Let the month of May continue...

It is May 14. Every year around this time, I feel very compelled and emotional by the events that transpired 477 years ago on May 19. For the first time in English history a queen was executed, beheaded for treason and unceremoniously buried in a chest box in an unmarked grave. Anne Boleyn, the second wife, and crowned consort of Henry VIII was charged with adultery, treason, and incest against her beloved husband Henry Tudor, the eighth of his name. Was any of it true? Or did Henry simply want to erase his past with a woman he once passionately adored to marry wife number three in the hopes of a son?

The love story of Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII is one of the most perplexing, attractive, and enigmatic stories in history. Was it love? Was it lust? Was it ambition? Hollywood always likes to pick one of those reasons and exaggerate it to the extent that PG13 ratings will allow it. This is perhaps why the series "The Tudors" was one of my favorite Tudor England representations on film. Yeah, it was inaccurate. Yeah, it was a bunch of pretty costumes and unnecessary nudity at times. But it was deep, complex, and ironic in its usage of imagery, poetry, and symbolism. The character development of Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII was my favorite. Two young people with dreams and hopes for a better England, starting as confidantes, lovers, and friends with things in common, become the bitterest enemies and strangers. Historically, I think this was a fair picture of Anne and Henry because it was documented that they were close friends and they had many things in common (music, poetry, theology, literature, hunting, and politics). Henry waited for her for seven years before consummating the relationship and finally marrying her to be his queen. He had her, this descendant of noble merchants and dukes, crowned as queen with the ancient crown of British history.  He abandoned his faith in the Pope, his friends, and his country's well being for her love. And this was perhaps their doom from the start. To love is good enough, but to love while hurting others tarnishes that love and the black stain simply grows with every argument, with every resentment, with every longing for what was promised and failed to be given. Henry wanted a son. Anne bore a daughter. It simply was not good enough. Henry never heard the Beatles play "Love is all you Need!".

What especially saddens me about May and Anne's execution is her manner of disposal. She was once the beloved lady of the monarch, a woman who could do no wrong, and suddenly slanders and truly heinous accusations were thrown at her. Not only was Anne the woman killed, but her name was marred and disdained for the years to come. It was this stain on her name which would affect her only legacy, her 2 year old daughter Elizabeth. Elizabeth grew up to be queen, yes! Elizabeth ruled and led with brilliancy and cunning, yes! But Elizabeth lost so much, gave up so much, and never experienced the many joys of being a woman. Elizabeth never grew up with a mother. Elizabeth never married. Elizabeth never bore her own children. With Elizabeth died the Tudor dynasty and the whole point of what Henry was trying to establish by marrying six different times.

Sadly, Elizabeth grew up with a ghost, a faded memory of a laugh, of long black hair touching her cheek, of a sparkling eye looking over her clothing, but was any of it real? Did Elizabeth know that her mother was innocent? Did she perhaps think of her at times when things became difficult? Did she blame her like others did and maybe even believed in her treason? History is so uncertain, it is all conjecture. The only real proof anyone has of Elizabeth's love for Anne is the locket ring with Elizabeth's image and that of another woman with dark hair, dark eyes, and a french styled hood which was commonly attributed to Anne Boleyn and popular in the 1530s. To commemorate and honor these women, I present my video tribute to Anne Boleyn's fall, Elizabeth's rise, and the very different but interwoven lives they led.

(My youtube name used to be historygirl23 hence the logo on the bottom and this was a fanvideo I created for them last year) Enjoy!

Song: Christina Perri "The Lonely"
Films: The Tudors, Elizabeth, Elizabeth: Golden Age

http://youtu.be/4sCrU-0t2Nc

Let the Queens Reign!

