Trying to understand the Virgin Queen

Finally, thanks to 56.com a china website liken to the you tube, I managed to complete the watching of The Virgin Queen BBC 2005. This four part miniseries starring Anne Marie Duff, Tom Hardy and Hans Matheson is so interesting to watch though one can never fully comprehend the what when where why of the actual historical reality. I love the Earl of Essex (Hans Matheson) so much that after much frantic futile search for the dvd locally, I ordered it from Amazon.com. The beloved code 1 dvd is now somewhere en route to Singapore via the seas and estimated to reach my mailbox on 9th July 2009. Well, gotta be patient!!!

What makes The Virgin Queen so interesting? Well, first of all the elaborate costumes and the set. Cate Blanchett's Elizabeth I boasts of more colours and details and yes exotic palaces, churches but I had trouble following her favourite Raleigh storyline. In Anne-Marie Duff's version, the costumes were somewhat solemn and of mostly darker colours but they were well co-ordinated and yes, everything that was worn from the priest, to the maids to the BOYS, well seemed so perfect and comfortable for the eyes. I love the many original soundtracks too.

Plus the show is about one of England's greatest Queen known as the virgin queen since she who was "married" to England had neither wed nor had any descendants. Elizabeth I was the 5th and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty. She was born a princess, her father king Henry VIII and her mother Anne Bolelyn was executed when she was 3. She was then declared illegitimate. Many events happened and she became a young queen who depended heavily on her advisers - led by William Cecil, Baron Burghley. She started out in good counsel but history had us believe that she became overly dependent on her advisers, was indecisive and very short tempered.

Now THE BONUS: So many men in her court that jostle for her attention, her favour and her love. This is a show that most women love. Its raining MEN!!!! Hallelujah!!!! Hey! not ordinary folks but the sexy pretty boyish looking Tom Hardy as Robert Dudley, Elizabeth I's first and true love a childhood companion, and her last favourite, Hans Matheson as Robert Devereux, a dark brooding, flamboyant, passionate impetuous Earl of Essex- the former's step-son.

Robert Dudley was given the title the Earl of Leicester by the queen. In fact, he was the one person that the young queen openly loved and showed her affection towards. However, this good looker in the Privy council was a married man with a dying wife. Her advisers had expressed disapproval at the possibility of marriage so queen did nothing more than revel in non sexual displays of intimacy. In the miniseries there were many scenes that had Robert and the Queen talking heart to heart and with their heads held so close to each other. TOTALLY ENDEARING. I particularly loved the La Volta dancing scene and then the dream sequence of Robert in the Queen's bed almost tricked the audience THAT"S ME into thinking that they had sex. I guess it was tough because she was surrounded by so many guards and maids at all times. Or perhaps she had enough wisdom and pride not to let any man rule over her. Moreover, with all her peers and her mother Anne Boleyn having suffered much in marriage during those days, she could be really disillusioned.

When Robert Dudley whom the queen enjoyed a close friendship with died, she was devastated. It was not until Dudley's step son(aka illegitimate son), the Earl of Essex appeared that she loved another favourite.I think the Earl of Essex character is so dark and complex one to portray. On the one hand he's a people's sexy hero, impetuous, flamboyant and aggressive on the other his character suffers much from depression, extreme mood swings and disillusionment. There were plenty of whining, fits of rage, bouts of depression and tears in that one final episode that he graces.

Whether The Earl really loved the queen, no one knows. Their age gap was a whopping 34 years. The queen having suffered from small pox and consequential hair loss had pock marks and she wore wigs and heavy make-up. She wore tight corsets too. It could be that the young handsome Earl was attracted to her as all men in court were to her status, her power and her rule. Like bees to honey. In fact, the Earl was used by his mum Lettice knolly, the former maid of the queen to get even at her. Actually Lettice deserved it for having a fling with the Queen's favourite Robert Dudley and eventually being married to him without her royal consent. The queen had Lettice banished from the court. But she still loved Dudley much in her heart.

Many scenes in the miniseries were historically based. Like that of the queen slapping The Earl of Essex during a heated argument about Ireland and he actually drew his sword against her. Silly boy!!! He was very disrespectful towards her and disobeyed her many orders. The Earl had begged time and time again for advancement opportunities including leading some 16000 men against Tyrone of Spain only to fail miserably, having decimated the royal resources. It was also a fact that he presented himself in the queen's bedchamber one morning before she was properly wigged or attired *GASP* even though he was banned from going back to the palace.

Eventually he led a failed rebellion against the queen, properly stemmed from the disillusionment of wanting to "protect" her from bad counsel that had stripped him of his title and bankrupted him. Towards the end of his life, his enemies, he was at loggerheads with William Cecil's son and Sir Walter Raleigh hated him too, conspired against him, even the queen was powerless to "save" him from committing treason. Robert Devereux was held prisoner in the Tower of London and executed there. It was said that it took 3 strokes to fully decapitate him. OUCH...Sigh...........He was only 36 .I was there near the tower of London, near river Thames where it had happened historically. GASP!!!!!!!

The Tower of London is now a UNESCO World Heritage site. It had been used as a place of execution and torture, an armoury, a treasury, a zoo??? the Royal Mint (not a herb) an observatory and since 1303, the home of the Crown Jewels of UK. In fact it was said to be the most haunted building in England. The most famous being the apparition of the late Queen Anne Boleyn seen on several occasions carrying her head near where she was buried at the White Tower. She, the mother of Elizabeth I, the Virgin Queen, was beheaded by her husband King Henry VIII for treason.

Any way, The Virgin Queen is such a bizarre story. The queen herself ordering the beheading of her last favourite due to treason. She was completely devastated after that. For with it, a part of Robert Dudley her true love was gone forever. She did not live long after that, suffered much from bouts of deep depression including refusing to sit for 15 hours before she finally passed on at the ripe old age of 70 in 1603- a mere two years after her last favourite was gone.

Such was the story that had me becoming very keen on the history of England and of Europe.