32 thoughts on “Frock Flicks Guide to Lesser English/British Queens on Film: Renaissance through 19th Century

  1. You couldn’t find screen caps of Margaret Tyzack as Queen Anne in The First Churchills?

  2. I remember Mary II. I’ve visited Colonial Williamsburg a few times, and couldn’t miss the nearby College of William and Mary.

    1. As an alum of William and Mary, I have to tell you all that EVERY Halloween, pumpkins are placed on the heads of the William and Mary statues at the Richmond Road gate to the College. Also, the main street in Williamsburg, Duke of Gloucester Street AKA DOG Street, is named after Queen Anne’s longest living child, who died at age 10. Finally, as students, we got to trick or treat up DOG street as many of the houses are inhabited by Colonial Williamsburg employees.

      1. they didn’t teach W&M grad students all that! still regretting not spending more time in CW.

  3. Love it! Very well informed- fellow English royal historian. But I’ll be a little bitchy and say there should be a demarcation between regnal queens and queen consorts. They are very different things.

  4. Oh yes please some of the incredible Margaret Tyzack as Queen Anne. It was an amazing performance. The First Churchills is available on DVD and also on Youtube. Although you are not including them in this list, you can also see Catherine of Braganza and Mary of Modena.

  5. What happened to Henrietta Maria, poor Sophia Dorothea of Celle, and Caroline of Ansbach?

      1. Pity about there being no movies about Caroline of Ansbach. She seems to have been quite influntial. Poor SD doesn’t even make the cut for consort. Well that makes sense.

  6. I am all about Helen Mirren as Queen Charlotte. How odd that initial string of Georges were… thrifty and strict alternating with profligate. But she and GIII seem to have been a good pair.

    I’ll see if I can find more on the Russian one. It’s name just means “a glass of water” for reasons I assume are clear in the film.

  7. Ok, back with some info about Stakan Vody. (Apparently the name comes from some pivotal moment when offering Anne a glass of water topples her friendship with Sarah?) Anyway, I’ve looked up the actors and found the film online on a Russian website as well as on YouTube, and I feel confident that the woman in the bottom left corner (auburnish hair) is Anne. The woman dressed in a lot of black is Sarah. Costumes don’t look great to my not-especially-trained eye… kind of a mishmash of vaguely historical, some mid/late 18th century elements, and some super Victorian looks—including a Victorian corset with a metal 2 piece busk in front. In the scene I saw, makes me think “deflated 1850s look” (or maybe 1840s with 1860s sleeves). The hair is all 70s. I don’t even know what to make of Sarah’s look, although weirdly her hair IS more 18th century (just a lot later in it).

    You can see it here (YT link right to the first scene—she’s being dressed): https://youtu.be/JdTWwiR_45Q?t=1809

    I’m not super confident in my ability to get good screen grabs, but maybe you can. :-)

    Apparently it’s a remake of a 1957 tv show, in which both actresses appear to have been cast roughly the right ages (middle-aged—the Anne above looks on the younger side, and definitely healthier than she was). But the costumes on Anne and Sarah are looking more Elizabethan-inspired than early 18th century, at least for both their entrances. Sarah does have a more 18th century look when we first see her with Anne (at least in my skimming). It’s also on YouTube.

    Sarah’s first scene: https://youtu.be/D-IqxEAQuCs?t=983
    Anne, plus Sarah in a riding habit of some sort: https://youtu.be/D-IqxEAQuCs?t=1330
    Abigail has.. panniers and something fichu-esque, but also a pretty victorian-looking bodice: https://youtu.be/D-IqxEAQuCs?t=657 (she’s super excited because she’s being told that the signature on the letter of introduction is actually the Queen’s).

    Anyway, I know this will go into moderation since it has links, but hopefully it fills in some gaps. :-)

  8. In Gunpowder, Treason and Plot, is her hair supposed to be crimped? I get that it should be big and full, but it looks like the 80’s attacked first to get the body to do the big hair. Also, all I see is crimpy, poofy butt shape.

  9. I know that she was never queen (she died too soon), but I’d love to see a movie or mini-series about Princess Charlotte of Wales. She was the only daughter of George IV and the only legitimate grandchild of George III. Her parents despised each other (see Caroline of Brunswick above), but she was apparently beloved by the English people, as she seemed to be a normal person in the middle of the wackadoodle Hanovers.

    So far as I can tell, there’s never been anything about her life. I don’t think that she was even mentioned in the Victoria mini-series, though Charlotte’s death is the reason that Victoria’s parents married and reproduced!

  10. There is a cameo of Queen Caroline of Brunswick in Horrible Histories, in the solo song of George IV, if I remember well.

  11. I think the right people could make a hell of a movie out of Caroline of Brunswick’s story

    Also, that blue on Harriet Walter is the best thing I’ve seen today.

  12. Nice thing about Mary II: Fond of music, she was the patron and friend of Henry Purcell, who wrote some gorgeous pieces in her honor. My Baroque-loving husband assures me that most British monarchs took their great court composers for granted.

  13. This hasall got me thinking; i know she never got to be queen but I totally feel that Charlotte Augusta, Princesses of Wales needs SO much more representation on screen.

  14. Heike Makatsch played queen Charlotte in “Longitude”. It was a short view on the queen, although her mouth and body fits perfectly with the historical person. Costumes were a mixed bag, I can’t remember the costumes of the king and queen.

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