Love the Fiction, But Understand the Reality: Or Why The Tudors Needed the Evil Baby Orphanage

Okay, so I saw this Tudors music video on YouTube which I actually thought was well done as far as sappy YouTube music montages of copyrighted material go (Not that I don't love sappy stuff. I totally do). But the comments on the video confirm all my fears about inaccuracies in historical fiction. I'm all for creative license and I've loved many grotesquely inaccurate historical fiction things before: like the cartoon Anastasia. But what always worries me is that people will believe the fiction, and idealize the real thing.

Mary Tudor can be pitied, perhaps even sympathized with. But I cannot agree with anyone who admires her. Yes, Henry VIII treated her horribly, but she still executed hundreds of people in a rather short time. But to be honest, that doesn't bother me as much as allowing herself to be a pawn to a husband who didn't love her and ignoring the governing of her country in favor of producing in heir. The reason Mary's remembered for her executions is because she didn't do anything else! She didn't even try. Elizabeth I may have still executed people too, and I certainly don't admire that, but I do respect her determination to be Queen alone, without a husband, and she did far more for the government.

Anyway, that presents a quandary in my opinion. Both Henry VIII and Mary Tudor were in desperate need of the Evil Baby Orphanage (See John Green's video below). But if Elizabeth I had not had to claw her way to the top after her mother had been beheaded and her own sister wanted her death, would she have been such a strong leader? If she had had a nice and tranquil childhood, perhaps she wouldn't have executed anyone, but would she even be the same person?

I am sure of one thing, though. When I was reading the comments the commenters were saying they hated the "old lady" who played Mary in the movie Elizabeth. But that "old lady" looked far more like the real Mary than the actress in the Tudors ever will. So I am sure that no matter what I do in life, if people have any reason to admire me, I want it to be based on me and not based on how good looking the actress they get to play me is.