pt 2: sometimes i think it’s because producers/writers decide it’s ‘not sexy enough’, and sometimes i think maybe because h7’s is less well-known. also there’s a wealth of information and books available about henry viii’s reign in ways that there aren’t for h7 and e1, and sometimes i think maybe that very detailed timeline is just one writers find easier to work from. it’s just speculation, but maybe writers find the ‘blank space’ (i.e. working more from scratch) intimidating.
I agree that neither reign is “sexy enough”. I also think neither reign was “violent enough”. So, no romance and no action.
Neither monarch was sexy. Henry VII was a pretty conservative dude and arguably the coolest thing he ever did was show up at Bosworth (that and pretending to be sick so he didn’t have to go to school, and by school I mean Edward IV’s court). Likewise, Elizabeth I didn’t have a super sexy romance or an action packed reign. Their lives are interesting mirrors though – both facing difficulties in early life, being essentially exiled from court life, taking the throne through rather dramatic means, then going on to a meaningful but rather “unsexy”, “tame” reign. Likewise, Elizabeth I based some of her foreign policy on Henry VII’s, so far as refusing to engage in war or battle (to the extent practicable).
I think what really cements Elizabeth I’s (relative) unsexiness, are the rumors and fictions claiming she was secretly married, secretly had a baby, and (the most ‘wtf” of all) was secretly a man. Likewise, in Shekhar Kapur’s Elizabeth movies, he introduces the idea that Elizabeth I and Robert Dudley slept together, and then he brings in Sir Walter Raleigh as a love interest in the second film (despite her being 20 years his senior, historically). People are making up a love life for her, in order to sell books and movies.
Most of the time with period films and shows we see either period romantic dramas (i.e. North & South, Atonement, Pride & Prejudice, etc.) or period war films (i.e. Dunkirk, Enemy at the Gates, Outlaw King, etc.) – but it’s rare to see a period political drama, which is what a show or film about Henry VII or Elizabeth I would end up being with out, ya know, *embellishment*, shall we say. They don’t have tumultuous love lives (that we know of) and their only battles were note worthy, but you couldn’t get too much in the way of material out of Bosworth, or the Perkin Warbeck period, or the battle with the Spanish Armada.
Even Shakespeare, the Bard himself, skipped over Henry VII when writing his historical plays. He goes straight from Richard III to Henry VIII. Henry VII does appear as “Richmond” in Richard III, his appearance consisting in large part of the one kickass thing he ever did, to wit: Bosworth Field.
So, no, I don’t think we’ll be seeing a series spanning all of the Tudors (as much as I would watch the hell out of it) because I just can’t see people watching a king tax and attain his people, or a boy king discuss the nuances of theology with his older sister, or an elderly queen hear reports from pirates of their escapades. It’s just not compelling TV and while it could be vastly interesting to a select few, the political drama of which peer is being elevated and which is out of favor for various complicated political reasons just isn’t going to resonate with the majority of modern audiences.
(As a qualifier: I know The Crown has been very popular and well-received, and is technically a period political drama – however it has the unique edge of having a pre-formed audience of those who breathlessly follow every move of the British Royal Family).
It is a shame because Owen Tudor was probably very sexy, but yes, I agree re: probably not going to happen unless it’s an extremely wealthy person’s passion project …and with OT there’s even more ‘blank space’ for writers as it were, so …👀
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