“Some modern commentators and filmmakers choose to conclude that Anne was a lesbian, but that's more an embrace of today's social movements than it is a reflection of historical fact.”
(…)”In addition, the film not treating such relationships as
taboo is unrealistic for the time, something director Yorgos Lanthimos admitted
to approaching with little regard for historical accuracy. -IndieWire”
(…)“Were there sexual relationships between Anne and Sarah,
and Anne and Abigail?
No, this is highly unlikely. While there have been rumors of
sexual relationships between both Queen Anne and Lady Sarah, and Queen Anne and
Abigail Hill, most historians and biographers reject this notion”
THE FAVOURITE (2018)
Starring Emma Stone, Olivia Colman, Rachel Weisz
QUESTIONING THE STORY:
When did Anne Stuart become queen?
The Favourite true story reveals that Anne Stuart became
Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland following the death of King William III
in 1702. William's wife (who was also his first cousin), Queen Mary II, had
died eight years earlier in 1694. William and Mary were not Anne's parents.
Anne's father, King James II, had been removed from the throne in 1688 by
William of Orange, his son-in-law, during the Glorious Revolution.
King James II was deposed on religious grounds. He had been
previously converted to Catholicism by his wife, Anne's mother. After her
mother's death, James married the catholic princess Mary of Modena and they
bore a son, James. This changed the line of succession from Jame's daughter
Mary, a protestant, to his newly born son, a catholic. The protestants of
England saw this as a threat that would inevitably lead to the formation of a
Roman Catholic dynasty across the kingdoms. Anne defied her father and took the
protestant side of William and her sister, Mary. Upon his removal, James fled
to France with his wife and son, and William and Mary ascended to the throne.
Anne was next in line.
Was Queen Anne sick and mostly bedridden?
Yes. A fact-check of The Favourite movie confirms her battle
with gout caused her a great deal of pain, and she put on weight due to her
sedentary lifestyle. She was eventually carried around the Palace in a
wheelchair or sedan chair. Like in the movie, this proved to be difficult for
her since she had taken an active interest in foreign policy and affairs of the
state. She also suffered from an eye condition that caused excessive eye
watering. -Mirror Online
Had Anne been pregnant 17 times?
Yes, and tragically, 12 of the 17 times she was pregnant she
either miscarried or had stillborn births. Of her five children who survived
birth, four died before their second birthday and her only remaining child,
Prince William, Duke of Gloucester, died in 1700 at age 11. -Mirror Online
Did Queen Anne really have bunnies in her bedchamber?
No. The real Queen Anne didn't keep 17 pet rabbits as
stand-ins for the children she lost due to miscarriages, still births and
premature death. The movie's historical consultant, Hannah Greig, has admitted
this is fiction, stating, "Pet rabbits would never have been found
lolloping around a royal bedchamber: They were an early 18th-century foodstuff
and pest." -History Extra
How did Lady Sarah and Queen Anne meet?
Anne met Sarah Churchill (née Jennings) in the court of
Anne's uncle, King Charles II, when she was around the age of 8 and Sarah was
13 (Vanity Fair). Sarah's father had been friends with Anne's father, James II,
when he was still Duke of York. Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, was maid of
honor to Jame's second wife, Mary of Modena. Not long after, Sarah became close
friends with Anne in 1675.
They remained close and Sarah became Lady of the Bedchamber
when Anne married Prince George of Denmark in 1683. After Anne's ascension to
the throne in 1702, their friendship deepened and Lady Sarah was made Mistress
of the Robes (the top rank for a woman in the royal court), Keeper of the Privy
Purse, Groom of the Stole, and Ranger of Windsor Great Park. By that time, the
pair had long referred to each other by pet names. Sarah was "Mrs.
Freeman" and Anne "Mrs. Morley".
Did Lady Sarah really have that much influence over Queen
Anne?
Yes. The Favourite true story confirms that not only did the
attractive Sarah control Queen Anne's finances and circle of friends, she had a
reputation for being brutally honest with Anne. Sarah's advice was sought
regarding everything. This may have been in part due to the fact that Anne's
education was "astonishingly inadequate", according to one biographer.
