World of Royalty Blog

I recently received not one but two Henry VIII & His Disappearing Wives mugs as gifts from different people. I guess my interest in the Tudors is no secret…

 

This is a 12-ounce coffee cup decorated with familiar images of Henry VIII and his six unfortunate queens. (Well, they’re all familiar to me except the picture of Katherine Parr, which I don’t remember seeing before.) The box says, “Pour in a hot beverage and watch as Henry’s six wives vanish!” And that’s exactly what happens. After you put a hot drink in the mug, the pictures of Henry’s wives turn white, leaving you alone with King Henry as you enjoy your beverage. It’s a ghoulishly amusing gift.

The cup is microwave safe but can’t be put through the dishwasher. The box suggests gently washing it with warm water and soap. I did that twice with success. When I tried it a third time, the decal with the picture of Henry VIII started to peel off. So now Henry is disappearing along with his wives, which seems only fair.

If you buy this, know that the gag element might not last for long. And try to wash the inside without getting the outside wet.

By the way, I see that there’s a similar Van Gogh Disappearing Ear Mug on Amazon. Terrible, isn’t it.

I love royal history, but some writers manage to make it tremendously boring. The first book I read about Queen Victoria was such a snore that I’ve been a bit prejudiced against Victoria and her family ever since. Even though I know better, I automatically expect books about them to be dull, dull, dull.

But The Last Princess by Matthew Dennison proves that a good writer can make any topic — even Queen Victoria and her long decades of gloom-soaked mourning for her husband, Prince Albert — interesting. The book’s subject, Victoria’s daughter Beatrice, led a very uneventful life, but the book wasn’t easy to put down.

The narrative moves along at a quick pace and stays closely focused on Princess Beatrice. It starts in April of 1857, with Queen Victoria going into labor with Beatrice, her final child (hence the book’s title), and proceeds in mostly chronological order until Beatrice’s death in October 1944.

Chapters center around specific topics, such as Princess Beatrice’s rheumatism (which was aggravated by her mother’s insistence on cold, wet carriage rides) and her engagement (which her mother opposed).

It’s hard to read this book without saying, “Poor Beatrice.” The princess had a quiet life, but not an easy one. Dennison describes how the widowed Queen’s “epic, titanic” (and selfish) grief for Prince Albert transformed Beatrice from a lively, spoiled child into a nervous, self-effacing woman who served as her mother’s full-time companion. “Constant unhappiness was simply a fact of life,” the author says.

So determined was Queen Victoria to keep Beatrice at her side that she prevented the princess from making friends. She even tried to stop people from discussing the topic of marriage in front of Beatrice! Nonetheless, Beatrice eventually fell in love and became engaged to Prince Henry of Battenberg.

The Queen’s reaction took the form of silence. Beatrice’s eldest son, the Marquess of Carisbrooke, told biographer David Duff that for seven months, from May to November 1884, mother and daughter continued to live side by side without the Queen addressing a single word to Beatrice.

To gain the Queen’s approval, Beatrice and Prince Henry had to agree to live with the Queen after their marriage. In addition, Beatrice’s husband had to give up his military career. Victoria was happy with this arrangement, and Beatrice seems not to have complained.

After her husband’s early death, Beatrice remained at her mother’s side to the detriment of her relationships with her own children. Queen Victoria died in 1901, and Beatrice spent the next 30 years dutifully editing and rewriting her mother’s journals. She endured tragedies in her personal life and, unlike her mother, overcame them. She seems to have been a calm and kind-hearted woman. Even though her son-in-law, the king of Spain, absurdly blamed her for his son’s hemophilia and “never spoke to Beatrice again,” the author says Beatrice “remained loyal” to him.

“The Last Princess” is a worthwhile book about a worthwhile subject. Even if you share my anti-Victoria prejudice, you’ll probably enjoy this biography. I did.

I’ve finally seen The Duchess, starring Keira Knightley as an influential woman of the 18th century, Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire. This movie didn’t get entirely enthusiastic reviews, and no, I didn’t love it either.

Still, it’s well worth watching just to see the costumes. They are fantastic. Scene after scene, I said to myself, “Wow, she looks beautiful.” I enjoyed the musical score, too.

(Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images. Photo provided by PicApp)

 
But the problem with the movie is that it’s too beautiful. Yes, it is nice to see beautiful people in beautiful clothes on beautiful locations, but there’s also something sterile about it. The performances in this movie are good (I am a Keira Knightley fan), but the characters didn’t seem real to me.

The story is depressing, even dreary. The Duke treats Georgiana badly. She suffers, and sometimes rebels, with dignity while looking endlessly amazing. The focus is on her love life. Her involvement in politics is touched upon, but other interesting things about the real Georgiana — her novel-writing, her acquaintance with Marie Antoinette — are ignored.

The real Georgiana became addicted to gambling and drugs, but you’d hardly know it from this film. In one scene she stumbles around in a daze and accidentally sets her wig on fire, but the incident is unexplained. In the next scene a doctor announces that she’s pregnant, so maybe we’re meant to believe that setting your wig on fire is a symptom of pregnancy.

A better script would have helped. We’re supposed to decide that the chilly, abusive Duke isn’t totally bad, but we’re given little insight into his motives.

As for the casting…  I disagree with people who criticize Keira Knightley’s weight (I’m stick-thin, too), but in this case I kept thinking she really was too wispy and modern-looking to play an 18th century beauty. She’s a good actress, but I never forgot I was looking at Keira Knightley and not Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire.

Overall, a so-so movie with spectacular costumes.

The Duchess is available on DVD. If you’re in the U.S., you can also rent or buy the movie online at Amazon.

To learn about the real Georgiana, I recommend Amanda Foreman’s excellent biography Georgiana: Duchess of Devonshire, on which this movie was based.

The King’s Rose by Alisa M. Libby is a novel about English king Henry VIII’s fifth wife, Catherine Howard. Her exact date of birth is unknown, but she was a teenager — only fifteen, according to this book — when she married the aging king.

The book starts shortly before Catherine’s marriage to the king. The details of his past, and Catherine’s, are revealed gradually, making the story suspenseful even if you already know all about Henry and his wives.

Libby does an excellent job of portraying the gulf between the powerful, proud king and his young bride. Catherine is awed by Henry and never really gets to know him because he won’t let her.

To his court, King Henry is a powerful monarch, stalwart and sturdy, draped in magnificent jewels. Now I’ve glimpsed the old man hiding behind the robes of state, and I know more than is safe to know about a king, let alone to  put into words.

The king thinks Catherine is pure and innocent, but she has a sexual past that soon comes back to haunt her. She is also haunted by the memory of her cousin Anne Boleyn, Henry’s second wife, who was executed on charges of adultery, but that doesn’t stop Catherine from cheating on the king, sealing her own tragic fate. The author makes you feel sorry for the self-deluded, romantic girl who doesn’t understand how recklessly she is behaving until it is too late.

This is being marketed as a young adult (teen) book, but I don’t see anything that separates it from an adult book. There’s nothing very explicit in it, but it is frank. If you don’t want your daughter reading about premarital sex, impotence, adultery, and execution (not to mention Anne Boleyn’s scary ghost), don’t give her this book. Maybe read it yourself instead.

It’s well-written and fast-paced, with lots of great lines and insights. I enjoyed it, and after reading it I’ll always look at Catherine Howard more sympathetically.

I’ve just seen the 2003 television movie version of “The Other Boleyn Girl” on DVD and, while it’s better than last year’s theatrical movie version, it doesn’t measure up to Philippa Gregory’s entertaining novel.

In the BBC movie, Natascha McElhone plays Mary Boleyn, who was the mistress of England’s King Henry VIII before he got involved with her more famous sister, Anne. I thought McElhone looked too old for the part, and her performance seemed stilted to me. In the book, as I recall, Mary Boleyn is warm and likeable, but in the movie she’s bland, almost zombie-like.

On the other hand, Jodhi May is fantastic as Anne Boleyn, very natural and believable — by far the best, most human portrayal of Anne I’ve ever seen.

I found the movie a little pedestrian and also a little odd. It looks like a low-budget documentary, and the sisters speak directly to the camera as if they’re participating in a TV reality show. The actresses pull this off well, but it’s unnecessarily anachronistic.

There are few actors and no big scenes of feasts, jousts, or the like. The royal court seems curiously quiet and empty. Even after Anne becomes queen, she’s able to run around the palace without attendants. The costumes aren’t particularly impressive, and there isn’t much music, so if you love big historical productions, you’ll be disappointed by this.

