[Mandalus App]
→ PLAYER INFORMATION;
Name: Lily Rex
Personal Journal: fonsetorigo
Contact: plurk / aim: lysandraberenice
Timezone: +10 (Australian Eastern Standard Time)
Current Characters: N/A
→ CHARACTER INFORMATION;
Character Name: Elizabeth Tudor
Character Journal: risegloriana
Canon: Elizabeth (1998)
Canon Point: Before remaking herself The Virgin Queen
Canon Building: A wing of Hatfield House (modern world terms the 'Old Palace') and it's attached gardens. Hatfield house is a late 13th century palace, though hardly on the scale of later palaces that most people think of. It's a two storied red brick building, with a late medieval interior. It has a great hall, kitchens, a small chapel and several rooms for guests, all the usual trappings basically. It is Elizabeth's childhood home, where she was sent as a Princess, and then after her parents 'divorce' where she was locked away out of sight. It was also where she faced trial the first time, and where she was when she received the news where she was Queen. Everything that happened Elizabeth's childhood and early adulthood, happened there.
History:
Elizabeth Tudor is the second child of Henry VIII of England, and was last to inherit the throne after her siblings, Edward and Mary, and the daughter of Anne Boleyn. Though it is never gone into in the movie, she was the neglected child of her father due to how much he came to hate her mother whom he executed. Not always seeing to her upkeep, and generally more interested in raising his son. The execution of her mother before she was even three, the death of Jane Seymour giving birth, and most especially the divorce of Anne of Cleves and the execution of her elder cousin, Katherine Howard all had a detrimental effect on her. (So much so that it is said when she was eight, at the time shortly following Anne of Cleves divorce, she vowed never to marry). But despite all this, or perhaps because of how much she wanted to be independent, she was incredibly well educated for a woman at the time (something which her father didn't fail her in for all his other moments of neglect), versed in numerous languages and was called one of the most educated women in Europe. She enjoyed learning immensely, and had mostly a simple childhood, until she went to stay with Catherine Parr and her husband Thomas Seymour. Thomas Seymour was 40 when Elizabeth was just 14 and sexually advanced on her, a act that scarred her deeply, not for their ages, but because he was the first in a long line of people to use her for her royal bloodline -- even if she was considered illegitimate, she was still Henry's daughter and still technically in line for succession. But when it came to light that he was planning a rebellion centring around marrying and putting Elizabeth on the throne and for inappropriately touching a member of the royal household, Seymour was executed.
When her brother, the boy-king died, her sister Mary took the throne, and things became more complicated. Her sister's aggressive and bloody anti-protestant laws pushed the country into rebellion, or at least some of them. Though Elizabeth never once joined the uprising herself, she was implicated, and was something of a banner for the protestant cause to rise around, as Elizabeth herself had been raised as one. Thus, she was blamed regardless of her own involvement and Mary had her brought to the tower and had her interrogated, coming close to killing her, even having the papers drawn up. However, Mary, whose reign had been turbulent from the beginning, began to grow ill and when her husband left her and it turned out the child she thought she was carrying was a tumour, instead spared Elizabeth's life before sending her back to Hatfield to wait out the remaining time.
A year or so later of living under house arrest, at now age 25, Elizabeth was crowned Queen of England, Ireland (and France) and what she had inherited was a country that was barely holding itself together. The treasury was empty, there was no standing army and the navy was in tatters. What she had was a country that had been savaged by political and religious reforms, as well as a famine that had been during her sister's reign, that couldn't withstand attack if it should come, that was now dependant on her leadership.
At the time, Elizabeth was in love with Robert Dudley, who helped her through many of her problems and was her most trusted friend since their childhood, as well as being her lover. However their relationship began to become complicated after she was forced to entertain the Duke of Anjou as a suitor, because of losing in battle against Mary of Guise. A battle she lost because no proper troops were sent to Scotland, given how the Bishops and Lords were against her and openly spoke against her, but nor had she been able to avoid the battle because her advisors (namely the Dukes of Norfolk, Sussex and Arundel) insisted that she must show 'strength'. Elizabeth's power was unsteady, due to her being a woman, and refusing to marry, as well as many of the Catholics that still had no interest in becoming Protestant that were plotting against her, or trying to force her to marry and simply grew more powerful at the news of defeat. It was through Wolsingham, who had been appointed by another advisor to her Burleigh, that she began to be able to secure her throne via his manipulations and her own intelligence and strength. Such as in the case with the English Religious Settlement Act, which despite having the whole room set against her, she managed to win the vote, (though to help her Wolsingham had several key members of opposition locked in a room until the voting was done).