Anne was also shy and found impromptu conversation a challenge, unlike the more
outspoken and intelligent Lady Sarah (It was even said that when Anne found
herself out of her element in a conversation, she would sometimes move her lips
and pretend to continue speaking). It is believed that Sarah largely used her
friendship with Anne for personal gain more than anything else. She once
commented that she'd rather be "in a dungeon" than in a conversation
with the tedious royal. -Vanity Fair
Queen Anne's reign was marked by three major developments:
the establishment of a two-party Parliamentary system, England's role in the
War of the Spanish Succession, and the 1707 Act of Union which unified England
and Scotland as one kingdom under the name "Great Britain". The last
development is not depicted in the movie.
Lady Sarah and Rachel Weisz
Like in the movie, the real Sarah Churchill (left) was
domineering and exuded a great deal of control over Queen Anne. Actress Rachel
Weisz (right) portrays Sarah in The Favourite. Portrait by Charles Jervas, post
1714.
How did the rift between Queen Anne and Lady Sarah begin?
Queen Anne was a strong supporter of the Tories, who backed
the Anglican Church and supported the landed gentry. Lady Sarah, on the other
hand, had become an advocate of the the Tories' rivals, the Whigs, in part due
to their support of Britain's role in the War of the Spanish Succession.
Sarah's husband, the Duke of Marlborough, was Captain-General of the army and
had emerged victorious in several key battles.
Sarah, the second most powerful woman in the country, often
chose not to attend court, which aggravated Anne even more. The schism between
them was made worse by Anne's growing fondness for Abigail Hill, a servant who
had been brought into the household by her cousin, Sarah, and was appointed
Lady of the Bedchamber around 1704. Anne had come to prefer Abigail's more
flattering gentle approach over Sarah's tell-it-like-it-is demeanor. However,
Sarah believed that Abigail's flattery was more a strategy to manipulate Anne,
rather than something genuine.
Is the clothing seen in the movie accurate to the period?
No. Our fact-check of The Favourite movie revealed that
costume designer Sandy Powell's stunning outfits are not typical of the era. In
the film, the leading ladies wear monochrome popping with vivid patterns and
African-inspired prints. Court servants are dressed in recycled denim. It's not
accurate historically and is symbolic of the film's tendency to paint outside
the lines when it comes to the truth. "Some of the things in the film are
accurate and a lot aren't," director Yorgos Lanthimos told The Hollywood
Reporter.
The Favourite Costumes are Largely Fictional
The costumes seen in The Favourite are not historically
accurate.
Had Abigail really been poor?
Yes. Born Abigail Hill, her family had gone broke because of
her father's gambling. Sarah likely helped her get a job in the Queen's service
more out of embarrassment than the goodness of her heart. -Vulture
Were there sexual relationships between Anne and Sarah, and
Anne and Abigail?
No, this is highly unlikely. While there have been rumors of
sexual relationships between both Queen Anne and Lady Sarah, and Queen Anne and
Abigail Hill, most historians and biographers reject this notion. The movie
uses the fictionalized love triangle to heighten the drama and add another
dimension to the rivalry between Anne and Sarah. It also omits Anne's husband,
Prince George of Denmark, with whom she had a prolific sexual history that
resulted in 17 pregnancies, which are noted in the movie. Biographers cite that
Anne was a woman with a strong sense of Christian morality who was devoted to
her husband. She shared a room with him and did not ever leave his bed in all
his years of dwindling health. Thus, it would have been logistically very
difficult for Anne to carry on extramarital affairs.
Lady Sarah was the wife of John Churchill (aka Lord
Marlborough), who she married out of love in a secret ceremony in the winter of
1677-78. Lord Marlborough is portrayed in the movie by Mark Gatiss. In real
life, they had seven children together. Sarah did come to court and reportedly
circulated a risqué poem believed to have been written by Whig propagandist
Arthur Mainwaring, which suggested that there was a lesbian relationship
between Anne and her chambermaid, Abigail Hill. Historians largely believe that
Sarah circulated it out of jealousy rather than truth. The ballad read:
When as Queen Anne of great renown / Great Britain’s sceptre
swayed / Beside the Church she dearly loved / A dirty chambermaid
O Abigail that was her name / She starched and stitched full
well / But how she pierced this royal heart / No mortal man can tell
However for sweet service done / And causes of great weight
/ Her royal mistress made her, Oh! / A minister of state
Her secretary she was not / Because she could not write / But
had the conduct and the care / Of some dark deeds at night
Sarah could see that she was slowly being replaced as the
favourite and such an accusation would hopefully cause Anne to cut ties with
Abigail, or even lose the crown, which would benefit Sarah politically as well.
