Rachael Dickzen's Blog, page 2

Royally Lit: "Red, White, and Royal Blue"

A lot of novels featuring royals have come out in the past few years, with some of them becoming huge bestsellers. Every time I read one of these books, I end up nerding out over all the English royal references and combing through how much these fictional royal families and systems resemble reality. I figured I might as well actually write these musings down for your entertainment.

I had kind of a rough week and really needed some escapist fiction, so I finally picked up “Red, White & Royal Blue.” This best-selling 2019 romance novel features the first son of the United States falling in love with a British prince. It’s super sweet and funny, so if you like romances and/or just need something fun to read, I highly suggest it.

Note: Because I’m talking about a lot of fictional AND real people and it could get a bit complicated if you don’t know them all really well, I’m going to italicize the names of fictional characters to make things easier.

Summary: As the story begins, it’s Fall 2019, Alex is 21, in his final year of college at Georgetown, and has an long-lasting grudge against Prince Henry of England. After Alex and Henry manage to knock over the wedding cake at the royal wedding, they’re forced to pretend to be best friends for a while to avoid causing an international incident. The charade turns into actual friendship and later, love.

The First Family of the United States: This book is an alternate history, but only slightly. On the US side, everything /seems/ to line up with actual reality up through the Obama period (Alex mentions at one point that his bedroom used to belong to one of the Obama daughters). However, in this world, the 2016 election was won by Texan Ellen Claremont. Ellen’s a Democrat and the first female president. She has two children with her ex-husband Oscar Diaz (a senator from California and the son of Mexican immigrants) - June and Alex Claremont-Diaz. Ellen’s second husband is Leo, who is briefly described as an eccentric and ultra-supportive millionaire inventor.

The Royal Family of the United Kingdom: Prince Henry George Edward James Fox-Mountchristen-Windsor of Wales is 22 and on a gap year (post college) when the book begins. He’s the youngest child of Princess Catherine and Arthur Fox, a former James Bond actor, and a grandson of the current Queen. Henry has an older brother Philip, whose marriage kicks off the book, and an older sister named Beatrice, who is sober after previously struggling with cocaine addiction after their father’s death.

Queen Elizabeth Parallels: In the world of the book, Queen Mary is described as in her early 80s (in 2020) and has been on the throne for 47 years. This places her as ascending to the throne in 1973, sometime in her 30s. In real life, the current queen Elizabeth II was born in 1926, was 94 in 2020, and ascended to the throne in 1952 at the age of 26.

Succession: During an argument with his brother, Philip snarls that if Henry married Alex, the first son of the US would be fourth in line to the Queen of England. This indicates that Henry is, himself, fourth in line to the throne. His mother Catherine is first in line, his brother Philip is second in line, and his sister Beatrice is third in line.

Names: Every royal’s name seems to relate somewhat to real life royal’s names.

Queen Mary is likely a reference to Queen Mary of Teck, who was queen of consort from 1910-1936 as the wife of King George V and the grandmother of the current Queen.

Princess Catherine may refer to Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, who has been married to Prince William since [2010].

Prince Philip refers to Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, the late prince consort of Queen Elizabeth II.

Princess Beatrice refers to Princess Beatrice of York, Prince Andrew (Duke of York)’s daughter and a granddaughter of the Queen.

Henry George Edward James Fox-Mountchristen-Windsor of Wales. It’s totally realistic for him to have this many names, actually. Prince Charles’s name is Charles Philip Arthur George; Prince William is William Arthur Philip Louis; Harry is Henry Charles Albert David.

Henry - Eight English monarchs have gone by Henry. The most recent Henry is of course, Prince Henry, Duke of Sussex, who has gone by Harry pretty much his entire life.

George - Six English monarchs have gone by George and Prince William’s eldest son is named George.

Edward - Eight English monarchs have gone by Edward, and Elizabeth II’s youngest son is named Edward.

James - Two English monarchs have gone by James, and Prince Edward’s son is also named James.

Mountchristen-Windsor - The name of the real life Royal House is Windsor, but the surname Mountbatten-Windsor belongs to all the children and male-line descendants of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip. The name Mountbatten is an anglicisation of the German “Battenberg” (which literally means Batten Mountain and refers to a small town in Hesse, Germany) and was adopted in 1917 due to anti-German sentiment during World War I. “Mountchristen” is actually a pretty brilliant reference to this, as there is also a hill in Hesse, Germany known as Christenberg - so in the book’s universe, this was anglicized to Mountchristen, presumably also during WWII.

When Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark married then-Princess Elizabeth, he gave up his titles and took the surname Mountbatten from his mother’s family when he became a naturalized British subject.
It’s used by those who do not have the style of Royal Highness. Prince Edward’s children technically have the surname Mountbatten-Windsor, although they tend to go by the title “Windsor.” Most recently, Prince Harry’s two children with Meghan Markle have had Mountbatten-Windsor as their surnames.
The name is also used by Royal families without a surname, when a surname is required. For example, when Prince William filed a lawsuit in France, he used the surname Mountbatten-Windsor.

“of Wales” - This is pretty true to life. Although no one in the book is technically ever referred to as The Prince of Wales, it’s implied that Princess Catherine, as first in line to the throne, has the title. In that case, all her children would go by “of Wales” as well. Both of Charles, Prince of Wales’ sons were styled “His Royal Highness ____ of Wales” from birth until they were given their own titles at the time of their weddings (William was made Duke of Cambridge, Earl of Strathearn, and Baron Carrickfergus in 2011. Harry was made Duke of Sussex, Earl of Dumbarton, and Baron Kilkeel in 2018).

Prince Henry also states at one point that his brother used “Wales” as his last name while he was in the military. This is pretty close to how things are done in real life. Prince Harry was known as Officer Cadet Wales and Prince William was Lieutenant Wales while in the military.

Miscellaneous Historical References:

A Relative’s Abdication: Henry yells at one point that they have a great uncle who abdicated because he was a Nazi. This is an obvious reference to Edward VIII, who abdicated in January 1936 so he could marry Wallis Simpson. Simpson had already been married twice, was pursuing a divorce from her second husband. The government completely opposed the King’s plan to marry her.
Edward and Wallis Simpson visited Nazi Germany in October 1937 against the advice of the British government and met Adolf Hitler.

The book’s family lines here don’t quite line up with real life. Edward VIII was the uncle of Queen Elizabeth II, and thus would be the great-great uncle of her grandchildren, not a great-uncle.

A Royal marrying someone the Crown disapproves of: Princess Catherine married Arthur Fox, who played James Bond in the 80s, against the will of her family. Arthur apparently continued to act after his marriage (as Philip says angrily that their father spent half their childhoods making films) and died of cancer when Henry was 14.
This could refer to Princess Elizabeth being determined to marry Philip against her family’s advice (and eventually gaining their acceptance of him) and Princess Margaret wanting to marry the divorced Peter Townsend against the will of many in the government and the Church of England (and ultimately not being able to gain acceptance).
However, this reads most like an homage to the real life marriage of Hollywood actress Grace Kelly to Prince Rainier III of Monaco in 1956. Prince Harry also married a Hollywood actress, Meghan Markle, in 2018, but the author has noted that this book was written before that happened.

In case you didn’t want to look it up, the James Bond actors in the 1980s were Roger Moore, Sean Connery, and Timothy Dalton.

First Royal with a doctorate: Catherine is described as the first princess with a doctorate (in English literature). Charles, Prince of Wales is the first heir of the British throne to receive a university degree. A few royals have been given honorary doctorates, but none of earned them through a program of study.

I’m not terribly well versed in other royal families but there are a few royals out there with doctorates. King Mohammed VI of Morocco has a PhD in law. Queen Letizia of Spain (married to Fleipe VI of Spain) began to work toward a Phd but did not finish her thesis.
Fun fact: Emperor Emeritus Akihito doesn’t have a degree, but actually has done ichthyological research and had several scholarly papers published. A genus of goby has been named Akihito in his owner.

The death of a royal’s spouse/parent: Arthur Fox died when Prince Henry was 14. Eight years on, Henry still mourns his father and has difficulty with his absence.
In real life, Diana, Princess of Wales, died when her sons were 15 (William) and 12 (Harry). They have both openly talked about how much they have missed their mother in the years since and how much her loss affected their lives.

A royal grieving the death of a spouse to the detriment of their duties: Catherine is described as having mourned so much over the death of her husband that she basically was checked out of her children’s life for ~5-6 years. This may refer to Queen Victoria’s famous mourning over her husband Albert. After he died in 1861, Victoria did not appear in public for two years. She didn’t appear again to open Parliament again until 1866. Victoria wore black after his death for the final forty years of her life.

Quick, Non-Researched Historical Thoughts on "Anne Boleyn" Episode 2

Alright, onto historical elements in episode 2 of Channel 5’s Anne Boleyn. As previously noted, these are quick, non-researched notes based almost entirely on my own prior knowledge as a giant Tudor history fanatic. If you see anything inaccurate, let me know! I'm human, after all. I may go back and add sources to this later if there’s enough interest.

Quick Opinion Note: I haven’t actually gotten to watch Episode 3 yet, but …/sigh/ I wanted this show to be so much better than it actually is. Jodie Turner-Smith remains a powerful force of nature, but there are other elements of the show that I really…just don’t like. A lot of the dialogue is clumsy and realistic. I don’t actually hate some of the more “WTF” moments that others have pointed out as being there just for shock value (e.g., Anne and Henry being into autoerotic asphyxiation - it actually presents an interesting power dynamic! or Anne kissing Jane Seymour - people were much more comfortable with kissing others on the mouth back then so this isn’t as weird as it comes off at first), but the costumes and scenes look pretty low budget. And if you’re going to advertise your show as a psychological thriller…I expect a bit more of that to come across than just Anne sitting surrounded by creepy whispers every once in a while. It just seems like there were a lot of missed opportunities here.

1.       In an early scene, some of the whispers Anne hears whisper at witchcraft. I don’t believe anyone would have actually said that around Anne at that point, as she was still the queen and still very powerful. And despite what people seem to think, she wasn’t actually charged with witchcraft at all. If I recall, no big rumors of witchcraft spread about Anne until decades years later.
Think of it this way – Cromwell really wanted to take Anne down and was willing to send several men to their deaths to do it. If the witchcraft rumors were actually around, or there was any evidence for it at all, wouldn’t he have used it?

The whispering voice about the baby being deformed also is a rumor – there’s no evidence that she gave birth to a deformed baby at the time.

2.       Anne talks to her Uncle, the Duke of Norfolk Thomas Howard, and refers to his daughter’s married life with the king’s son. She’s referring to Mary Howard and Henry Fitzroy, Henry’s illegitimate son with Bessie Blount. They would have been married a few years at this point, but as they were still pretty young teenagers, they hadn’t consummated their marriage. Henry Fitzroy wouldn’t outlast Anne by very much and died later that year.

3.       Symbol Watch: Good Lord, there are so many dead animals throughout this episode. Look for any scene transitions – dead animals everywhere.

4.       Anne goes to wash the feet of the poor, as Jesus did for the disciples at the Last Supper before his crucifixion. This was a traditional ceremony in renaissance England performed by the Queen. Catherine of Aragon did it, and Anne did as well. The Queen would also give out money to the poor as well at the same time.

5.       In the show, this scene is disturbed by a woman coming in and yelling, calling Anne a whore and claiming “she killed our true queen.” While people were very angry at Anne and really did dislike her quite a lot (there was one famous incident before Henry and Anne married in which a mob of women apparently went to attack her), I don’t think individual people would have run up and shouted at her at this point. Remember - she was the Queen. She had a lot of power over the King and people knew it.
The scene ends with Anne telling a guard, about the woman, “Make sure her body is strapped up on the Tower for all to see.” /sigh/ No. Although there were a few people (even women) executed for criticism and spreading rumors about Anne, there are a couple things wrong with this statement. Although it was common to put the heads of those executed for treason up on spikes by London Bridge, it wasn’t the WHOLE body put up there. And the only woman who ever had her head up on a spike there was Elizabeth Barton, the maid of Kent (who spoke out against Anne but also prophesied the king’s death, so it wasn’t JUST for that). Also, there’s no indication that Anne was ever this vindictive against those who criticized her. She spoke rashly a few times about wishing for the death of Catherine of Aragon and Princess Mary (while under extreme pressure after years and years of waiting for the king to marry her), but I haven’t heard of any evidence that she would actually order a guard to kill someone who criticized her. I don’t think she even had the power to do that.

6.       Anne goes immediately to Hatfield to check on her daughter Elizabeth and make sure she’s safe. Anne was known to be a very doting mother, and I’m glad they showed this. It was common practice among all the higher classes at this point, and particularly royalty, for the children to be raised far away from court, so of course Elizabeth wasn’t at Anne’s side all the time. However, there are records indicating that Anne really purchased just a ton of gifts for Elizabeth. I believe there’s a story that she even wanted to breastfeed her, but pretty sure that one was invented by a later historian and not supported by contemporary evidence.

7.       While talking with Lady Anne Shelton, Queen Anne loses her temper at one point and says “I wasn’t aware that fucking a king was such a chore.” I’m not sure Anne Boleyn would have actually said “fuck,” but the word did exist at that point (historical evidence dates forms of the word back to at least 1503) and we do know that Anne spoke rashly and lost her temper at times, particularly towards the end of her life. She’d been under extreme pressure for several years so honestly…it makes sense.

8.       We got a short scene with Anne talking to Mary in which Anne actually managed to be decently polite to her stepdaughter. Mary really was rude to Anne pretty much every time she interacted with her, from the reports I’ve read, although I don’t know if she would have straight up antagonized Anne about her fertility troubles like she does here.