The issue of marriage still loomed however, and she had no interest in the Duke (a man she did not love), but after an attempt on her life at a party, it was revealed that she could not marry Dudley either because he was already married, which he had never told her, even though he had asked her to marry him. After that, she no longer acknowledged him or would even see him, and she found a way to get rid of Anjou by revealing him to have 'sexual perversions' namely being a cross-dresser and having orgies in his private rooms to the whole court with the help of Wolsingham and his spies. To finally safe guard her against any further threat from Mary and the Duke of Anjou, Wolsingham had Mary poisoned, something which she then denied ordering, but by which point, it became clear that she didn't mind playing with the same dirty tricks that they used against her.
Her relationship with Dudley worsened, first he slept with one of her maids, who was one of her closest friends, which accidentally killed her as she had borrowed one of Elizabeth's dresses that turned out to be poisoned. Then later he sought to speak to her and ask her to marry the Spanish King, Phillip, who had married her sister and drove her to insanity with how he ignored her, something which given her issues with marriage already, she scorned him for (as it really showed a poor understanding of her). Ultimately Dudley betrayed her because of his now rejected love, joining with those who were plotting against her, the Dukes of Norfolk, Sussex and Arundel. When Wolsingham uncovered the plot via his network of spies, she had them all executed, save Dudley, who she left alive to remind herself how close she came to ruin, his whole purpose to remind her how she could never love anyone but her country again. Heart broken that her former lover had tried to kill her, as well as steeling herself against what she knew would be no easy life. She asked Wolsingham what she had to do, and he told her that to reign supreme she must hold herself above, and implies that she must too become something that which all men can look forward to with hope, and a sense of the divine if she truly wants to win the hearts of her people.
Which is where she has been taken from, before cutting all her hair off and fully becoming The Virgin Queen, but she knows, ultimately, what she must do.
Personality:
"I see and say nothing."
Elizabeth is a woman of many faces. Because of how she has to rule, pandering to certain parties, and ignoring others, as well as being constantly watched in everything she does by everyone around her, she tends to be highly strung about certain matters, especially personal ones. The years have taken their toll on her. Though at times she can be sarcastic and dry, a lot of that is a mask too -- though her sense of humour can be very twisted at times (a side effect no doubt of ruling). Underneath her cold exterior she's a very passionate and loving woman, just like her parents, which can sometimes be her downfall. She takes things hard, even when she shouldn't, which can either be in great displays of love and devotion, or in the violent and cruel way she will shut people out for whatever it is they have done -- as with Dudley and with her advisors if she doesn't think their worth listening too. Or it can be purely stoic in reaction, shutting absolutely every personal feeling out and refusing to acknowledge it, now matter how deep it is, as she is when she finds out Dudley has been lying to her. It's hard always to tell because one moment she can be blistering mad, and then soften to kindness and compassion the next, which happens often enough with her advisors. She is kind to those that are loyal, as she comes to learn to prize it above all else. Trust is not something that comes easily though.
Though she doesn't grieve for herself and her situation overly much. She's aware for just how much blood and violence has placed her in her position as Queen, and she's determined to live up to her father's legacy. Constantly comparing and reassessing herself to him, she adored her father, and as a child tried to make up for her mistake of being a girl. All of her purpose, and all of her hopes beyond personal gratification of just being a simple woman, are tied to her country. She can't fail. If she fails, she dies, and lets down her whole family, and that her country will be once again ripped apart by persecutions and war. It's a mix of hope and fear that drives her, but a great deal of love as well. The greatness of being Queen doesn't bother her, she just doesn't want to fail her subjects, constantly fearing persecution herself again. Which because of this she is some ways becomes a deeply paranoid and anxious woman from the constant betrayal and attempts on her life, coming to trust very very little around her. Something that shows itself when she becomes angry and dismissive of others around her the further she goes along. Especially as she becomes more confident as Queen and thus more self reliant.