In a letter to Anne, Sarah told her that she was hurting her reputation by
developing "a great passion for such a woman ... strange and
unaccountable." Writing further about Abigail, Sarah stated, "I never
thought her education was such as to make her fit company for a great queen.
Many people have liked the humor of their chambermaids and have been very kind
to them, but 'tis very uncommon to hold a private correspondence with them and
put them upon the foot of a friend."
Some modern commentators and filmmakers choose to conclude
that Anne was a lesbian, but that's more an embrace of today's social movements
than it is a reflection of historical fact. The real Sarah never mentioned that
Anne had ever been attracted to her and she struck down any notion that her own
relationship with Anne had ever been sexual, which would have given more
credence to the suggestion of an affair with Abigail, given that Sarah's
friendship with Anne was more intense than Anne and Abigail's. In addition, the
film not treating such relationships as taboo is unrealistic for the time,
something director Yorgos Lanthimos admitted to approaching with little regard
for historical accuracy. -IndieWire
Is Nicholas Hoult's character, Robert Harley, portrayed
accurately in the film?
No. For one, Tory leader Robert Harley was not an attractive
young 20-something during the reign of Queen Anne. He was instead a somewhat
morose-looking man in his early 40s. While it's true that Harley became
Abigail's confidant, the two were actually related in real life. They were
cousins on her father's side. It's possible that along with Sarah, Harley
helped Abigail get the job in the Queen's service. -Vulture
When did Lady Sarah realize she was being supplanted by
Abigail as the Queen's favourite?
Sarah (aka the Duchess of Marlborough) realized she was no
longer Queen Anne's favourite in 1707 after she learned that Abigail had
married Samuel Masham, a groom in the bedchamber of Anne's husband. The
once-destitute Abigail had become Lady Masham. Sarah was furious over Anne and
Abigail's closeness, and became more upset after she learned that the Queen had
attended her chambermaid's wedding and gave the couple a dowry of £2000 paid
from the Privy Purse, which Sarah managed. -Mirror Online
Did Sarah threaten to expose letters that Anne had written
to her?
Yes. In researching The Favourite true story, we learned
that Sarah threatened to blackmail Anne by exposing the most provocative of
Anne's letters to her. They included excerpts like, "I hope I shall get a
moment or two to be with my dear…that I may have one embrace, which I long for
more than I can express," and "I can't go to bed without seeing
you…If you knew in what condition you have made me, I am sure you would
pity." Though it would be uncommon for two straight women to exchange such
letters today, deeply affectionate language between friends of the same sex
wasn't uncommon in that era. Such friendships between women were typically
referred to as "romantic friendships."
Did Sarah try to force Queen Anne to dismiss Abigail from
the court?
Yes, but it was attempted more for political reasons than
personal ones. Sarah, who had aligned herself with the Whigs, wanted to remove
Abigail and her Tory sympathies from the court, knowing they would influence
Queen Anne. Sarah treated Anne's emotional defense of her chambermaid Abigail
as an indication of a lesbian affair, which made Anne even more upset. Sarah hoped
the rumors she was spreading would cause the Queen to remove Abigail from her
service, realizing that it threatened her reputation. It instead did the
opposite and led to Sarah's falling out with Anne. When asked what ended their
friendship, the Queen would later say that the main reason was Sarah
"saying shocking things" about her and to her. -Vulture
When did Queen Anne's husband, Prince George, die?
Prince George, who became Lord High Admiral when his wife
Anne became Queen, died in 1708, six years into her 12-year reign. Anne's
husband George is not included in the The Favourite movie. Yet, in real life,
his death deepened the rift between Lady Sarah and Queen Anne, as Sarah refused
to wear mourning clothes, which implied that she thought Anne's grief was fake.
Sarah indicated this in the hours following George's death, by stating,
"[Although Anne’s] love to the Prince seemed . . . to be prodigiously
great . . . her stomach was greater, for that very day he died she eat [sic]
three very large and hearty meals" (Private Correspondence of Sarah,
Duchess of Marlborough).
