Tudor Historian Joanne Paul Breaks Down Tudor Films & TV Shows

The whole world knows that these pirates sail down the Thames until they reach your royal bed. Yeah, no, you wouldn't say that. I definitely didn't say that. No, yes, don't say that. Hi, I'm Dr. Joanne Paul I'm a Dudley House

historian

and author and I'm here to break down some clips from tutor movies and TV

shows

. Well, we have a scene from the reduction of Wolf Hall. You see a lot of progress in your course. we just had a reference to Cardinal Woolsey um which means he's probably still alive which means we're looking at about 15 29. oh a meaningful look there and a meaningful look ma'am um who I'm sure We'll find out who. at one point she is holding a dog and bolin she had a dog whose name was parkoy, which was probably an anglicization of the french word porcua because she had a kind of quizzical look on her face, like she was always asking for that.

It's very tragic, in fact, he ends up falling or being thrown out of a window and Anne is apparently afraid to tell him because she's so devastated that she wouldn't be very kind. I love it. Claire Foy is doing a fantastic job as Anne Boleyn. I think her casting is interesting, she is very pale. Anne Boleyn was known to have what was often identified as a sallow complexion, very dark eyes and certainly very dark ones. There is much written about her dark-eyed allure, Claire Foy. Maybe this is not an expected choice for your lady mary god, I thought I would slap you, yes, so it is lady mary berlin who often presents herself as blonde, although we did not know what she looked like, they say that she and the king still do not has done it, it's true, so this is the idea that they walk around and henry viii um they don't do the act until the end of 1532, when they are in calais, there is nothing contemporary to support that idea, although this idea is anne that tempts , but then he holds back um it's something that comes much later but we always see it in depictions of Anne Boleyn maybe there's a depiction of Anne at some point that doesn't, that would be great, she lets him take her down.

Move over and kiss her breasts, good man, okay, that's actually from a letter from 1528 when Henry talks about missing Anne and especially at night wishing he could kiss his ducklings, um, which is a Tudor word for breasts, so, actually, that is corroborated by the sources. This is clearly the scene of Anne's execution. This was in May 1536, early in the morning, which I think she is well represented here and according to the law, she is considered dead. Yes, I can't hear her and therefore I think you would speak for a Spider-Man's last word is in this, so we have the accounts of her execution in which her ladies, those around her, are removing her headdress and putting a cap on her that holds her hair during the execution, most depictions of the ambulance death, she doesn't wear a blindfold, but it's in one of the fountains and I think this scene really captures the terror.

Anne would not have been very close to these ladies either, they were not the ladies she had served as queen um many were often assigned to her and would have been assigned to her in her imprisonment, so the swordsman um of Calais had been specially sent to England to beheading Anne Boleyn, in fact, the execution had been delayed. several times because they were waiting for the executioner, the execution with a sword would have been a more humane and merciful execution, especially by an expert, as such, as it was seen to be, the sword they show is also an executioner's sword.

There are some good examples of those in Heaven Castle, which is Berlin's house, he is crawling around her um and if they go according to the sources in a second, he will call his servant to distract her again, that is from the reports of the execution we have we don't want the men to handle it it's a little late for that so anne's execution um her head is cut off with one blow uh the joke I think it must be francis um brian based on based on the patch on the Mind you, the joke is, of course, that she was executed for adultery, there's no evidence that she ever committed adultery, uh, it was a political assassination in many ways, so the accuracy rating for Wolf Hall, I mean, is pretty good, they got the reference to kissing ducklings, I think that's pretty good, so I'd give it about six seven seven, let's be nice, let's give it a seven, okay, next up, Mary Queen of Scots, which I think is the latest film version of a Tudor story. and you would still make us yours, so we have Elizabeth meeting with her privy council.

I think he has smallpox so this is probably sometime after 1562 which is when he gets small parks but Mary is our enemy and Catholic she is only your queen if she should not produce an heir and lady there is Robert Dudley , played here by Joe Alwyn, looking pretty sly, because he knows they may have had physical relationships, they may have considered marrying each other for a while. It was long thought that he would marry her and that this would be the route to producing an heir, so Robert Dudley worked hard. This relationship also between Elizabeth and her privy council is quite precise and was often filled with Tension: she didn't trust them, they didn't really trust her after all, she is nothing more than a woman, especially anything that has to do With her marriage and her ability to produce an heir always resulting in precisely these types of conversations, she has proven her worth. in fact, far more capable than my own privy council, yes, if she died before her time we could do worse than place her on the throne of England, yes, no, no, sorry, I'll have to do it.

