vikicska-1
(To avoid to be on your Black list, I marked this message, with a warning "Contains spoiler" but please decide yourselves! Thank you very much!) Dear Ladies and Gentlemen, I would like to, kindly, advise you, that my Dear Ancestry Grandmother the German Princess and English Queen Anne of Cleves, with my Ancestry Grandfather the English Monarch King Henry VIII have had together two Royal Children. Their first-born Royal Child was their little Princess, born, in Sept/October 1540, which, then, became, my next Ancestry Grandmother, and their second Royal Child was the "Faire Boye", born, in January 1542, when this Truth, about these their concealed Royal Children, have been exposed, by the servants, which loved their English Queen Anne of Cleves, very much, and wanted her, to live, also, officially, with her Royal Husband, and not just secretly. But however, in this moment, when this have been revealed, our Dear Ancestry Grandmother the English Queen Ann of Cleves, according which, all things and all beings, in this world, which were and which are CLEVER, have been named, have immediately lost both of her Royal Children, at ones, as they had to be, immediately, sent, secretly, to exile, on to the Slovak Territory, of the Holly Roman Empire, where they, then had to live, without Mother and Father, in poverty and need and discriminations, and where all their Royal Descendants lives, this way, even, until today! Dear Friends, I would like to ask you, very much, please, be so kind, and do not talk, anymore, about our Dear Ancestry Grandmother the German Princess and English Queen Anne of Cleves, such disgracing her, and also us, all her English Royal Descendants, totally untrue things. She is my maternal strait line Ancestry Grandmother, through her first-born Royal Daughter, fathered by my Ancestry Grandfather the English Monarch King Henry VIII, and born in Sept/Oct 1542, and she was the most beautiful and the most decent, merciful, kind, and the most humble Queen, this entire World ever had! And this, I know absolutely exactly! Because exactly the same human character and beautiful look, have and had, also, all her Royal Descendants, - also my dear Mom, my dear Grandmother, and all the Ladies and Girls, in our Family, which are the Royal Descendants from this English Royal Family Tudor-Cleves. Please, be so kind, and just, read very carefully, and cautiously, everything about her, and do not believe any illogical statements, about her. Please, just, Open your Eyes and see, that she was a very beautiful Lady. Holbein did not lie, he was a GENUINE ARTIST! And nothing was "flattered", nothing was "old fashion", she just did something, what no one, in this world, ever, did, and this has caused, then, just, quite logically, this "strange/loving" behavior of my Ancestry Grandfather the King Henry VIII, towards her. But all this illogical, disgracing her, slanderous words, against her, dishonoring her and putting her down, were just made up, by her enemies, wanting to get, instead of her, and instead of her Royal Children, fathered by my Ancestry Grandfather the English Monarch King Henry VIII, and instead of their Royal Descendants, on to the English Throne! But our Grandfather the King Henry VIII loved her very, very much!!! Just look, what he gave her, and how he treated her! Always the best, as he could! He made her the most richest Lady, in England! But on the other hand, also, he wanted to protecting, her, and also his Dearest and most Precious Beautiful Royal Children, with her, so he did, what he did, as otherwise, no one from us, would be here, today! His first three Children, living in gold and silver, died, without even, being able, having their own children! Is this not strange, enough? And the Royal Descendants, from his both Royal Children, with his Royal Wife and our Ancestry Grandmother the German Princess and English Queen Anne of Cleves, even, despite of the poverty, need, discriminations and terribly hard life, in Exile, they, still, live in Slovakia, even, until today! And what their enemies did to me, personally, also, and this, absolutely innocently, you can read on: www.ludovitbialon.com". Thank you very much and Best Regards to all! Prince of England and Ireland from Tudor-Cleves Ludovit Bialon.
