oin government professor Patrick Coby, English professor William Oram, and other notable Smith faculty on campus this spring for a unique educational experience—a role-playing game that brings to life some of the most tumultuous years in English history.

THE SCENARIO
The years are 1529 to 1536. Henry VIII is entangled in a domestic problem: he wants to divorce his wife of twenty years, Catherine of Aragon, so that he can marry the lovely Anne Boleyn, father a male heir, and continue the Tudor line. Henry expected the papacy to grant him a divorce, and he instructed his Lord Chancellor, Cardinal Wolsey, to see to the matter. But Wolsey failed, and the king had him removed from office. Thomas More is the new Lord Chancellor, presiding over a parliament charged with finding the means, somehow, to invalidate the marriage. But will parliament fulfill Henry’s demands, and will it be content with solving the king’s dynastic and marital problems? There are some in parliament who wish to use the royal divorce--and the rising anticlericalism in the land--as an opportunity to break from the English church and convert the country from Catholicism to Protestantism. Others oppose the divorce and are against the attack on the church. It’s a pivotal time in England’s history, and the escalating conflict is sure to change the country forever.

THE GAME
As a participant in the game, which will play out in four classes over the course of the weekend, you are a member of parliament and are either a lord or a commoner. You’ll be given a role description with your victory objectives and the means to accomplish them--speeches, negotiations, deal-making, conniving, conspiring, and spying. Faculty membersserve as gamemasters and enforce the rules, give advice, and occasionally intervene; but the outcome is left up to you and your fellow parliamentarians. Don’t worry if your history is a little rusty; we’ll provide all of the background you’ll need.

THE PLAYERS
There are twenty-one roles in all, most of them based on real persons of the period: the Duke of Norfolk, a Henry partisan; the Duke of Suffolk, the king’s best friend and a Norfolk rival; the Earl of Wiltshire, Anne Boleyn’s father; the Archbishop of Canterbury, a cowardly lion looking for courage, plus other lay and spiritual nobles of the lords, and knights of the Commons.

Join us and play a part in history!

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When: March 30–April 2, 2006

Where: Smith College

Who: Smith alumnae