Sarah was cold with the grieving Anne, who preferred
Abigail's compassionate and comforting disposition instead. Sarah further upset
Anne by suggesting that Anne switch palaces to avoid reminders of her husband.
She also had a portrait of George removed from Anne's bedroom. -Mirror Online
Did the rivalry between Lady Sarah and Abigail Hill really
become as heated in real life?
No. In exploring The Favourite true story, we discovered
that the rivalry did not reach the life and death stakes seen in the movie.
Much of the rivalry was born out of the fact that Sarah and Abigail opposed
each others politics. As Abigail wielded more influence over Queen Anne, she
started urging the Queen to embrace her natural Tory inclinations. The
Whig-minded Sarah saw Abigail as a threat to the political agenda of the Whig
Party.
Did Abigail ever poison Sarah?
No. A fact-check of The Favourite movie reveals that this is
fiction. There is no historical evidence to suggest that Abigail poisoned
Sarah. -Vulture
Did Lady Sarah and her husband leave England?
Yes. When the War of the Spanish Succession (largely seen as
a Whig project) fell out of favor with the British public, the Whigs in turn
lost the election of 1710, which we see in the movie. Queen Anne dismissed
Sarah's husband, the Duke of Marlborough, on trumped-up embezzlement charges.
This was at a time when the Whigs were losing influence and the Tories were
gaining more control. As Whig supporters, Sarah and her husband were a point of
contention for the Tory-minded Queen.
Sarah's final encounter with Queen Anne took place in 1710
when Sarah attempted to mend their ailing friendship. According to Sarah's
accounts of the meeting, Anne coldly cast her off. Sarah responded by telling
Anne that God would judge her for the way that she had treated her. Sarah knew
that attacking Anne on a religious level would upset her, which it did.
In 1711, the Queen stripped Sarah of her roles in the royal
court. Abigail, who had become Baroness Masham, replaced Sarah as Keeper of the
Privy Purse. Public funding for Blenheim Palace, the Queen's gift to Sarah and
her husband following his victories in the War of the Spanish Succession, was
halted. They left England for the courts of Europe, where Sarah's husband found
success. She, however, mourned the position she had lost. -Mirror Online
Did Lady Sarah ever return to England?
Yes. Lady Sarah and her family returned to England on the
afternoon of Queen Anne's death on August 1, 1714. It was rumored that Anne had
asked for them to come back. With Anne's passing, the Tories fell from power,
and the Whigs, including Sarah's husband, became the ruling majority again.
Queen Anne was succeeded by George of Hanover. King George
got along splendidly with Sarah and her husband, and they became great friends.
Sarah passed away in 1744 at age 84, but not before she had again become a
favourite of a Queen, this time King George II's wife, Queen Caroline. However,
Sarah's fiery disposition led to a falling out with them too.
What happened to the real Abigail Masham?
After Sarah was removed from the royal court, Abigail took
her place. Anne was more cautious with Abigail, not wanting to be domineered as
she had been with Sarah. She didn't want to elevate Abigail's status too much,
for fear that Abigail would leave her.
Upon Anne's death from a stroke on August 1, 1714, Abigail
Masham and her husband Samuel were evicted from their palace homes. Abigail
left the court and retired into private life. Samuel purchased a manor house
not far from Windsor. They were by no means poor. Abigail lived in their
country house until her own passing in 1734. -Vanity Fair
Is Sarah Churchill related to Winston Churchill?
Yes. Lady Sarah Churchill's lineage guaranteed an enduring
foothold in British politics. Her most famous descendant is Winston Churchill,
who helped to save Britain from the hands of the Nazis during World War II.
Sarah is also related to Lady Diana Spencer (Princess Diana) through her
daughter, Anne Churchill, whose married name was Spencer.
The Favourite review – Colman, Weisz and Stone are
pitch-perfect
Mark Kermode's film of the week
The Favourite
Yorgos Lanthimos’s tragicomedy set in the court of Queen
Anne boasts daring performances from its three female stars and lashings of
lust, intrigue and deceit
Mark Kermode
@KermodeMovie
Sun 30 Dec 2018 08.00 GMT
4 / 5 stars 4 out of 5 stars.
