"Fuck fuck fuck"

[hazy_reflection]

Just finished watching The King's Speech with my mother-in-law and sister-in-law for sis's birthday. Really enjoyed it. Brought up my old curiosities about English monarchy and the whole system and things "...tits." And it was weird because I'm so used to seeing a lot of the major players in other types of roles and they all looked so different in this movie!! Helena Bonham-Carter looked normal! And Geoffrey Rush...and Guy Pierce...what'shisface who plays Wormtail...and Michael Gambon ugh he needs to go away... Colin Firth is like the only one who looked normal but omg he gave a helluva performance. Fabulous job with the role. Makes me really want to research King George VI. My mother-in-law enjoys this movie far too much I learned a lot of trivia about the royal family of that time period than I really needed to know, half of which I can't remember anymore. But yeah. Really good movie. Glad I got the opportunity to watch it because it's not a movie John would want to sit down and watch with me.

George VI's wife is Elizabeth I. Yes? Dunno why but that seems weird to me. We were talking about how kings had rules about which names they used in conjunction with their titles. George VI was actually an Albert, his brother David was King Edward ?? before he abdicated... Kings have to change their names depending on certain rules and things. There's Henry, Edward, George, William? Do the women have to do it too? Interesting question...

Comments

[roguebelle.livejournal.com]

They don't have to change their name...so what started it? "Hey this guy had a good run of it, maybe if my name's the same I'll have the same luck?"

That's pretty much it.

George VI's wife Elizabeth I was not crowned Queen alongside him (it didn't seem like it would happen in the movie and it didn't happen that my mother-in-law could think of) but she was referred to as a Queen, yes? How does that work? Because the MiL remembers that Liz I had to step aside for Elizabeth II to become Queen, or something...

She was crowned Queen Consort, not Queen Regnant -- almost no spouses of monarchs are every crowned King or Queen Regnant, because then you get into some confusion over who actually has the power. The only monarchs to actually share regnal power in England were William III and Mary II -- because Parliament needed Mary's bloodline and William's army to come take the throne from James II. When it's a male consort and a female monarch, they generally get styled Prince Whoever, not King, for bizarre gender-related reasons. Female consorts to male rulers, however, still get styled Queen -- so Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon became Queen Elizabeth as a courtesy title, not invested with any actual power.

So, no, she didn't have to step aside for Elizabeth II to become Queen, but she began to be styled "Elizabeth the Queen Mother" rather than "Queen Elizabeth" (and, informally, the Queen Mum) just so as to avoid confusion with her daughter, since Lilibet didn't take a different regnal name.

In this Robin Hood, Richard dies at the end of the crusade just as they were supposed to be returning to London or England or something. Does he actually die or does he return???

Richard did die outside of England -- in fact, for a man who was king of England for a decade, he somewhat shamefully spent only six months on the island. He spent most of his time crusading, imprisoned in Germany, or in England's French territories. His death was an accident -- archery practice gone wrong at some fortress in France. He got hit in the shoulder, it took gangrenous, and he died. This was a while after his crusade, though.