9.       We see ferrets and such in various scenes. I love seeing this actually, as people took their pets with them everywhere then! Like, there’s a story that Cardinal Thomas Wolsey’s dog bit the Pope during a meeting. I’m not sure how substantiated that story is, but even if it was just a legend, it was considered normal enough for someone to take their pet dog to meet the POPE that people certainly believed it.

10.   Later, Anne invites one of her ladies, who’s falling asleep in her chair while keeping Anne company, to share her bed. This is presented as an unusual thing, but realistically, Anne would have either had a bedmate or someone sleeping in the same room with her pretty much all the time. Everyone did. That was just how things worked then.
There’s a whole subplot of this lady being pregnant with George Boleyn’s child and how the child can’t be recognized as George’s because of scandal. This…has zero basis in history. George is commonly portrayed as a bit of a ladies’ man and/or a closeted homosexual, but I don’t believe there’s actually any proof of any of this.

11.   Anne confronts Henry for ignoring her later and they end up reuniting a bit. Here, we actually get a glimpse of their relationship at its healthiest. She helps him, he listens to her advice, and they genuinely seem like they care and love each other. Historically, it sounds like they really were a very well matched couple – both intelligent, well-read, and religious, with strong personalities and opinions.

12.   I haven’t gotten too much into the Spain treaty discussions back and forth because I don’t remember too much about it historically and the whole idea of this blog post is to put it out quickly without research. However, I do know that once Catherine of Aragon died, Spain was much more willing to make peace and treaties with Henry than they had beforehand. Spain was probably never quite as willing to make war on Henry and England over Catherine’s cause as Chapuys seemed to imply to her and her daughter; politically, it just doesn’t make sense to start a war over this sort of thing.

13.   Mere weeks before she was arrested, Henry did in fact trick Ambassador Eustace Chapuys into finally acknowledging Anne as Queen and bowing to her. He had successfully just…avoided interacting with her that entire time, but Cromwell, and George Boleyn (lord Rochford) maneuvered him into being exactly the right place where he had no choice but to recognize her.
This was actually kind of a trend with Henry, where he’d bestow some honor on someone close to him very soon before having them arrested and executed them. This happened with Anne Boleyn and would later happen with Thomas Cromwell, who was given a noble title very soon before his downfall.
WEIRD THING I JUST NOTICED: I’m not really researching but I did a quick google just to confirm my facts here, and uh, Chapuys was tricked into acknowledging Anne Boleyn on April 18, 1536, and Thomas Cromwell was made the Earl of Essex on April 18, 1540. Both Anne and Thomas would be dead mere months after their brief triumphs.

14.   Later at a party, Anne seems to be super happy due to making up with her husband, but later sees Jane Seymour politely denying a gift (clearly from the King) by kissing it and returning it, saying all she wanted was a respectable and advantageous marriage. Jane did pretty much exactly this in real life, although I sincerely doubt Anne was anywhere near by when it happened.

15.   Anne’s upset about what she saw and, after drinking, makes a foolish comment to noble Henry Norris saying that “you look for dead man’s shoes.” In real life, Norris had been courting Madge Shelton for a while but hadn’t proposed yet; this was Anne’s way of saying “you’re not really here for Madge, you’re in love with me and you’re waiting for the king to die so you can try to marry me instead.” This was incredibly foolish of her, as at this point, it was illegal to even speak of the king’s death. In real life, I believe she sent Henry to go assure one of the court officers (I don’t remember who right now) that Anne was a good, respectable woman who would never cheat on the King, but this was overkill and actually made the court officer report the comment to others, which…cascaded and probably helped fuel the king’s paranoia and suspicions.

16.   Anne and Henry have a drag out violent fight in which she fiercely insults him and he actually almost chokes her. They definitely did have very loud arguments at times, but I don’t know if there’s any evidence that Henry laid hands on her violently.

17.   Later, because this is apparently a low budget series that can’t afford putting on a proper joust, Lady Rochford, Jane Parker, says that the King abruptly left and the joust is cancelled. In real life, the joust did go ahead and Henry left before it was done. That was the last time he ever saw Anne Boleyn, as she was arrested shortly after.

18.   The episode closes out with Lady Anne Shelton tricking Anne into going with her to see her Uncle, who promptly presents her with an order for her arrest.
In real life, she was summoned to appear to the privy council. One of the members there was indeed her Uncle. When she showed up, she was informed of her arrest.
In the scene, Anne tried to bring some of her closest ladies with her to go see her uncle, but was only allowed to have Lady Shelton. We know she had a few ladies in the tower with her, but we don’t know exactly who they are. They likely were not her favorite ladies and were there more to keep an eye on her than keep her company, but as the Queen, it wouldn’t have been proper for her to go even to prison without being properly attended.

Season 3 Tiaras of The Crown

All My Posts on The Crown
S3: 1 & 2: “Olding” & “Margaretology” 3: “Aberfan” 4: “Bubbikins, 5: “Coup” 6: “Tywysog Cymru” 7: “Moondust" 8: “Dangling Man” 9: “Imbroglio” 10: “Cri de Coeur”
S4: 1: “Gold Stick” 2: “The Balmoral Test” 3: “Fairytale” ( + Cinderella References) 4: “Favourites” 5: “Fagan” 6: “Terra Nullius” 7: ”The Hereditary Principle” 8: “48:1” 9: “Avalanche” 10: “War”
The Medals, Sashes, and Tiaras of The Crown; Tiaras/Crowns Overviews: Season 1 ; Season 2

Other Posts about Crowns and Tiaras:
Diadems, Tiaras, and Crowns, Oh My! - an overview of types, definitions, and purposes
Disney Crowns and Tiaras: Historical and Modern Inspirations (Part I) - Snow White, Alice in Wonderland (cartoon and live), Sleeping Beauty/Maleficent, Robin Hood, and the Great Mouse Detective
Disney Crowns and Tiaras: Historical and Modern Inspirations (Part II): Cinderella, Little Mermaid, The Princess and the Frog, and The Sword in the Stone!

Elizabeth in The Crown (Olivia Colman) in the opening scene of S3, looking at stamps based off of S1-S2 actress Claire Foy and S3-S4 actress Olivia Colman. Both stamp portraits are wearing replicas of the George IV diadem.

S3E1 Olding: Season 3 opens with the meta acknowledgement of the actress change from Claire Foy to Olivia Colman as portrayed in the new stamp portraits. Both portraits feature the George IV diadem. (Of interest: The Court Jeweller pointed out that the stamps actually changed out in 1967, when this scene is set in 1964).

In real life, the stamp design was changed for practical reasons having nothing to do with the Queen’s age. The first stamp design featuring Queen Elizabeth II in 1952 was based on a photo by Dorothy Wilding which featured the Queen in three-quarter shoulder length profile. Stamp designers apparently found it difficult to incorporate the Queen’s profile into new stamps, resulting in some murmurs of removing the Queen from the stamps altogether. Instead, they switched to a more direct profile that worked better for design purposes. This version, which debuted in June 1967, uses of a plaster bust design made by Arnold Machin based off of photos by John Hedgecoe. This is still the profile of the queen used on stamps today. (Source: Postal Museum)

L to R: the original Dorothy Wilding photograph stamp, the new Andrew Machin design stamp, and a modern stamp with the queen’s profile on it.

Later in the episode, the Queen wears an odd made-up tiara at the art exhibition. It’s like, very Disney princess and doesn’t actually resemble any of the queen’s real tiaras.

L to R: Elizabeth in The Crown, wearing an invented tiara; Margaret in The Crown wearing a replica of the Poltimore tiara; the real Princess Margaret wearing the Poltimore tiara in a bathtub and at an event.

S3E2 Margaretology: During Margaret’s fabulous 1965 American tour montage, she wears a replica of the Poltimore tiara for a photo shoot with her in the bathtub. This refers to a very famous photo of Margaret that was actually taken by her photographer husband Antony Armstrong-Jones in 1962. In the full shot, you can actually see Antony in the mirror behind Margaret right in the corner of the photograph. The actual photo didn’t come out until 2006, four years after Margaret’s death. (Source: Town and Country)

Margaret also wore the Poltimore tiara at her wedding and at several other events.

L to R: Elizabeth in The Crown; Queen Elizabeth II; The Queen Mother; Princess Elizabeth (the future Queen); Princess Anne; Princess Beatrice

S3E3 Bubbikins: On a state visit, the queen wears a replica of Queen Mary’s fringe tiara. This is a real tiara, but as the Court Jeweller points out, the Queen didn’t own this tiara in the 1960s. The Queen Mother owned it at the time, but eventually bequeathed it to her daughter Elizabeth in 2002. Fun fact: Then-Princess Elizabeth wore it for her wedding in 1947, her daughter Princess Anne borrowed it for her wedding in 1973, and Elizabeth’s granddaughter Princess Beatrice (Prince Andrew’s daughter with Sarah Ferguson) wore it for hers in 2020.

L to R: Prince Charles at his investment as Prince of Wales in The Crown; the real life Charles in his investment portrait; the investment coronet.

Episode 6 Tywysog Cymru: Charles is invested as Prince of Wales at Cardiff Castle in this episode and sports a jaunty new coronet as part of that. Although a Prince of Wales coronet had been made for Prince Edward in 1911, along with various other ceremonial accoutrements (rod, ring, sword, and a robe with doublet and sash), a new coronet had to be made for Charles, as Edward (also known as David) had taken his coronet with him when he went into exile post-abdication in 1936. Apparently, the royal family was much more willing to make a new coronet than talk to Edward to get the old one back. (Source: Town and Country)

The new coronet design was deliberately modern and simple. A more extravagant design was previously rejected as out of touch with a lot of the economic struggles happening in the country at the time.

Charles also wore a crown while playing Richard II in the episode. Although this was obviously just a theater prop, it actually does have some real similarities to the original crown worn by Richard II. Both are gold, open crowns topped with fleurons. (Source: Richard II’s Treasure)

L to R: Prince Charles playing Richard II in The Crown; Charles’s play crown in The Crown; Richard II’s portrait

Episode 9 Imbroglio:

The Queen, Queen Mother, and Princess Margaret all wear invented tiaras at Elizabeth and Philips’s 25th anniversary celebration. In real life, this was celebrated with a luncheon in November 1972, not a fancy formal dinner like that shown in The Crown.

The Court Jeweller referred to the Queen Mother’s made up tiara as an “invented diamond scroll tiara.” It really doesn’t look like any other crowns I’ve seen.

Princess Margaret is wearing a made up ruby tiara. The Court Jeweller points out that Margaret had plenty of tiaras, but no ruby tiaras (however, her engagement ring was famously a ruby).

L to R: Elizabeth wearing an invented tiara; the Queen Mother wearing an invented tiara; Margaret wearing the same invented tiara on a poster that she wore in the anniversary dinner scene.

Episode 10 Cri de Coeur: Although none of the characters wear tiaras or crowns in this episode, we do get a quick look at a commemorative Silver Jubilee tea towel which shows the Queen wearing the George IV diadem. It’s a slightly odd design, as the Queen appears to be wearing a more casual outfit with her diadem, which is really not a thing that would happen in real life.

I couldn’t find a real tea towel from the Silver Jubilee that actually looks like the one in the show, but it may be a combination of a few different designs and ideas.

The Queen wore several different crowns and tiaras to various events during her Silver Jubilee, including the Vladimir tiara with emerald drops and the Imperial State Crown.

L to R: Antony Armstrong-Jones in The Crown holding up a tea towel with the Queen on it; two real tea towels from the Silver Jubilee; the Queen at a Silver Jubilee event wearing the Vladimir Tiara with emerald drops; the Queen at a Silver Jubilee event wearing the IMperial State Crown

Initial Quick, Non-Researched Thoughts on "Anne Boleyn" Episode 1

I just watched episode 1 of Anne Boleyn, the new psychological thriller series from Channel 5 in the UK.* Thoughts so far: It's really well done (apart from the costumes, which lack historically accurate detailing, but they're not so bad that they're distracting). Jodie Turner-Smith is mesmerizing as Anne. She plays every facet of love, intelligence, humor, fear, anxiety, defensiveness, faith, joy, and devastation with subtle art. She also has that Anne charisma and power, taking your breath away just with her presence.

*The UK’s Channel 5 mini series “Anne Boleyn” has been causing a bit of uproar around Tudor communities for a while now because of the casting of a black woman in the lead role. I am incredibly over people being such asses about this (these comments range from repetitively close-minded and boring to HOLY SHIT THAT IS REALLY RACIST DUDE and they all piss me off), so I’m really just not going to get into it now. I would really rather just talk about content of the show itself.

(As an American, I watched this show via TV Mucho - apparently this only works if you set it to record in advance or watch it simultaneously with the UK broadcast. Also - you only get one free hour a day, which because of the 10 minute early start with the show, isn't actually enough, so I just broke down and bought one month's subscription. I have no idea how to access the show if you are out of the UK and didn’t already record it using TV Mucho, sorry.)

I COULD write thousands of words about this one episode, and I may later, but I'll just hit a few points briefly. I'm not doing in depth research on this but am only talking about a few items using my prior knowledge as a giant Tudor history fanatic. If you see anything inaccurate, let me know! I'm human, after all. I may go back and add sources to this later if there’s enough interest.

1. The episode opens with a flash forward to Anne’s trial. This scene closes out with an axe being turned around and Anne taking a sharp intake of breath. The turning of the axe actually was totally a thing at Tudor trials. When the accused walked into court, the accompanying axeman’s blade was faced away from them. Once they were declared guilty and sentenced though, the blade was turned to face toward them. 

