The New Murrey and Blue blog

Dan Snow may be a popular historian, always on TV, always praised and admired, but he seldom comes in for any thumbs-up from Ricardians. Well, like most of today’s TV-historians, he’s pro-Tudor. And that, folks, means putting their Rosa Klebb boots into Richard III.

So when this link https://shorturl.at/nlCnD turned up and I saw it led to a video presented by Dan Snow, I did hesitate before deciding to watch it. The theme was to judge whether or not various kings and queens of England and Britain had been fairly treated in films, plays and so on.

The monarchs discussed are, in chronological order, Edward I, Edward II, Henry V, Richard III, Queen Anne, George III, George IV, George V, Edward VIII and George VI.

Before I go any further, be warned that the subtitles are, well, weird in spelling and interpretation. For instance, Henry V, played by “Kenneth Bramble, fought in the thick of Bath”. Dan doesn’t say this at all, of course, so if you listen to him, you’re on safe ground, so to speak.

In the order they are all dealt with in the video, here goes first with his opinion of Georges V and VI. In The King’s Speech George VI is played by Colin Firth. Dan Snow placed the king’s stammer fairly and squarely at the feet of his bullying father, George V, who was in turn bullied by his father. The film is praised, except for some actual characters being placed in scenes from which they were known to be absent. But otherwise George VI gets fair treatment. Dan Snow regards him as a fine king who was as important a leader as Churchill in the Second World War.

In between these two Georges was, of course, Edward VIII, who gets a drubbing for his political views and general unsuitability for the crown. Rightly so, in my opinion.

Queen Anne came next, as played by Olivia Colman in The Favourite. Dan Snow regards Anne as a far better monarch than she’s ever given credit. She reigned well in spite of enduring seventeen unsuccessful pregnancies. The scene shown had Anne and one of her women conversing in a room overrun by rabbits, which while it obviously alludes to her failure to carry a child to full term, seems a little unnecessarily cruel. The torture of so many failed pregnancies is a terrible burden for any woman, let alone one who is trying hard to be a good Queen of England.

After Anne we went back a few centuries to Edward I, specifically as portrayed by Patrick McGoohan in Braveheart. That scene when he hurled Gaveston from a window was selected. I have to admit that it’s a show-stopping moment, so unexpected that it’s almost over before your eyes interpret what they’ve seen. Was Longshanks such a  brute? All I know is that he was one heck of a strong king. You didn’t mess with him. If his son and heir really was as effeminate and limp-wristed as shown in the film, I can imagine Longshanks would have been sorely tempted to solve the problem that efficiently! But, of course, the scene never happened. Gaveston was murdered, yes, but not like that and not by Edward I.

Henry V, as played by Sir Kenneth “call me Bramble” Branagh was, of course, the Shakespeare version. And as stated when it comes to Richard III, the Bard was writing to please the Tudors. We get the St Crispin’s Day speech, and are reminded that the speech’s theme is still relevant today. Yes, it is, but before Shakespeare, leaders had always encouraged their troops with pre-battle pep-talks, so surely they must have said something along the same lines. So, was the Bard really the first? I don’t know, but he was certainly the first to write it down so eloquently.

In The Madness of King George, the late Sir Nigel Hawthorne is absolutely superb. Harrowingly so. I always feel sorry for George III, who was another monarch who tried his best but was hampered by health problems. Mental health, in his case. I find it a hard film to watch. George III’s son, to be the Prince Regent and George IV, is hammered for endeavouring to worse his father’s affliction in order to gain control himself. George IV turned out to be a mockery of a king and a political cartoonist’s joy. I never felt sorry for him.

The final monarch is Richard III. And Dan Snow is mostly honest, including pointing out that Richard’s scoliosis would not have been very visible to others. And that even with this affliction, Richard was more than able to be a strong and effective fighter in battle. We have Sir Laurence Olivier’s monumentally over-acted Richard, which is a joke from beginning to end. The way he jerks around on the ground in his death throes is hilarious. See the image above. But even though Dan Snow pokes fun and has been generally fair to Richard, he does spoil it all by saying Richard had “seized the throne”. No, he didn’t, he was begged to accept it. Smacked wrists, Mr Snow!

Anyway, Richard is mostly accorded even-handedness.

The video is interesting and worth a watch.

by viscountessw