Dan Snow Rates Portrayals of English Kings and Queens in Movies

[Music] foreign thing you've got to know about the Hanoverian Dynasty is my God they all hate each other whatever the death of King Rich the third looked like folks it didn't look like that now they're having a chat about what else the Affliction of all royal families sibling rivalry I'm Dan snow and I'm here with another movie review I'm looking at cinematic portrayals of the kings and queens of England and Britain The Good The Bad and The Ugly George VI in The King's Speech for the prison so here we can see Sandringham which is where the royal family spend their Christmases they still do and it's a Christmas broadcast by King George V he what he did actually give the first Christmas broadcast in the early 1930s it became annual an annual fixed draft that still goes on to this day now on television last years has disheartened were overborn to all to each I wish a happy Christmas and now you can see Colin Firth playing the uncomfortable awkward younger son of King George V he had a stammer thanks in part perhaps to his father's toughness as he grew up they had very exacting standards just as Albert had been very hard on the future Edward VII George V was very hard on his sons uh and so one of the reasons that we think the Duke of York young Bertie uh had a Stamos perhaps because of psychological bullying both from his dad and his older brother in fact I asked what any decent Englishman chosen command apart I don't think I can read this this devilish device will change everything if you don't in the past all a king had to do was look respectable in uniform and not fall off his horse and they're discussing in the 1920s here interestingly about radio talking about new technology and how the Monarch needed to now use this new technology to project themselves uh right around the world and it is true I like this because it's true that in April 1924 King George V did become the first Monarch to use the radio he delivered a speech on the radio to open the British Empire exhibition family where a firm yet at any moment some of us may be out of work your darling brother and Future King the only wife he appears interested in they talk about older brother Edward the Prince of Wales he'd become Edward VIII very briefly he was charismatic popular with the British public but a very flawed character did not want to be king did not like being a member of the royal family I had a very tumultuous and difficult love life ended up falling in love with Wallace Simpson an American who was divorced which was inconceivable that the king the defender of the faith the head of the Church of England could marry a divorced American woman and in the end Edward gave up the crown for Wallace Simpson the love of his life and that's why Bertie Colin Firth was propelled unexpectedly to become king with Lady fairness taken up with Mrs Simpson a woman with true husbands living I told him straight no divorced person can ever be received at court he said it made him sublimely everyone who knew Edward intimately knew he'd be disaster as king Noel coward the great performer in raconteur said that there ought to be a statue of Wallace Simpson every village in England because she'd saved Britain from a terrible fate the rule of king Edward VII and the other half who will stand between us the Jack Boots and the proletarian Abyss you this portrayal of Bertie Colin Firth who would become Jordan Sixth is I think accurately was a quieter man a family man he didn't he wasn't naturally charismatic showy and he had this stutter he struggled with his speech so while much of the sentiments to express here is true this scene is a figment of the imagination of the writer there's no evidence this actually took place this is a momentous moment it shows the king Emperor George VI giving a speech that no leader wants to make and the first speech of the second World War and and he's very worried he's gonna he's gonna mess it up because of his stammer you've redecorated low I made it cozied fresh air you begin a sense that of the dependence he has on his wife Queen Elizabeth which I think is true and online or load his speech therapist who did help him Lionel Logue wouldn't have actually been there with him at this point but certainly his teaching and his support helped him prepare for moments like this in this grave our [Music] perhaps the most this is still a time when although Britain has ruled effectively by Prime Ministers by Cabinet Government Neville Chamberlain and then Winston Churchill the king is still the head of state the king is still Sovereign and when I talk to Veterans of the second world war they talk as much about King George VI as they do about Churchill so his leadership his words and his speeches they might not have lasted the test if they might survived the test of time like Churchill's have but they meant a huge amount to people at the time and he had to get them right of the differences between ourselves and those you see them successfully deliver speech offer a kind of agonizing moment and it is true that he got through his wartime speeches and his work with Lionel