#Philip Villiers

[charliethomascoxuniverse]

OMGGGGG, LOOK!!!!!!!!! 😲🤯😵💫

IT’S EVERY CHARACTER CHARLIE COX HAS EVER PLAYED!!!!!!! 😍😍😍 (Or pretty close to it.)

THIS IS THE CUTEST F*CKING THING I’VE EVER SEEN!!!!! 😭

.

Art by @quokaqisola on Twitter (X)

[tampire]

Downton Abbey S01E01

[andrasta14]

Ugh, I swear every time I see that pic of Thomas it has my Crowbarrow hindbrain pointing and going, “Look, big-ass sideburn buddies!” 🤣

[just-two-blokes]

Philip Villiers: 'You know Ellis, in this world, you got to have connections. Thomas knows this.'

Richard *bangs his royal household card on the table*: 'I do. Now get the fuck away from my boyfriend.'

This is my brain rotting away while having a nasty cold and lying in bed all day.

Also.. I want them to fight and I want Richard to win.

[diningwiththeasquiths]

Found a Downton Abbey ficlet of mine on an old external hard drive. It made me laugh, so I decided to upload it here. Posting it exactly the way I wrote it more than a decade ago. 400 words. Set during season 2, it features banter between Thomas and O'Brien, and appears to be setting up Thomas getting back with the Duke of Crowborough 👀

“I don't care 'ow many times she asks me, I'm not holding that bastard brat of 'ers.”

“You and me both, I never cared much for children.”

“Is that so, O'Brien? You make for a lousy woman.”

“An' you an even worse bloke.”

Thomas' eyes squint in amusement as he releases the smoke from his lungs. He takes another deep drag while thinking of something witty to reply. The only thing that comes out of his mouth, though, is a wild coughing fit. 

“The 'ell's wrong with you?”

“... Nothing,” he finally mutters with watery eyes, not even bothering to look back at her. “Just remembered something.”

O'Brien is left with a half-smoked fag on the ground and the sound of Thomas' boots on the gravel.

His mind is focussed entirely on the oh so familiar figure walking past on the distant pathway that goes around the abbey. Of course he could very well be mistaken. But no, that voice coming through the front doors...

“- just as in my memories. Very fond ones, I must say.”

Leather creaks slightly as his fists clench. His mouth tightens as well. The urge to walk away is overwhelming, but he seems frozen in place. Fixated on the man that looms in front of him. 

Then Mr. Carson notices Thomas. “Ah! Thomas! I do believe you met this gentleman before. The Duke of Crowborough will be gracing us with his stay.”

He tries not to flinch, and succeeds, as the Duke turns around slowly and smiles at him. His expression gives away pleasant surprise and also shows some uncertainty, which in turn puzzles Thomas.

“Hello.”

It almost sounds apologetic. Yet Thomas does not reply, instead he gives him a curt nod and a long glare until he finds the strength to walk past them. 

Miss O'Brien is already in the kitchen, reading the newspaper. She looks up when he enters. 

“You look more cross than usual.”

“It's the Duke. He's back at Downton.”

“Why? Did he get his arms blown off or something?”

“Seemed fine to me. Pity.”

He never really told her why he hated the Duke with such a passion. She probably figured it had to do with his snobbish ways. That was only half of the story though. But he'd rather die than tell her about his humiliation. 

“So what's the plan?”

“... Avoid him.”

“Really, is that all? You disappoint me.”

“Give me time.”

“Don't worry, we'll get him out of 'ere. There's more than one way to boil a slug.”

“...”

[dragonss-in-the-north]

Stumbled across a Stardust gifset recently and was reminded again of how hilarious a Thommy au would be. OK, so maybe Thomas isn’t an heiress, but Philip will have to love him if he brings him back a falling star, right? Except the star turns out to be a foul-tempered but very attractive blond man who’s like, “Yeah, you’ve kidnapped me, but I’m going to be Very Annoying the whole time.”

[charliethomascoxuniverse]

True that. 😭❤

Yeah, I'm totally normal about him. Move the heck out of my way! ❤😍❤

"I feel so normal about him" well I dont. move

[charliethomascoxuniverse]

The Duke of Crowborough + text posts

[andrasta14]

*sits here wondering if any Thomas Barrow fans saw Stardust and had an “omg Thomas got f*cked over by Tristan Thorn?????” moment*

Idk why that’s so funny to me because like, LOOK AT HIM:

Could he BE any more babygirl? 😂💗

[andrasta14]

Crowbarrow and what could've been...😔💔

what is a husband but a valet you have sex with. truly.

[james-vi-stan-blog]

I seen you were answering to the other anon so I just wanted to ask some questions:) did King James knew about Mary having George to seduce him?

I’ve seen someone say they’ve explained to people that George was a victim of James. And they’ve also said James had power over him ( taking advantage of his financial situation) and to make George “essentially one of his pets and become extremely obsessive over him” and I’m wondering how? From what I’ve read it never came across like that or I never understood it as that

-☁️

I don't know enough about the details of the Villiers' rise to know exactly, but I think that everyone involved always knew that everyone was associated with some faction or another, and that every handsome young courtier who appeared on the scene as a potential favorite was being backed by someone.

