#tudor media

[cazmatonicevent]

Be Honest ... Are any of the Lady Jane Grey things worth watching? I keep seeing gifs from a show that look nice but I can't tell if anyone actually likes the story. Jane Grey doesn't get much attention so I am really hoping it's at least enjoyable?

[elephantlovemedleys]

can i just say. cary elwes as guildford dudley in lady jane (1986) was some pretty on point casting especially since historically speaking guildford is robert's younger brother, and if you put it side by side with joseph fiennes as robert it's just. woah

[queerbauten]

hemlo yes I got an ARC of Jane Seymour: An Illustrated Life by Carol-Ann Johnston; expect liveblogging

[wonder-worker]

Thinking about Elizabeth Woodville as a gothic heroine is making me go insane. She entered the story by overturning existing social structures, provoking both ire and fascination. She married into a dynasty doomed to eat itself alive. She was repeatedly associated with the supernatural, both in terms of love and death. Her life was shaped entirely by uncanny repetitions - two marriages, two widowhoods, two depositions, two flights to sanctuary, two ultimate reclamations, all paralleling and ricocheting off each other. Her plight after 1483 exposed the true rot at the heart of the monarchy - the trappings of royalty pulled away to reveal nothing, a never-ending cycle of betrayal and war, the price of power being the (literal) blood of children. She lived past the end of her family name, she lived past the end of her myth. She ended her life in a deeply anomalous position, half-in and half-out of royal society. She was both a haunting tragedy and the ultimate survivor who was finally free.

[dkmbookworm]

I have such a complicated relationship with Six: The Musical, at times. While it is very entertaining and a fun little forray/introduction to Tudor history with all of the songs and the different musical styles and artists they pull from for the queens

At the same time some of its feminist messaging is kind of undercut by the way they tell these stories. The theme of this musical is 1. There is no use in comparing the suffering of these women or any women in abusive relationships and 2. It is wrong to define them solely by their relationship to Henry as they are more than just the horrible things that happened to them. They were political figures in their own rights with their own accomplishments

However, this feels lost because the only accomplishment’s we learn about are Catherine Parr’s, and when we get to the final song, we don’t hear about the other queens, but instead we go into a what-if scenario where they had no attachment to Henry

And beyond that, we don’t gain a new understanding of the queens aside from the last two. Katherine Howard reveals how she wasn’t just some flirt or cheater, she was a victim of serial abuse throughout her very short life. We learn what Catherine Parr did outside of Henry.

However, there’s also something troubling about how her song ignores the fact her husband, Thomas Seymour, was actively grooming Elizabeth Tudor, her stepdaughter.

And then you get to Anne Boleyn where it also misrepresents her history because Henry’s accusations against her were completely fabricated in order to justify her murder. Especially considering they also accused her of sleeping with her own brother. Not only that but her relationship with Elizabeth is completely erased outside of a few references and any discussion of motherhood is limited to Jane Seymour, who I argue isn’t really expanded upon beyond what she is largely known for.

To say the least if how Anne of Cleves, while she does get out of this easier, they spread around try myth that she was rejected for being unattractive when it was that Henry had embarrassed himself in front of her with a ridiculous stunt before they were married. And going further into this, i wish the musical could have added the element that several of these women had interacted in their lives, had even started out as ladies in waiting. And you could have explored their relationships. Like you have Anne of cleves with Katherine Howard and how they knew each other in court. You have several of the queens relationships with Mary and Elizabeth, and even Edward before he died.

Idk if I’m putting unfair expectations on the musical or maybe even that this wasn’t the creators intention and thus I shouldn’t be expecting them to do what I think should be included. But I guess leave your thoughts on this if any of you come across it

[annabolinas]

May 18, 1536 - Anne's Last Confession and "A Little Neck"