Logue was successful don't get me wrong Jordan 6 was no Henry V his speeches sound pretty pedestrian to us but he got the job done so there may be dark days ahead and War can no longer be confined to the battlefield in this scene you see Winston Churchill Neville Chamberlain behind Queen Elizabeth which is nonsense they were not present for the recording this speech drama I think this film is is sort of sort of Fairly truthful in in the relationship between King George VI and Lionel Logue and George in some ways was quite dependent on him in fact he wrote just after his coronation days after his coronation in May 1937 he wrote to Lionel Logue and said you know you know how anxious I was to get my responses right in the Abbey he was worried about messing up his lines the biggest day of his life but my mind was finally set at ease tonight and thanks to Lionel logs um and help and he said there was not a moment's hesitational mistake and the fact that he wrote that letter I think shows just how grateful he was to Lionel Logue for helping him through this with this what he thought was a terrible Affliction one thing about this film is it reminds us of that perennial problem of royal families simply rivalries Prince is not getting along in this case Edward uh was the prince of Wales was horrible to his younger brother George they're very different characters Edward bullied him and in fact when Edward abdicated George was very keen to get Edward as far away as possible there was a there was a sense that Edward might actually be pro-nazi he might be used by Hitler perhaps installed as a puppet if Hitler had invaded Britain and so Edward was sent over to Bermuda quite quickly get him out the way uh as George VI took over and uh and ruled over Britain during the second World War Queen Anne in the favorite there's a beautiful portrayal of Court life in the late 17th century Queen Anne wouldn't have been a wheelchair at that point your majesty how lovely to see you this is Robert Harley I think rushing up to her he was the chance of exchequer I think in 1711. a vital role in paying for the war one of the biggest Wars that England and Britain have ever been involved into that point the war of Spanish succession and it's a war in which you see Sarah Churchville here you see that she's The Duchess of Marlborough her husband one of the great Geniuses of British history of British military history he won Victory after Victory on the continent so at home Sarah Churchill is the Queen's favorite the Queen's best friend but abroad Sarah's husband is winning great victories for the Queen's forces so it's a the ultimate power couple foreign [Music] dancing scene here now I'm no expert in history dance I don't mind admitting but I think this is totally made up and weird the breakdancing in particular [Music] you get a sense here of the the richness of Court life the jewelry the clothing but you also get a sense and the intimacy of it people have known each other they were Affairs and Scandals it was it was a small Clique ruling the country and I think you get a sensor of the loneliness of Queen Anne as well the Monarch it was a lonely position to be Queen regnant it was unusual to have a queen as ruler and she's an underrated Monarch I think the Queen Anne deserves great credits as a monarch of England and Britain but she's often overlooked lady mobra sent me as I am an excellent wrist player and she has been unavoidably detained with business of state that will be her post haste it's my state I'm the business of state did you actually send me her maid your majesty I wasn't always a maid I'm educated I speak Latin French in this scene you see Abigail mashem who did slowly replace Sarah Churchill as the Queen's favorite now whether there was a sexual relationship we don't know that's all speculation but the queen did rely on favorites you know in an often hostile political bare pets of a court you had to have people you could trust that you knew were on your team that were friendly and emotional support and so both kings and queens would pick out favorites often unsuitable favorites favorites whom the rest of Court didn't like because they weren't Highborn they were foreign they were from the wrong class and Sarah Churchill definitely resented the presence of mashem as the Queen's favorite oh he likes you I lost some 17 children some were born as blood some without breath the rabbits here are symbolic I don't think this episode would have happened they wouldn't you wouldn't have had rabbits lolliping around the Royal Chambers it's a very powerful scene this because the rabbits are symbolically replace Queen Anne's children she had 17 children uh they were either still born or they died in infancy and childhood she buried child after child the trauma that I didn't think we can really imagine today and she had to do that whilst maintaining her royal roles I think she's a much much better Monarch than people at the time and many subsequently have given her credit for she ruled over England and Britain at a very dangerous time her country enjoyed great successes on the battlefield and elsewhere at all that time she was