Comments on: Royal Gossip

By: Eugene Finerman

Eugene Finerman — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 21:28:30 +0000

My defense of Richard III, while sincere, is–if I may correctly use the word–ironic. I love the Tudors: Henry VII, Henry VIII and, of course, Elizabeth. How many dynasties can boast three brilliant monarchs? The Romanovs had one, the Hohenzollerns had one, the French Bourbons had maybe two, the Spanish Bourbons…well, the Spanish Hapsburgs…um. (Maybe brilliance and monarchy are not conducive in Spain.)

Eugene

By: Wimple

Wimple — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 20:24:04 +0000

I also back Richard III. Another good book on this subject is “The Sunne in Spendour” by Sharon Kay Penman.

By: Rothgar

Rothgar — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 17:22:22 +0000

From what I’ve read Henry VIII really ballooned when he took a lance in the thigh about 3 years before his death. I’d bet he’d pretty much quit exercising after that (and the 16th century medicine that surely followed).

By: Eugene Finerman

Eugene Finerman — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 15:45:07 +0000

Michele,

“The Daughter of Time” is Gospel among many enthusiasts of British history. I might add that every August 24th–the anniversary of Bosworth Field–my friend Hal Gordon and I debate over Richard III. I uphold Richard’s innocence and Hal is a Tudor sycophant. (Did I express that objectively?)

I should also mention the delightfully macabre interpretation offered in the 1939 film “Tower of London”. Basil Rathbone, playing Richard, is indeed a scheming killer but most of his victims richly deserve it!

Eugene

By: Michele

Michele — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 13:14:24 +0000

Eugene, have you read Josephine Tey’s book “Daughter of Time”? It’s a mystery and the plot involves trying to unearth the truth about Richard of Gloucester (who apparently was not the villain history has made him out to be). I found it fascinating.

By: Eugene Finerman

Eugene Finerman — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 15:55:35 +0000

Charles Laughton fans are always welcome here, Gloria.

Henry VIII probably still was good-looking in the days of Jane Seymour. After all, he was only 45–and I now consider that to be quite young. In “The Six Wives of Henry VIII” Keith Michell did not go to pot–and start resembling one–until after the death of the third Mrs. Tudor.

Of course, Showtime’s “The Tudors” is a complete farce, and it has inspired a few of my musings: http://finermanworks.com/your_rda_of_irony/2007/04/11/213/

I hope you stick around and join my pedantic cult.

Eugene

By: Gloria

Gloria — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 08:43:09 +0000

“Henry VIII was not born looking like Charles Laughton”

True, he didn’t have a beard when he was born.

But the 1933 film starring Laughton doesn’t start with the future king as a child, nor with the king as a young man: it starts with the king’s third marriage, and I’m led to suspect he didn’t gain a lot of weight overnight just a few hours before Holbein started to work in his portrait, as the writers of “The Tudors” series claim. In fact, the king’s armours make evident that the king was a robust fellow.

Laughton did a consistent effort to look like the adult king as portrayed by Holbein, and he succeeded in doing so. Jon Rhys-Meyers just seems to have made an effort to look, hum, to look like a Hugo Boss model.