is nonpareil.
I really missed so many of the nuances of the complicated, indeed torturous, relationship which developed between Queen Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots. The history books generally gloss over this one. They get straight to the (head cutting) point. Usually, it is painted in simple terms, as a religious struggle or a simple struggle for dominance. And it was these things, but it was so much more. The 2016 BBC documentary reveals that it was rather like a long marriage with many identifiable stages. There was courtship, a wooing in poetry. There was love. There was deceit and disaffection. There were recriminations and self-delusion.
It is so strange that in this relationship of decades which ended in the murder of one woman by the other (who denied responsibility the remainder of her life) the two principals never physically met. Not once. Bizarre!
I had not known that Elizabeth had been raped (by a husband and wife, no less!) at a very young age. This might explain her reticence towards suitors and her reluctance to give up power to any man. The actual particulars of the murder of her lover almost strain credulity. That wild story I had known, as it had been widely fictionalized and depicted in film. But I can see why many history books of the past might have been loath to go into details of Elizabeth's rape. Well, in primary education texts, anyway.
I think this documentary was so well-done. It seems factually impeccable.
I really missed so many of the nuances of the complicated, indeed torturous, relationship which developed between Queen Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots. The history books generally gloss over this one. They get straight to the (head cutting) point. Usually, it is painted in simple terms, as a religious struggle or a simple struggle for dominance. And it was these things, but it was so much more. The 2016 BBC documentary reveals that it was rather like a long marriage with many identifiable stages. There was courtship, a wooing in poetry. There was love. There was deceit and disaffection. There were recriminations and self-delusion.
It is so strange that in this relationship of decades which ended in the murder of one woman by the other (who denied responsibility the remainder of her life) the two principals never physically met. Not once. Bizarre!
I had not known that Elizabeth had been raped (by a husband and wife, no less!) at a very young age. This might explain her reticence towards suitors and her reluctance to give up power to any man. The actual particulars of the murder of her lover almost strain credulity. That wild story I had known, as it had been widely fictionalized and depicted in film. But I can see why many history books of the past might have been loath to go into details of Elizabeth's rape. Well, in primary education texts, anyway.
I think this documentary was so well-done. It seems factually impeccable.
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