By now we’ve all heard ad yawnum of The Uprising, which is the current film dealing with the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381, and one thing’s clear…it does no favours to the 14-year-old monarch, Richard II. Richard was a tool in the hands of his scheming uncles and other magnates, Yes, he’d been brought up to believe he was next to godly, but so had every monarch before him and after him. To this day they still receive God’s blessing at their coronation. And yes, in 1381 the populace was justified in rising against Richard’s government, but let’s be clear here that Richard was not the one holding the reins!
In the film he’s played by Woody Norman, who certainly despises him! According to Norman, Richard II was “incredibly mentally ill”, believed “his way of power was murder,” was “one of the most insane characters in the whole of English royal history”, was a “weird character” and was “psychologically not the right person to [reign] and becomes a monster”. Really?
The actor adds: “’He [Richard] was so over the top….I tried my best to humanize him. But he was such a bad and evil person that it was hard to do that, even when I was playing him. I hate him and I think you should.’” Good grief.
Then we have Andrew Greengrass, who is the lead in The Uprising, saying that Richard was a “monster who reverts in the end to self-pity”. For good measure he quotes Shakespeare as proof! “let us sit upon the ground and tell sad stories of the death of kings.” Hmm…The Bard was no more party to Richard II’s thoughts than he was to Richard III’s!
So all in all Richard II is condemned unconditionally by this film. I in turn feel well able to condemn the film unconditionally. It’s a load of old tosh that even hints that the revolt was what gave rise to Robin Hood. Eh? Wrong century, chaps. Bah! Humbug!
To read more, go to https://www.breitbart.com/news/woody-norman-says-people-should-hate-his-uprising-king/amp/.
by viscountessw
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