James was king from the age of 15 months. When he came to the English throne at the age of 36, he was an extremely savvy veteran of the intense infighting and backstabbing of the Scottish court. Besides Lennox, he had already had intense relationships with men like Huntly and Bothwell which were steeped in factional drama. In his later years James was savvy to attempts to throw pretty boys in front of him in an attempt to distract him from George and sharply reprimanded the promoters of William Monson, etc.

But at the same time that James was extremely aware of the political maneuverings going on, I think he had a bit of a naive belief in the power of love. In Scotland, he aggressively countered clan blood feuds by marrying nobles to each other, and he constantly forgave Huntly and Bothwell when they professed friendship and love for him -- astonished onlookers watching as he'd embrace and kiss Huntly and go to bed with him right after threatening to raise an army against him. It seemed like he really believed true love could overcome all.

These two contradictory orientations seem to exist within James at the same time.

When George Villiers was rising, Robert Carr, the current favorite and the first since Esmé Stewart to achieve massive political power, was in trouble, gradually withdrawing intimacy from James (maybe because of his marriage to Frances Howard). At this time, James was still trying to repair the relationship with Carr, and did not immediately promote Villiers to the bedchamber, instead doing a favor to Carr and promoting one of Carr's nephews instead. However, Carr failed to regain the king's affections and was disgraced by the Overbury scandal, and Villiers was strongly pushed forward by a large anti-Carr faction including former favorites William and Philip Herbert (the latter of which is "Sir Philip" from Gunpowder 2017), the Archbishop of Canterbury, and also James's wife Queen Anna herself.

Almost all of these people regretted promoting George when George became 10x the grasping politician and megalomaniac that Robert was, lol.

So like, again... if the question here is "Was this an unproblematic relationship? Was James the bad guy? Did George freely choose to enter this relationship? Who used whom?" ... I feel like these are extremely strange attitudes to take about the 17th century.

All relationships were problematic. (I mean, please think for a second about the state of heterosexual marriage at this time.) Everyone was horrible. Nobody was ever able to freely choose anything. Everyone's every action was part of an intricate web of power, politics, desire, manipulation, greed... Sometimes people might try to act unselfishly, or think that they're justified, but there simply is no way for a clean, consensual, egalitarian relationship to exist in this environment. Human rights, such as we recognize them, do not exist. This is 70+ years before John Locke's "life, liberty, and pursuit of property".

This was just what love and politics was like for people in this world. I mean, also consider what kind of life James lived as a cradle king. Every second of every day he was waited on by a huge retinue, every move scrutinized. People could not even enter his presence and converse with him unless they were backed by a political faction and provided with the resources, political connections, rank to enter the very most elite sphere of society. James wasn't just down at the grocery store casually meeting guys, going on cafe dates. (He would never, anyway, because he was terrified of assassination. As you would be when like half of your family was assassinated and there were constant actual attempts at assassinating YOU.)

In this environment, uncoerced, fair love as we see it today cannot exist.

And further, I really don't think that characterizing George as a helpless victim in this situation make sense. As a 21-year-old man, he had the age of majority; he had vastly more freedom to make his own way in life than, say, a daughter would. We cannot know how he felt, so fiction will be an interesting opportunity to explore what he might have subjectively felt like at this time. But we can see from behavior just how skillfully and determinedly he played the game. (I mean, check out this analysis of his finances in 1624.)

Was it demeaning, disgusting, hurtful? Was it glorious, his opportunity to shine, to make himself the most powerful man in England by sheer charm alone? We just can't know, but we can wonder.

[brokenbluebouquet]

Velasquez sketch of Gaspar de Guzmán y Pimentel, 1st Duke of Sanlúcar, 3rd Count of Olivares c1630s Musee de Beaux-Arts, Paris.

Even though they did not return from Spain with the Infanta, the trip to Spain was nonetheless a learning experience and especially so for George. Olivares was an example of just how powerful favourites could be and the blurring of the line between favourite and minister.

For 2 decades Gaspar de Guzman, Conte de Olivares was the virtual ruler of Spain and its vast empire on behalf of the dull witted and disengaged Philip iv. Despite his herculean attempts to reverse the decline of Spain and exploit the monarchy’s resources more effectively, Olivares was overthrown in a coup lead by Philip’s queen in 1643, his policies having collapsed into rebellion at home and military failure abroad. He died in internal exile in 1645.

[charliethomascoxuniverse]

💕 Charlie Cox + silk dressing gown 💕

[marvelousbisexualchaos]

When he gets bit on the neck... 😏😏 (Top/middle)

what a great kisser 🫢

CHARLIE COX in various films and tv shows

[andrasta14]

~💘~

[thekenobee]

*finishes reading "Fortune of War" minutes before she needs to leave the house in order to catch a train*

That's some fine craftsmanship