But it is because she does genuinely care, that she is able to keep going. All that passion means she is capable of love just as much, and even though she forgoes ever having romantic love for her country, she does try to see the best in everyone, holding as little grudges as is possible. Such in her promising to take care of Arundel's children after his execution, as well as making sure Burleigh is promoted before she dismisses him, finding fault only with his policies, not with him. She wants to be loved, or at least beloved by her people, and will do all things to that end, as far as it doesn't upset anything else that she has to balance too badly. It is however a mistake to take that need to be loved as weakness. In the end, nothing comes between her and her country, and she's already hardened herself to the killing she has to do to be Queen. Hesitation on her behalf is usually just a re-evaluating of options, not an unwillingness to strike.
Not that she likes violence, she's seen killing, and massacres, as they were common in her time, and all of it sickens her to some degree, even those she knows have to be killed to keep her safe. When it comes to belief and many of the things people kill for, she's temperate, having seen what excess does and how unhappy it makes people, which is a large part of her argument to pass the Settlement act. As she says then, she has no desire to see into men's souls. What people believe she knows isn't her business, she just wants to keep things stable and together, something which she believes will make her people happy.
All of this, is underlined by her fierce need to be independent, and never to be ruled by others and be used as so many around her are, which she declares both in an offhand way and a passionate way often. Because she is a woman in a time when women aren't supposed to be independent, she knows she has to go above and beyond, even to the point of cruelty and deceit.
Imported Character History: N/A
Powers/Abilities: Elizabeth is just an average human and completely normal -- she however is extremely intelligent and adaptable. She was translating texts at age 11 and was fluent in five by age 14. For her time, she is well read, and well versed in all matters of state. She's also a skilled rider and physically very active. She can also do all those womanly things, that is expected for a woman of her time, dancing, singing, sewing, etc.
→ SAMPLES;
First Person Sample:
[She's biting her lip a little as she sews. A careful press of needle to material that she peers over, and she's chosen a spot by the window for the sunlight that's streaming in, turning her tightly bound up hair a lighter copper. The needle is pulled through, and she lifts her hand, the material of her sleeves slides down her arm before she continues to push it through again. It seems to be a moment, before she really seems to acknowledge that the video is on. But she did like to take her own time about things.]
I should be glad for company, if anyone feels like keeping mine. It's dull without ten or so ladies tittering gossip like it's the last thing they'll ever do. [which is just a polite way of saying she misses them, misses the life of court, these rooms were meant to hold so much more life then a Queen alone in her sewing, and she does look so little like that.] Or without advisors insisting the country will fall apart if I don't sign this particular paper about wheat tax or whatever it is this time. But I promise I won't gossip or bore you with details of wool trade. [immediately her mind's taken with that, because she's always taken with thoughts of that, and she tilts her head back as she thinks, hands still filled with sewing falling into her lap.] I'll have to do something about that... really, how on earth would one boost a wool trade though, would a law be better, or some kind of import-export system?
[she realises she's rambling about something which generally isn't anyone's concern but her own and there's a quiet laugh] Look at me, rambling about things that have no consequence. Well, never mind. You're welcome to distract me though.
Third Person Sample:
She leans back on the throne, her lips pressed together in a thoughtful way, eyes down as she listen to the ambassador talk about how handsome this new suitor of hers is. It seems a submissive, womanly gesture, but it's more to hide her amusement, to stifle the laughter that hides the frustration that how dare they think she would marry some man she'd never seen? Elizabeth knew as a woman she was weaker, but did they really think she was so much of an idiot? That she couldn't go looking for herself to see if this man was really all that they said he was.
And it was that, that amused her. At just how much they lied, and in this game of politics it was expected. They knew she didn't believe a single thing they said, they knew that she would find an excuse as ever she found many, to send them away. Sometimes with another deal that made them not mind so much, other times they'd be humiliated. Elizabeth could do both, depending on the situation, and how hard they pressed. Adaptability, was after all, the key.
The ambassador finished his speech with a flourished bow, and Elizabeth looked up, and she knew the smile on her lips would be interpreted as favour. They all did that. They all watched and judged and schemed. It was seldom they got it right though. "My lord, you speak well and long on such matters, but I am afraid I don't understand on one account, for which you must forgive me for not fully understanding. Do you mean that he as a Catholic, he will seek a divorce from his lady wife to wed me?"
Let the games begin. The private hope, was that this time, it did not end in blood.
