I thought my life was complicated, but hey, my life is simple compared to Mary and Elizabeth’s. Now, I have always loved royalty, but like shit is really complicated all the time.
And watching Becoming Elizabeth, I am sitting here wondering, in this family was its biggest complication religion. Sure, I know it’s a part of it, but I know that it’s not all of it. I know that there is the whole everyone wanting power thing and the whole like trying to figure life out shit. But religion seems to be the biggest headache for all of them.
As I’ve read more about the time of the Tudors, I understand a little more about it, but I also become more and more confused about it. I think that there is a just so much that happened and if you trace it back it’s a lot more complicated than just religion.
But lets remain focused, shall we (I am telling myself this).
THOMAS SEYMOUR
I am not a morning person by any means, but Thomas Seymour takes being a morning person to a new extreme. Like take a breathe dude. He’s up and yelling and acting like a rooster every morning.
But what he also is, is a fool. One thing we’ve all learned in Tudor dramas is that anyone can die for anything at any time. This is a time when England was volatile. Everyone wanted power.
And lets be real, Thomas, your brother would kill you in a heartbeat. He gives no fucks about anyone or anything but himself. There may have been a time in my life where that was something that I could commend, but right now it just scares the shit out of me.
But the way that he acts with Elizabeth is gross. She’s a child. I don’t care if age was looked upon differently back then, it’s still gross. Also he’s married. True, I think that Thomas and Catherines relationship is more love/hate than anything. They care about each other. Hell, they love each other. But what they also do is make no sense what so ever. They love to fight, manipulate, and fuck (yes, I am aware I am being crude). But Thomas and Catherine both are after one thing… POWER.
A MOCKERY
I can’t even talk about the “comedy” because it was gross and well, I wanna gag when I think about it. What people found funny back in the day, was definitely different than what we may find funny now.
Mary is a lot better person than we all are though, cause she didn’t punch anyone in the face after they mocked the Pope and threatened his death. She’s a devout Catholic and yet a good sister. She did what she needed to do, she walked away from the situation.
But for Edward, that was the worst. People care too much about other peoples opinions and Edward was definitely worried about what everyone would say with Mary walking out. He follows and she tries to be honorable, but what can you do. How do you tell your 9 year old little brother to get his shit together and stop acting like an asshole, especially when he’s king?
You don’t.
But Mary is smart enough to see the turn at court and she’s not feeling safe. She’s not feeling anything different than what she’s felt her entire life.
Fear.
No one can even imagine what life was like for Mary, Elizabeth, and Edward. Everyone is always telling you what to do any playing you against each other. Edward is a kid and he’s being faced with being king, being regulated by an idiot of an Uncle (ya, looking at you Summerset) and being told he can’t let anyone make a fool of him.
Mary and Edward are both religious fanatics. Each one thinking that their religion is above all. But it’s not that simple in this England. In this England it can be deadly. When Edward tells Mary that she needs to convert, it’s going to start the end of relationships.
She’d rather leave court than convert. And well, I can’t blame her. It’s fucked up of her brother to think differently.
STANDING UP FOR HERSELF
Now, I will be the first to say that Thomas Seymour is hot, but he’s really got some shit he needs to get straight. Like he needs to remember that he’s married.
But at court, he gets his wife pretty pissed off at him when he tells her to give back the royal jewels because his brother said to. She’s still a Queen, but lost the title when she remarried. Thomas knows how to play the game, but it doesn’t mean that he likes to play it.
But part of me isn’t sure what game that he’s playing. I do know that he truly loves power, but the other part of me thinks that he really just wants acceptance. But the way that he’s gone about it – gross.
Elizabeth knows that it’s her head also. I’m really not sure why one second she’s like fuck off and the next she’s kissing him and letting him do shit he should not do. Makes no sense to me, but teenagers rarely make sense.
As young and naive as I think that Elizabeth is, most of the time, she’s aware of what she’s doing and has a plan in play. What it is, not always sure of. But I do think she’s learning to be calculated. I do also however, think at a certain point in life, we’re all guided by our hormones, so we can’t really blame her for being guided by them.
THE STAG
Hunting. I couldn’t ever do it, but that’s just me. I am a chicken shit and also the thought of killing anything is terrifying. I know that it’s a different time, but I am also like what just happened here.
Elizabeth is a great rider. She puts everyone else to shame. The only person that can really keep up with her is Dudley.
Robert Dudley seems to want to impress her. He wants to be her friend, but you can tell that he also cares deeply for her. When they are riding and see the stag, he tries to be a voice of reason and tell Elizabeth that they should wait for everyone.
But that’s not what Elizabeth wants. She wants to make her own choices and feel some sense of power. She wants to be in control.
She has a great shot and injures the stag, but can’t stand that it is in pain. So she demands Roberts knife. He doesn’t want to give it and he’s smart about that. But Elizabeth doesn’t care what everyone says – she wants to kill the stag and put it out of its misery.
She wants to be in control over something.
And I have to respect Robert that he gave her the knife. It could have gone incredibly wrong, but she was able to put the stag out of its pain. Everyone seeing it was bad for Elizabeth, but for me, I took it as a sign of strength and perseverance. It was her showing that she’s not someone that is going to take shit lying down.
I love that Elizabeth isn’t going to back down. But I also believe that she may not be ready for that. She’s got to learn to play the game.
THE LETTER
Mary needs an advocate and who better to turn to than her sister. While back in the country, she sends Elizabeth a letter and tells the messenger to wait for a reply. Dude really took it to heart and didn’t move.
Dudley and Somerset head to Mary’s house to talk to her about her faith. While I don’t really ever agree with the Lord Protector, I do think that he understands that Mary is a key tie to Spain. And they’re already at war with Scotland and France has taken Scotlands side, so another country is not the best idea.
When they get there and Mary is there with the ambassador of Spain, he knows he needs to be smart. Dudley may want to knock Mary down and make her convert, but I will commend Dudley that he’s playing the game. He tells her that if she practices discretely, she’ll be allowed to maintain whatever he conscious tells her to do.
Dudley may not agree, and hey, doing the right thing isn’t always easy. But what was right and wrong back then is different than now.
Elizabeth wrote Mary back and whatever she wrote pissed Mary off. But what was the bigger mistake is that when Mary reads it, she drops the letter in front of Somerset, and runs out. That man has all the luck and well, he is able to get the letter and read it.
Elizabeth however, has rushed to her brothers side. He asks her what she is praying for and when she says that she’s praying for Mary to convert to the true religion so that her soul can be saved, even I was like well played Elizabeth. Get in the game.
OTHER THOUGHTS
- Thomas and Catherine have no discretion and I felt so bad for Elizabeth and Jane having to listen to them have sex.
- Love Kat standing up to Thomas and being like GTFO when he’s not dressed.
- Robert Dudley is intriguing.
- Thomas telling his brother that they weren’t meant to marry Princesses in front over everyone – I was like WTF and also laughing
- Mary is scary AF, she’s so poised and confident.
- Dudley and Somerset are such tools. Though I’ll give Dudley somewhat of a pass cause of his son.
Becoming Elizabeth airs Sundays on Starz.