carrying this terrible terrible personal trauma in a way it's very surprising that Queen Anne ever came to the throne she was a younger daughter of James II he'd had a son but he'd been chased out the Glorious Revolution had kicked him out and his son in favor of his oldest daughter who became Queen Mary along with her husband King William but they'd had no children and so it fell to Anne Ann and was an unlikely Queen but she ruled very effectively over England and then Britain because during her Reign England and Scotland fused together to become Great Britain she saw England through a very very difficult War hugely challenging financial and economic situation Britain would emerge Victorious from the war of Spanish succession Britain would emerge as a world power at the end of that war at the Treaty of Utrecht England and Britain's armies were victorious on the continent navies Victorious on the oceans and so really Queen Anne's Reign is a kind of springboard to the greatness that Britain would reach through the rest of the 18th century Edward the first in Braveheart as you'd expect from the most historically inaccurate films ever I think this scene is just weird first of all Royal Chambers would have been Lush they would not have been exposed Cold Stone like that that would have been hangings tapestries whitewashing that would have felt a lot more comfortable news of the North and this is the Fantastic homophobic bit of the film Edward the second is portrayed us of Limp wristed um uh weak effeminate uh gay person there were rumors around homosexuality he was very very close to Piers gabison who's portrayed here as his friend and they may have had a what we now think was a gay relationship but Edward also was married and had children as was pierce Galveston so I think the reality of their relationship is a lot more complex than it's being portrayed here I have ordered conscriptions they're assembled and ready to depart Edward the first known as long Shanks that was a contemporary nickname he was indeed very tall long Shanks long legs that was accurate he was very tall indeed over six foot uh William Wallace actually was very tall as well so two of them hugely tall and here you see that the messenger bring in supposedly the head of the governor of York who was killed by William Wallace he was the king's nephew there is no evidence this took place at all uh York was not attacked and sacked by William Wallace and no member of the plantagenet family was beheaded uh during that imaginary episode it is true that William Wallace raided into Northern England and was a nuisance but he never sacked England's Second City what advice would you offer on the present uh situation it is also untrue that Piers gatherson was thrown out of the window by Ember the first Edward Long shanks so all in all this scene is totally made up the figment of Mel Gibson's homophobic brain because Galveston didn't end up being brutally murdered during the very unhappy reign of Edward II a hugely unsuccessful King Edward II end up being deposed by his wife and her lover and had a very unpleasant death Nobles Nobles are the key to the door of Scotland it's a very chilling scene this one in which the evil Tyrant Edward the first comes up with the idea of allowing Prima nocte which is this sense that if you're a nobleman you're allowed to have sex with any woman on your estate on the night of their marriage there's no evidence that this was a thing there's an evidence that would the first encouraged it allowed it but it's certainly a very chilling moment then we see the princess the Princess of Wales um Edward the first strangely attracted to his pretty French daughter-in-law um it's worth pointing out that this stage she was not in England because she was only a child and she did not come to England and marry Prince Edward until years after Wallace's death trouble with Scotland is that it's full of Scots I love the idea that you have important Royal meetings with people wearing mail what people call chain mail armor including the headgear what are they doing if they expected to come to blows in this in this important Royal meeting no that is so heavy wearing that stuff you're only going to wear it on the battlefield I think Longshanks is portrayed as a sneering villain in this film who sort of found weirdly fancies his daughter-in-law that the truth is a lot more complex he was certainly a a great military leader it's tough no question you had to be to be a successful Monarch in those days he invaded Wales brutally he did end up taking the crown of Scotland but before that he was actually respected in Scotland and there was actually some Harmony he was admired by many of the noble families of Scotland so he's a lot there's a lot more Nuance here than is being portrayed Henry V in Henry V who are the late Commissioners I won my lord your highness made me ask for it today so did you mean I've picked up this thing because I think it does portray a moment that we think happened as The Fleets and the Army was gathering in Southampton to invade France obviously Shakespeare makes up all the details but we know that there was a plot