2. After the credits, a very pregnant Anne is shown wearing yellow at a formal event, which is held after the death of Catherine of Aragon. Henry is not wearing yellow. If I recall, one contemporary account from the time only specified that Henry wore yellow after COA’s death, and another only specified that Anne wore yellow. In addition, it’s up for debate whether this was meant for mourning (as some claim it was the Spanish color of mourning) or celebration.

 3. While playing cards (using cards that really do look like those use din Tudor times!), Anne casually asks Madge Shelton (who in real life was her cousin) whether the king had called for her lately. This refers to the fact that during his queens’ pregnancies, Henry would regularly sleep with other women, as sex with a pregnant woman was considered dangerous to the baby.
Anne also disses Jane Parker, Lady Rochford and her brother George’s wife. This is a very common characterization of Jane for some reason, but we don’t really have any evidence to support it beyond the simple fact that Jane survived the Boleyns’ fall.

4. Symbol Count 1: The French king sends some tiny French children (?) two present a clock to Anne for her future child. This will become more important later.

5. Symbol count 2: Jane Seymour wins at cards. Anne: “You had the winning hand all along.” Jane: “I didn’t understand the game.” Anne: “You really mustn’t play.” This indicates that Anne is already aware of her husband’s attraction to Jane and is warning her away from him. 

6. Later in bed, Anne and Henry talk about Cromwell’s plans for the monasteries. Anne says she has her own thoughts about what to do with the money from the monasteries, while Cromwell has other ideas. This disagreement really did happen. Anne wanted the money to go to charity and education. Cromwell wanted the money to go into the king’s treasury. It’s very likely that this significant disagreement between Anne and Cromwell (who were formerly allied due to their common beliefs in reforming the church) actually led to Anne’s downfall.

 7. Symbol count 3: The court is looking at some new horses outside while Anne and Cromwell talk, clearly still disagreeing. Anne is in a peacock blue and there are several peacocks wandering around and making loud noises. Anne complains about the peacocks and tells Henry she wants them removed or she’ll hunt them down herself. These peacocks will come back several more times. 

8. Anne next talks to an older woman who appears to be Elizabeth’s governess (if this is the case, likely Lady Margaret Bryan) and specifically sends her sympathies to Mary (who at this point, is actually serving her younger sister, as a bit of a punishment for her obstinacy in refusing to accept the annulment of her parents’ marriage) on the death of her mother. Anne really did reach out to Mary after Catherine’s death, I believe she even encouraged Mary to reunite with her father.
Anne was not always kind to Mary honestly, but I believe at this point she wasn’t actually being a jerk. 

9. George brings Anne the first full English bible, fresh from Antwerp. Antwerp was a hotbed of Protestant thinking. Anne is delighted and puts the bible on a pedestal in her room. This really did happen – Anne put it there for any of her ladies to read regularly. At this point though, she takes the opportunity to encourage Jane Seymour to read Psalm 55 (ESV) – which includes a subtle reference to Jane betraying her with Henry: “for it is not an enemy who taunts me—then I could bear it; it is not an adversary who deals insolently with me—then I could hide from him. But it is you, a man, my equal, my companion, my familiar friend.” 

11. Henry has a jousting accident that leaves him unconscious and makes everyone freak out.
EVERYONE CITES THIS DAMN JOUSTING ACCIDENT but y’all, all the contemporary English sources indicate that he wasn’t even hurt and there are NO English reports about the king being unconscious. If it had actually happened that way, it would be in every person’s letters and diaries. The guy who started the thing about Henry being unconscious wasn’t in the country at the time and wrote about it several months later. UGH.
Anne panics as she overhears people talking about how she could never be regent because people hate her. She also overhears Ambassador Eustace Chapuys talking about sending for Mary, noting that she’d have Spanish backing. Chapuys was a big letter writer and is a source of information for a lot of what we know about Anne’s downfall. he was highly biased against her though so, so we have to take what he says with a grain of salt.
Anne asks her Uncle, who’s the Duke of Norfolk Thomas Howard (one of the most powerful men in the kingdom) to get rid of Chapuys.

Despite their spat over the monasteries, Cromwell is hanging with Anne and her family still and is part of their conversation. Anne says that all mail to Hatfield (where mary lives with princess Elizabeth) should be stopped and they shouldn’t let Mary see the king. She clearly is afraid that Mary will be captured and made the center of an uprising. This was wise, as this sort of thing actually did happen every time a Tudor monarch died.

 12. Symbol Count 4: Anne sees the feisty horse that threw the king in the accident taken away and decapitated. When she asks the king about it later, he says “I have no use for an animal that won’t obey me.”
The king also says, “my leg will never be the same.” This is actually true, as he did get a leg injury in a jousting accident that would become ulcerous and infected and would basically weep pus, smell terrible, and cause him tremendous pain for the rest of his life. 

 13. A couple scenes go by without much for me to talk about historically until Anne confronts her uncle about his conversations with the king and yells at him. We do know that Anne and her uncle had a falling out in the months before her death. He later would be on the jury that sentenced her to death.
After getting past her uncle, Anne finds Jane Seymour sitting on Henry’s knee. There are accounts of this really happening. Anne tears a necklace from her throat and slaps her. Historically, Anne did pull the necklace away (the necklace was a portrait of Henry), but it was at a different time, when the king wasn’t there).

 14. The incident leads to Anne miscarrying her child. This did happen pretty soon after CoA’s death and also was caused by the Jane Seymour knee-sitting incident.
Also HOLY TOKOPHOBIA BATMAN, if you are freaked out by pregnancy and childbirth, I would suggest skipping over this scene. It doesn’t show a lot but there are A LOT OF SOUNDS AND IT IS VERY DISTURBING. (yes, I probably have mild tokophobia).

 15. Symbol returns: The clock has wound down and is stopped, probably referring to Anne running out of time. Anne looks out the window and sees Henry petting the peacocks she asked him to kill with Jane Seymour, indicating her loss of power and status with her husband.

 16. I love that the show has Anne running to try to catch her husband to advocate for her plan with the monasteries, even though she’s just lost a baby, is very injured from childbirth, and she’s upset about the Jane situation. Anne really was very passionate about religious reform and charity and although this almost certainly didn’t happen, it’s a good way to show it.

 17. Anne appears alone in several scenes in this episode. Realistically, she would not have been alone, pretty much ever, as the Queen would always be accompanied by several ladies. Honestly, she probably didn’t even use the bathroom alone. But it works for showing Anne’s isolation and growing paranoia about her role at court.

I hope you enjoyed that quick rundown! It ended up over 1,500 words, which was approximately 1,000 more words than I planned, but - whatever. I’ll probably do the same thing for the next two episodes as well!

Over-Analyzing The Crown: S4E9 Avalanche

All My Posts on The Crown
S3: 1 & 2: “Olding” & “Margaretology” 3: “Aberfan” 4: “Bubbikins, 5: “Coup” 6: “Tywysog Cymru” 7: “Moondust" 8: “Dangling Man” 9: “Imbroglio” 10: “Cri de Coeur”
S4: 1: “Gold Stick” 2: “The Balmoral Test” 3: “Fairytale” 4: “Favourites” 5: “Fagan” 6: “Terra Nullius” 7: ”The Hereditary Principle” 8: “48:1”
Season 1 Tiaras and Crowns of “The Crown”; The Medals, Sashes, and Tiaras of The Crown
Visual Cinderella References in The Crown S4E3 Fairytale

My apologies for the delay on the blog posts about the last two episodes of Season 4 of The Crown. I’ve been taking some time off to re-evaluate things. I’ve also turned in my notice at my full time job and will be starting a new job here soon so - I’ve been busy!

I have determined that if I’m going to keep blogging, I need to cut back on the level of detail and research I put into each post or I’ll just implode from stress. I mean, my last blog post on 48:1 clocked in at over 8,000 words. That’s just not sustainable. So I’m going to put CONSIDERABLE effort into really cutting down these blog posts to 3,000 words or less in the future. This is still long enough for me to get into the nitty gritty details y’all love, but will make my life, and probably your life as readers, considerably easier.

On to Avalanche!

Top: Emma Corrin as Princess Diana in The Crown and Jay Webb as Wayne Sleep. Bottom: Princess Diana and Wayne Sleep.

The episode starts off with an incident in which Diana surprises Charles with a choreographed dance to Uptown Girl with Royal Ballet dancer Wayne Sleep. This really did happen on Dec. 23, 1985 at a private “Friends of Covent Garden” charity event. This charity event regularly featured surprise celebrity appearances, and Charles and Diana had appeared in a skit together the previous year as Romeo and Juliet. (Source: Tina Brown, The Diana Chronicles)

We unfortunately only have photos of it, and no video. Probably the closest we have to an actual video of it is this 2017 CNN film in which Sleep talks and walks through both his and Diana’s parts. I’m not a dancer at all, but from what I can tell, it seems like The Crown really tried to recreate Sleep’s description of the dance very closely.

As I’ve discussed before, Diana really did love to dance, and she had actually asked Sleep if he would give her lessons in the 1980s. He didn’t have time to teach her, but later, did agree to help her with her surprise dance. They apparently struck up quite a lovely friendship and afterward, Diana would occasionally pop in to come hang out with him in his dressing room after his performances to just chat. (Source: A 2017 interview with Wayne Sleep published in The Guardian).

This entire incident took place a month after another high profile dance of Princess Diana’s, namely, when she danced with John Travolta at the White House. At that dinner, she actually specifically asked to be seated next to Russian ballet master Mikhail Baryshnikov, and wanted to dance with him, but alas, Baryshnikov had an injured ankle at the time. (Source: Tina Brown, The Diana Chronicles)

Princess Diana with Wayne Sleep.

Left: Emma Corrin as Diana in The Crown. Right: Princess Diana.

Charles’ Reaction: We can’t know whether the couple argued about it in a car afterward, but there are reports that Charles was rather cool and distant towards Diana at a reception after the event. (Source: Tina Brown, The Diana Chronicles)

Diana’s dress in the episode looks to be an almost perfect copy of the real dress Diana wore, and Emma Corrin’s hair is styled out voluminously like Diana’s was in real life. I feel like they don’t quite capture the height of Diana’s hair though.

I’m really happy they included the detail of the height difference between Diana and her partner in the crown. In real life, Diana was at least 8 inches taller than Wayne Sleep without heels; at 5’2”, Sleep is the shortest male dancer ever admitted into the Royal Ballet School. On The Crown, Emma Corrin is only 4 inches taller than Jay Webb, the actor who played Sleep (again without heels), but I think the contrast and effect still comes across very well.

Fun fact: Wayne Sleep originated the role of Mr. Mistoffelees in the initial West End run of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats! (Source: Marie Claire)

Additional fun fact: Jay Webb, who played Wayne Sleep in this episode, has acted in a fictional retelling of Princess Diana’s life before! As a child, he apparently played Prince Harry in the 1996 TV movie Princess in Love, a fictional retelling of Diana’s relationship with James Hewitt. (Source: Jay Webb’s CV ). I could barely find any photos from this film online, and it has, uhm, poor ratings. I may have to go watch this and see how terrible it is. For research purposes, of course. :D

The scene in which the Queen and Philip discuss the dance after reading about it in the newspaper didn’t actually happen back in 1985. Even though there were 2,500 people in the crowd, the dance didn’t actually make the news at the time (source: Town and Country). It was 1985 and people didn’t just have cameras in their pockets like we do now. The only photos of the dance were taken by a Royal Opera House photographer, and those weren’t actually published until 1995. Sleep said in his interview with The Guardian that their publication made Diana suspicious of him and they drifted apart after that. Note: This was really hard for me to believe, but I actually searched through a couple newspaper databases for any mention to Princess Diana and Uptown Girl in 1985/1986 and couldn’t find anything.

The back and forth between the Queen and Philip of "Why did you never dance for me?” “Because if memory serves you had your own ballerinas for that.” is a callback to the Season 2 premiere episode Misadventure, when the Queen found a photo of a ballet dancer in Philip’s bag when he was about to leave on tour.

The avalanche that occurred in the show was a real life event, although it happened several years after the Uptown Girl dance. In March 1988, Diana and Charles were at Klosters with friends when an avalanche killed their long time friend Major Hugh Lindsay and seriously injured Patti Palmer-Tomkinson. Diana was back at the chalet with Fergie at the time, and said later that they waited for news for several hours in utter fear.

When the COVID-19 pandemic locked down things in the UK, The Crown only had six days of shooting left. The show had actually planned on shooting the avalanche scene during this time, and had to change course very quickly to adjust to the situation. The director of the episode said that when all their plans had to be changed, she looked at what she really needed from that scene in the story to affect the journey of Charles and Diana, and ultimately decided to show the avalanche from Charles’s perspective. The result was a completely created avalanche visual that ends up enveloping the camera’s view entirely. (Source: “The Crown Cast Tell the Story of Filming Season 4” on Youtube, around 9 minutes).

Remember the character named Sarah who we saw in the press office in the 48:1 episode immediately previous to Avalanche? That’s Major Hugh Lindsay’s wife. I thought it was an interesting choice to have us see her work so much in the margins of one episode and then see her grief take center stage in the next.