I'm going to have to seal a big one on this one, um, Elizabeth, famous, wouldn't declare an heir, she didn't really want to, um, and it's fair enough because that just puts a crown on someone who could supplant her, it was still treason to talk about the death of of. the monarch to a compass or imagine the death of the monarch, so this type of conversation is quite unlikely. I understand why they want to get her out, but she says it would be a good idea for Mary, Queen of Scots to be her heir. it just doesn't fit well with what we know about her uh or or the history of the time I'm more male than female now this throne has made me like this but I have no enmity with you I mean, she does um so this is um, the famous non-existent encounter between Mary Queen of Scots and Elizabeth the First, many letters were written and they added a dramatic scene instead of someone sitting and writing a letter, which is very boring to watch, makes a lot of sense if you still seek my protection would you good to watch your work I won't be scolded by my inferior I like uh mary queen of scotland the presentation the pride uh and the kind of righteousness um that she is queen of England's claim to Elizabeth as the daughter of Amberlynn and Henry VIII was questioned and questionable, um, so Mary Queen of Scots thought she was the rightful Queen of England and, with that pride, would continue to make that claim even as a prisoner of Elizabeth the First. and for that reason she would be executed.

She was jealous of your beauty, your bravery, your motherhood. Elizabeth was definitely jealous of the people at her court. She may have been jealous of depictions of Mary, Queen of Scots, if she was jealous of motherhood, I think. I also remember that in this movie there is a scene where she puts something under or over her dress and looks at the shadow of her pregnancy, oh that's it, maybe a little too far, if she had done it . She wanted to have children, she could have gotten married and had children. It seems that her decision was not to do it.

Therefore, having this private maternal instinct. The accuracy rating for Mary, Queen of Scots doesn't seem to add up so well. I think they represent very well the type of character of each of the queens and her motivations. However, of course, the meeting never happened. I don't think they show Elizabeth being any more sympathetic to Mary, Queen of Scots. especially as an heir, then it would have been the case, I'll give it about 5.5, okay, the Tudors, here we go, okay, I'll just say before I get too far, um, the Tudors get a lot of criticism, since maybe However , if the later episodes where they document the fall of Anne Boleyn are very, very close to the sources, um and I think they do a very, very good job of dealing with the fall of Anne and Natalie Dormer, I might write you a letter of love. natalie dormer she was the reason in many ways they stayed so close to the fountains henry we have a very dark haired henry here obviously he had red hair he was also very very tall he was about six feet which meant he towered over the people in the 16th century century who were much shorter than that um we're missing that here with jonathan rhys meyers that feeling of his enormous presence henry please for the love you have for our son okay so there's little elizabeth um which would have been two and a half years old um At this point, this was probably in the spring of 1536.

It's clearly just before the fall of Anne. This almost certainly never happened. Elizabeth was in Hatfield, she had her own house and Henry was very famous for wandering off and leaving discarded wives behind him. However, there is a copy of a letter that more or less follows the same type of structure as this conversation. She mentions Elizabeth. She swears that she was always good to him. They are making an effort to represent the sources. okay this clip of the tutors um the precision in it um they're trying um there's this lyric um and I think it represents Anne's desperation at this point and Henry's coldness um so I'll do it I'll give it I'll give it a six yeah you only watch three episodes of the Tudors and maybe you should watch those three at the end of season two for the downfall of Anne Boleyn.

I think it's very well done, Elizabeth. The Golden Age, which is the second of the two

films

, the company to give it the orchestra well, we already have Elizabeth walking very, very fast and the men trying to keep up with her, which is great, and it's quite accurate. Elizabeth liked to walk. and she liked to walk fast um and then this idea that she would have a conference with an ambassador while walking very, very fast um I think it's a nice point that Mary Stuart has to be freed and placed on the English throne to be killed .

Anything sounds familiar, they're combining a couple of different plots, possibly the Throckmorton plot is here, but we're also thinking about the Spanish armada and the invasion, they're combining some things into what she's talking about here with the company. from england it is my country that is under attack your so called parathas your pirates attack our merchant ships daily and you think we don't know where the orders come from right um english pirates attacked spanish ships um quite regularly was this a kind of non war war that England was fighting against the Spanish the whole world knows these pirates sail down the Thames to your royal bed yeah no you wouldn't say that I definitely didn't say that yeah Don't say they essentially replaced Robert Dudley with Walter Raleigh in this movie, but Robert was extremely important at the time, in the 1580s, he had been sent to fight the Spanish in the Netherlands during the Dutch Revolt. so he'd been pissing off the Spanish quite a bit and of course he was rumored to be a Paramore lover of Elizabeth the First, so that's where I think they're combining Raleigh and Dudley in this, and that's the kind of inclination of the accusation of mendoza don't bother kate blanchett don't do it we will leave my gifts sir go back to your rattle spain is a very nice place i love cate blanchett as elizabeth fantastic i also think it is a reference to the fact that it is the wind that essentially destroys the Spanish armada and forces them away from England and she never said anything like that, but I don't care, it's amazing, and I'd like to see it again, but I have to take them down. down for getting rid of robert dudley that's a big no-no in my books um so I'll give it I'll give it a five no, I like Campbell and chat I'll give it a 5.6 shakespeare at the ransom I love the name Queen Elizabeth , I'll rest, who is Mr.

