I’m always curious to see what search terms bring people to this site. Here is a list of all of the search terms that brought people here yesterday:

how shakespeare demonstrated “religion” in his plays

presidents with the letter y in their name

king henry viii shakespeare for children

who are the present day descendants of ann boleyn

king henry the eighth for kids

modern day descendants of henry the eighth

free shakespeare for kids

shakespeare did math

math – coins – line drawings of

saddam hussein vs. iago

textual analysis of elizabath i letter to king james vi

what play of shakespeare hads the word shyster in it?

characterize ophelia in act 3 scene 1

open-ended question of the week

who am i riddles

music tech teacher.com’

shakespeare class distinction “as you like it”

sir francis bacon blog

The word “shyster” does not appear in Shakespeare. There is a character named Shylock in The Merchant of Venice, and a popular anti-lawyer quote in Henry VI, Part Two.

Several United States presidents have had the letter Y in their names. First name: Ulysses S. Grant, Harry S. Truman, Lyndon B. Johnson, Jimmy Carter; Last name: John Tyler, Rutherford B. Hayes, William McKinley, John F. Kennedy; First and Last Name: Zachary Taylor; Commonly Used Middle Name: John Quincy Adams, William Henry Harrison.

As for the Ophelia thing, do your own homework.

First, read the rules of the game.

For some reason, this week saw an unprecedented number of visitors to the blog. It seems that there was a combination of words that matched common search terms. People may have come here for a variety of reasons, but some chose to stay, and I’m glad they did. I’m about to reach 7,000 hits, which last week seemed like a goal to shoot for by the end of December.

But while I’m glad for all of the new traffic, I’m not going to suddenly adjust the content of the blog to pander to the masses in a pathetic attempt to snag the random passerby. That’s not what this blog is about.

Anyway, this week’s challenge is actress Jessica Alba.

Jessica Alba has managed to maintain a professional career at a young age, without getting herself into trouble, unlike such stars as Vanessa Hudgens, Lindsay Lohan, or Britney Spears. Perhaps one day we will see her playing Texas Hold ‘Em on television, or on Dancing with the Stars. If I had to invest in the stock market of the famous, I’d go with the World Series champ of celebrities, Jessica Alba.

Well, that ought to do it.

Ringtones!

Okay, I’m done now.

I actually was able to link Jessica Alba to Sir Francis Bacon in six degrees or fewer, though that shouldn’t stop you from posting a longer response, or looking for a shorter one. Entries will be accepted until midnight on Thursday, November 1.

Good luck!

And congratulations to Neel Mehta for winning last week’s challenge by linking Sir Karl Popper to Sir Francis Bacon in three degrees:

Sir Karl Popper > Bertrand Russell > Georg Cantor > Sir Francis Bacon

Sir Karl Popper addressed the problem of induction in a way that was commented on by Bertrand Russell, who studied the work of Georg Cantor, who believed in the Shakespearean authorship of Sir Francis Bacon.

The blog was getting a lot of hits looking for living descendants of Henry VIII, so I posted an answer, and followed up with an anagram version of the answer.

Now, because those words appear on the blog, I’m getting a lot of hits looking for living descendants of Shakespeare.

You can check out the Shakespeare family tree yourself, or you can just read this week’s Shakespeare anagram.

From Love’s Labour’s Lost:

Let fame, that all hunt after in their lives,
Live register’d upon our brazen tombs,
And then grace us in the disgrace of death;
When, spite of cormorant devouring Time,
The endeavour of this present breath may buy
That honour which shall bate his scythe’s keen edge,
And make us heirs of all eternity.

Shift around the letters, and it becomes:

Our favorite ultra-premium poet has no living descendants.

Firstly, he begat three basic little prizes (smart trio!) with his gal Anne Hathaway.

Thereafter, son Hamnet fathered none because he kicked it young.

Furthermore, both daughters had children, but none of those unveiled any themselves.

I subscribe to a service called “SiteMeter” which allows me to see a limited amount of information about my visitors. One thing that I can see is if someone finds my site via a Google search. Recently, I’ve had a number of hits from people looking to find out about living descendants of King Henry VIII. My site isn’t really about that, but I thought I’d provide an answer anyway, as a public service.

There are no living descendants of King Henry VIII.

Henry’s father, King Henry VII, had four offspring who lived past childhood: Arthur, Margaret, Henry, and Mary. Arthur was always expected to be the next king, but he died in 1502. When Henry VII died in 1509, the kingdom was passed to his younger son, crowned Henry VIII.

Henry VIII had four known living offspring from four different women. His first wife, Catherine of Arragon, gave him a daughter, Mary (born 1516). He had an illegitimate son, Henry FitzRoy (born 1519), with his mistress Elizabeth Blount. His second wife, Ann Boleyn, had a daughter Elizabeth (born 1533). His third wife, Jane Seymour, had a son, Edward (born 1537). Henry VIII would have three more wives, but no more children to carry on his line. And as we shall see, none of his four branches would bear fruit.

Henry FitzRoy died in 1536, while his father was still alive.

When Henry VIII died in 1547, young Edward became King Edward VI, but died in 1553 with no heir. He was 15 years old. That was the end of Henry’s Y chromosome. But what about the daughters?

There was a brief reign by Lady Jane Grey (not a descendant of Henry VIII, but a granddaughter of his sister Mary) and then Henry VIII’s daughter Mary took the throne as Queen Mary I of England. You may know her as Bloody Mary.

(Don’t confuse either Mary with Mary Queen of Scots, who was yet a third Mary. She is a descendant of Henry VIII’s sister Margaret. We’ll come back to her in a bit.)

Mary I of England died in 1558 with no offspring, leaving the country in the capable hands of her sister Elizabeth. During the 45-year-long reign of Queen Elizabeth I, we saw a new Golden Age which included the rise of Shakespeare and Sir Francis Bacon. But alas, we saw no heir. Elizabeth died in 1603, ending her father’s biological legacy forever.

The crown then passed to the son of Mary Queen of Scots, who was James VI of Scotland at the time. He became King James I of England. And Shakespeare quickly began work on Macbeth. Note that the British monarchy even today can be traced back to King Henry VII, the father of King Henry VIII.

But King Henry VIII himself has no known living descendants.

I hope this was helpful for at least some of you. For the rest of you, expect a new Conundrum tomorrow.

UPDATE: An anagram version of the answer!