I know from comments on my “Becoming Elizabeth” videos and social media that many people, myself included, thought that the recent Starz series, “Becoming Elizabeth”, was actually more about “Becoming Mary”.
I thoroughly enjoyed this look at the pre-accession Mary – and Mary definitely stole the show for me. It is so disappointing that there’s not going to be a second season.
Fear not, though! I have planned an online event which is going to flesh out Mary properly and get behind the very two-dimensional view we have of her as “Bloody Mary”. There is so much more to Mary than the persecutions of her reign. She is a fascinating character.
Join me and 7 other experts in 12 days of online talks and Q&A sessions (plus zoom chats) exploring the life and reign of Mary I, England’s first official queen regnant. The event starts properly in January (16-27th), but we had so much fun with zoom calls leading up to my recent Elizabeth I event that I thought I’d hold twice-a-month zoom discussion leading up to this event. We have our first this Saturday, 15th October at 10pm UK/5pm New York.
You can register right now, and see all the details, by clicking here. I am limiting spaces due to the zoom calls and to allow easier interaction with the Q&A sessions, so do sign up as soon as you can.
I hope you can join us!
Iv had to comment on here about the previous post as the link won’t open, Elizabeth was so ill her ministers feared she would not recover and this made them worry yet again about the succession, she had been queen for four years and was still no closer to getting married but she roused herself from her sick bed, and made them swear that she wished Lord Robert Dudley to be protector of her realm, small pox the scourge of centuries caused many a fatality in its day and in fact, the last recorded victim who suffered from it was as recent as 1977, the disease incubated in the body for up-to a week and then the symptoms came out, and very unpleasant they were, pustules that would dry and leave scars on the skin, a fever body aches and lethargy, headaches and sometimes vomiting, today thankfully we have the vaccine but many died and as we have seen, so nearly did Elizabeth 1st, her beloved friend and sister of her favourite Mary Sidney nursed her through it even though she knew she was at risk and sadly she was left with a bad disfigurement on her face, her husband commented that his poor wife was as foul a lady the pox could make her, not very flattering but of course he was thankful she had survived at all, Elizabeth did suffer from scarring though not as bad as Mary, and it is possible that was why she took to wearing a heavy concoction of white paste on her face, Elizabeth was lucky she had survived, she had come close to death several times in her reign but this time it was not the sword that nearly ended her life, or an assassins bullet, or the threat of Spain but an enemy as old as time itself, a simple virus, it shows how vulnerable all human life is against one of nature’s deadliest products.