flintsredhair:

So – can we talk about Admiral Hennessey for a minute?

Good. See – I’ve been thinking, y’all. I even broke out the y’all so that we can have this convo. Please picture me sitting back against a counter of some kind, glass of something in hand, arms crossed, ready to have a Chat. 

Here’s the thing. I have a theory – a headcanon, really, and since @candlewinds did a lovely post with his wigged head in it today, and since I’m getting ready to post a chapter that features him rather heavily, I thought I’d do some airing of that headcanon. You’re by no means required to agree with me or give a single crap about my weird theories, but here goes one of them. *Takes a deep breath*

I don’t like what Hennessey does in canon, but I don’t think Hennessey does either.

I can’t reconcile Hennessey that sits in that tavern, that sees James beating the shit out of someone for insulting the Hamiltons, that gives him that little knowing smile and catches James’ use of Thomas’ given name so easily, with the man that stands in that office and condemns him as if he had no notion that the man he refers to as son is gay. I can’t reconcile the man who says, so gently, “I thought you’d heard me, son,” with the man in that office, and I think I know the difference – what changes his tone, his attitude, everything. Alfred fucking Hamilton. The minute that Hennessey enters that office, he becomes a different man. Hennessey outside that office pretty clearly knows that James isn’t straight. James as good as says it. “I know what you’re thinking,” he says, based on their earlier conversation. It’s never said out loud, but it’s heavily implied that Hennessey knows and while he may not approve, it’s not because he disapproves of James being into men. It’s because he disapproves of him becoming involved with a noble, given that James himself is nobody comparatively. He has no protection if Thomas turns out to be another noble shit in it for laughs and a good time and not up for standing up for his partner if anything goes wrong. Hennessey has no way of knowing what Thomas is like – he’s never met the man, and worse, he has no way of protecting James if anything happens, and he knows it. Hennessey at least once refers to the nobility as “these people.” He’s not of noble background himself. He has no standing in the peerage – in fact, he’s very much like James in the respect that he’s a transplanted Irishman who’s probably worked his way up the ranks much as James did.

Now, granted, that conversation could be read a lot of ways. The thing that really convinces me, though, is the gentle way that he addresses James two seconds before they enter his office. By that time, he’s talked to Alfred Hamilton. He knows that James is gay, without any kind of doubt. Hennessey knows what he’s done, and he still refers to him as son. There’s no trace of disgust in his voice when he talks to him. He doesn’t speak much, but what he does say is telling. He leads James into that office knowing what’s about to go down, and he doesn’t warn him because he can’t. He needs in that moment to try to force James to leave London quietly – to believe that he has no recourse to any kind of patron that would support and fight for him, which is accomplished both with what he says and with the removal of Thomas from the situation. I hate to say it, but I have the terrible suspicion that Thomas’ imprisonment in Bedlam might actually have been Hennessey’s idea, although I’m more willing to believe it was Alfred or Peter Ashe that came up with that particular godawful suggestion. In any case, Hennessey’s concern is with getting James to not do anything stupid and, even more importantly for him and for England, to protect the rest of the officers and seamen under his command. He cannot, absolutely cannot, allow Alfred to start raising questions about whether or not the Navy is harboring sodomites. He can’t allow that witch hunt to get started, not for James or anyone, because there are hundreds or even thousands of men under his command who can’t defend themselves against that kind of accusation. They’re in the middle of a war, and the last thing anyone can afford is for Alfred Hamilton to destabilize the Navy by using Hennessey’s protection of James to his own ends. If Alfred starts making accusations, no one is safe, because he could accuse who he wished and bribe anyone he liked until everyone jumped to his orders for fear of being accused of sodomy and hanged. As much as I think Hennessey hated having to do this to James, he couldn’t act as a father in that office. He had to be a commander, with the lives of all the other men under his command coming first since there was nothing he could do to save James save to get him out of London.

Again, you’re free to disagree with any of this. It’s just personal headcanon based on how I read the scenes. It could be that Hennessey really didn’t know until Alfred told him and is just a godawful, cruel asshat and a very good actor, but I’ve chosen to interpret the character a little differently for fun. And because I like politics.