Throwback to the beautiful Dorothy Tutin as English consorts, Queens Anne Boleyn, second wife of Henry VIII and mother to Elizabeth I, and Queen Henrietta Maria, wife of Charles I and mother to Charles II and James II.
Out of all the Anne Boleyns, Dorothy is one of my favorites because she showed the good and bad aspects of Anne’s character and the way she conducted herself before her trial and afterwards confessed to Cranmer were very powerful and moving scenes. In my opinion, it is one of the best historical dramas about the six wives that gets better with every rewatch.
As Henrietta Maria, Dorothy Tutin also did a great job showing the only complex character in a movie that was meant to show either saintly flawless characters or inept and corrupt ones.
At the beginning we think we are going to introduce the archetypical evil woman of Cromwell’s imagination but instead we are treated to a woman who’s proud of her lineage, but also a deeply devoted, caring wife and mother who believes she’s doing what is in the best interest for her husband and her family.
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George Villiers 1st Duke of Buckingham in Fiction - a partial summary
CW: discussions of biphobia and homophobia in historical fiction and current historiography.
Feeling both inspired and outraged in equal measure by the upcoming Mary&George series, and having been fascinated with this remarkable man since forever, I have decided to post this partial overview of portrayals of George in fiction. The ones in bold are the ones I have read. Feel free to add to the list.
The Three Musketeers, Alexandre Dumas
The Honey and The Sting, Elizabeth Freemantle
My Queen My Love, E.M Vidal
Cavalier Queen, Fiona Mountain
The Dangerous Kingdom Of Love, Neil Blackmore
The Fallen Angel, Tracy Borman
Wife Of Great Buckingham, Hilda Lewis
Darling Of Kings, P J Womack
The Queens Dwarf, Ella March Chase
The Smallest Man, Frances Owen
The Spanish Match, Brennan Purcell
Captain Alatriste, Arturo Pérez-Reverte
The Cardinal and The Queen, Evelyn Anthony
Earthly Joys, Philippa Gregory
Myself My Enemy, Jean Plaidy
Charles The King, Evelyn Anthony
The Young And Lonely King, Jane Lane
The Fortunes Of Nigel, Walter Scott
The Crowned Lovers, E Barrington
The Minion, Raphael Sabiniti
The Murder In The Tower, Jean Plaidy
A Net For Small Fishes, Lucy Jago
The Arm and the Darkness, Taylor Caldwell
Les Gloires et les perils (?), Robert Merle
And a few I’m not so sure about where George is mentioned in passing: .
Viper Wine, Hermionie Eyre
John Saturnalls Feast, Lawrence Norfolk
Rebels and traitors, Lindsay Davis
The Assassin, Ronald Blythe
Some observations, in no particular order:
Novels set mostly in James reign often have George as a rival to Robert Carr and will attempt to foreshadow how much worse he will be compared to Carr.
The ones that feature Henrietta Maria as Protagonist or at least POV character, where George is normally a baddie trying to sabotage HM and Charles I's relationship, and his death is often portrayed as some sort of salvation for HM. In these books George will often be lamed for things which were IRL Charles's fault such as the expulsion of HMs French household in 1626.
Three Musketeers is practically a category in its own right due to all the film/tv adaptions but has had relatively few clones or imitators in English which is something of a surprise
George is only a protagonist in one of these books (Darling of Kings, P J Womack) in the rest he's a cameo or a villain
Rumours that I suspect authors know is nonsense are repeated verbatim such as Tracy Borman's baseless speculation about G offing the Manners brothers, king James, and his rumoured involvement with the occult.
Georges relationships with James and Charles respectively are mentioned but not meaningfully explored. neither are any other personal relationships he had.
The insights and shifts in terms of post 1970s revisionist and post revisionist scholarship esp. Roger Lockyer's bio of George have not found their way into any fiction set in this era. Georges capability as an administrator and manager of patronage is more often than not totally absent.
the general view of George and why he's often shown in such a negative light is pretty much "well, he was willing to god knows what with that dirty old man James; who knows what other depravities he was capable of" and its female authors who really seem to lean into this, which I find fascinating and disturbing.
EDIT (can’t believe I forgot this) George’s murder in 1628 is always the result of some sort of aristocratic conspiracy rather than the act of terrorism it was IRL. I do get why authors do this - the amount of world building and foreshadowing needed to make it seem plausible rather than random in universe. However making it the result of personal grudge rather than ideological violence detracts from why it was so shocking and important.
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I finally finished my 1630s English-style ensemble! It’s entirely handsewn except for the long seams in the skirt (thanks, tendonitis). The waistcoat/bodice is based on the cream silk satin example in Seventeenth Century Women’s Dress Patterns, and it’s structured and supportive enough that I am not wearing a pair of bodies/stays underneath it.
Overall, this took about 6.5 yards of purple cotton velvet and about 5 yards of lace. I love how wild the silhouette is. ❤️
Full blog post and writeup available here. Photos by @yuna-py ✨
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