We are at the halfway point of The White Queen (2013) and the costumes are starting to bore me. On the one hand, people probably didn’t have constant costume changes in real life and re-wore their clothes extensively, but on the other, these characters are all some of the wealthiest and most powerful people of the era. I simply refuse to believe that they would still be wearing the same thing over and over and over … and over … year in and year out without any variation in style or styling. The other thing that bothers me, just from a viewer standpoint, is that because the show skips forward in time quite a lot (even multiple times in a single episode), the fact that everyone is wearing the same exact stuff they were wearing in the first episode, ESPECIALLY Elizabeth, it’s incredibly hard to track where you are in time because everything looks like it’s happened in the same week just judging by the costumes.
Yeah, I know there were budget constraints.
Finally, it’s giving me less and less material to work with. So unless the costume situation picks up in the next episode or two, I’m just going to finish out the series and recap any new costumes from the remaining eps in a single post. Because I’m not wasting any more words discussing the three blue gowns that Elizabeth has been wearing since the very first episode.
With that said…
I always find the crowd scenes interesting because they’re a mixed bag of “pretty good” and “lol no.” Still no hennins, sadly.
Marge is in some kind of housecoat, which at least is fancier than the weird cassock-like dresses she has typically been wearing. I think we are supposed to infer that her influence is growing, especially now that her shitty mother is sick and she stands to inherit a pretty substantial fortune, in addition to being the mother of the soon-to-be last legitimate scion of the Lancastrian line.
Don’t get too excited, though, because she’s right back in the cassock again.
Isabel is pretty pissed that her sister gets to be the Princess of Wales, her husband is a douchebag, she just had a miscarriage and no one seems to give a shit, and she has nothing to show for it except being a duchess. She’s in a re-wear from the second episode, which doesn’t suck. Overall it’s closer to the actual style of the 1470s than anything else the main cast is wearing. I just hate that color and trim choice.
Margaret of Anjou has landed in England and is attempting to whup some Yorkist ass. Her hair still sucks, as does whatever that breastplate is. I think it’s leather…? It’s fugly, that’s all I know.
Anne is tagging along with Margaret, who has taken her under her wing as a sort of protege/emotional punching bag. I didn’t notice it until just now, but Anne is also wearing that knitted “maille” sweater that every costume department pulls out any time there needs to be a hundred extras dressed for medieval battle. It looks like a nice, cozy sweater and definitely wouldn’t stop a sword thrust.
The sweater armor has been paired with a matching green wool skirt and green cloak, trimmed in green fur. It honestly looks like something my mom would have worn to work in the 1980s.
I think we’ve glimpsed this dress before in previous episodes, but this is the first time Isabel is wearing it for any length of time. Yet again, it would be more in keeping with The Borgias than The Wars of the Roses, but it is pretty.
THAT WIG IS SO BAD.
WHY???
Meanwhile, the royal family is hiding in the bowels of Westminster Abbey. Anyway.
Margaret tells Anne that her husband is dead and that she needs to haul ass out of Barnet because the Yorkists are coming and they’re not going to be very nice to her as Princess of Wales.
Margaret wasn’t wrong, because approximately 30 seconds later, Anne is almost gang raped by a hoard of Yorkist soldiers as she attempts to flee. This is where we see the second string heroine starting to come to the forefront, as Anne fights back, screaming, “I am the Earl of Warwick’s daughter!” Honestly, Anne is a lot more interesting than Elizabeth at this point.
She’s pulled to safety by Frodo, I mean, Richard, the Duke of Gloucester. They’ve been making flirty eyes at each other for years, and Anne’s just discovered her shitty husband is dead, and she’s a free agent, and pretty much immediately makes it known that she is Done with Doing Warwick’s Bullshit.
Restored to the thrones, Elizabeth and Edward wear their coronation robes and process into court to celebrate. Elizabeth now has a male heir too, little Edward, who is made Prince of Wales to mark the occasion.
This wraps it up for all the “interesting” costumes to discuss from episode 5. Have you been following along with our costume recaps for The White Queen (2013)? Share your thoughts with us in the comments!
The woman who plays Margaret Beaufort is named Amanda Hale. I remember seeing her in this and a few other things all around the same time, thinking, “Wow, she’s good! She must be on the cusp of blowing up,” and then never seeing her in anything ever again. According to IMDb she has been working, but I think she deserves some higher profile roles!
She deserves better than PFG that’s for sure!
So does Margaret Beaufort. As a Lancastrian she supported the Readeption but her main concern throughout was young Henry’s location and safety. Henry’s Yorkist guardian was killed in front of his eyes and it was a great relief to Margaret when Jasper Tudor took charge of the boy. Margaret did not consider Henry a potential king until the usurpation of Richard III when she joined forces with Elizabeth Woodville to replace Richard with Henry and Elizabeth of York.
Who’s the blonde teenager hanging out with Elizabeth in a couple of photos? One of her many sisters? (I hope it’s not supposed to be Elizabeth of York, who was 5 or 6 then, but anything is possible in PFG Land.)
It’s one of her sisters! Mary, I believe! They introduce a teenage Elizabeth of York after the final time skip which I think is in the second to last episode? It’s been awhile haha
If I saw that green outfit on Anne uncaptioned I’d never guess it was supposed to be fifteenth century.
One has to pity Anne Neville, she was about fourteen when married to Edward of Lancaster, who by all accounts was a nasty piece of work, and basically became a hostage for her father’s good behavior in the custody of a suspicious Margaret of Anjou. Anne was then dragged from pillar to post behind the Lancastrian royals until the venture ended in disaster at Tewksbury. She might have been relieved that the consummation of her marriage was put off, or concerned that it meant Margaret planned to double cross her father and drop Anne as bride at the first opportunity. BTW Anne and Margaret were nowhere near the battle of Barnet where Warwick bit the big one. Or near the battle of Tewksbury either. As I recall they were some distance from the field at a local manor house awaiting news. They promptly fled and were eventually captured at a convent where they’d taken refuge. Margaret was forced to ride in Edward’s victory parade but otherwise treated with kid gloves. Anne was apparently placed in the custody of Clarence and her sister. So no gang raping.
PFG does love a good rape though.