Overall: Watch it for Jodhi May’s performance, but for a better version of this story, read the book.

Recently I wrote a blog entry about the best books I’ve read this year. I don’t know why, but it never occurred to me to include The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey, even though I read it just a few weeks ago. I guess it didn’t make a big impression on me. However, I did like it, so here’s my review.

The main character, a mid-20th century police officer, is bedridden due to a back injury. To pass the time he researches a famous mystery of royal history: Did English king Richard III kill his nephews, who disappeared from the Tower of London in 1483?

I don’t think I’m giving away too much by saying that the author builds a case in Richard’s defense, since it’s obvious from the earliest pages that she sympathizes with him. After reading this book I understand why Richard III has so many defenders today (and I’m sure this book influenced a lot of them).

The main character does almost nothing except read books, think about books, talk about history, and think about history. (Hey — that sounds like my life!) The author makes this limited storyline interesting because, well, reading and thinking about history is interesting. It’s fun to see that reflected in fiction.

People rave about how great this book is, and at first I wondered why. It’s good, I enjoyed it, but it hasn’t changed my life or anything. Maybe some people love it because it introduced them to the love of history. And that’s an exciting thing. So if you think history is boring, read “The Daughter of Time.” Maybe it really will change your life.

At Julianne Douglas’s blog, Writing the Renaissance, I learned about a blog meme started by blogger Lucy Pick. The idea is to list 10 books you enjoyed in 2008.

I didn’t read as much this year as I usually do, so I can’t come up with 10 books to recommend. (Isn’t that awful?) But here are the six best books I read in 2008 (in no particular order):

1. The Red Tent by Anita Diamant. Novel that tells the Biblical story of Jacob’s wives through the eyes of his daughter, Dinah. Everyone says this is a great book, and everyone is right.

2. Mistress of the Revolution by Catherine Delors. Novel about a young French woman at the time of the Revolution. You can read my review of the book here.

3. Becoming Charlemagne by Jeff Sypeck. History that reads like fiction. You’ll learn not only about Charlemagne, but other leaders of his time, including the ruthless Empress Irene of Byzantium.

4. The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman (also called Northern Lights). A very, very well-written children’s fantasy novel that definitely doesn’t talk down to kids. I think you have to be a grown-up to really appreciate this book.

5. The Brontë Myth by Lucasta Miller. Debunks legends about the literary sisters (Charlotte wasn’t a domestic saint, and Emily didn’t go into trances when writing!)

6. Noble Savage by Lawrence and Elisabeth Hanson. Entertaining biography of artist Paul Gauguin. I wasn’t particularly interested in Gauguin before, but after reading this book I am.

The movie version of “The Other Boleyn Girl” is now available on DVD, and I’ve just seen it. It stars Natalie Portman as Anne Boleyn, second wife of England’s King Henry VIII; Scarlett Johansson as Anne’s sister Mary, who was Henry’s mistress before he became involved with Anne; and Eric Bana as King Henry himself.

The movie is based on a novel by Philippa Gregory. I found the book very entertaining, and I’m interested in the Tudor era, so I hoped this would be an enjoyable movie. And it is an OK costume drama, but nothing more than that, in my opinion.

The best thing about the movie is Natalie Portman’s performance as the calculating Anne. She does a good job of conveying Anne’s intelligence, cunning, and frustration. Unlike the book, which is told from Mary’s point of view, the movie focuses on Anne, but Scarlett Johansson does what she can with her underwritten part as the downtrodden Mary.

Kristin Scott Thomas is likeable as the Boleyn girls’ mother (I don’t recall her being so protective of her daughters in the book), and Ana Torrent is excellent as the strong-willed Katherine of Aragon. Eric Bana isn’t loud or florid enough to fit my image of Henry VIII, but I forgive him for that because he is so good looking.

If you know a lot about Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, you may be disappointed (as I was) by the movie’s omissions and telescoping of events. Anne’s formative years in France are reduced to a few months that somehow transform her into a super-seductress. It’s entirely Anne’s idea for Henry to divorce Katherine and split from the Roman Catholic church — after all, she says, it’s “worth it.” (I’ll bet that’s one theological argument the Pope never considered!)