Name: Lily Rex
Personal Journal: fonsetorigo
Contact: plurk / aim: lysandraberenice
Timezone: +10 (Australian Eastern Standard Time)
Current Characters: N/A
→ CHARACTER INFORMATION;
Character Name: Elizabeth Tudor
Character Journal: risegloriana
Canon: Elizabeth (1998)
Canon Point: Before remaking herself The Virgin Queen
Canon Building: A wing of Hatfield House (modern world terms the 'Old Palace') and it's attached gardens. Hatfield house is a late 13th century palace, though hardly on the scale of later palaces that most people think of. It's a two storied red brick building, with a late medieval interior. It has a great hall, kitchens, a small chapel and several rooms for guests, all the usual trappings basically. It is Elizabeth's childhood home, where she was sent as a Princess, and then after her parents 'divorce' where she was locked away out of sight. It was also where she faced trial the first time, and where she was when she received the news where she was Queen. Everything that happened Elizabeth's childhood and early adulthood, happened there.
History:
Elizabeth Tudor is the second child of Henry VIII of England, and was last to inherit the throne after her siblings, Edward and Mary, and the daughter of Anne Boleyn. Though it is never gone into in the movie, she was the neglected child of her father due to how much he came to hate her mother whom he executed. Not always seeing to her upkeep, and generally more interested in raising his son. The execution of her mother before she was even three, the death of Jane Seymour giving birth, and most especially the divorce of Anne of Cleves and the execution of her elder cousin, Katherine Howard all had a detrimental effect on her. (So much so that it is said when she was eight, at the time shortly following Anne of Cleves divorce, she vowed never to marry). But despite all this, or perhaps because of how much she wanted to be independent, she was incredibly well educated for a woman at the time (something which her father didn't fail her in for all his other moments of neglect), versed in numerous languages and was called one of the most educated women in Europe. She enjoyed learning immensely, and had mostly a simple childhood, until she went to stay with Catherine Parr and her husband Thomas Seymour. Thomas Seymour was 40 when Elizabeth was just 14 and sexually advanced on her, a act that scarred her deeply, not for their ages, but because he was the first in a long line of people to use her for her royal bloodline -- even if she was considered illegitimate, she was still Henry's daughter and still technically in line for succession. But when it came to light that he was planning a rebellion centring around marrying and putting Elizabeth on the throne and for inappropriately touching a member of the royal household, Seymour was executed.
When her brother, the boy-king died, her sister Mary took the throne, and things became more complicated. Her sister's aggressive and bloody anti-protestant laws pushed the country into rebellion, or at least some of them. Though Elizabeth never once joined the uprising herself, she was implicated, and was something of a banner for the protestant cause to rise around, as Elizabeth herself had been raised as one. Thus, she was blamed regardless of her own involvement and Mary had her brought to the tower and had her interrogated, coming close to killing her, even having the papers drawn up. However, Mary, whose reign had been turbulent from the beginning, began to grow ill and when her husband left her and it turned out the child she thought she was carrying was a tumour, instead spared Elizabeth's life before sending her back to Hatfield to wait out the remaining time.
A year or so later of living under house arrest, at now age 25, Elizabeth was crowned Queen of England, Ireland (and France) and what she had inherited was a country that was barely holding itself together. The treasury was empty, there was no standing army and the navy was in tatters. What she had was a country that had been savaged by political and religious reforms, as well as a famine that had been during her sister's reign, that couldn't withstand attack if it should come, that was now dependant on her leadership.
At the time, Elizabeth was in love with Robert Dudley, who helped her through many of her problems and was her most trusted friend since their childhood, as well as being her lover. However their relationship began to become complicated after she was forced to entertain the Duke of Anjou as a suitor, because of losing in battle against Mary of Guise. A battle she lost because no proper troops were sent to Scotland, given how the Bishops and Lords were against her and openly spoke against her, but nor had she been able to avoid the battle because her advisors (namely the Dukes of Norfolk, Sussex and Arundel) insisted that she must show 'strength'. Elizabeth's power was unsteady, due to her being a woman, and refusing to marry, as well as many of the Catholics that still had no interest in becoming Protestant that were plotting against her, or trying to force her to marry and simply grew more powerful at the news of defeat. It was through Wolsingham, who had been appointed by another advisor to her Burleigh, that she began to be able to secure her throne via his manipulations and her own intelligence and strength. Such as in the case with the English Religious Settlement Act, which despite having the whole room set against her, she managed to win the vote, (though to help her Wolsingham had several key members of opposition locked in a room until the voting was done).