The Ethics of Dramatizing Real Life Tragedies: Sarah Horsley, Hugh Lindsay’s widow, said that she was horrified by The Crown’s inclusion of the disaster in the show and that she specifically wrote and asked them not to include it. It makes me incredibly uneasy that they didn’t listen to her on this. Yes, yes, creative freedom and all that, but …this is a real person’s life. I guess at least he wasn’t portrayed by an actor in the show (at least as far as I can tell) and the actual incident wasn’t shown beyond some very brief avalanche footage with no people present. However, this appears to be more the result of COVID-19 shutting down production and changing their plans than any attempt to portray the incident sensitively.
As the show moves closer and closer to present day, the criticism of its representation of events that are still affecting the lives of people today grows. I’m sure this will only become more of an issue in future seasons. I myself have a few questions about the ethical issues surrounding shows that come this close to present day (and my mother has some OPINIONS on this, y’all). Peter Morgan has said that he plans to maintain a “20 year rule” with the series to avoid becoming too journalistic and in order to have a bit of perspective on the events portrayed. So sorry, we’re not going to get to see Prince William or Prince Harry’s weddings in Seasons 5 or 6, nor are we going to meet Duchess Meghan. (Source: The Standard).
We /might/ get up to seeing Prince Charles’s wedding to Camilla, which occurred in 2005, but I really don’t anticipate seeing anything beyond that. Production on the fifth season starts up in June 2021, season 5 won’t premiere until probably November 2022, and season 6 won’t come out until probably November 2023 (if we’re basing predictions off the past release schedules). Including Charles and Camilla’s wedding would have to bend/break Peter Morgan’s 20-year rule slightly, but I think it would be a rather brilliant way to end the series, personally.

Tobias Menzies as Prince Philip in The Crown.

The show depicts the Queen and Philip waiting for news about the avalanche anxiously, knowing that someone has died but not knowing if it is their son or not. I’m not sure if we have any stories about their reaction to this, but this does seem to echo Diana’s accounts of the event. She and Fergie were back at the chalet and apparently heard that /someone/ had died over an hour before they actually knew who it was.

Tobias Menzies has had very little to do this season frankly, but I thought his acting in this scene was incredible. His worry for his son was just written all over his face.

The royal household does in fact have contingency plans to deal with the deaths of all royal family members. This came up in Season 1’s Act of God, when Queen Mary (Queen Elizabeth’s grandmother) mentioned that there were rehearsals for her funeral going on outside her bedroom window. These plans are given bridge-based code names, just as the Queen mentions in the episode.

Those are:

Queen Elizabeth II - Operation London Bridge
Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother - Operation Tay Bridge (these plans were rehearsed for 22 years before her deaht, apparently)
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh - Operation Forth Bridge
Charles, Prince of Wales - Operation Menai Bridge

In the show, both Charles and Diana view the avalanche as a turning point in their marriage. Charles sees it as a potential life ending event and realizes that he needs to be with Camilla. Diana sees the incident as a wake up call that she should change her ways and recommit to her marriage. I haven’t seen any evidence that either party reacted to this tragedy in these ways.

Diana said later that the tragedy taught her that she could cope with a horrible situation and take control of a situation even when Charles opposed her decision. Once they found out that Hugh had died, Diana quickly went up to pack Hugh’s suitcase and gave Fergie Hugh’s passport to give to Charles’s bodyguard. (Diana: Her True Story in her Own Words)

People have been criticizing the show a lot for making Charles look bad, but honestly, they kind of did him a favor in this story line. I’ve read in several places that Charles wanted to stay and keep skiing after Hugh Lindsay’s death but that Diana insisted that they had to fly back to the UK with Lindsay’s remains at once. (Source: The Diana Chronicles, Diana: Her True Story in her Own Words). This reaction was likely just shock though, as later, staff at Highgrove reported that Charles was completely overcome with horror and guilt and wasn’t able to eat. (The Diana Chronicles)

The Queen calls out Diana for breaking her vows, which seems pretty hypocritical since everyone knew Charles had been in love with another woman for the entirety of his marriage.

Charles is silenced yet again in the conversation with his parents and Diana and doesn’t get to speak his piece. This continues a theme with Charles’s interactions with his parents going back to Season 3 Tywysog Cymru, and continuing in Season 4’s The Balmoral Test. The Queen and Philip just want Charles to shut up and do his duty.

When the Queen talks to Anne about Charles and Diana, Anne mentions that Diana has had affairs with her bodyguard and her riding instructor. This refers to bodyguard Barry Mannakee and riding instructor James Hewitt.

Her relationship with Mannakee isn’t covered in the Crown in any depth, but Diana said in private tapes recorded by her voice coach (which were released after her death), Diana described her relationship with an unnamed bodyguard as the “greatest love” she’d ever had. Although Manakee is not mentioned by name in the tapes, the details she gives about when she met him and how he died align with his life. (Source: Oprah Daily). Manakee was also married at the time, and eventually lost his position as her bodyguard after they were caught in a “compromising position” in 1986. (Source: The Diana Chronicles). We don’t know nearly as much about Diana’s relationship with Manakee as we do about her relationship with Hewitt.

James Hewitt was Diana’s horse-riding instructor. He spoke to newspapers in the early 90s and later wrote a 1999 book called “Love and War” about his affair with Diana; she confirmed their relationship in interviews. The affair started in 1986 and ended in 1989 when he was posted to Germany.
Because Hewitt has red hair, there have been rumors for years that he’s actually Prince Harry’s dad. However, Harry was born a full two years before the affair began, so there’s really no actual grounds to believe this story. Diana always attributed Harry’s red hair to her side of the family, the Spencers. (Source: Harper’s Bazaar). The scenes in this episode about Diana sneaking Hewitt into Kensington Palace into the trunk (boot) of her car apparently are realistic. (Source: Harper’s Bazaar, Anna Pasternak’s Princess in Love)

Diana’s affair with Hewitt was pretty well known among their staff and the people around them, so it seems that Anne really may have known about all of these things. In addition, while they may not have addressed their affairs with their staff quite so openly as depicted in the show, it does appear that Charles’s relationship with Camilla and Diana’s relationships were common knowledge.

As I mentioned earlier, there isn’t any sign that the avalanche actually caused Diana to change anything about her relationships, so the scenes where she kicks Hewitt out and bans him from the Palace are made up. The BBC reported that Diana stopped taking Hewitt’s calls in 1992.\\

Diana with the cast of The Phantom of the Opera in The West End. I /think/ that’s baby Andrew Lloyd Webber there too.

Princess Diana with Andrew Lloyd Webber.

The second Diana performance of the episode, in which Diana gave Charles a video of her performing a song from Phantom of the Opera, may not have happened quite the way it was depicted. The video has never been released and no one has officially ever talked about it, but back in 1988, The Washington Post reported that Diana did record something on the set of Phantom of the Opera and gave the video to Charles as a seven year anniversary gift. Wash Post also reports though that Andrew Lloyd Webber was there at the time, which he denied to The Telegraph. It’s unclear whether she actually sang in the video or not, but she definitely at least danced.

Diana really did love Phantom of the Opera and saw it numerous times. Andrew Lloyd Webber confirmed this via tweet, along with a picture of him with her.

Prince Charles has confirmed previously that his affair with Camilla began in 1986, after, in his view, his marriage had irretrievably broken down. Reports indicate that both Diana and Camilla’s husband Andrew knew about it. (Source: Insider). Of course, Andrew had already been having affairs for years and Diana also had her own relationships outside her marriage.

It’s hard to know how much Diana actually confronted Charles about the affair, but Diana did confront Camilla herself at a party in 1989. According to tapes Diana made for Andrew Morton for his book Diana: Her True Story (which were made years later and are from her own viewpoint, so there’s likely bias in this recollection), the interaction went something like this.
Diana: “I know what's going on between you and Charles and I just want you to know that.”
Camilla: “You've got everything you ever wanted. You've got all the men in the world fall in love with you and you've got two beautiful children, what more do you want?”
Diana: “I want my husband. I'm sorry I'm in the way...and it must be hell for both of you. But I do know what's going on. Don't treat me like an idiot."

Josh O’Connor as Prince Charles and Erin Doherty as Princess Anne in The Crown.

Prince Edward, Prince Charles, and Princess Anne.

When Charles complains to Anne about the situation, she points out to him that Camilla and Andrew’s marriage is actually happy in its own way, stating “You’re not Romeo and Juliet.” It’s a little unclear how true this is, but reports do indicate that Andrew was aware of Camilla’s relationship with Charles, didn’t have any problems with it, and the couple remained friendly after their divorce, so it’s quite possible that this is a correct characterization.

In the show, Diana repeatedly calls Charles, but he repeatedly ignores her. I pointed out in my earlier post that the colors blue and yellow seem pretty important to their relationship. Diana seems to be wearing blue more when she’s in love with Charles and they’re connecting, but seems to wear more yellow when they’re at odds. This isn’t super consistent, but that color juxtaposition shows up a LOT in the montage of Diana calling Charles and him ignoring her; at one point, he’s in blue and completely surrounded by yellow walls, which seems to indicate the huge emotional distance between them.

Left: Emma Corrin as Diana in The Crown. Right: Diana.

Left: Emma Corrin as Diana in The Crown. Right: Diana as a young teenager.

The Crown depicts Charles as having spies that watch Diana, who inform him when her affair with Hewitt resumes. It appears that Charles did have courtiers around Diana who reported back to him, at least. On a very weird note, in 1998, the UNITED STATES National Security Agency admitted that they actually had “1,056 pages of classified information about the late Princess Diana.” (Source: Washington Post, 1998). This is…bizarre to say the least, and the NSA never explained exactly why this happened, but did say that references to Diana in the intercepted conversations were incidental and that she wasn’t a formal target of the NSA eavesdropping infrastructure.

Season 2 Tiaras and Crowns of "The Crown"

All My Posts on The Crown
S3: 1 & 2: “Olding” & “Margaretology” 3: “Aberfan” 4: “Bubbikins, 5: “Coup” 6: “Tywysog Cymru” 7: “Moondust" 8: “Dangling Man” 9: “Imbroglio” 10: “Cri de Coeur”
S4: 1: “Gold Stick” 2: “The Balmoral Test” 3: “Fairytale” 4: “Favourites” 5: “Fagan” 6: “Terra Nullius” 7: ”The Hereditary Principle” 8: “48:1”
Season 1 Tiaras and Crowns of “The Crown”; The Medals, Sashes, and Tiaras of The Crown
Visual Cinderella References in The Crown S4E3 Fairytale

In a previous post that focused mostly on the medals and sashes often worn by royal characters on formal occasions in The Crown, I included a small amount of information on tiaras in the show, but never went into much depth. I’ve been wanting to do an quick overview of every tiara and crown worn by an English royal woman on the show for a while, and am just now getting around to it. My brain needs a break from all the research and just needed a quick look at something pretty so - here you go!

The Court Jeweller’s past in-depth blog posts featuring ALL the jewels in The Crown S1-S3 and overviewing the jewels in S4 were absolutely invaluable in gathering information about each tiara and crown in the show. Ella Kay does a brilliant job over there and has blogged about tiaras and jewels for years and years, so if this quick overview piques your interest, please go read everything on her blog; it’s absolutely fascinating and incredibly in depth on all sorts of royal jewellery from many different countries. The Tiarapedia she’s put together is also an incredibly valuable resource for anyone looking for tiara information.

S2E1 Misadventure: The Queen wears Queen Mary’s Lover’s Knot tiara for a diplomatic reception; Philip adorably flirts with her when he fixes her zipper right before they enter the room.

I’ve been wondering why they’ve used /this/ tiara so much on the show, and I think it might be because it’s such a familiar looking tiara to modern audiences. It was one of Princess Diana’s favorites and Duchess Catherine now wears it a fair amount too. I couldn’t rind any recent photos of the Queen herself wearing the tiara however.

(Information from the Court Jeweller’s blog post on this episode)

L to R: Claire Foy as Queen Elizabeth wearing a replica of Queen Lover’s Knot Tiara for The Crown; Elizabeth II wearing the lover’s knot tiara; Diana, Princess of Wales wearing the Lover’s Knot tiara; Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge wearing the lover’s knot tiara.

Later in the episode, the Queen attends the ballet wearing the Vladimir tiara in its “widowed” style (without pendant drops). I could not find screenshots of this except through the Court Jeweller, but you can go see them over there. This tiara does seem to be one of Elizabeth’s favorite tiaras, as she’s worn it consistently (widowed, with pearl drops, and with emerald drops) throughout her reign.

S2E3 Lisbon: After a contentious talk on the royal yacht, Elizabeth agrees to give Philip the title of “prince,” and a mini coronation is held for him. During the ceremony, Elizabeth wears a replica of Queen Alexandra’s Kokoshnik. The Queen Mother wears the replica Greville tiara and Margaret wears the made-up tiara she wore to the coronation in the first season.

As noted by The Court Jeweller in their blog post on the episode, I’m fairly sure that no such ceremony took place when Philip was made a British prince. After Philip’s return from his trip around the Commonwealth, press reports kept coming out that Elizabeth and Philip were having marriage troubles. This annoyed the Queen so much that she not only issued a denial, but granted Philip the title of Prince in February 1957. This was reported in the newspapers but there’s no sign that there was any sort of official ceremony for it.

Philip was made a British prince in 1957. He actually was born “Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark” but gave up his Greek and Danish titles to become a naturalized British citizen shortly before his engagement to Elizabeth was announced in 1947. He apparently had been offered the title in 1955 and turned it down then, but his uncle Lord Mountbatten and his aunt, Queen Louise of Sweden, sort of insisted that he take it the second time. Philip probably didn’t want any fuss to be made about it.

