Helen Mirren's Elizabeth I: Anjou courts Elizabeth, pt 1/2

Elizabeth wanted to lead on and confuse people and powerful leaders of her day about her true intentions with Anjou---she was so successful at it that historians today still argue over how serious she ever was about the marriage!

Historical reports say that the Duke had a pitted face from childhood smallpox , and a bit of a hunched back due to spinal deformity.

Helen Mirren is said to be the only actress to play both Queen Elizabeths, and she has a jolly lot of fun with this role---the pathos, humor, mercurial nature of a queen in her 40s, but a queen acting younger in this sequence (acted by a Mirren in her 60s!).



Helen Mirren ... Queen Elizabeth I
Jeremy Irons ... Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester
Jérémie Covillault ... Duke of Anjou
Patrick Malahide ... Sir Francis Walsingham
Ian McDiarmid ... William Cecil, Lord Burghley


Elizabeth I (2005) (TV)

Directed by
Tom Hooper

Written by
Nigel Williams

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Queen
• Elizabeth
• Helen
• Mirren
• JeremyIrons
• Leicester
• Walsingham
• Elizabethan
• HelenMirren

[albusflavoredbean]

Thank you so much for posting this clip! I LOVE Jeremy IRons in this and have been looking for posts everywhere! But, I have forgotten- why doesn't Elizabeth marry Anjou?

[ShakespeareAndMore]

She didn't marry Anjou because the council was split over it and her people hated the idea--she had enough sense (unlike many royals of the day) not to defy all this.

[diam0nd94]

Helen also played our present queen! She is really good at playing royal parts, specially Queens!

[hellcla5]

even on youtube you find sectarianism, pathetic people obsessed  with religious differences both are christian religions you idiots

[AuxaneD]

It's not the Duke there but his ambitious little brother, and actually, the real Duke of Anjou didn't want to marry Elizabeth, 20 years his senior and she was the one who "had a near-death experience when she contracted smallpox in October 1562. After this she had scars on her face which she tried to cover up with white lead make-up."

[23Incubus23]

I liked Glenda Jackson's portrayal the best - as well as the screenwriting of that BBC series.

[hineni53]

'' late fruit of the tree one breath away from withering.''

[Chocolateluvr1987]

Damn....I would marry Robert Dudley in an instant.

[talshiarr]

That tone Jeremy Irons uses and the little head movements while they're dancing and he's tossing out those cheesy lines is what makes him irreplaceable in this. Only he could nail that so well.

"Don't say wasted, Bess, each dance was worth a lifetimes wait." Priceless!

[audgeyp]

I'm trying to find the part with Ewen Bremner in it. Does anyone know where it is?

[PaleLittleGirl1]

@manthasagittarius i don't know if he would have made a splendid consort...if she would have married him, i think her reign would have been weakened, especially internationally. that being said, she probably would have been happier, it was obvious she loved him.

[manthasagittarius]

Dudley was her best and oldest friend. She called him "my eyes." He would have made her a splendid consort, and a great many things would probably have been quite different in her reign.

It's wonderful, that Dowland music playing behind her conversation with Anjou. Dowland also wrote a sad little ditty when le Duc left with his suit unaccepted -- the dance version was called the Frog's Galliard, for Anjou's frenchness.

[epiksonik]

of all the elizabeths, hers was for me the best!

[16051942]

best movie, best Helen Mirren.