The issue of marriage still loomed however, and she had no interest in the Duke (a man she did not love), but after an attempt on her life at a party, it was revealed that she could not marry Dudley either because he was already married, which he had never told her, even though he had asked her to marry him. After that, she no longer acknowledged him or would even see him, and she found a way to get rid of Anjou by revealing him to have 'sexual perversions' namely being a cross-dresser and having orgies in his private rooms to the whole court with the help of Wolsingham and his spies. To finally safe guard her against any further threat from Mary and the Duke of Anjou, Wolsingham had Mary poisoned, something which she then denied ordering, but by which point, it became clear that she didn't mind playing with the same dirty tricks that they used against her.
Her relationship with Dudley worsened, first he slept with one of her maids, who was one of her closest friends, which accidentally killed her as she had borrowed one of Elizabeth's dresses that turned out to be poisoned. Then later he sought to speak to her and ask her to marry the Spanish King, Phillip, who had married her sister and drove her to insanity with how he ignored her, something which given her issues with marriage already, she scorned him for (as it really showed a poor understanding of her). Ultimately Dudley betrayed her because of his now rejected love, joining with those who were plotting against her, the Dukes of Norfolk, Sussex and Arundel. When Wolsingham uncovered the plot via his network of spies, she had them all executed, save Dudley, who she left alive to remind herself how close she came to ruin, his whole purpose to remind her how she could never love anyone but her country again. Heart broken that her former lover had tried to kill her, as well as steeling herself against what she knew would be no easy life. She asked Wolsingham what she had to do, and he told her that to reign supreme she must hold herself above, and implies that she must too become something that which all men can look forward to with hope, and a sense of the divine if she truly wants to win the hearts of her people.
Which is where she has been taken from, before cutting all her hair off and fully becoming The Virgin Queen, but she knows, ultimately, what she must do.
Personality:
"I see and say nothing."
Elizabeth is a woman of many faces. Because of how she has to rule, pandering to certain parties, and ignoring others, as well as being constantly watched in everything she does by everyone around her, she tends to be highly strung about certain matters, especially personal ones. The years have taken their toll on her. Though at times she can be sarcastic and dry, a lot of that is a mask too -- though her sense of humour can be very twisted at times (a side effect no doubt of ruling). Underneath her cold exterior she's a very passionate and loving woman, just like her parents, which can sometimes be her downfall. She takes things hard, even when she shouldn't, which can either be in great displays of love and devotion, or in the violent and cruel way she will shut people out for whatever it is they have done -- as with Dudley and with her advisors if she doesn't think their worth listening too. Or it can be purely stoic in reaction, shutting absolutely every personal feeling out and refusing to acknowledge it, now matter how deep it is, as she is when she finds out Dudley has been lying to her. It's hard always to tell because one moment she can be blistering mad, and then soften to kindness and compassion the next, which happens often enough with her advisors. She is kind to those that are loyal, as she comes to learn to prize it above all else. Trust is not something that comes easily though.
Though she doesn't grieve for herself and her situation overly much. She's aware for just how much blood and violence has placed her in her position as Queen, and she's determined to live up to her father's legacy. Constantly comparing and reassessing herself to him, she adored her father, and as a child tried to make up for her mistake of being a girl. All of her purpose, and all of her hopes beyond personal gratification of just being a simple woman, are tied to her country. She can't fail. If she fails, she dies, and lets down her whole family, and that her country will be once again ripped apart by persecutions and war. It's a mix of hope and fear that drives her, but a great deal of love as well. The greatness of being Queen doesn't bother her, she just doesn't want to fail her subjects, constantly fearing persecution herself again. Which because of this she is some ways becomes a deeply paranoid and anxious woman from the constant betrayal and attempts on her life, coming to trust very very little around her. Something that shows itself when she becomes angry and dismissive of others around her the further she goes along. Especially as she becomes more confident as Queen and thus more self reliant.