Philip of course gets his own “Prince” coronet, which should be different from a ducal coronet, although I’ve had trouble actually putting a finger on what a standard prince coronet looks like. From what I’ve read online, a ducal coronet is usually a gold circlet with 8 strawberry leaves, with a crimson silk velvet lining with a gold tassel at its center, trimmed with a base of ermine. However, it looks like real Philip’s coronet at the coronation (when he was a duke, not a prince) actually…did not look like a ducal coronet at all. You can see in the photo that he actually has alternating crosses pattée and fleurs-de-lis, in an echo of the design of St. Edward’s Crown and the Imperial State Crown. Perhaps this was a special consort crown made for him? I’ve had trouble finding information on it anywhere, unfortunately.

Real Philip’s Coronation coronet is what is recreated in the Crown for his fake promotion to Prince ceremony. However, during the actual coronation scene on The Crown, he wore a totally different crown, which DOES appear to be just a regular ducal crown, with strawberry leaves. Weirdly enough though, it’s the exact same crown style that Lord Mountbatten is wearing in the coronation scene, even though he’s an earl, not a duke. Perhaps The Crown thought that the earl coronet was too odd looking for any named character to be seen wearing it? The earl coronet also has strawberry leaves, but features silver balls at the top.

Basically there were just some very strange decisions made around coronets for this show lol.

S2E4 Beryl: Princess Margaret wears the Cartier halo tiara for her birthday portrait by Cecil Beaton (So I guess they finally got the right to recreate it for the Crown!). In real life, she didn’t wear any tiara for this specific portrait. She also later wears the halo tiara at Elizabeth and Philip’s tenth anniversary dinner (and to dump Billy’s ass). At the tenth anniversary dinner, Elizabeth wears a replica kokoshnik (probably Queen Alexandra’s kokoshnik again, although it looks a little taller. Maybe it’s the angle). I don’t think we have any photos of the actual anniversary dinner so sadly, I can’t confirm, but there are photos of them dancing and Elizabeth wearing a kokoshnik. The queen mother wears the Greville tiara, but couldn’t find a photo of her in this scene; you can check it out on Court Jeweller.

Toward the end of the episode, Elizabeth and Philip miserably get undressed and go to bed after a diplomatic function of some sort; Elizabeth wears the lover’s knot tiara for this. Couldn’t find a photo of this moment, but it is on Court Jeweller.

S2E6 Vergangenheit: David and Wallis wear paper/plastic crowns to a costume party. I couldn’t find a screenshot of Wallis’s crown, but I found a view of David’s (also, how wonderful is that octopus hat?). They really did wear paper crowns to a costume party at one point, but the ones in the show looked nothing like that.

S2E7 Matrimonium: For her wedding to Antony Armstrong-Jones, both in The Crown and in real life, Princess Margaret wore the Poltimore Tiara. This tiara was apparently one of Margaret’s favorite pieces, and belonged to her personally.

S2E8 Dear Mrs. Kennedy: The Queen wears the Vladimir Tiara with the emerald drops for her dinner and dance with Nkrumah.

And that’s it for Season 2! There weren’t any tiaras or crowns in the last two episodes of the season, alas, as those were focused more on Charles angst and Philip ‘n’ Elizabeth angst rather than on any cool ceremonial occasions.

Funko Pop! Figurines of the Royals and the Photos that Inspired them

Funko Pop! releases the most amazingly specific and niche figurines of various fictional characters from basically every franchise and popular commercial you can even comprehend, historical figures, and select modern celebrities. They’ve produced a few figurines of the English royal family over the years, although it looks like only the pink Queen Elizabeth figurine is currently available on their website. Most of these came out in December 2017, while the wedding Harry and Meghan and green/purple Queen figurines came out in December 2018.

As Funko Pop! noted in their December 2017 press release announcing the collection, “These products are our fun characterisation of the icons they represent, but they have not been endorsed or approved by any member of the Royal Family. They do not have any connection with and are not of a type supplied to any member of the Royal Family.”

I own most of these figurines and took detailed pictures of all the ones I had access to. I don’t have Prince Harry’s bachelor figurine, the red dress version of Princess Diana’s figurine, or the green and purple figurine of Queen Elizabeth.

Elizabeth II, Queen of the United Kingdom

The pink Funko Pop! figure of Queen Elizabeth II shows her in a pink coat, dress, and hat with red feather ensemble that she’s worn on numerous occasions.

The Queen’s coats are commonly designed by her dresser Angela Kelly at this point, and I would guess this one is as well (I haven't been able to find the designer/maker's name anywhere). Her pink hat with red feather trim is by milliner Rachel Trevor Morgan. The dress peeking out from under the coat actually has red and pink color blocking, which you only really notice if you’re looking at it really carefully. I was delighted to see that the Funko Pop! figurine does actually include this element, as the little sliver of dress on the figurine is clearly red, not pink.

I tried to get close up photos of the brooch on the figurine, as the Queen really loves brooches and was hoping it would clearly match one of hers, but even with my macro lens, only managed to grasp a vague oval shape with some slight detailing, but not enough to really get a clear idea of the shape. After looking through every photo I could find of the Queen wearing this outfit (thanks to Royal Hats for keeping such brilliant track of her hats and outfits), my guess is that it’s likely meant to evoke the Tudor Rose Brooch that she wore for Christmas at Sandringham in 2014. From her Majesty’s Jewel Vault discusses this brooch more over here.

The figurine also sports a tiny white line around the neck which is barely visible under the head. This is likely meant to evoke the Queen’s string of pearls.

The Queen’s ever present Launer handbag is lovingly recreated in the figurine. She’s carried similar black bags from Launer throughout her entire reign. I’m not a handbag aficionado or expert, but by my untrained eye, it resembles the Launer Traviata. The Queen’s most commonly used Launer bags are discussed in depth in this article from Town & Country.

The figurine also sports the Queen’s ever-present Cornelia James gloves, which she wears at most public appearances (she shakes so many hands that it’s just a sensible precaution, even pre-COVID).

The matching brightly colored coat and hat look has basically served as a uniform for the Queen for the past few decades at royal events, and there are many memes dedicated to how consistent her look is. she said before that she specifically wears bright colors so that everyone can see her.

The pink edition also came with a corgi figurine, which appears to most closely match the lower left corgi in this 2016 Vanity Fair cover photo and farthest to the left in the Queen’s portrait with her corgis on the steps (both by Annie Leibovitz). This corgi is referred to as Willow in the Vanity Fair article. If so, this is a very poignant tribute, as Willow was the very last of the Queen’s corgis. She died in 2018.

The green and purple Funko Pop! figurine of the Queen, which released December 3, 2018, is the same shape and set up of her pink one, but matches the color scheme of the light green and purple ensemble she wore to her grandchild Prince Harry’s wedding to Meghan Markle in May 2018. This is a little odd as that outfit had numerous different details, including a different hat shape and trimming, a different fastening on the coat, a different brooch, and a multicolored dress underneath. The color scheme is quite distinctive though, and I don’t think she’s been seen wearing those colors on any other occasion. I’m guessing that while they were putting out a Duke and Duchess of Sussex set, they decided they might as well crank out a “royal wedding themed” version of the Queen using the same mold they already had used for the pink outfit. It’s a little sad actually; I would have love to see the actual trimming of that hat in plastic miniature form.

As for the Queen’s actual outfit at Prince Harry’s wedding: The hat was designed by the Queen’s dresser Angela Kelly and made by Stella McLaren. The Queen’s pale green dress and coat were made by Stewart Parvin. She carried another Launer handbag, although I haven’t been able to pin down the exact style.

Charles, Prince of Wales

Charles’s Funko Pop! figurine features him in an style he’s favored for decades - a double breasted suit with a floral buttonhole and a pocket square. This exact color combination seems to combine a few photos though, as I couldn’t find any that showed Charles in this exact outfit. This is a bit odd, as every other royal Funko Pop! figurine appears to be based on an exact outfit and often even an exact photograph, as the poses are usually emulated as well. (If anyone does manage to find a picture of Prince Charles that matches this figurine, please let me know!)

Charles is really consistent in his clothing brands, so if this is based off one or more photos of Charles, the figurine clothes likely are based off of a suit made by either Gieves & Hawkes or Anderson & Sheppard, shoes from Crockett & Jones, and a shirt from Turnbull & Asser.

The flower, interestingly enough, seems to resemble a remembrance day poppy.

Diana, Princess of Wales

Diana’s Funko Pop! sports a black off-the-shoulder gown by Victor Edelston that she wore on several occasions, including when she famously danced with John Travolta at the White House in 1985. The ensemble recreated in this figurine, however, echoes the specific outfit she wore on November 2, 1987 at a banquet in Bonn, Germany. She accessorized with the Spencer tiara, a sapphire and diamond jewelry suite which featured a necklace, bracelet, and earrings, and a black clutch.

The Spencer Tiara, as its name suggests, is owned by Diana’s family and parts of it date back to 1919. Diana and both her sisters wore the Spencer Tiara at their respective weddings. The Court Jeweller has more details and pictures of the tiara over here.

This dress is actually so famous that it has its own Wikipedia entry! Wikipedia says that the dress is actually midnight blue, not black, but it reads as black in all the pictures and is commonly described as black. When Diana sold her collection of gowns at Christie’s in New York in 1997 after her divorce from Prince Charles, the “Travolta dress” went for £100,000. All proceeds of the auction went to the Royal Marsden Hospital Cancer Fund and AIDS Crisis Trust.

The suite of jewelry was given to Diana by the Sultan of Oman in 1986.

There is also an alternate version of this figurine which appears to be identical in the black dress one except that the dress and clutch are both red. I could not find any photos of Diana having this exact same dress in red, but she did have some vaguely similar dresses. Apparently her midnight blue gown was specially made for her after she saw the dress in burgundy in Edelstein’s studio, so this figurine may be a tribute to that story.

Prince William, Duke of Cambridge

William’s Funko Pop! Figurine looks to match an outfit he wore on a three-weak tour of New Zealand and Australia in April 2014. His figurine sports a single-breasted navy suit, blue and maroon tie, white shirt, and medals, although he isn’t wearing a red flower like he did in real life.

He’s worn this outfit again since, in November 2018 at a remembrance festival. Apparently he’s worn that tie on and off since 2006; it’s actually in the colors of his old regiment, the Blues And Royals.

William’s watch is also quite visible in his figurine - this may be his Omega Seamaster Professional. It’s rumored that it was a gift from his mother, but I haven’t seen this confirmed anywhere.

William’s medals commemorate his military service (in addition to the Blues and Royals, he also served in the RAF Search and Rescue). These medals specifically are the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal and the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal.

Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge
Kate Middleton’s Funko Pop! recreates a Roland Mouret gown in royal blue that she wore on June 9, 2016 at a SportsAid event. She wore it with gold hoops and a clutch, which she carried in front of her much like is shown in the figurine. Her sapphire and diamond engagement ring, originally Princess Diana’s, is also visible on the figurine.

Kate often wears Roland Mouret dresses and has gravitated to sapphire blue outfits on multiple occasions. Kate is known for driving major sales to brands she wears in a phenomenon often called “The Kate Middleton Effect.” This effect has been seen in outfits worn by her sister-in-law Meghan Markle as well.

Her trademark voluminous brown waves are on display here as well, and are somewhat emulated in her Funko Pop! figurine.

Prince Harry (He was not given the title Duke of Sussex until he got married)

Prince Harry has the distinction of being the only royal with two entirely different Funko Pop! figurine looks. His December 2017 Funko Pop! figurine wore an outfit almost exactly similar to Prince William’s, except that he sports one more medal. This matches the outfit that he wore at the Dunkirk world premiere on July 13, 2017. In it, he’s wearing a blue and maroon striped Blues and Royals tie just like his brother’s. It appears that he’s worn it on many other occasions as well.

His medals specifically are: the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal, the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal, and the Afghanistan Operational Service Medal.

Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex

A double portrait of Prince Harry and Prince William, 2009, Nikki Philipps

For his wedding on May 19, 2018, Prince Harry wore a frockcoat uniform of the Blues and Royals, which notably feature fabric braids down the front and red stripes on the side of the legs. Here, he’s wearing four medal ribbons: the K.C.V.O. (Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order), The Queen’s Golden Jubilee, the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, and Afghanistan with Rosette. He’s also wearing his Pilots’ Wing badge (above the ribbons) and the Star of the Grand Cross Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (below the ribbons). (Source: Royal Central)

Dege & Skinner made Harry’s frockcoat for the wedding, and also made the uniforms that both Harry and William wore for their official double portrait in 2009 (painted by Nikki Philipps). Dege & Skinner actually was originally only asked to make miniature frockcoat uniforms for the four pageboys at the wedding, but they offered to make Harry a new coat as well, so he accepted.

Harry’s choice to keep his beard even while wearing a military uniform was a little surprising, as military rules tend to ban facial hair while in uniform. However, since he’s not in active service, it was allowed, and really seems to indicate his desire to do things his own way.

Meghan, Duchess of Sussex

Meghan’s Funko Pop! figurine, of course, features her in her famous wedding day look.

Meghan’s dress, made from silk cady and featuring a bateau neckline and three quarter sleeves, was designed by Claire Waight Keller at Givenchy.

While the dress was relatively simple, Meghan’s wedding veil featured embroidery of distinctive flowers from all 53 countries in the Commonwealth of Nations, as well as flowers from her native state, California, and from the garden of Kensington Palace. At full length, it was five meters, almost 16.5 feet long! There’s a full list of all the flowers featured over at Royal.uk which is super fun to read through! Funko did a decent job trying to emulate the veil, considering their size and production restrictions, and you can kind of see that the different patterns are supposed to represent various flowers.

The Queen lent Meghan Queen Mary’s diamond bandeau to wear for the wedding. This tiara dates back to 1932 and features a centre detachable brooch from 1893. A lot of detail was lost in the figurine’s rendition of the tiara, of course, but there’s definitely enough there that you can easily tell what tiara it’s supposed to be.