essentially elements within the extended English ruling family never accepted Henry IV and Henry V as legitimate Kings of England they believe they had a better claim for the throne and it seems like these are dissident cousins of Henry's who are going to try and topple him and seize the throne for themselves to your highness Mercy to which we all appeal the mercy that was quick enough of Late by your own council is suppressed and killed you must not dare for shame talk of Mercy for your own reasons this is the precursor really to the wars of the Roses Edward III had many sons and the various descendants of Edward III were quarreling right the way through the 15th century about who was the rightful King of England see you my princess and my Noble peers these English monsters what shall I say to thee Lords group so what you're seeing here is a fight within the extended English ruling family Henry V would see off this challenge the battle of action called the victory Agincourt massively boosted him strengthened him made him the legitimate King of England it's one of the reasons he invaded France was to really try and unite England behind him and establish himself as uncontested king but his son Henry VI would be deposed by his cousins the house of York in a brutal Civil War that would last a generation and really wouldn't be finished until right at the end of the 15th century so constant and unspotted did thou seem that this life all had left a kind of blot to Mark a full fraught man and best so Shakespeare's trying to give Henry a noble reason for invading France but actually Henry was the aggressor he said he was just trying to retake the duchy of Normandy he was trying to reassert his rights to the crown of France he inherited through his ancestor Edward III but in fact this is just a blatant piece of aggression he's invading France because he wants glory he wants Renown he wants wealth but also he wants to unite England he wants to re-establish his claim to the throne of England that his father had seized off his cousin remember and he wants to try and say that his Branch the House of Lancaster are the rightful Kings of England and by winning military-renowned Hill uniting them behind him and solidify his claim to the throne of fighting men they have full three score thousand that's five to one besides they are all fresh well here we go this is it there's some crispin's Day speech by Henry V IA allegedly given before the Battle of agincour in 1415 it's one of the most famous speeches in the English language but it never happened because it was made up by Shakespeare but it's one of his greatest bits of writing you see Kenneth Branagh as the Young Prince Henry he's probably a lot more handsome than Henry would have been Henry was terribly disfigured he'd been shot in the face with an arrow at the Battle of Shrewsbury about 10 years before and was pretty horribly disfigured with Shaw and if to live the fewer men the greater share of Honor God's will I pray they wish not one man more Shakespeare writes an absolute barnstorming he kind of writes the textbook speech that you have to give before a battle you point out that you're outnumbered you're the underdog but you wouldn't have it any other way because even though we're fewer numbers we are braver and we're better and we're going to overcome the proud enemy and it's a speech that is echoed throughout the centuries Churchill use it Martin Luther King's inspired by it you see it recurring again and again in soldiers and politicians and leaders throughout the centuries but it's all made up there's no evidence that Henry V made this speech uh before the Battle of asiancor he probably would have made some kind of speech he was a a charismatic on field commander he fought in the front rank at the Battle of Agincourt he wore a helmet with a crown some it was hacked off by the enemy he was so close to the fighting he was in the front line he stood over the wounded body of his brother and kept the French away long enough for people to drag his brother back to be saved so there's no question Henry put himself in the thick of battle forgot but he'll remember with advantages what Feats he did that day then shall our names familiar in their mouths as household words Harry the king Bedford and Exeter the fact this speech never happened and Shakespeare made most of this up does not detract from it being one of the greatest bits of drama ever penned and I think Kenneth brownell's performance here is is fantastic we're happy if you we Band of Brothers and in this speech Shakespeare gives us phrases like the Band of Brothers this speech has continued for generations to inspire English Patriots nationalists over the generations cry God for Harry England and Saint George the final lines that are so deeply stirring and they were written to do that this is not a modern take Shakespeare also was trying to inculcate the English with a sense of patriotism and the fact that they were divinely favored and this Shakespeare play was actually written as there was another expedition going to Normandy an English army landed in Normandy to try and intervene in in the French