he had died before they could formally, well, you know...

In the boring, entirely unsatisfying, "real" timeline, Ignatius had nothing to do with this, being only 18 at the time and still in his "screw and stab" phase. Ignatius had only been part of Spanish court life for three years by 1509, and not in much of a position to influence anybody.

OR WAS HE?

No, really, no position whatsoever. On a related item, Peter was a tremendous fan of naval lock construction and was known to halt his diplomatic entourage for hours to talk with local workers about how their locks were built, what their capacities were, and so on. So, it's not entirely unlikely that his first reaction upon hearing a German accent would be "LOCKS!! HALLOWED, HALLOWED LOCKS!!"

- Count Dolby von Luckner

There is probably a reason you haven't heard of the natural philosopher and scientist Paul-Henri Delaflote. A fiery reason.

The loss of Delaflote's manifold contributions to the Scientific Revolution is thematically similar to Stoppard's Arcadia, but with more explosions and half-wit Prussian kings.

In unrelated news, today is the summer solstice. Happy longest day of the year.

--Geoff