Meghan also wore Cartier earrings and a bracelet. Her engagement ring is vaguely represented in the figurine, but not in any sort of detail.

The wedding bouquet included a variety of flowers, including a few that Prince Harry actually went out and picked from Kensington Palace’s garden. Forget-Me-Nots, his mother Diana’s favorite flower, were particularly featured. As is traditional for royal brides, the bouquet also included a few sprigs of myrtle picked from a plant originally grown on the Isle of Wight by Queen Victoria. The figurine includes a few of these details, but it doesn’t have as much detail or texture as the actual bouquet, of course.

Season 1 Tiaras and Crowns of "The Crown"

All My Posts on The Crown
S3: 1 & 2: “Olding” & “Margaretology” 3: “Aberfan” 4: “Bubbikins, 5: “Coup” 6: “Tywysog Cymru” 7: “Moondust" 8: “Dangling Man” 9: “Imbroglio” 10: “Cri de Coeur”
S4: 1: “Gold Stick” 2: “The Balmoral Test” 3: “Fairytale” 4: “Favourites” 5: “Fagan” 6: “Terra Nullius” 7: The Hereditary Principle
The Medals, Sashes, and Tiaras of The Crown

In a previous post that focused mostly on the medals and sashes often worn by royal characters on formal occasions in The Crown, I included a small amount of information on tiaras in the show, but never went into much depth. I’ve been wanting to do an quick overview of every tiara and crown worn by an English royal woman on the show for a while, and am just now getting around to it. My brain needs a break from all the research and just needed a quick look at something pretty so - here you go!

The Court Jeweller’s past in-depth blog posts featuring ALL the jewels in The Crown S1-S3 and overviewing the jewels in S4 were absolutely invaluable in gathering information about each tiara and crown in the show. Ella Kay does a brilliant job over there and has blogged about tiaras and jewels for years and years, so if this quick overview piques your interest, please go read everything on her blog; it’s absolutely fascinating and incredibly in depth on all sorts of royal jewellery from many different countries. The Tiarapedia she’s put together is also an incredibly valuable resource for anyone looking for tiara information.

S1E1 Wolferton Splash: Princess Elizabeth wears Queen Mary’s Fringe Tiara for her wedding. (Information from the Court Jeweller’s blog post on this episode)

L to R: Claire Foy as Princess Elizabeth wearing a replica of Queen Mary’s Fringe Tiara for The Crown. Princess Elizabeth wears the real Queen Mary’s Fringe Tiara on her wedding day in November 20, 1947. Famously, the fringe broke and had to be hurriedly repaired before the ceremony (you can see that it looks slightly uneven around the middle).

S1E3 Windsor: The new Queen Elizabeth wears the Queen Mary’s Lover’s Knot Tiara while out at a formal occasion. I could not find any photos of Elizabeth wearing this tiara in this episode except on The Court Jeweller blog, but you can go see it over there on her blog post about this episode.

S1E5 Smoke and Mirrors: In a flashback, Elizabeth’s father Bertie (whose regnal name was George VI) tries on the St. Edward’s Crown. Elizabeth also tries on this crown in the present. Note: she’s wearing almost exactly the same colors and outfit she wore in S1E1 when she gazed on the crown toward the end of the episode, possibly indicating how she’s inherited the throne so much sooner than planned.

L to R: Claire Foy as Elizabeth II in The Crown, trying on a replica of St. Edward’s Crown; Elizabeth II posing with St. Edward’s Crown in real life.

Next, Elizabeth tries on the imperial crown. I couldn’t find photos of this moment except at The Court Jeweller, but you can go look at the screenshots over there.

Queen Elizabeth goes out on the town in her furs and tiara: The Vladimir Tiara, worn with pearl pendants

L to R: Claire Foy as Elizabeth II wearing a replica of the Vladimir Tiara in The Crown; Elizabeth II wearing the Vladimir Tiara.

The Queen Mother and Princess Margaret are both shown wearing tiaras at the coronation . The Queen Mother did in fact wear the circlet from her crown, although the replica of it is a bit awkward. In real life, Princess Margaret wore the Cartier Halo Tiara at the coronation, but The Court Jeweller reports that there were copyright issues preventing it from being used, so they replaced it with another. I’m not quite the tiara expert that others are, but the tiara in the show seems to slightly resemble Queen Mary’s Diamond Bandeau, which Meghan Markle wore on her wedding day to Prince Harry. (Information from The Court Jeweller’s blog on this episode)

Margaret also wore some sort of coronet for part of the coronation ceremony. In the United Kingdom, peers (what we would think of as nobles, with a specific title such as Duke, Marquess, Earl, Viscount, or Baron) wear specific coronets for their rank to the coronation of a new monarch along with their coronation robes. Coronets do not have any stones. Princess Margaret and Princess Elizabeth also both wore simple coronets at their father’s coronation.

L to R: Victoria Hamilton as the Queen Mother and Vanessa Kirby as Princess Margaret in The Crown. Hamilton wears a replica of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother’s crown, without its arches . Margaret’s tiara in this scene does not appear to be a replica of any one tiara but somewhat resembles the Queen Mary’s Diamond Bandeau.; the real life Queen Mother (wearing her crown) and Princess Margaret (wearing a coronet) at the coronation (and a very bored Prince Charles); Princess Margaret wearing the Halo Scroll Tiara.

In The Crown, the Queen is shown wearing the George IV State Diadem, which is traditionally worn by queens and queens consort in procession to coronations and state openings of Parliament. Elizabeth wore the diadem on her way to the coronation and on her procession down the aisle, was then crowned with St. Edward’s crown, and then wore the Imperial State Crown as she left Westminster Abbey.

L to R: Claire Foy as Elizabeth II wearing a replica of the George IV State Diadem on The Crown; Elizabeth II wearing the real George IV State Diadem as she arrives at Westminster Abbey for her coronation on June 2, 1953.

L to R: Promo photo of Claire Foy from The Crown wearing the replica St. Edward’s Crown; Elizabeth II wearing St. Edward’s Crown after her coronation on June 2, 1953; Promo photo of Claire Foy from The Crown wearing the replica Imperial State Crown; Elizabeth II wearing the Imperial State Crown at the end of her coronation in Westminster Abbey.

S1E6 Gelignite: Elizabeth wears the Lover’s Knot Tiara again for a formal event. Again, I couldn’t find generally available screenshots for this, so you’ll have to check it out over on The Court Jeweller’s post on the episode.

S1E8 Pride and Joy: Princess Margaret, representing the Queen while Elizabeth and Philip are touring the commonwealth, is originally given the weird tiara she wore at the coronation to wear, but asks to change it instead. At the actual event, she wears the replica version of the Queen Mary’s Lover’s Knot Tiara. I couldn’t find any photos of the real Princess Margaret wearing the lover’s knot (because it wasn’t hers, which is made clear within the episode’s dialogue), but here’s the real Queen Elizabeth wearing it. (Information from The Court Jeweller’s post on this episode)

A portrait of the Queen Mother wearing the Greville Tiara.

L to R: Vanessa Kirby as Princess Margaret on The Crown wearing a replica of Queen’s Mary’s Lover’s Knot Tiara; Elizabeth II wearing the real Lover’s Knot tiara.

S1E9 Assassins: Elizabeth wears the Lover’s Knot tiara for dinner at Downing Street (in honor of Winston Churchill’s stepping down from office). You can see The Court Jeweller’s screenshots in her blog post on the episode over here. A few other tiaras appear at Churchill’s formal dinner, but as I’m only covering royal tiaras, you’ll have to go check those out over there.

Do you think they just hadn’t had time to make more tiaras for her to wear in this first season? It’s rather odd that they repeated the lover’s knot so many times in one season.

S1E10 Gloriana: The Queen Mother wears the Greville Tiara during a ball at Balmoral. I couldn’t find any other screenshots of her wearing this, but you can see it over on the Crown Jeweller’s blog post on the topic. Here’s a portrait of the real Queen Mother wearing the Greville Tiara though.

Elizabeth wears the Lover’s Knot tiara (again). Margaret wears the weird coronation tiara again. Seriously, I really think they just hadn’t had time to make many tiara replicas at this point.

In the very final shot of Season 1, Elizabeth II is shown wearing the George IV State Diadem again for her rmal portrait as queen.

L to R: Claire Foy as Elizabeth II wearing a replica of the George IV State Diadem on The Crown; Elizabeth II wearing the George IV State Diadem.

It was great fun putting this together and actually rather quick for me, so I’ll be putting together an overview for each season here soon. Stay tuned. :)

Visual Cinderella References in The Crown S4E3 Fairytale

All My Posts on The Crown
S3: 1 & 2: “Olding” & “Margaretology” 3: “Aberfan” 4: “Bubbikins, 5: “Coup” 6: “Tywysog Cymru” 7: “Moondust" 8: “Dangling Man” 9: “Imbroglio” 10: “Cri de Coeur”
S4: 1: “Gold Stick” 2: “The Balmoral Test” 3: “Fairytale” 4: “Favourites” 5: “Fagan” 6: “Terra Nullius”
The Medals, Sashes, and Tiaras of The Crown
Want to see who won The Crown Fan Favorite Contest? It’s happened over on my Facebook page!

Benjamin Caron, who’s directed at least two episodes in every season of The Crown so far, posted a number of interesting photo comparisons on his Instagram a while back of scenes from S4E3 “Fairytale” and scenes from Disney’s 1950 animated Cinderella. He generally only posted these with something along the lines of “Fairytale,” so he has not actually specified whether these were deliberate shot recreations or not, but I’m guessing that they were. He DID specify in the comments that the famous mouse running across one scene was intentionally put in there as an homage to the mice in Cinderella.

Diana in her Cinderella blue in her kindergarten classroom, positioned in front of a children’s display of Cinderella’s carriage and horses.

I’ve taken all these scenes, put them side by side (on Instagram, you have to flip back and forth), and placed them in roughly chronological order within the episode, for your perusal and enjoyment. All credit goes to The Crown, Disney’ s Cinderella, and of course, director Benjamin Caron.

You may see a few stray instagram buttons and dots, as I took these screenshots directly from there.

This all seems to be inspired by the words of the actual archbishop on Charles and Diana’s wedding day, which were played over the end of the episode: “Here is the stuff of which fairy tales are made. A prince and princess on their wedding day. But fairytales usually end at this point with the simple phrase, ‘They lived happily ever after.' As husband and wife live out their vows, loving and cherishing one another, sharing life’s splendors and miseries, achievements and setbacks, they will be transformed in the process. Our faith sees the wedding day not as the place of arrival, but the place where the adventure really begins.”

And that’s why you shouldn’t label a couple’s story, because you have no idea what’s going on in it. But that’s just my two cents, lol.

The outstretched hand of the stepsister is reflected in Princess Margaret’s outstretched hand for a manicure, as she (along with all the other royal women) wait to hear whether Charles proposed or not.
Although Margaret isn’t as unpleasant as the stepsisters, she ultimately loses the spotlight to the pretty and popular Cinderella/Diana, as is noted later in the season.

The mouse that launched a thousand tweets runs across the foreground as the Queen Mother waits for word on Charles’s proposal.

Benjamin Caron really did confirm in the comments of this post that the placement was intentional.

Then you have Jaq and Gus Gus from Cinderella.

The clock ticking as everyone waits on Charles’s news vs. the famous clock striking midnight in Cinderella.

“Balmoral Castle” in The Crown, which was actually portrayed by Ardverikie House vs. the King’s Castle in Cinderella.

Diana staring up at Prince Charles in the same way that Cinderella staring up at her prince. I previously noted in my post on Fairytale that Diana wears a ton of blue and yellow. Is that…a Cinderella reference? Although Cinderella’s dress is actually a light silver (yes, this is a hill I will die on), it’s always portrayed as blue in promotional material. And the Prince in Cinderella wears white and yellow.

The gates opening at Buckingham Palace vs. The gates at the King’s castle in Cinderella.

Diana goes up the staircase at Buckingham Palace to meet Prince Charles’s family for a formal dinner (notably wearing a dress that’s blue, white, and yellow plaid) vs. Cinderella begins her walk up the staircase to the ball at the castle.

The announcer in The Crown vs. The announcer in Cinderella.

A third party lens view of Charles and Diana vs. a third party lens view of the Prince and Cinderella.

The mail arriving in The Crown vs. The mail arriving in Cinderella.

Diana’s grandmother giving her princess lessons (which, as i mentioned in my previous blog on this episode, did NOT happen in real life) vs. the stepmother Lady Tremaine in Cinderella. It seems that Diana didn’t get along with this grandmother for quite some time (she testified against Diana’s mother getting custody in her parents’ divorce), so this reference seems pretty apt actually.

Also why does Lady Tremaine’s dress kind of resemble the pie crust collars Diana wears several times in this episode?

Diana looking out the window for her prince vs. Cinderella looking out the window for her prince.

Diana running down the spiral stairs in the palace vs. Cinderella going down the spiral-ish stairs from her bedroom to the main house.

The pumpkin carriage in Cinderella vs. the pumpkin (far right, sort of buried under the instagram button) in the kitchen scene in The Crown.

Since the pumpkin came from the household’s garden for its own use, it actually kind of works to have the pumpkin in the palace kitchen!

Diana staring in her mirror in despair vs. Cinderella looking in her mirror.

The fireworks around the palace in The Crown vs. the fireworks outside a digital recreation of Cinderella’s castle at Walt Disney World, as seen in the logo before each Disney film.

The Historical and Shakespearean References in King Charles III

Some of the cast of the 2017 Charles III production from BBC Two and Masterpiece.