Wars so Shakespeare was absolutely saying that England are the English were a chosen people the English when they land in France are doing God's work and it's right and proper that he should be doing so and it's continued to inspire people from the Tudors right the way through to the second world war when another British expeditionary Force landed in Normandy on D-Day and Churchill himself wanted to channel that energy that Shakespearean energy to inspire the troops that landed George III in The Madness of King George so here we see King George III meeting Dr Willis and the suggestion here is that Dr Willis is from a less conventional less Grand background than some of the other courtiers there's some true to that but he you know he was an Oxford fellow he was a a priest he was drawn from the educated Elite of Britain at the time and he developed a reputation as someone who worked with mentally ill patients now I'm saying harvesting I could do it make me a handsome profit into the bargain I said I have a farm your majesty the King was Ill in 1788 to nine they were casting around for doctors anyone that could help and They Came Upon Dr Willis the Mad Doctor is it I'm not mad just nervous the script written here by Annabella is is problematic because it suggests that the king's got porphyria it's a hereditary disease which we now don't think he had we think he was bipolar at sort of manic depression effectively uh and it also but but the script also suggests that the same time as having a hereditary disease somehow it's George III's unresolved trauma over his unhappy marriage or the loss of the American colonies that's also driven him to Madness and so I think that the play tries to have it both ways and can't quite decide whether this is a genetic Affliction or is a product of mental illness produced by George's own trauma felons were induced to talk they were shown first the instruments of their torture as we see in this really powerful and troubling scene he did use restraint as was typical in those days but he also had a reputation for kindness he was moving towards kind of way of doing medicine that treated people holistically in a way that we'd expect today trying to look at different causes for illness physical mental environmental he is something of a pioneer [Music] know about the Hanoverian Dynasty is my God they all hate each other George II hated George the first George II Sons Frederick hated Jordan II you like music learn and now you see the Prince of Wales who become George IV basically stitching up his dad trying to show the world that George III was unable to discharge the duties of Monarch because the idea is that George Prince of Wales wants to humiliate his father to convince people to make him region to put him basically into power and that will allow him to rule over Britain and get rid of pits bring in the wigs have his own way and the I and this scene suggests that the Prince of Wales Prince George who becomes George IV um deliberately manufactures this scene to show the world how crazy his dad is I don't think this is accurate in fact we think that Prince George initially expressed you know lots of concern for his father even though they weren't close in fact they probably hate each other but he did Express concern for his father and was worried about what it all meant where are we [Music] oh this is my favorite come on trumpets give it some heart you're not talking playing not now not now not giving Hood with me here we see a scene that we're not sure took place I don't think there's a record of it so I think it's embellished by the playwright and the filmmakers but the idea is that you get the courts Gathering to listen to music as they would have done and pit other important politicians there and courtiers and you get King George effectively having a breakdown trying to play an instrument um mistreating his wife uh and shocking members of the Court the idea here is this is all a scheme by the evil Prince of Wales to show the court how crazy his dad was so that he could seize power the relationship between Father and Son was pretty much destroyed at this point they did not like each other at all and one of the reasons for that was that earlier in the 1780s Prince George had married someone without his dad's permission which was against the law there was an act of parliament saying the king had to determine whose children members of the royal family married and even worse than that Prince George the Prince of Wales had married a woman who was divorced she was called Mrs fitzherbert it was a love match it was not a dynastic Union so George III was livid about that and that marriage was was later an ALT it was declared invalid so that George the fourth Prince George could marry a proper European princess and try and sire some legitimate children but that plan didn't work sadly George III did suffer from recurring bouts of illness until he finally succumbed permanently to profound mental illness much later in his Reign and Prince Georgia finally got his wish and became Prince Regent Richard III in Richard III Shakespeare's Richard III with Lawrence Olivia the great man himself