What makes a good queen? Having the love of the people, is that enough? What about being astute and cunning in the game of diplomacy? History has seen many a great queen; powerful, intelligent, and inspiring women who defied conventions and survived their era as best they could. But what makes a good TV queen? In an age where props, sets, and costumes from a now dead century can be digitally recreated or where hundreds of craftsmen give birth to imaginary worlds from dusty book pages, it is important to have everything that makes a good film queen. A good film queen needs to be elegant, memorable, and wear awesome costumes. Below are my top favorite portrayals of Anne Boleyn and Elizabeth I on film:

Anne Boleyn

Genevieve Bujold in Anne of the Thousand Days (1969)

 "There is something deep and dangerous in you Anne. Those eyes of yours are like dark hooks for the soul" says papa Boleyn to his daughter as he asks her to become Henry VIII's mistress, in The Tudors, for the benefit of the Boleyn clan. The funny thing is that Anne Boleyn was known for her deep dark eyes which were not the epitome of beauty in the English court (blond blue eyed babes were preferred). Even funnier is that Natalie Dormer played Anne Boleyn for two seasons in The Tudors and she has really light blue eyes. My first impression of the show and the actress was disgust. How could they destroy and ignore the simple things of what made the Tudor era important? How much more wrong could I have been!

Natalie Dormer as Anne Boleyn in The Tudors

Natalie Dormer was amazing as Anne Boleyn, both as the lady in waiting trying to seduce the king and the ambitious queen fretfully loosing control of her husband and her life. What really makes the Tudor era so amazing is the passion of the people behind it and Natalie Dormer really captured the passion, the emotion, and the despair of doomed woman betrayed by the men around her. My first Anne Boleyn encounter though is also a very powerful one and that is attributed to the wonderful talents and fiery spirit of Genevieve Bujold as Anne Boleyn. Alongside Richard Burton, Bujold makes you wish you were right there next to her telling Henry VIII, "yeah, thats right!" as she promises in their final scene together that "Elizabeth will be a greater queen than any king of yours (any son he has with Jane Seymour who is replacing her), Elizabeth will rule a greater England than you could ever have built. Yes! my Elizabeth shall be queen, and my blood will have been well spent".

 

Elizabeth I

To love Anne Boleyn as a powerful female historical figure is almost synonymous with loving her daughter, Elizabeth I. Much of this admiration can be thanked to the beautiful, graceful, and powerfully voiced Glenda Jackson and Cate Blanchett. Can these women act, or can they act?! Cate Blanchett was my first Elizabeth portrayal to be experienced but upon seeing Mary Queen of Scots with Vanessa Redgrave, I had to see more Jackson portrayals of Good Queen Bess (nickname for Elizabeth). The woman was so good at being the English monarch that she was in a 6 episode series for BBC titled Elizabeth R (1971) and brought back to the English throne in the film Mary Queen of Scots (1971). Of course, my more modern tendencies with love for all things romance and hollywood really like Cate Blanchett's Elizabeth who swoons and doesnt learn her lessons about betraying men and power seeking courtiers until the very end of the first film, and who can ignore those fabrics, and those costumes! To have both actresses is the perfect blend of the woman the real Elizabeth was known to be, fiery and temperamental one minute while sweet and adoring the next.

All I can say is long live the queens!

Glenda Jackson in Elizabeth R

Cate Blanchett being crowned as Elizabeth (1998)

Let the dissection begin...

"Grumble all you like, this is how it’s going to be"
-Anne Boleyn

Those are the words of a queen; it was her chosen motto, for a time. And now, those words inspire my title for this blog site. I have never blogged before, but I love to write. I don't think that I write well. I mostly write what I think, and when I think it all comes tumbling down in small clumps of moments, of memories, and hopes. 

Why would I be inspired by the words of a woman as infamous as Anne Boleyn? Why would a home wrecker, a usurper, a temptress, a witch with six fingers, and an adulteress inspire a random person from Los Angeles?* Why not? She was more than that. Everyone is more than meets the eye, everyone is more than the few seconds spent with them and later judged on for hours. 

The real question is, why wouldn't a woman from history inspire? History is the blood of the future and if we ignore that, then we are dooming the future to be catastrophic. I am no Eric Ives nor a self proclaimed Anne Boleyn expert, but she is definitely one of the most interesting historical figures I love. This blog site will not only focus on her, but on other rulers and leaders, in literature and history. This blog site might be personal and completely random at times, especially since there are days when my life takes a turn and it reminds me of something from the past. In these moments, I hope to gain the inspiration to seriously continue this blog. You can say this will be a dual dissection of both history and literature along with the crazy grumblings of a geek-for-life. 

*Note: Those are all the stereotypes, the inconsistencies, and the labels that have been given to Anne Boleyn over time because no one really knows who she was- life is all about hearsay.