But it is because she does genuinely care, that she is able to keep going. All that passion means she is capable of love just as much, and even though she forgoes ever having romantic love for her country, she does try to see the best in everyone, holding as little grudges as is possible. Such in her promising to take care of Arundel's children after his execution, as well as making sure Burleigh is promoted before she dismisses him, finding fault only with his policies, not with him. She wants to be loved, or at least beloved by her people, and will do all things to that end, as far as it doesn't upset anything else that she has to balance too badly. It is however a mistake to take that need to be loved as weakness. In the end, nothing comes between her and her country, and she's already hardened herself to the killing she has to do to be Queen. Hesitation on her behalf is usually just a re-evaluating of options, not an unwillingness to strike.
Not that she likes violence, she's seen killing, and massacres, as they were common in her time, and all of it sickens her to some degree, even those she knows have to be killed to keep her safe. When it comes to belief and many of the things people kill for, she's temperate, having seen what excess does and how unhappy it makes people, which is a large part of her argument to pass the Settlement act. As she says then, she has no desire to see into men's souls. What people believe she knows isn't her business, she just wants to keep things stable and together, something which she believes will make her people happy.
All of this, is underlined by her fierce need to be independent, and never to be ruled by others and be used as so many around her are, which she declares both in an offhand way and a passionate way often. Because she is a woman in a time when women aren't supposed to be independent, she knows she has to go above and beyond, even to the point of cruelty and deceit.
Imported Character History: N/A
Powers/Abilities: Elizabeth is just an average human and completely normal -- she however is extremely intelligent and adaptable. She was translating texts at age 11 and was fluent in five by age 14. For her time, she is well read, and well versed in all matters of state. She's also a skilled rider and physically very active. She can also do all those womanly things, that is expected for a woman of her time, dancing, singing, sewing, etc.
→ SAMPLES;
First Person Sample:
[She's biting her lip a little as she sews. A careful press of needle to material that she peers over, and she's chosen a spot by the window for the sunlight that's streaming in, turning her tightly bound up hair a lighter copper. The needle is pulled through, and she lifts her hand, the material of her sleeves slides down her arm before she continues to push it through again. It seems to be a moment, before she really seems to acknowledge that the video is on. But she did like to take her own time about things.]
I should be glad for company, if anyone feels like keeping mine. It's dull without ten or so ladies tittering gossip like it's the last thing they'll ever do. [which is just a polite way of saying she misses them, misses the life of court, these rooms were meant to hold so much more life then a Queen alone in her sewing, and she does look so little like that.] Or without advisors insisting the country will fall apart if I don't sign this particular paper about wheat tax or whatever it is this time. But I promise I won't gossip or bore you with details of wool trade. [immediately her mind's taken with that, because she's always taken with thoughts of that, and she tilts her head back as she thinks, hands still filled with sewing falling into her lap.] I'll have to do something about that... really, how on earth would one boost a wool trade though, would a law be better, or some kind of import-export system?
[she realises she's rambling about something which generally isn't anyone's concern but her own and there's a quiet laugh] Look at me, rambling about things that have no consequence. Well, never mind. You're welcome to distract me though.
Third Person Sample:
She leans back on the throne, her lips pressed together in a thoughtful way, eyes down as she listen to the ambassador talk about how handsome this new suitor of hers is. It seems a submissive, womanly gesture, but it's more to hide her amusement, to stifle the laughter that hides the frustration that how dare they think she would marry some man she'd never seen? Elizabeth knew as a woman she was weaker, but did they really think she was so much of an idiot? That she couldn't go looking for herself to see if this man was really all that they said he was.
And it was that, that amused her. At just how much they lied, and in this game of politics it was expected. They knew she didn't believe a single thing they said, they knew that she would find an excuse as ever she found many, to send them away. Sometimes with another deal that made them not mind so much, other times they'd be humiliated. Elizabeth could do both, depending on the situation, and how hard they pressed. Adaptability, was after all, the key.
The ambassador finished his speech with a flourished bow, and Elizabeth looked up, and she knew the smile on her lips would be interpreted as favour. They all did that. They all watched and judged and schemed. It was seldom they got it right though. "My lord, you speak well and long on such matters, but I am afraid I don't understand on one account, for which you must forgive me for not fully understanding. Do you mean that he as a Catholic, he will seek a divorce from his lady wife to wed me?"
Let the games begin. The private hope, was that this time, it did not end in blood.