portraying Richard first things first let's be quite honest this is a grotesque portrayal of Richard both Shakespeare's writing and Lawrence Olivier's acting portrays him as a kind of Twisted devil dressed in black a hunchback um a grotesque figure an evil evil man now let's be honest Shakespeare wanted to portray him like that because Shakespeare was working for the Tudors the Tudors were the family that had got rid of Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Henry VII had beaten him they'd seized the Throne of Richard so they needed Richard to be portrayed as uniquely villainous which then gave the Tudors the excuse to get rid of him and gave them legitimacy as rulers now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer Richard in this famous monologue now is the winter of our discontent made glorious Summer by this son of York is referring to the fact that in the 15th century England had been racked by the wars of the Roses various different parts of the English royal family had fought each other for control of England for the throne mainly because Henry VI was not suited for the throne and one Love's Majesty to strut before a wanton ambling nymph I that I'm curtailed of this Fair proportion look at Lawrence Olivier portraying him as a kind of a crouched back limping monster which particularly when this film was made when we had different views of disability this would have been seen I think almost as sort of God's judgments as punishment on someone for um for their evil nature now it is true we found the skeleton of Rich the third under a car park in Leicester he does have mild scoliosis he would have had a slightly Twisted spine but that wouldn't really have affect his appearance that much we know he was a potent force on the battlefield he was an impressive Commander so the idea that he's I I like disabled in the way that he's traditionally portrayed is is just simply untrue [Music] this is the rich the third death scene it makes no sense at all for first things first it's shot in a bull Farm in Spain you can see like clearly Spanish landscape and and Flora and Fauna it's very weird Shakespeare made up the wonderful line a horse a horse my kingdom for a horse the Battle of Bosworth is an interesting battle any YouTuber lands in Wales he marched Inland and this is battle in the Midlands now Richard joins battle at Bosworth expecting lamb the support of noble families like the stanleys who are there with their forces but what they seem to do is sit on the sidelines and hedge their bets possibly they'd been bought off by Henry Tudor so the battle goes very badly for Richard III he doesn't get the support he's expecting he charges into the middle of the melee leaves a cavalry charge and somewhere in that battle he's hacked to Pieces it almost certainly looked nothing like the final moments of this movie but that Shakespeare for you it's said that Richard's Crown was found in a bush and someone took it and placed it on Henry Tudor's head and that was the beginning of the Tudors the beginning of the Tudor dynasty Henry VII oh and here he is he's shown hack to pieces in the melee by many many different blades it is true when we found his skeleton under that car park in Leicester in the 21st century his skeleton did show um the signs of being having been brutally hacked by several different blades [Music] Lawrence Olivier one of the ultimate overacted over dramatic Death Scenes here well whatever the death of King Rich the third looked like folks it didn't look like that God when you when you watch this film and it's portrayal of Rich III you really understand the power that Shakespeare has had over all of our interpretations of History the stories we tell each other so many people in this country still think Rich III was a uniquely evil appalling terrible King and I think the truth is much more nuanced he was like many of those kings he was brutal he seized power he was a military man but this portrayal of Richard just sets him apart from any other king in our past and I think so many people have gone with that Through the Ages if you ask people out there on the street they would still put Rich of the third at the very very bottom of the royal League table and that is all down to Shakespeare thanks for watching this video on the history Hit YouTube channel you can subscribe right here to make sure you don't miss any of our great films that are coming out or if you are a true history fan check out our special dedicated History Channel History hit dot TV you're gonna love it

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Keywords: history hit, history hit youtube, movie review, historian reacts, expert reviews movie scenes, dan snow history hit, historical movies, expert review, movie reviews, the queen, medieval movies, history hits youtube, how real is it, dan snow reviews, dan snow history, history movies, history hit movie scenes, history hit dan snow, history hit medieval, historian reviews, kings and queens, kings of england, queens of england, dan snow, coronation of king charles iii

Id: i1L2x0JwBVw

Length: 34min 56sec (2096 seconds)

Published: Wed May 03 2023