Work Text:
EXAM PAPER: US HISTORY, TWELFTH GRADE
ANSWER ONE OF THE THREE QUESTIONS BELOW
THIS EXAM IS WORTH 40% OF YOUR GRADE
QUESTION ONE: Describe how President Claremont's actions during her second term led to the Republican party splitting into the New Republicans and the Mastery party.
QUESTION TWO: In your opinion, how did the relationship between First Son Alexander Claremont-Diaz and Prince Henry of England affect Anglo-British relations in the early 21st Century? Make reference to History, huh?: a history by Sara Chessington and Separated by a Common Language by Fraser Anaru.
QUESTION THREE: "President Claremont did not do enough to punish the people who tried to pressure her into dropping out of her second Presidential race." Assess the validity of this view.
STUDENT 998762 - LAIA MOSSGROVER
Answering QUESTION TWO
First off, Mr. Macintosh, thank you for putting a question about Alex and Prince Henry on this paper. You know how busy Finals are and that most of the class was into the love story and not so much the boring political bits. I would totally struggle otherwise. Not that President Claremont wasn't hugely important! It's just, like, I can relate to hidden messages and being caught talking to someone you shouldn't, because I am a teenage girl and have been caught many times texting during class and sometimes even passing notes like I'm from the olden days.
So, in Separated by a Common Language, Anaru argues that the relationship was only a shock to people because of the communications leak, and that people wouldn't have cared much otherwise. In History, huh?, Chessington totally rebukes this view. Since History, huh? is a secondary source and not a tertiary one like Anaru's, I'm inclined to treat it with a little more seriousness. Also, Prince Henry and his husband publicly condemned Language when it came out, with Alex saying on Radio 4:
"This book, admirable though it attempts to be in scope, was written by someone who wasn't alive during that time and missed the casual homophobia we were mired in as public figures."
Since Chessington's book didn't get the same backlash, and later Alex's sister would write the forward to the tenth anniversary edition, I have to assume that they liked it better.
However, Mr. Macintosh, you're always telling us to look deeper, and it's true that History, huh? is more fawning over both Prince Henry and Alex than Anaru's book is. Chessington talks about Alex's "strong sense of justice" and Henry's "long fight" against the Queen for his sexuality to be seen as valid. Anaru is a little crueller, calling Alex "a pretty boy with a big brain and commitment issues", and Henry "someone who would have faded neatly into history if it weren't for this affair."
The bottom line is that for a long time, Henry and Alex's relationship was super terrible for both the United States and the United Kingdom. Alex was sent there twice or three times to mend fences after fights and scraps - including one time trying to divebomb the cake at Prince Henry's brother's wedding. The diaries of Queen Mary, later published in full by Queen Beatrice, show how desperate she was for "that arrogant little American" (Alex) to leave the country. She muses about the best ways to get him to stop being such a nuisance, including "giving some money to his mother's opponent, perhaps", but she ultimately decided that his mother would lose the election without her help and then she wouldn't have to deal with him again. When the comms leak was revealed, it's clear it came as a terrible shock for her - she writes "this cannot be my blood", and for a time considers disinheriting him. It was only by the interference of his mother, Princess Catherine, that Henry retained his royal titles.
When Queen Mary died and King Philip came to the throne, relations were definitely better. Sources in History, huh? say that for a long time Philip and Henry had worked on their relationship, and it was natural to like your brother's spouse, and because that spouse was the son of the sitting US president… (sorry, Mr. M, I just remembered how much you hate it when I trail off in class and you'll definitely penalise me for doing this in my exam, hold on, I'm going to fix it) so relations between the two countries were automatically closer. In the last two years of her presidency, President Claremont secured eight new trade deals with the United Kingdom. "Usually," Anaru writes, "These are a series of compromises. However, owing to the flourishing of the relationship between Fox-Mountchristen-Windsor and Claremont-Diaz, who by this time were living together on American soil, both sides received equal briefing; don't make me look bad in front of my husband." Anaru is assuming a great deal of informal pressure here which all sides have denied. Speaking in the same Radio 4 interview, Alex said:
"He writes as if we all lived on top of one another, Henry and I sending messages to King Philip and the President by notes attached to our dog's collar. By that time, Henry and I were living in New York, miles away from DC. Besides, my mother would have killed me if she found out I was trying to undermine her Presidential authority."
Although Chessington doesn't have the benefit of hindsight that Anaru does, I argue that she had a better understanding of Prince Henry and Alex. Anaru suggests that by the time Philip's daughter had reached her teens, relations had cooled between the two countries because Alex and Henry were living apart. Not only is there no evidence of this, I would like to point out that the New Republicans had just come to power and their foreign policy was at odds with the United Kingdom's at that time, which seems to me to be a better reason. (Mr M., why did you assign us this book to read? He's so painfully wrong. Helly and I spent a weekend messaging each other quotes from his book on Poob while watching the movie about Alex and Henry.)
I actually think the most significant impact on Anglo-American relations that Henry and Alex had was the decision they made to live in England after Philip died. Asked about it in one of his last interviews, Alex said the decision was difficult, but Henry needed to be with all his family. During the five years after that decision, tourism to England from the US jumped 16%.
Anaru remains strong in his belief that Alex and Henry basically predicted the kind of relationship that the US and the UK would have, but his latest book is about how the Aztecs were really aliens, so I don't think we should listen to him at all.
Oh no I’ve only got five minutes left - okay, so, in conclusion, we were closer than we would have been but it wasn’t, like, all our economies hinged on who left a wet towel in the tub or whatever.
Very passionately argued, Laia, and good retention of the source material. Please remember to put in dates and years when you can recall them. I’m glad you referenced the Queen’s diaries! I believe they’re touring in an exhibit around the US called ‘Bigotry and Blighty; British responses to American sexuality’ later this month. 87%.