Tag: tv: the tudors

i’m struck again with how underrated jrm is an actor (esp. in tudors, every time i read a review of how ~bad an actor he was on that i’m like…were we watching the same show…lol), i have to say, because i’m looking at this photoset again and like this first one (credit in bold):

image

like the levels, in the body language alone…firstable, he could not be any physically farther away from her in that chair if he tried unless he fell off of it. 

his hand over the arm of the chair is like…white-knuckled, he also could probably not be holding that any tighter…mdk’s is great too (on the surface, smug here, but the hand thing doesn’t come across as super confident– and she’s a bit stiff, if you look closely it comes across as either somewhat discomfited or just discomfort), her hand is lightly touching his, she’s testing the waters (for hand-holding, i guess) but it’s pretty clear from all the body language signals that he’s not reciprocating…taking his hand away would be too obvious a message as well though, so he leaves it there but he doesn’t like it. 

idk like…he’s smiling and relaxed on the surface, his shoulders aren’t tensed, but it’s all the little things that demonstrate his unease. 

autrenecherche:

This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when he first appears he is a protector. [ x ]

“Alongside their very real political value, the energetic revelries at court were meant to be enormous fun. Since political credibility was so closely linked to personal charisma and chivalric display, this is no contradiction. Hall’s description of Henry’s first year, after the excitements of the coronation, is instructive. He describes the king behaving as a chivalrous king should. Henry pardoned the innocent in the person of Henry Stafford, brother to the Duke of Buckingham, making him Earl of Wiltshire; he expanded the company of the King’s Spears; he sent relief to Calais, which was afflicted by the plague; he held Parliament in which Empson and Dudley were condemned.” – [ x ]

“Henry VIII and his councillors barred the [1509] pardon to a few people: they sacrificed Richard Empson and Edmund Dudley, chief financial agents to the late king, to appease popular discontent. Most of the others excepted from the pardon received mercy after individually pleading their cases. In the first year of the reign, nearly 3,000 people bought copies of the pardon from Chancery and over the following three years, almost 300 more joined them. Again, people of all social ranks obtained pardons; some pardons applied to all citizens of a town or all members of a monastery.” – [ x ]

“The text [of the general pardon of 1515] listed those offenses that it pardoned, including statutory felonies, contempts, hunting and forest offenses, forcible entries, and usury. It specifically excluded treasons, murder, robbery, and all other common law felonies, as well as concealments and unlawful assemblies of more than twenty people. In this respect, the statute resembled earlier grants. Effecting a striking change, however, this act declared that people did not have to obtain individual copies and thus freed them from the fees demanded by the Chancery. Instead, it voided any future suits concerning matters it pardoned and had no expiration date. It allowed people guilty of the pardoned offenses but not yet charged to rest easy. People currently before the courts for offenses pardoned in the act only had to plead the statute to have their cases discharged. The pardon, then, demanded no fees above the 12d due to the court clerk who entered the plea. This arrangement persisted in all subsequent Tudor parliamentary pardons and presumably made it much easier for greater numbers of people to take advantage of the royal grants of mercy.” – [ x ]

mademoiselleboullan:

Whoso list to hunt, I know where is an hind,
But as for me, hélas, I may no more.
The vain travail hath wearied me so sore,
I am of them that farthest cometh behind.
Yet may I by no means my wearied mind
Draw from the deer, but as she fleeth afore
Fainting I follow. I leave off therefore,
Sithens in a net I seek to hold the wind.
Who list her hunt, I put him out of doubt,
As well as I may spend his time in vain.
And graven with diamonds in letters plain
There is written, her fair neck round about:
Noli me tangere, for Caesar’s I am,
And wild for to hold, though I seem tame.

– A poem by Thomas Wyatt, which is said to be about Anne Boleyn.