"This morning, she [Anne] sent for me that I might be with her at such time as she received the good Lord [i.e. the Eucharist], to the intent I should hear her speak as touching her innocence … In the writing of this, she sent for me. And at my coming, she said, 'Master Kingston, I hear say I shall not die before noon, and I am very sorry therefore, for I thought then to be dead and past my pain.' I told her it should be no pain, it was so subtle. And then she said, 'I heard say the executioner was very good, and I have a little neck', and put her hand about it, laughing heartily. I have seen many men and also women executed, and … they have been in great sorrow. And to my knowledge, this lady hath much joy and pleasure in death." - William Kingston, Constable of the Tower, to Thomas Cromwell, May 18, 1536

"She confessed and took the Sacrament yesterday. No one ever showed more courage or greater readiness to meet death than she did, having ... begged and solicited those under whose keeping she was to hasten the execution. When orders came from the King to have it delayed until today, she seemed sorry and begged and entreated the governor of the Tower ... for God's sake, to go to the King, and beg of him that, since she was well disposed and prepared for death, she should be dispatched immediately. The lady in whose keeping she has been sends me word, in great secrecy, that before and after her receiving the Holy Sacrament, she affirmed, on peril of her soul's damnation, that she had not misconducted herself so far as her husband the King was concerned." - Eustace Chapuys, May 19, 1536

[grits-galraisedinthesouth]

A common sense expert opinion regarding: Conspiracies over Royal Photograph!

[rahabs]

The Tudors ran so Wulf Hall could shuffle awkwardly around reiterating the same tired old Tudor stereotypes while claiming to be something new.

[fideidefenswhore]

latest promotional article for the tmatl production referring to anne stanhope/seymour as 'violent'...booooooo

[edwardseymour]

‘support firebrand!’

[salsedinepicta]

Ruffles and piercings, what a fun time 💅

(or: some kind of experiment with acrylics)

[ladysansa]

Wats wrong w previous Tudor media

a lot of them have a tendency to portray one or several of Henry’s wives or other women in the Tudor period in a…negative light, shall we say? for example, portraying Katherine of Aragon as a nagging old hag of a wife who should’ve just let Henry divorce her, Anne Boleyn as scheming to become Henry’s mistress and then his queen, Katheryn Howard as someone who was unfaithful to the king—despite the fact that she was a teenager who, even if she had been “unfaithful” to him was taken advantage of and groomed by the older men in her life. It just seems like they can never get the women right, whether it be Mary I, Elizabeth I, Lady Jane Grey, any of Henry’s wives, or many of the other women portrayed in Tudor media—and if they get one right then they sometimes just screw over one or all the others.

That’s not to say that I never enjoy these shows or movies, but everytime I see a new movie or tv series come out I always kinda side-eye it, because you never know what choices they’ll make regarding the characters. History often mistreats women even long after their deaths, so I’m always wary of pieces of Tudor media or literature—even biographies.

[wonder-worker]

As scholars of biofictions have shown, historical fiction that focuses on the experiences of one specific person tends to present history as the collation of many individual stories, or mimic the “Great Man” model of history by suggesting that the actions of one individual have had an outsize effect on the historical record...Read through this lens, almost all Anne Boleyn fictions are properly considered biofictions, in that the larger social and political forces shaping this moment in history are largely elided to focus on the individual. Even when a broader social consciousness is introduced into the narrative, such as those novels which represent Anne as either a feminist or a devoted religious reformer, emphasis is usually placed on Anne as either a woman outside of time (in that her feminism renders her too progressive for the Tudor court) or single-handedly responsible for the English Reformation.

-Stephanie Russo, The Afterlife of Anne Boleyn: Representations of Anne Boleyn in Fiction and on the Screen.

[fatherramiro]

so i kept telling myself to read more dark fantasy for inspiration for a project but my reading slump is kicking my ass so i might switch to my original love - historical fiction set in tudor england

[malkaleh]

What is a line of historical dialogue that every period drama includes, much like every period drama with Anne Boleyn has the “little neck” historical line?

“My raven” / “my dark haired loves” is in EVERYTHING. Like I swear, that’s definitely all in the promo(s).

”Rewrite The Stars” & “Golden World”

“And so the sun passed into the dawn and the world will truly be golden” (Henry talking about his oldest son)

“There is no shame that is upon you, that will ever be upon you”

“My star”

“Harry, you are the sun. You are our sun”

“He is mine - the spoils of my victory”