Continuing with Elizabeth 1 (series 1 on HBO)

spoiler alert

One of my friends advised me to be more specific with my discussions, such as why certain scenes are my favorite. 

In the very beginning of the movie, the first miniseries, you see the Queen's lady's undressing her.  I just find it amazing, first that she actually had lady's undress her and second, the amount of work it took to undress the Queen; for starters each sleeve had to be unlaced and then the amount of skirts she wore, etc

The series, in my opinion, does a great job with developing the relationship between the Queen and the Earl of Leicester (as stated in my earlier blog).  It's as if the two are school children in love, unfortunately since he is not royalty, she cannot marry him.  Many times Elizabeth wants to kiss the Earl and realizes she cannot allow herself to get to CLOSE to Leicester.

In the middle of the first series, she was contemplating on marrying the Duke of Anjou.  The Duke belonged to French royalty and he was a catholic.  By Elizabeth marrying the Duke, England was forming a strong alliance with the French. Elizabeth takes a strong liking to the Duke and the Earl is utterly jealousy.  The Earl did not want the Queen to marry the Duke because of personal reasons; it was not because of his religion or that he was from France.  The Earl wanted Elizabeth all to himself.  Can you blame him, she was the Queen after all!  When the Queen discovers that the Earl has married Lady Essex, she becomes furious and bands him from court for several years.   Like him, she wants the Earl to herself. 

Eventually, the Earl is allowed back to court and in the Queen's favor, but only as FRIENDS.  Nothing More - Nothing Less.

Elizabeth signs the death warrant, [after the counsel had a trial and found Mary, Queen of Scots guilty for high treason], for Mary, Queen of Scots but then retracts it.  Many questions arise as to why she retracted the death warrant, did she not want Mary dead or did she want her counsel to have the blood on their hands?  My opinion is the latter. 
 

One of my favorite quotes from the Queen is when she states, she has to speak with Parliament and she states  "my parliament seeks words with us and we must seem to listen".  She was so wity and that's one of the traits that I admire her most.   One of my favorite speeches from the Queen is her Speech to the Troops at Tilbury (next blog involving Elizabeth I w/ Helen Mirren).

Besides favorite scenes, the discussion of marriage is quite complex.  The Privy Counsel urges her to get married and when she finds a man of royalty to her liking, the counsel is against it, as well as the English people.  As much as the Queen wanted to marry the Duke of Anjou, she followed the advice of her Counsel and followed the overall opinion of the English people.  After all, she was married to England!

Elizabeth 1 (HBO Version Mini-Series 1)

*To the right is a trailer of the HBO miniseries
*below is a picture of Helen Mirren as Elizabeth I
& Jeremy Irons as Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester



In my opinion, the acting in this series was superb, especially Helen Mirren as Queen Elizabeth.  The relationship between Elizabeth and the Earl of Leicester was outstanding, probably the best out of all the Elizabeth movies.  When I watch this movie about Elizabeth, I can personally envision myself being in that period of time. Not that I am Elizabeth (I Wish, LOL), but you can feel what she had to go through.  Imagine, ruling a Kingdom ON YOUR OWN for 45 years, especially a female with no husband and no child (an heir to the thrown). 
The scenes that I absolutely love are the very beginning when her lady's in waiting are taking off her gown, just showing how much work it was to dress and undress the Queen.  Additionally, I love the scene when she is giving her speech to her army awaiting the Spanish Armada (you tube video in future blog, and the end when she gives her final speech, known as the golden speech, to Parliament.  There are other scenes that I love but those stick out right now.
Besides the positive, there were some inaccuracies in the film involving Mary, Queen of Scots:  First, Elizabeth actually never met her cousin, Mary, as the series indicated.  Second, Mary was not as heavy as they portrayed her in the movie.  Third, when she was executed, it was not in front of everyone, such as the common folk; rather it was a private execution where the high members of Elizabeth's Privy Counsel and Parliament witnessed the execution.  Stay Tuned - More to follow!