A trio of pitch-perfect performances from Olivia Colman,
Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone drive Yorgos Lanthimos’s spiky period drama – a
tragicomic tale of personal and political jealousy and intrigue in 18th-century
England. Set in the court of Queen Anne (the last of the Stuart monarchs), it
balances foreign wars with home-grown tussles in often uproarious and
occasionally alarming fashion. Written by Deborah Davis (whose original script
dates back to the late 90s) and Tony McNamara, this boasts razor-sharp dialogue
which at times reminded me of Whit Stillman’s deliciously acerbic Jane Austen
adaptation Love & Friendship – albeit with more sex and swearing.
Colman is Queen Anne, overweight and depressed, riddled with
gout, and plagued by suicidal thoughts. An unconfident ruler, she relies upon
the advice of her friend and lover Lady Sarah Churchill (Weisz, with whom
Colman co-starred in Lanthimos’s The Lobster). Her bedchamber is filled with
rabbits that she calls “the little ones”, and her sore-covered legs are in
constant need of attention from the massaging hands of Sarah, who also tends to
Anne’s other fleshly needs.
At Sarah’s bidding, the Queen is considering doubling land
taxes to fund the war with France, in which Sarah’s husband, the Duke of
Marlborough (Mark Gatiss) is scoring victories. But Robert Harley (Nicholas
Hoult, a preposterously bewigged and painted hoot) leads a vociferous
opposition demanding a peace treaty to “save money and lives”.
Into this enclave comes Abigail, (Emma Stone), Sarah’s
penniless cousin who has “fallen far” (she arrives face down in the mud) and
now seeks employment. With a blend of pity and misjudgment, Sarah sends Abigail
to the palace scullery to earn a crust. But soon, the interloper has made her way
into Anne’s bedchamber, where she soothes more than the Queen’s aching legs. “I
like it when she puts her tongue inside me,” Anne teasingly tells Sarah,
prompting a power struggle for the Queen’s attentions. Meanwhile, Harley closes
in on Abigail, spying a route to the ear of the monarch who seems more
interested in racing lobsters than running the country.
With its mix of corseted intrigue and lusty double-crossing,
The Favourite occasionally resembles an unlikely mashup of Peter Greenaway’s
The Draughtsman’s Contract and the Wachowskis’ Bound, all beautifully dressed
by the great Sandy Powell. Yet despite the nominally historical setting, this
has none of the staid distance of a costume drama. On the contrary, it feels
cruelly, deliciously contemporary, shot through with a sense of modernist
absurdity that can be traced back to Greek director Lanthimos’s international
break-through feature, Dogtooth.
That absurdist element is emphasised by Robbie Ryan’s
cinematography, which uses wide-angle lenses to bend the corners of the world
in a manner that is part dream, part nightmare. Prowling and floating from one
unexpected vantage point to another, Ryan’s cameras offer a punch-drunk view of
palace life, a hermetically sealed reality disconnected from a specific time
and place. There’s a touch of Alice in Wonderland weirdness to Anne’s royal
domain, as if we were peering down a rabbit hole. This bedchamber farce may
have global consequences, but the wider world outside remains just that –
outside.
Amid such strangeness, the central performances keep us
grounded. Colman is simply superb as the miscast monarch, combining childish
pathos with queenie cantankerousness, and a palpable sense of pain. Amid
whisperings of tragedy, we learn that Anne grieves for 17 lost children (“Some
were born as blood, some without breath, and some were with me a very brief
time”). In one particularly moving scene, having become upset by the sight of
children playing music, Anne grabs a baby from the arms of a courtier before
almost collapsing in disoriented terror. For all Colman’s perfectly timed
comedy, it’s these moments of Anne’s existential angst that really strike home.
As Sarah, Weisz is the embodiment of steely resolve, a
fearless presence who keeps her enemies close, on the understanding that she
may shoot them at any time. A scene in which she throws the contents of a
bookshelf at the upstart Abigail is magnificently physical. Stone is excellent
too, negotiating the shift between apparent innocence and determination with
subtlety.
A soundtrack that lurches from the lush strains of Handel,
Purcell and Vivaldi to the experimental edginess of Anna Meredith via Elton
John’s harpsichord adds to the off-kilter atmosphere, keeping the audience on
their toes – alert, unsettled, and hugely entertained.
The Favourite: The Life of Sarah Churchill and the History
Behind the Major Motion Picture Kindle Edition
by Ophelia Field
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