The year 1471 was a crucial one in Britain's history. It didn't mark the end of the Wars of the Roses but it did mark the beginning of the end. Edward IV's fight against his old friend, Warwick, led to a York strangehold on the English crown that would last for over a decade. The fact that the king of the White Rose probably strangled his Red Rose rival to death made a big difference in the prospects for peace. The battles of that year cost thousands of lives and it's said that not a family in the land remained unaffected by the fight for the crown. In many ways it marked the death throes of the old order and the messy birth of a new way of life for the whole country.
The Earl of Warwick (James Frain) prepares for battle at Barnet - he met a bloody end alongside many of his men
The blood and brutality of that seismic year were the backdrop for last night's edition of The White Queen on BBC One. And the show conveyed the violence and death rate pretty well. The shots of England's fields running with blood gave some indication of the brutality of the battles and the aftermath of the Battle of Barnet, seen through the eyes of would be queen Margaret Beaufort, was pretty shocking. Even hard as nails and bonkers with it Beaufort was horrified to see men being swept up like last night's rubbish as the victors claimed their spoils and tidied up the mess they'd made.
Margaret Beaufort (Amanda Hale) didn't have a great time in this week's The White Queen - Lancaster lost, her husband died and her son went into exile
And Margaret gave another star turn. Swinging violently between calm and calamitous, she clung desperately to every glimmer of hope that Lancaster would triumph. Her snarling quietness when she discovered her husband was to fight for York was magnificent and her decision to rescue Lord Stafford and bring him home to die after Barnet was truly touching. The pairing of Amanda Hale and Michael Maloney as the Staffords has been one of the highlights of the whole show and his death was played as perfectly as their tumultuous marriage.
Henry Stafford (Michael Maloney) took his final bow last night with Margaret Beaufort still asking for the moon as he lay dying
The frightening pace of events of 1471 was also well conveyed - straight from the blood of Barnet to the terrifying torment of Tewkesbury. Strangely, Margaret of Anjou went from being a warrior maiden of epic proportions to mithering mother in law asking Anne Neville for advice on fighting wars. Veerle Baetens snarled and spat her way through her role as The Bad Queen magnificently but the decision to make her great war strategy dependent on the random thoughts of a girl who had already admitted to not thinking a great deal about power was a strange twist. And while we needed to gallop from one battle to the next to convey how rapid the events of that year were, it was unfortunate that the scary tension shown in the fight at Barnet was swapped for more action out of sight at Tewkesbury. We heard a bit of cannon fire and saw a nice young boy shot with an arrow and then the victorious Yorkists came in for the spoils which rather spoiled the tension full stop.
Margaret of Anjou (Veerle Baetens) decided her untested daughter in law, Anne, would be the best battle adviser as she fought for her kingdom and her life
I hope that next week we get the little exchange between the defeated Margaret and the victorious Jacquetta. It was one of the highlights of the books for me and I'd love to see these two actresses bring that little vignette to life. Sadly, Jacquetta was rather incidental this week. She popped in and out of Elizabeth's sanctuary in Westminster Abbey as though she was just out for a loaf of bread and a pint of milk and the two of them whistled up a nice mist to help Edward out at Barnet but other than that Jacquetta was confined to a few words of wisdom at the end when the Yorks returned to court victorious and she put some nice sparkles in her side buns to mark the occasion.
Mother and daughter took a bit of a back seat this week
Much more promising was the development of the relationship between the three York brothers that was so instrumental in shaping England's destiny. George finally spoke more than three words at a time and Richard is turning into a lovely, slippery and impossible to read villain in waiting. The implosion of their relationship and the influence on that battle of queen consort Elizabeth Woodville is one of the great chapters of British history and I hope we get the full works in The White Queen.
Elizabeth lurking in the background of her husband's council - a fair reflection of the fair queen's role in Edward's political life
We got some strong hints of a growing bond between Richard and The Kingmaker's Daughter, Anne, as well as indications that her sister, Isabel, is turning from a weeping mouse into a powerhouse would be Queen of England allowing the Neville girls to take the central role they played in the affairs that followed this most dramatic of years. Lancaster is down but not out in The White Queen - that goodbye at Tenby at the end of the episode could be just the beginning of another mighty battle.
Jasper Tudor prepares to take his nephew, Henry, into exile
The White Queen is on BBC One on Sunday evenings at 9pm. All photos from the BBC.
No comments:
Post a Comment