I’m appearing in a virtual production of King Charles III this weekend! I’ve loved this play since I first watched it back in 2017 at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater, and I am so excited to be a part of it.

King Charles III is a 2014 play in blank verse by Mike Bartlett that imagines the accession and reign of the current Prince of Wales to the throne of the United Kingdom. It is highly inspired by Shakespeare and references several modern day events in the UK. The play has appeared on the West End and Broadway and also had a UK tour. It was filmed and broadcasted by BBC Two and Masterpiece in 2017.

Globe Online’s production will take place at 8 PM EST on Friday and Saturday (Jan. 15 and 16, 2021) and at 4 PM EST on Sunday (Jan. 17). Tickets are free and are available at https://globe-online.ticketleap.com/king-charles-iii.

There will be some spoilers for the play throughout this blog post, so if you’d like to avoid those, go get a ticket and come back and read this after you see it!

Historical Characters:

Most of the main characters are real people or are heavily inspired by real people.

I’m not going to list out all the charitable work of every royal on this list, but suffice it to say that they all are very active in a number of different charities and causes.

Charles III at Clarence Brown Theater in 2019 - Charles and Camilla. I love this Camilla costume so much - outfit is clearly inspired by her real life wedding outfit and the tiara clearly echoes the high tiaras Camilla favors.

The real life Camilla and Charles

Charles III -Charles, Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwall and Rothesay, Queen Elizabeth II’s eldest son. He is currently 72, was created Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester in July 1958, and had his formal investiture as Prince of Wales in July 1969 at Carenarfon Castle in Wales. He is the oldest and longest-serving heir apparent and Prince of Wales in British history. Charles has also taken an increasingly active role in the royal family as his mother has gotten older and often acts for her in various ceremonial roles. He also has been very interested in gardening for decades, which comes up toward the end of the play.

The play shows Charles as having a keen interest in politics and a desire to make his opinions known. This is quite accurate to real life. Charles has been in the habit of writing letters to ministers and politicians on various issues since at least 2004; he states that these are written in his private capacity and do not represent the views of the monarchy. These are sometimes known as the “black spider” memos due to Charles’s handwriting. These have been controversial at times, as the modern British monarch traditionally remains politically neutral. He apparently sticks to party-neutral topics and issues such as the environment, global warming, and architecture, and letters that have been released to the press under freedom of information laws seem to confirm that. The play shows Charles taking a strong stance on press freedom, but I could not find any references to Prince Charles having any particular stances on this issue. He has had a strained relationship with the press at times, due to plenty of negative publicity of himself and Camilla over the years, which is referenced in the play.

There have been some rumors that Charles may not actually go by Charles III when he ascends to the throne due to the issues with the previous two Charleses. Charles I (1625-1649) was tried and executed for treason. Although his son Charles II (1660-1685) was very popular and beloved at the time, he had NUMEROUS affairs and at least 13 illegitimate children with seven different women. Charles II also was king during the great plague of London and the great fire of London. Charles’s representatives have said that . He may not choose to go by a different name, as only three English monarchs have actually gone by a regnal name that isn’t their birth name before - Queen Victoria (christened Alexandrina Victoria), Edward VII (christened Albert Edward), and George VI (born Albert) - and he is in his 70s now, and may not wish to go by a different name when he’s been known by his own for so long.

Camilla - Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall and Charles’s second wife. Her relationship with Charles has been very much discussed and dissected over the years, but to sum it up very briefly - they dated in the 70s before her first marriage to Andrew Parker Bowles, they remained close friends, and became romantically involved again in 1986, while Charles was married to his first wife, Diana, Princess of Wales. Camilla and Charles have officially been together since at least 1995 or so (she obtained a divorce from Andrew in 1995 and Charles’s divorce from Diana was formalized in 1996). As Diana was very loved around the world before her death in 1997 and near-beatified afterward, the public viewed their relationship very negatively for quite some time. Charles retained publicists to help reform both his own image and Camilla’s public profile and a multi-year rehabilitation campaign was launched. Camilla made her first official appearance with Charles in 1999, and began making appearances with the Queen in 2001 or so. They became officially engaged in 2005 and married in a civil ceremony later that year.

Although Camilla is legally Princess of Wales, she goes by Duchess of Cornwall to avoid offense, as the “Princess of Wales” title is highly associated with Diana. Upon Charles’s ascension to the throne, Camilla would automatically become queen consort under the law. However, when Charles and Camilla married back in 2005, Charles’s spokespeople at Clarence House stated that Camilla would adopt the title “Princess Consort” in the future instead of “Queen Consort.” No one in the UK has ever gone by this title before, but this appears to refer back to Queen Victoria’s husband, Albert, who was known as the Prince Consort. Spokespeople confirmed in 2020 that Camilla still plans to go by this title, despite continuing rumors that Charles definitively wants to see Camilla crowned as queen. This fact is mentioned in the play actually, toward the end; the script never actually refers to Camilla as queen at all, but instead lists her as Duchess of Cornwall in the character list and stage directions.

Within the play, Camilla basically serves as the protective, supportive wife to Charles, which seems to comport with her actual character quite well.

A 2016 production of Charles III at the Roslyn Packer Theatre in Sydney.

The real life Duchess Kate and Prince William

William - Prince William, Duke of Cambridge is the eldest son of Charles and his first wife, Diana, Princess of Wales. He is second in the line of succession to the British throne and will presumably be made Prince of Wales after Charles’s ascension to the throne. He served in the military in the Blues and Royals, the Royal Navy, and the Royal Air Force and worked for a few years as an air ambulance pilot before stepping down to dedicate more time to his role as a working royal. Like his father, William has become more active in royal ceremonies as the Queen gets older and sometimes hosts investitures on her behalf.

In the play, William is portrayed as initially being very cautious and careful when it comes to his father’s rule as king, clearly not wanting to speak out against his father’s decisions until things get rather dire. He and his wife Kate are shown to have a loving, supportive relationship, but she pushes him to act when he often wishes not to. In a monologue, he notes that his grandmother the Queen specifically advised him that it is often better to wait and rather than act. This comports very well with previous depictions of the Queen in other media and the role of the modern British monarchy.

Kate - refers to Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge. She was born Catherine Middleton to upper middle class parents who founded a successful party supply company and have long standing ties to the British aristocracy and royalty. Catherine met William when they were both students at the University of St. Andrews and began dating in 2003. They married in 2011.

Kate is known to be a very fashionable woman who has inspired numerous trends. Items she wears often tend to sell out quickly, in a phenomenon known as the “Kate Middleton effect.” Her reputation for beauty and fashion are mentioned several times in the play. Her character in the play actually monologues about her dislike at just being known for her fashion and beauty and desire to be respected for her mind. She is portrayed as having a very strong character and as taking her role as future queen very seriously. Some have criticized the play for its portrayal of Kate as a scheming Lady Macbeth character.

William and Kate have three children - George (third in line to the throne, born 2013), Charlotte (fourth in line to the throne, born 2015), and Louis (fifth in line to the throne, born 2018). Although the play originally premiered in April 2014, Charlotte was added into the play at some point, as the script I have definitely mentions her. Louis is not mentioned.

Jess and Harry in the 2017 BBC production

Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan

Harry - Prince Harry, now Duke of Sussex (although he was not a Duke yet when the play was written). He is the second son of Charles and Diana and is sixth in the line of succession to the throne. He served in the military in the Blues and Royals and in the Army Air Corps, notably deploying to Afghanistan on two occasions. In 2014, the launched the Invictus Games, an international sports event featuring wounded, injured, and sick armed services personnel and veterans.

This play is set before Harry’s relationship with his now wife, so she is not mentioned at all. In real life, Harry began a relationship with American actress Meghan Markle in 2016 and married her in 2018. The relationship elicited significant comment and media attention due to Markle’s mixed race identity and divorcee status. Their son Archie Mountbatten-Windsor (seventh in line to the throne) was born in 2019; although he could have been granted the title “Prince” by his grandmother, his parents specifically decided against that and have said they wish to raise him as a private citizen. After significant negative publicity and racist coverage towards Meghan by the British tabloid press, Harry and Meghan decided to step back as senior members of the royal family and become financially independent. They moved to Southern California in Summer 2020. [NOTE: Some people have very strong opinions about Harry and Meghan and may try to quibble with me about whether coverage of Meghan was racist. If you feel that way, I suggest you look at this Buzzfeed article from last year demonstrating how tabloids criticized Meghan for the same actions that they praised Kate Middleton for on many many occasions.]

In the play, Harry is portrayed as being rather aimless. His storyline focuses on his relationship with an anti-monarchist woman named Jess, and the struggles she endures by dating a royal and having her private photos released to the press.

When he meets Jess, Jess asks him if Charles is really his father or if it was “the other one.” This refers to a long standing rumor that Diana’s horse-riding instructor James Hewitt was actually Harry’s father, due to his red hair; Hewitt spoke extensively about his affair with the Princess of Wales to newspapers in the 90s and Diana later confirmed it. In fact, Harry was born two years before the affair occurred. Diana always attributed Harry’s red hair to her side of the family, the Spencers.

Jess Edwards - Jess is an entirely invented character. Although Harry was a bachelor who dated different women before ultimately meeting Meghan and marrying her, Jess doesn’t seem to be inspired by any particular woman he dated.

Much has also been made of the fact previously that a few events in this play seem to have predicted in real life. In the play, Harry falls for a non-noble woman named Jess with republican, anti-monarchy views, and even threatens to leave his role as prince for her after previous compromising photos of her are made public and the media attacks her. Jess’s appearance is not described in the play, but she has been played by a black actress on multiple occasions. In real life, Harry married an American woman of mixed race, Meghan Markle. Before their marriage, Meghan acted in the long running TV series Suits and played a character who actually had a number of sex scenes. Although she hasn’t been given any flack for that that I’m aware of, the media has actually been so rotten to her at times that she and Harry have left their roles as working royals to live private lives in California.

James Reiss - Press advisor for the palace, who’s worked for Charles for 30 years. This is an invented character who is meant to represent the fact that many of those closest to the royal family really have worked for them for many years (although I don’t think 30 years is terribly usual). Within the play, he’s the very traditional royal family staffer, who repeatedly refuses to help Jess with her issues with the media and encourages her to stop seeing Prince Harry to protect Harry’s reputation. He also plays a key role in helping William ambush his father with his plan to serve as mediator between the king and Parliament (at a press conference with no warning to Charles).

In real life, the person with this job description is now known as “Communications secretary to the prince of wales and duchess of Cornwall.” The current communications secretary for Prince Charles is Julian Payne, who has worked for him since 2016. He previously worked in media relations and communications for Burberry and the BBC.

Prime Minister Tristan Evans and Leader of the Opposition Stevens - These characters appear to be invented for the story. Evans is stated to be from the Labour party and Stevens is from the Conservative (Tory) party. I couldn’t find any records indicating that they were based on any particular elected leaders. I admittedly do not follow UK politics that closely so if anyone knows different, please let me know.

Ghost of Diana - The play features a ghost who is eventually revealed to be Diana, Prince Charles’s first wife, who died tragically in 1997. She had a rather eventful life, but to make things brief, she married Prince Charles in 1981 when she was barely 20 and he was 33, was apparently a fantastic mother to William and Harry even as her marriage to Charles broke down irretrievably, battled a number of medical issues including bulimia and depression, and worked hard for various charitable and humanitarian causes throughout her life. Although divorce hadn’t been previously allowed for royals, Diana and Charles were allowed to separate in 1991 after their marriage troubles and extramarital affairs were made public and eventually were allowed to divorce in 1996. She died in a car crash in August 1997 in Paris, France, along with her partner Dodi Fayed and the driver of the car. Her death caused an international outcry of mourning that took many by surprise.

Historical Events Referenced: [SO MANY SPOILERS HERE. If you don’t want to be spoiled, turn back now.]

News International Phone Hacking Scandal - In the play, parliament has passed a bill restricting the freedom of the press. It is never specified exactly what this bill does, but Charles at one point says “Not since the news was born, has government and state teen there allowed to use the threat of jail to stop the presses, based on what they deem is unacceptable.” This was inspired by the News International Phone Hacking Scandal, which was very complicated and took many years to fully investigate and sort out. In short, from 2005-2007, a newspaper called The News of the World (owned by News International) hacked the phones of numerous celebrities, politicians, royal family members, and even murder victims. Prince William actually played a role in the situation when the newspaper broke a specific story about him; as William knew that only two other people in the world knew about his plans prior to the story breaking, he concluded that his voicemail accounts had been hacked. The entire situation caused a huge outcry and led to numerous investigations by the Press Complaints Commission (more on that in a second), the Metropolitan Police Service, Scotland Yard, and Parliament (the impetus behind a few of these investigations was The Guardian’s excellent reporting on the hacking scandal). Numerous celebrities filed breach of privacy cases against News International. The News of the World ended up folding in 2011 after several of its advertisers pulled out; many executives and senior employees at News International also resigned as more and more information came out. By the end of it all, over 100 people were arrested for illegally acquiring confidential information. 32 were charged with and 14 were convicted of various crimes.
The play also has a line in which the prime minister notes that the press wasn’t capable of regulating itself. This appears to refer to the Press Complaints Commission, a voluntary press organization which was intended to investigate complaints about the press. Although PCC had no legal authority, the newspapers and magazines in the UK contributed to its costs, followed its rules, and agreed to abide by its rulings. The PCC was criticized heavily for its inadequate response to the phone hacking scandal. It disbanded in 2014 and was replaced by the Independent Press Standards Organization, which appears to be set up in a similar manner, although there are several newspapers that have refused to join it.

