Still the Tudors...
Apr. 4th, 2007 07:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dangermousieOMG, the history in The Tudors amuses me mightily. The funny thing? It’s totally ahistorical and I don’t mind at bit.
OK. Real history. Henry had a younger sister named Mary. She was in love with the King’s close friend Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk. However, Henry married her off to the aging King of France (the predecessor to Francis we see in the show). As a carrot, he promised her that once the elderly KoF keeled over, she could marry whoever she wanted. KoF duly keeled over and Mary, knowing that Henry wasn’t prone to keeping his word, took her chance when Brandon was sent to bring her back, and married him quickly and secretly in France. According to wikipedia “technically this was treason as Suffolk had married a royal princess without Henry's consent. The king was outraged, and the Privy Council urged that Brandon should be imprisoned or executed. However, due to the intervention of Cardinal Wolsey and Henry's affection for both his sister and Suffolk, the couple were let off with a heavy fine.” And then they came back and had another, fancy wedding. Jane Grey is her granddaughter. (A less romantic note is that when Mary eventually died, Brandon married again next year and had some more kids. Heh).
One of my favorite old-fashioned adventure/romantic novels is Charles Major’s When Knighthood Was in Flower, about Brandon and Mary. It was turned into a silent movie starring Marion Davies, but I haven’t seen it. The novel is available on Gutenberg here: http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/17498. It's not very historical itself and very very Victorian (whether you'll like it or will want to bash your head out will depend on your liking/tolerance of that sort of thing).
Anyways, awesome and romantic and all that? Right? Right.
But hey, in the show, since they are majorly mucking with time periods, there is no Mary (as Francois is already ruling by the time this starts). There is however, Henry’s sister Margaret. Now, mind you, Henry did have a sister named Margaret. She married the King of Scotland and is the grandmother of Mary Queen of Scots. Henry had two sisters, actually. Mary AND Margaret. *gasp*
But I think the show authors thought it would be too confusing :P So apparently they had a Mary/Margaret hybrid. But you know what? I don’t care.
Because Brandon is played by the UBER-HOT Henry Cavill. And here, Brandon is in love with MargaMaryret hybrid (who for some reason is married off to the King of Portugal in this one, I guess because the old French king is dead). So?
We basically still get the forbidden hot love of a royal princess married off to someone she despises and the sexy nobleman friend of Henry. YAY. I don’t care about mucking with history under such circs. Brands me as a philistine, but who cares. I am off to ogle Henry Cavill…(who btw, is a lot more appealing to modern eyes than the historical Brandon who had a not-too-sexy-to-moderns full beard.
So yeah. Ahistorical but I don't care because it doesn't really pretend to be a brainy-serious type of show.
Too much fun!
OK. Real history. Henry had a younger sister named Mary. She was in love with the King’s close friend Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk. However, Henry married her off to the aging King of France (the predecessor to Francis we see in the show). As a carrot, he promised her that once the elderly KoF keeled over, she could marry whoever she wanted. KoF duly keeled over and Mary, knowing that Henry wasn’t prone to keeping his word, took her chance when Brandon was sent to bring her back, and married him quickly and secretly in France. According to wikipedia “technically this was treason as Suffolk had married a royal princess without Henry's consent. The king was outraged, and the Privy Council urged that Brandon should be imprisoned or executed. However, due to the intervention of Cardinal Wolsey and Henry's affection for both his sister and Suffolk, the couple were let off with a heavy fine.” And then they came back and had another, fancy wedding. Jane Grey is her granddaughter. (A less romantic note is that when Mary eventually died, Brandon married again next year and had some more kids. Heh).
One of my favorite old-fashioned adventure/romantic novels is Charles Major’s When Knighthood Was in Flower, about Brandon and Mary. It was turned into a silent movie starring Marion Davies, but I haven’t seen it. The novel is available on Gutenberg here: http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/17498. It's not very historical itself and very very Victorian (whether you'll like it or will want to bash your head out will depend on your liking/tolerance of that sort of thing).
Anyways, awesome and romantic and all that? Right? Right.
But hey, in the show, since they are majorly mucking with time periods, there is no Mary (as Francois is already ruling by the time this starts). There is however, Henry’s sister Margaret. Now, mind you, Henry did have a sister named Margaret. She married the King of Scotland and is the grandmother of Mary Queen of Scots. Henry had two sisters, actually. Mary AND Margaret. *gasp*
But I think the show authors thought it would be too confusing :P So apparently they had a Mary/Margaret hybrid. But you know what? I don’t care.
Because Brandon is played by the UBER-HOT Henry Cavill. And here, Brandon is in love with MargaMaryret hybrid (who for some reason is married off to the King of Portugal in this one, I guess because the old French king is dead). So?
We basically still get the forbidden hot love of a royal princess married off to someone she despises and the sexy nobleman friend of Henry. YAY. I don’t care about mucking with history under such circs. Brands me as a philistine, but who cares. I am off to ogle Henry Cavill…(who btw, is a lot more appealing to modern eyes than the historical Brandon who had a not-too-sexy-to-moderns full beard.
So yeah. Ahistorical but I don't care because it doesn't really pretend to be a brainy-serious type of show.
Too much fun!
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no subject
Date: 2007-04-05 12:14 am (UTC)The thing is, though, that while I should be irked by all the inaccuracy...I'm not. Because JRM in pantaloons is distracting me from my ire.
Also, HENRY CAVILL. Too hot for words!
no subject
Date: 2007-04-05 03:26 am (UTC)Yeah. *drools*
See, the showtime people are really smart...their hotness-distracting plan is working.
no subject
Date: 2007-04-05 01:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-05 03:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-05 03:36 am (UTC)It reminds me of an extra on Gosford Park, where a producer said that one of the consultants, who had been an underfootman or something, protested a scene where Richard Grant's character blew on a spoon and wiped it clean because you weren't supposed to DO that...as the producer(or whatever) said, yeah, they weren't SUPPOSED to, but when they had that option or going all the way to get a new one, we know what they chose.
Of course, this is considerably more in the realm of minutae than the post was, but...
no subject
Date: 2007-04-05 01:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-05 03:25 am (UTC)haven't watched more than a few minutes of it on the website
Date: 2007-04-05 01:16 am (UTC)Re: haven't watched more than a few minutes of it on the website
Date: 2007-04-05 03:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-05 01:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-05 03:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-06 01:38 am (UTC)You know, the only thing bugging me is that King Henry's hair isn't red. Couldn't they have died it? Did they think it would make the guy less attractive/recognizable and less people would watch? To me the red hair is the only likable thing about Henry (and I love how when Anne Boleyn's faithfulness was questioned, daughter Elizabeth ended up having the king's famous locks, so accusations dismissed).
no subject
Date: 2007-04-06 02:19 am (UTC)Re: hair. I guess they thought JRM would look weird with red hair?