Oh, 100%. 

I’m not going to give specific examples that lead me to believe this, as I don’t know of any off-hand (or I do, but articulation is something else), but the big thing to me the confirms that he did is that Elizabeth – someone incredibly suspicious and wary by nature– was so close to him, and did trust him implicitly. To me that says a lot. 

Hmm I mean I think…. even if they never consummated their relationship, that they were still never ~just close friends if you feel me…….

Who can never be sure; I feel like they probably at least…got up to some sort of shenanigans, maybe not anything that would risk pregnancy but…other things? Perhaps?

I always get a Feeling about Kenilworth. Like if it ever happened I think that would have been The Time, especially considering that she…left earlier than expected to in this visit has also struck me as…inchresting. 

Hmm…yes, I would tend to agree with you. I mean, it’s always going to be like a play especially with the dialogue, because it has to be entertaining. Everything’s high stakes etc.

But I think they tend to be anachronistic in ways that go even beyond the costumes and the word choice. 

For theme and setting, and just kind of story set-up, I definitely feel you:

In Tudors, for instance, you get the impression that Henry VIII was like…The Bachelor (he’s married but like…you get me); and that every single eligible woman 18-30 at his court was a contestant vying for his attention and Dat Time in the Fantasy Suite (up to the time he’s like…50ish); and it was really………not that way.

Or, it was if you ask Amy Licence– but I tend to disagree. Antonia Fraser talks about the tidbit shared on tours that Henry is one of the few kings you can name that had more wives than he had mistresses (well, that can be proved beyond a shadow of a doubt, anyway). I tend to believe that’s true…among mistresses he didn’t eventually wife there’s Bessie Blount, Mary Boleyn, and Madge Shelton. There could have been more, but imo all evidence is circumstantial and hardly ironclad for the hypothetical others. 

But within this set-up, certain things in the storyline are rendered more believable…if Bessie Blount is one among many, it makes sense that he never sees her again besides the day of the birth of Henry Fitzroy. That certainly wasn’t what happened; but it also serves to lend veracity to Anne’s earlier quote in the series about “all his liasons are soon over…he blows hot, he blows cold’. 

And we have fairytale morality/plot twists as well– Henry Fiztroy dies, and this is, to Henry, further proof of his interpretation of Leviticus. And it leads to the personalization of it… it’s not “they will be childless”, it’s he will be childless– even if the child is not from his first marriage, God will punish him until he ends it. 

We have the fairytale arrival/appearance of Jane Seymour (who, in actuality, had served Anne as lady-in-waiting for quite some time before she garnered much attention), we have the sort of…twisted Cinderella, pick-them-up-from-the-gutter and Fair Lady them twist for Katherine Howard (who also just served as lady-in-waiting to Anne of Cleves, and was hardly chosen by Charles Brandon to adjacently throw down Cromwell).

I suppose some like the fairy-tale flash, the quick turn of the wheel of Fate, but it feels dishonest and…tv is supposed to be charismatic, it’s certainly supposed to be escapism but…less is more, often. 

In actuality, big change comes in layers; and a cliff erodes bit by bit. Nothing happens all at once…not the erosion of a marriage, not distrust, not shifting alliances. It’s the build that is exciting to watch…and I think you’re right, in that often period dramas take that away from us. 

lmao is this because of that emoji

💅🏼

…..it looks lighter on my phone tbh, it’s like the second one after the super-pale one. 

Madame Anne is not one of the handsomest women in the world; she is of middling stature, swarthy complexion, long neck, wide mouth, bosom not much raised, and in fact has nothing but the English King’s great appetite, and her eyes, which are black and beautiful, and take great effect on those who served the Queen when she was on the throne.

sooo like…idk if she was ‘middling’ or shorter than that; tbh i think that judgement depends on how tall the ambassador in question was lmao, but he’d have no …reason to lie about her complexion so i believe it was what we’d term as ‘olive-toned’ today, maybe similar to this:

she went hunting and hawking, and enjoyed archery and horseback-riding, frequently and they’re not wearing like those giant hats ladies wear at sunday services back then so like…i’d say she probably had a suntan.