silverscreen888
This is a fictionalized biography of England's interesting, overrated and matrimonially challenged monarch of the early sixteenth century. The Renaissance--secularism, self-assertion, democratic elections and the relegation of otherworldism--had been introduced as a set of ideas negative to church-worldly theocracy in 1470 by Edward IV. Henry VIII's era's nobles then followed a fashion set by him; female costume was thin, confining, geometric and dull. Henry's male costume was broad, fur-bearing, opulent and increasingly Italianate. His life and times became a struggle between Medieval statism and individualist Renaissance priorities. The series is titled for the "six wives" he married; but an equal amount of time is spent on Henry's stormy reign. The six wives are "Catherine of Aragon" (Annette Crosbie; "Anne Boleyn" (Dorothy Tutin); "Jane Seymour" (Anne Stallybrass); "Anne of Cleves" (Elvi Hale); "Catherine Howard" (Angela Pleasance, aka Angela Scoular); and "Catherine Parr" (Rosalie Crutchley). The assessment of a nine-hour-long series of such complexity as English history, examples of acting, directing, staging, writing, political theory and psychology is a difficult assignment. It is on the grounds of separate evaluations of these aspects that I say one must approach the series. Henry begins as a conformist but Renaissance-loving youth of unusual promise; by the end of the series he has become a bloated and totalitarian monster. He has wasted the kingdom's exchequer in continental wars and on Medieval-style pageants and tournaments; and his neglect of justice and bequeathing of his kingdom to Bloody Mary Tudor, a Catholic, nearly undoes his life's great achievement, the removal of Catholic influence and monastic structures from England, for good or ill. The presentation of events, personalities, ideas and history here I regard as above-average in sum; at times, one feels one is watching realpolitik coming to life before one's eyes. The physical production is above average though seldom either sumptuous or grand; the richest part of the series is its costumes. The directors bring good performances out of many actors; blocking of action, gestures and scenic elements are always quite high-level, I find. Psychologically, the difficulty in such a six-episode coherently-arranged ninety-minute-each mini-series is to try to make the motivations and reactions appeal to late twentieth-century viewers. The writers of the episodes had varying material to work with, and for the most part handled both historicity as well as psychology with requisite skill, I suggest. The dialogue about political as well as personal consequences in most cases remains interesting, and rather well-handled, by my standards. 1. Catherine of Aragon. This is a rather well-written story which telescopes years of time, from the early marriage of Henry, then a prince, to his brother's affianced wife after his death to the ending of their quarrel after early happiness when Henry divorces himself from her and Catholicism. Annette Crosbie is miscast as a Spanish noblewoman but acts rather creditably throughout the episode. 2. Anne Bolyen. Less time is covered in this episode than in the first, and some backtracking is necessary since the same events are covered from Anne Bolyen's point of view the second time. I find the dialogue and story-line and acting to be the best in this Nick McCarty script of all the series' entries. Dorothy Tutin and Wolfe Morris are excellent in this episode even though she is a bit too old for the part. The highlight is the trial scenes that end with Anne's unjust murder. 3. Jane Seymour. I consider this the weakest of the scripts, although Anne Stallybrass is an effectively tragic figure; Bernard Hepton as Cranmer comes to the fore in this episode as a most effective presence. 4. Anne of Cleves. This charming and very-well-reasoned episode presents Elvi Hale as a delightful and occasionally merry prospective bride for an aging Henry; she became a world-class presence due to this intelligently written part. 5. Catherine Howard. Anglela Pleasence is quite good in this part though neither quite beautiful nor highly-charismatic; she deserved more work off this interesting effort. The script is a strong one, especially in dialogue; and the viewer is given the sense from the beginning that this is a monarch of whom men dare not run afoul. A moving and complex piece of television writing and well-acted, the episode shows that even the mighty Howard family is not impervious to Henry's danger. 6. Catherine Parr. Another episode that telescopes time. Enorrmous by now and dangerous, Henry has become the shadow of what he was; one fears for Rosalie Crutchley, the kindly woman who brightens his last years, for a climate where truth cannot be uttered is no England for honest men, male or female. One must begin any evaluation of the series with with Keith Michell as Henry Tudor. His performance is extraordinarily good, much better than anyone else's in the part has been of which I have knowledge. By playing Henry straight, Michell gave him time to become deviant--in reasoning, willful blindness, denial, cruelty and injustice--by slow degrees. Among the many other actors involved, Sheila Burrell, Christopher Hancock, Patrick Troughton and Zienia Merton among others deserve mention. A landmark when it was produced, the series has only grown in stature since it was first presented.
