(no subject)

[endlessrarities]

I watched Episode 2 of the Tudors last night....  Will I make it through to the end of the series?  I really don't know.   One question begs an answer.  Why, oh why, have they cast a SCOT as the Earl of Surrey?  It's most offputting.  It's even more off-putting, considering that it was the Earl of Surrey's daddy who commanded the 2nd division army that minced the Scots at Flodden.  Oh, if only Jimmy IV had made it a few more yards and felled the man before a lucky Englishman brought him down with an arrow in the gob....

I feel chronologically dislocated when I watch The Tudors.  Because Henry doesn't age (apart from some rather dashing grey streaks in his hair/beard, etc.) I can't figure out the timeline.  Last night, there was a mention of Lord Hertford's military victory in Scotland, and there were references to the Scots King.  That gave me some kind of an anchor.  I deduced that the battle in question was the Battle of Solway Moss in 1542, but...   The Earl of Hertford was active later, in 1547 - during  the 'Rough Wooing'.  The latter was not a response to earlier Scots aggression, as dear Henry stated, but a punitive campaign designed to try and co-erce the Scots into falling into line with their English bully-boy neighbours.  The aim being to force the Scots into marrying the infant Mary to the young King Edward...    But by this time, James V was dead, his end hastened perhaps by the drubbing Henry's army gave his troops at Solway Moss.  Did the Scots bring this on themselves?  No.  This was Henry, being obnoxious, antisocial and revolting, and trying to push his smaller impoverished neighbours into doing things HIS way.  It wasn't the conflating of two historical events that really riled me.  It was the fact that the blame was being levelled onto the hapless 'uncivilised' Scots, who in reality were barely holding things together after the horrific debacle that was Flodden FIeld...

Gawd, I HATE Henry VIII.  To see him yowling with a superating ulcerated leg last night was actually quite gratifying. 

And now a quick garden report.  For lizziebelle , I'm posting this photograph, which was taken this morning:-

 

Spring is coming, though you mightn't believe it just now...

This year, I thought I'd post some progress photographs of the garden as I work my way through it.  Here's the front garden flower bed as it was this morning: wild, woolly, and full of weeds and dead stuff:-

 

Hopefully, it will look a whole lot better in a few months' time;

And now I've got to go.  It's Big Garden Birdwatch time...

Comments

[lizziebelle.livejournal.com]

Snowdrops! Thank you! :)

[gghost.livejournal.com]

Beautiful snowdrops, definitely a harbinger of spring. The only thing in bloom in our garden is the hellebores, which are just starting to open.

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

Ooh, hellebores. My favourites...

Your hellebores are certainly precocious. We've got one in bud right now, but the rest are still lying low...

[roaming.livejournal.com]

We cluefree Yanks are not hampered much by a knowledge of history (yours, or our own), so we can enjoy the probably not historically accurate spectacle of The Tudors unburdened by learning. :-P

[red-trillium.livejournal.com]

Snowdrops & daffodils always mean spring to me, no matter how grey & gloomy the weather is! That means our autumn is turning now. I've planted a few carrots today, dug up some more potatoes.

There's so much promise in the brown vegetation in that last picture!

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

Everything needs a good haircut!

[es0terika.livejournal.com]

accuracy aside, I Loved the first season, it was brilliant drama, Sam Neil was especially good. It does go downhill a bit after that.

I think they were trying to recapture what the BBC had with Rome, but it didn't even come close to that kind of level in the end.

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

Confession time: I really enjoyed the first series, too! (And Sam Neill stole the show...)

Another confession: I really like the music, and I quite like the opening titles, too....

[kavintenison.livejournal.com]

What ever you think about The Tudors show. It is fantastic for me, I really like to watch The Tudors episodes, It every season was awesome and still, I watch The Tudors episodes (http://thetudors.download-tvshows.com/) at online in my weekends. After watching this show Henry VIII and Queen Katherine is my favorite character ever...

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

As a piece of drama, it certainly does the trick. Despite all the plot discrepancies, I'm still watching! I think the first series was definitely the best one, and I wholeheartedly agree that Katherine of Aragon was really well portrayed. I like Anne of Cleves and young Mary Tudor, too. I just wish they'd cast a better Henry! JRM is very nice to look at, but... Henry's not supposed to be a lean, mean sex god when he reaches that age. Sean Bean would have been a good choice, and Ray Winston did a fantastic job when he was cast in the part a few years back...

I'd definitely mark it as 'Could do better.'

If you're interested in this period of history, you should check out the Simon Schama series 'A History of Britain', just so you can compare the facts with the fiction. The episode featuring Henry VIII is fascinating. Hilary Mantel's book Wolf Hall also gives a splendid insight into the period - it's about Thomas Cromwell, and it's well worth reading, though her prose style is a bit difficult (you either love it, or you loathe it!). I think she's probably got the atmosphere at Henry's court spot-on, and I have the distinct impression from this latest series of The Tudors that the writers have been reading Wolf Hall, too...