Princess Diana’s death - Early on in the play, the prime minister tells Charles “What of the pack of wolves that mercilessly did hunt to death your late and much-missed wife?”, referring to Diana’s tragic death in 1997. This refers to the long-standing narrative that Princess Diana’s death was caused by an invasive press pursuing her car. However, this is not the full story. The extensive UK inquest into the car accident found in 2008 that Diana and Dodi’s deaths were due to the gross negligence of the following paparazzi AND the driver. The driver’s blood alcohol content was three times the legal limit, had taken two prescription medicines that caused drowsiness when combined with alcohol, and was driving over twice the speed limit of the tunnel immediately before the accident. Numerous photographers were chasing the vehicle on motorcycles at the time. (Source: National Archives, BBC News) In addition, the occupants of the car were not wearing their seatbelts at the time of the crash.
Nine photographers were charged with manslaughter in France but the charges were dropped in 2002. Three photographers who photographed the aftermath of the crash were tried for invasion of privacy but were acquitted in 2003. The paparazzi photos of the crash were confiscated and not published. (Source: CBS News)

The “assassination attempt” on the queen - At one point in the play, Charles refers to an attack on his mother in 1981, when a teenager fired six blank shots at the queen as she rode down the mall to the trouping the colors ceremony. The shots startled the Queen’s horse, but she brought it under control quickly and proceeded with the ceremony. The teenager spent three years in a psychiatric prison. (Source: Biography)

Refusing Royal Assent to a Bill - Within this play, Charles both refuses to grant royal assent of a bill. There are no rules specifically saying the sovereign cannot do this, but by tradition, the sovereign generally does not. Royal assent is generally considered a formality these days; it’s the last step before a bill becomes a law.
The last time a sovereign refused to grant royal assent to a bill was in 1708, when Queen Anne refused to sign the Scottish Militia Bill; her predecessor King William III had vetoed bills six times.

Dissolving Parliament - Charles III also dissolves parliament without parliament’s consent in the play. These days, after the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011, the UK Parliament is dissolved 25 working days before a polling day (election day). Parliament was first dissolved automatically in 2015; previously, parliament was always dissolved by royal proclamation, and almost always at the explicit request of the government to the monarch. Despite the changes in the law though, it appears that the monarch retains the power to dissolve parliament (Source: Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 6(1)).
In practice, the last time a sovereign dissolved parliament without parliament’s request or consent was when King William IV dissolved it in 1830, and even then, it appears that that was…kind of actually at the request of the prime minister. (If i’m wrong, let me know. Again - I’m American, I don’t know British parliamentary history or practice all that well and am just doing my own research to try to explain things here).

Abdication - At the end of the play, William forces his father to abdicate for the good of the kingdom. The last king to abdicate and only English sovereign to ever abdicate willingly was Edward VIII in 1938, when it became apparent that he could not marry the twice divorced American Wallis Simpson and remain on the throne. Richard II was forced to abdicate in 1399 and James II likely abdicated when he fled to France in 1688 (although that’s a fine point still somewhat debated today).

Historical Setting: The time of the play and ages of the characters are never specified explicitly. However, at one point, Charles states “my mother ruled for seventy years.” Elizabeth has ruled almost 69 years at this point and will reach her 70th year in early February 2022. Although Charles certainly could be talking in approximations and not exact numbers, that sets the time period of the show as around 2022-ish.

Most of the scenes in the play do not actually specify a location setting, but here are the ones that do.

Boujis - Harry and Jess meet at Boujis nightclub in one scene. This nightclub in South Kensington, London, was indeed a favorite of both Prince William and Harry in their bachelor days. Boujis is less than two miles from Kensington Palace. William and Harry grew up in Kensington Palace and have both lived there off and on throughout their adult years.

10 Downing Street - The headquarters of the UK government and the official residence and office of the Prime Minister. People regularly use “Downing Street” to refer to the workings of the prime minister’s office in general (similar to how “the White House” is used in the United States).

Buckingham Palace - The monarch’s London residence and the administrative headquarters of the UK monarchy. It is located in the city of Westminster within London. The monarch has numerous other residences, but this is the principal one. “Buckingham Palace” is often used to refer to the workings of the monarch’s office and staffers.
It was originally known as Buckingham House, as it began as a large townhouse built for the Duke of Buckingham in 1703. King George III acquired it in 1761 for Queen Charlotte. It was enlarged considerably and later became the London residence of Queen Victoria in 1837. All the UK monarchs have lived there at least some of the time ever since.

Kensington Palace - A royal residence in South Kensington, London. William and Harry grew up there in apartments initially shared by Prince Charles and Princess Diana. Diana still had apartments at Kensington even after her divorce from the Prince of Wales. Prince William and Duchess Catherine’s family currently lives in apartments there and Harry has lived there off and on throughout his adult life. Several other royal family members currently live there as well. In addition, historic parts of the palace are open to the public (or at least were before the COVID-19 pandemic).
Kensington Palace was originally just a two story mansion dating back to 1605. King William and Queen Mary bought the house in 1689 and then expanded it significantly. Various royals have lived there ever since.

House of Parliament - This specifically refers to the hall in which the House of Commons meets within the Palace of Westminster. The Elizabeth Tower in the palace of Westminster is one of the most recognized buildings in the UK (and maybe even the world) today, although it is generally referred to as “Big Ben,” which is actually the name of the main bell in the clock tower. “Westminster” also is used to refer to the UK Parliament and government.
The current Palace of Westminster was rebuilt from 1840-1870 after a fire burnt it down. It’s burnt down and been rebuilt a few times, but the first royal palace constructed on the site dates back to the 11th century.

Westminster Abbey - The historic location in which English and British monarchs have been crowned since the coronation of William the Conqueror in 1066. Westminster Abbey is also commonly used for royal weddings and funerals. Many significant people are buried at the abbey, including 16 monarchs, 8 prime ministers, various literary figures, military leaders, and the unknown warrior.
Tradition has it that a church was first founded at the site back in the seventh century. King Henry III ordered construction of the current abbey building in 1245, although some sections have been rebuilt and altered.

Shakespearean References:

As I mentioned in the introduction, the play is written in blank verse (often Iambic Pentameter but not always). Blank verse poetry adhere to a specific rhythmic structure of stressed and unstressed syllables.

Mike Bartlett has been very vocal about the Shakespearean inspiration for his play, and told the New York Times back in 2015 - ““I realized that the best way to tell the story was to make Charles a Shakespearean tragic hero. The idea that he’s waited all his life to do a job that he would have for only a short while felt really Shakespearean.”

Charles in the 2015 production of King Charles III at the Music Box Theatre.

The deposition scene from the Hollow Crown production of Richard II.

Several of the characters’ dialogue and story arcs resemble Shakespearean characters:

Richard II and his wife - Charles and Camilla
In Richard II, Henry Bolingbroke leads a rebellion to over throw Richard II after some…very poor choices by the king. It famously features a scene in which Bolingbroke deposes Richard by forcing him to abdicate the crown to him in full view of the court. Richard monologues quite dramatically about losing his crown, land, kingship, and identity before eventually, reluctantly, giving his crown to Bolingbroke (who becomes Henry IV). This deposition scene was quite controversial at the time, as it could be read to comment on the succession debate around the aging and childless Elizabeth I, and was left out of a few printed editions of the play; this may have been due to censorship from the playhouse or the master of revels, but there’s no actual evidence to back this hypothesis up. Just before Robert Devereaux, Earl of Essex rebelled against Elizabeth, some of his supporters paid for a performance of Richard II at the Globe. There’s a rather famous anecdote (of dubious source) that Elizabeth at one point remarked “I am Richard II, know ye not that?” to her archivist.

Similarly, towards the end of the play, William tells his father that with all the harm he’s caused with his actions as king, he must abdicate. Charles fights this idea ferociously, just like Richard II, but William tells him that if he doesn’t abdicate, his family will refuse to see him. Charles ultimately gives in and agrees to abdicate. In the process, he muses about his own identity as “the greatest king” (as the ghost foretold earlier in the play) and who he will be after he abdicates. In the final coronation scene, he lifts the crown off the cushion without warning and contemplates it. He ultimately crowns his son with it. Several speeches throughout the play echo and almost paraphrase lines from Richard II.
Camilla’s role in the show is restricted to her interactions with and support of the king. This puts her in a very similar position as the unnamed Queen in Richard II, who is limited to the domestic world and her interactions with her husband. Neither characters are shown to be particularly politically savvy either.

King Lear - Charles
In King Lear, the king bequeaths his power and land to the two of his daughters who are willing to flatter him and is later furious when they do not treat him with the respect he feels he deserves. He ends up wandering off alone and mad on the heath. His story does not end happily for him or for the one daughter who was actually honest and good.

In the abdication forcing scene in Charles III, Charles very angrily speaks of William and Kate’s treachery toward him. When Harry shows up, Charles goes to him for support and clearly expects it; Harry tells him that he supports William. William then states that if he does not abdicate, none of his family will see him any more (which truly would leave him relatively alone). After he abdicates, Charles states, “I will retreat to bed, and when I wake To a new dawn, I’ll simply be an old Forgotten gardener, who potters round And talks to plants and chuckles to himself,” reducing himself to an old and eccentric man in his gardens, like Lear on the heath.

Kate in the 2017 BBC production

An 1888 photo of Ellen Terry playing Lady Macbeth

Macbeth and Lady Macbeth from the Victorian Illustrated Shakespeare (1864-1868)

Macbeth and Lady Macbeth - Prince William and Kate Middleton

In Macbeth, Macbeth has the title and power, but Lady Macbeth has the drive, intelligence, and ambition to push him to be greater than he initially aimed for. From the very first appearance of Lady M, she’s plotting and scheming.

Similarly, throughout the play, Prince William, born to be the future monarch, refuses to act against his father until late in the play, espousing his desire to wait and see what happens. Kate urges William numerous times to take action and even invites politicians to their home to discuss the situation with them. In stark contrast to Lady M though, Kate seems to be primarily driven by the good of the country, of which she will someday be queen.

Hamlet and his father’s ghost, “The Works of Shakspere” 1846. John Orrin Smith.

The witches in Macbeth. 1785, John Raphael Smith.

Hamlet Senior’s Ghost/the Witches in Macbeth - Diana’s Ghost
In Hamlet, the plot really gets off to a start when Hamlet’s dead father speaks to him about his foul murder. Before Hamlet speaks to the spirit, it has appeared numerous times to other people.
In Macbeth, the witches prophesy Macbeth’s future as king and various other plot points in the show. It’s very unclear in Macbeth whether the events in the play would have occurred if not for the witches’ intervention; several of their prophecies are true, but phrased in such a way to give Macbeth false hope about his staying on the throne. In his final scenes, he’s still clinging to those prophesies as his world falls apart about him.

The ghost of Diana is a dead family member of the characters she appears to. She appears in passing a few times before she actually speaks to anyone, just as in Hamlet. However, like the witches in Macbeth, her prophesies are true but double-edged. She mysteriously implies that Charles “will be the greatest King we ever had,” but later directly tells William “You’ll be the greatest king we ever had.” Later in the play, Charles defends himself against William by saying, “I know, don’t ask me how, that I will be the greatest king of all.” William turns this rhetoric on him by saying that history books will describe him as the king who selflessly stood down and passed the crown “to younger hands, more popular and with more time to reign” (note: this outcome also refers to the fact that there have been public suggestions that the crown should pass Charles entirely and go to William for years, due not in small part to his own actions while married to Diana).

In addition, the play ends with the crowd saying “God save the king” to the now crowned William. This resembles the closing scene of Macbeth, in which Malcolm is hailed as the new king of Scotland immediately after the defeat of Macbeth in battle.

Charles III and Jess at the 2017 production of King Charles III at Shakespeare Theatre Center (Washington, DC).

Hal (newly Henry V) rejects Falstaff in the Hollow Crown production of Henry IV Part II.

Hal (Henry IV Part 1 and 2) - Prince Harry
In Henry IV Part 1, young prince Hal (a nickname for his actual name, Henry) spends time in taverns and hanging out with his friends, most notably, the drunken and corrupt Sir John Falstaff (who despite everything is very fun to hang out with). Hal’s father the king despairs of his son ever being ready for the throne, but Hal reveals to the audience that he actually plans to quickly show himself worthy to his father and others with some noble exploits; he believes the sudden change of manner from riotous youth to noble prince will earn him more respect. As the play and its sequel Henry IV Part 2 goes on, Hal does indeed take on more and more responsibility and performs worthy deeds. He ultimately is crowned king at the end of Henry IV Part 2. Falstaff tries to get the attention of his old friend, now that he’s king, but Hal pretends not to know who he is and rejects him.
In Charles III, Prince Harry (whose birth name is also Henry) spends time in clubs with his friends and seems initially aimless. His father and stepmother somewhat despair of him. He meets and falls in love with Jess and even considers leaving the royal family for her. However, at the end of the play, right before his brother’s coronation, Harry rejects Jess and says he must give her up in order to support his brother the king. His entire arc is incredibly similar to Hal’s. The only big difference is that Harry won’t be inheriting the throne and doesn’t expect to have to wield the power of kingship at any point.

I hope y’all enjoyed the post! As mentioned at the beginning, Globe Online’s production of King Charles III will take place at 8 PM EST on Friday and Saturday (Jan. 15 and 16, 2021) and at 4 PM EST on Sunday (Jan. 17). Tickets are free and are available at https://globe-online.ticketleap.com/king-charles-iii. If you end up going as a result of this blog post, please let me know! It would delight me to no end.