Tilney? Okay, so I think it was filmed at the Globe in London. Sorry, I can't forget Ben Affleck in the background of this. I look very, very upset. it's at the end of a performance of romeo and juliet romeo and juliet was a play, probably written in the early 1590s, maybe the late 1580s, so certainly from the Elizabethan period, I think it will be Mr. Sir Edmund Tilney. I'll just play. kinda that woman is a woman why a woman you mean that goat can we have a moment for Ben Affleck's English accent? A woman on stage.

It was illegal in the Tudor period. She was illegal until 1661. uh, gentleman with a fantastic earring. I think it's supposed to be Sir Edmund Tilney, who is the master of the rebels. Originally his job was to make court appearances. Master of the rebels, he was supposed to create revelry, but he takes the job and turns it more into censorship and he certainly censored some of Shakespeare's plays, the deposition scene in Richard II for example, and here he burst onto the stage to arrest everyone,apparently because there is a genuine woman on stage, I will see them all. in perversion in the name of her majesty queen elizabeth the jingle is a place um in elizabethan england it is a prison that later becomes a word for all prisons, mr jingle, kill me, be careful with my name, you will wear it out, so that jeffrey rush in this one had also been in wallsingham in elizabeth um we've seen a lot of the actors um we'll see joseph fines in a second he's not robert dudley he's william shakespeare it gets very confusing if you watch these in succession, if only lord wessex was here, okay, uh, lord wessex, um colin firth, there was no lord wessex, uh, in Elizabethan England there hadn't been a lord.

Wessex since the 11th century um somewhere out there um however there is a Wessex lord now um he is Edward, the youngest son of Elizabeth II, who is the Earl of Wessex. What is very interesting is that part of the reason Edward took the title of lord. Wessex apparently saw this movie and thought it was a great title, so the reason we have Lord Wessex again is because of this movie, so history impacts cinema, cinema impacts history. I think there is some truth to the moment. that's in it um so we'll give it we'll give it a four that looks bad but it's a great movie um can I go see it again tonight talking about historical inaccuracies let's go see the other girl from Berlin now the first question, do I have to do it?

In fact, I have to do it. Yes, okay, I will see that the truth will come out. I can't beat you, you got me burned like a witch, okay, first, um, her, witchcraft. Then it was rumored that she wasn't executed for being a witch and the idea that her inability to have a child would have anything to do with a witchcraft accusation just doesn't make sense, I think the other girl from Berlin does too. This is very interesting because it speaks to that kind of dual presentation that we see from women: one that is um and one that is Madonna's virgin type of presentation, which is probably why Mary Belin is often portrayed like blonde in contrast. to the kind of morally darker uh and bolin i must spell it right another time for uh hilarious english accents um natalie portman but sleeping with another man would be treason right stupid yeah stop so this they are pursuing the suggestion that um Anne committed adultery with his brother.

This was something she was convicted of, but they were both convicted and executed on completely trumped-up charges. But here they are exploring the possibility that it would have been considered a way to get and pregnant without involving anyone outside the family this is the definition of keeping it in the family and it's crazy it's also very disgusting no, can't you see you're my only? I can't listen anymore he's a monster mary no join george please my life depends on it I would have been much more worried about her soul um and she was very very religious uh commit adultery wrong commit incest really really wrong like that that it wouldn't have crossed her mind and the fact that it was brought as a charge against her is one of those historical realities that is hard to explain that you would even have thought that she would have done this because yeah, get out of there, she's well, we have Juno Temple playing Jane Parker here, Jane Parker, George Bolin's wife has often been considered someone who informed Ann and George that she is the reason people thought they were committing incest.

There is no real contemporary evidence of that. That's something that comes up as an accusation much later when she actually gets involved in the affairs of a later queen Catherine Howard and she gets executed for it so everyone in this room ends up executed it's a bad room to be okay with mary belin for leaving yes, gross, gross, gross, gross, gross, well, well, so yeah, they, they, no. Don't move on, it's all good, the other girl from Berlin is also the worst example of that Anne Boleyn who tempts but with withholdings, it would be great if we could overcome that representation, so, so that we can.

I have two thanks for watching. You can get my book The House of Deadly in hardcover ebooks and audiobooks by clicking the link below in the description and don't forget to subscribe to Penguin for more videos like this.