The silliest part of the movie, in my view, is at the end. After Anne meets her fate, her sister marches through the royal court, seizes an unidentified child who is presumably the king’s daughter Elizabeth, and then appears to leave the court with the child in her arms, completely unchallenged. The movie’s final scene suggests that Mary gave Elizabeth an idyllic upbringing in the countryside. That would have been nice for Elizabeth, but of course it didn’t really happen that way.

Overall, not a terrible movie, but not a great one, either. Don’t expect much.

You can read other reviews of this movie at RottenTomatoes.com.

Here’s a quick look at two historical novels I’ve read recently.

The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett: It took me approximately forever to read this very long novel about the building of a cathedral in 12th century England. It has two well-motivated central characters: Philip, a humble prior who struggles against all obstacles to build the cathedral, and an evil earl’s son, William Hamleigh, who goes to great lengths to try to thwart Philip’s plans.

The historical setting in this book is well-drawn, especially the important role played by religion in the lives of most of the characters. Philip is devout, as you might expect, but the villainous William Hamleigh also shares the religious beliefs of the time, and his fear of priests and eternal damnation helps to drive the plot.

Ken Follett is famous for his suspense novels. Maybe that’s why I enjoyed the battle scenes in this book even though military details usually bore me. Overall, Pillars of the Earth is an entertaining historical novel, and I intend to read the sequel, World Without End.

Here’s Ken Follett’s official website.

Shogun by James Clavell: If you’re old enough, you might remember the 1980 TV mini-series based on this book, starring Richard Chamberlain. The story takes place in the 1600s, when an English ship’s pilot, Blackthorne, is shipwrecked in Japan and is forced to quickly adapt to a culture very different from his own. Meanwhile, he becomes a pawn in a political game played by Japanese feudal leaders on the brink of civil war.

The story held my interest. The historical details were interesting, and so was the cultural clash between the English and Japanese characters — and later, between Blackthorne and his own shipmates, who start to seem barbaric to Blackthorne as he becomes assimilated into Japanese ways.

Late in the book, the writer stops focusing on Blackthorne and switches his attention to the powerful and wily lord Toranaga, whose apparent goal (although he denies it) is to become ruler of Japan.

However, the story ends before Toranaga’s military campaign starts. The fate of many of the characters, including Toranaga, is left open. I found this disappointing, and in particular I would have preferred a better resolution to Blackthorne’s storyline.

Still, it’s a good book and I recommend it to patient readers. (I say “patient” because the book is more than one thousand pages long.) James Clavell died in 1994, so he doesn’t have an official website as far as I know, but here’s his Wikipedia entry.

Today I planned to post mini-reviews of three historical novels I’ve read recently. But as it turned out, I had so much to say about one of those books that it deserves its own post!

That book is Mistress of the Revolution by Catherine Delors. The main character, Gabrielle, is an aristocratic young French woman who falls into poverty and survives by becoming the mistress of a nobleman. Later, during the French Revolution, she is the mistress of a Revolutionary Tribunal judge. The story is told as a memoir written by Gabrielle when she is middle-aged.

Catherine Delors has a clean and graceful writing style that is a pleasure to read. She comes up with plausible ways to bring Gabrielle into contact with real historical figures and events, and provides a glimpse at the prejudices of the nobility and how the revolution crept up on them. The characters are complex and seem to have genuine 18th-century attitudes. Most of them seem like real people, not stereotypes.

I liked the way Delors presents the relationships between men and women. As the mistress of a wealthy and controlling man, Gabrielle leads a comfortable but dependent life, and the writer doesn’t sugar-coat the drawbacks of being a kept woman. Gabrielle’s relationship with her older brother is also complicated and interesting.

As a narrator, Gabrielle is sometimes surprisingly matter-of-fact. At times I wanted to be told more about her thoughts and feelings, especially her reaction to the revolution. We know that she supports its ideals, but she doesn’t say much about that or share how she feels about the violent collapse of the world she’s always known. However, Gabrielle’s calm approach works very well in the book’s most horrific scenes, where the plain details speak for themselves.

I felt I learned a lot about the French Revolution from this book, but the history didn’t overwhelm the story. Gabrielle is a likeable and believable narrator. I was sorry when the book ended, because I wanted to find out how Gabrielle’s son reacted to reading her memoir! That should give you an idea how engrossing this book is. I recommend it.

Here’s Catherine Delors’ official site. Her next novel, tentatively titled “For the King,” is due to be published next year. I’m looking forward to it.