So, after hearing about this from
Helen Mirren is starring as Elizabeth I in a new 2-part miniseries on Channel 4 in the UK. The miniseries, which will air this Thursday and next, will also feature Jeremy Irons as Dudley and Ian “Emperor Palpatine” McDiarmid as William Cecil, Lord Burghley.
Bittorrent willing, I will be getting a copy of this, and I think a viewing party should be in the offing.
Mirren. NICE.
I second the motion
That’s a great idea….so long as you could stand all my comments.
Here’s the first: why in Hades does everybody assume that she had a physical love affair with Dudley and with Essex? Why is that a fore-drawn conclusion? Simply because of our modern sensibilitles that tell is they must have had sex in order to love. Poppycock!
Hmmmmph!
Ooohh…that sounds awesome.
Have you heard of this yet?
Absolutely!
Let me know when and where and (hopefully) I’m there.
Oh goody, you found it, Great :)! I would definately love to see it if at all possible. Hope bittorrent is willing.
I don’t think it is so much modern sensibilities about sex as basic human nature that produces the assumption of a physical love affair.
That being said, I don’t believe her history prior to assuming the throne is taken enough into account however. Her life was a living Hell under Mary’s reign and the fact that she survived means she learned to guard her emotions, and her actions. Once Queen did she give in to them? Good question, she may have at first, but if she did, I don’t think it was for very long.
This is probably a topic we could go on about for hours :).
Oh goodness, yes! Another thought is that she wasn’t ever alone enough to have an affaire hidden, nor anyone close enough to her to keep that sort of information so completely secret. There were enough French and Spanish spies around her that if any proof had been available, it would have been used against her immediately.
…all those sorts of things that not everyone things through very carefully before they write this stuff!
That *would* be a fun discussion to have sometime, btw!
Yup. Filming now, in fact.
My thought on this matter has always been that she was indeed a Virgin Queen, but she had not been a virgin princess.
Well, she was waaaay too smart and too conscious of her danger and her position to allow that to happen, in my opinion.
Would love the opportunity to see it…
D.
Once she learned how to use herself as a matrimonial prize in the diplomatic soup of that era I don’t think she indulged herself with the physical. Of course, how much of that was meticulously planned politics, or just her own personality that did not want to be controled, is anyone’s guess. Oh for a time machine!
Indeed!