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  • 'Queen Margot' Adds A Dash Of Drama - And Arsenic - To A Harsh Chapter Of French History on Random Least Accurate Movies About Historical Royals

    (#13) 'Queen Margot' Adds A Dash Of Drama - And Arsenic - To A Harsh Chapter Of French History

    What It Gets Wrong: Based on Alexandre Dumas's historical novel of the same name, the film centers on the political intrigue surrounding Margaret "Margot" of Valois's marriage to Henry of Navarre, a Protestant royal.

    The film explains the demise of her brother King Charles IX of France in a peculiar - and wildly inaccurate - way. Catherine de' Medici - Charles and Margot's mother - attempts to slyly take out Henry of Navarre with arsenic. Her plan backfires when Charles accidentally consumes the concoction and perishes. In reality, tuberculosis - not a botched attempt by his mother - ended the French king in 1574.

    Catherine de' Medici has long been vilified as a scheming poisoner, and this film perpetuates that unfair myth.

    Where It's Surprisingly Accurate: The bloody event known to history as the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre in 1572 happened in the wake of Margot's marriage to Henry of Navarre. Though Catherine wasn't responsible for her son's demise, she was responsible for starting the event.

  • Lady Jane on Random Least Accurate Movies About Historical Royals

    (#12) Lady Jane

    • Helena Bonham Carter, Patrick Stewart, Cary Elwes, Joss Ackland, Richard Johnson, Michael Hordern, John Wood, Richard Vernon, Sara Kestelman, Jane Lapotaire, Jill Bennett, Lee Montague, Ian Hogg, Warren Saire

    What It Gets Wrong: The emotional heart of the film centers around Lady Jane Grey and her husband Guildford Dudley. Over the course of the film, they go from a pair of resentful teenagers who are forced into marriage to resolute allies who fall in love with one another.

    The reality was quite different, however: Jane couldn't stand her husband. She later admitted, "I was compelled to act as a woman who is obliged to live on good terms with her husband," despite her claim that she was "maltreated" by both Dudley and his mother. Indeed, Jane feared for her life when she was around the Dudleys.

    Where It's Surprisingly Accurate: Teenage Lady Jane Grey was Queen of England for only nine days in 1553. As the film makes clear, she did not want to be queen, a fact that made her swift downfall and eventual execution truly tragic.

  • Grace of Monaco on Random Least Accurate Movies About Historical Royals

    (#5) Grace of Monaco

    • Nicole Kidman, Tim Roth, Paz Vega, Parker Posey, Milo Ventimiglia, Frank Langella, Derek Jacobi, Robert Lindsay, Geraldine Somerville, Jeanne Balibar, Roger Ashton-Griffiths, Nicholas Farrell, Olivier Rabourdin, André Penvern, Pascaline Crêvecoeur

    What It Gets Wrong: Despite the film's claim, Princess Grace of Monaco never single-handedly saved Monaco - a tax-free haven for the moneyed elite - by preventing it from paying taxes to France. Director Olivier Dahan did not dispute the film's numerous inaccuracies and instead declared, "I am not a journalist or historian. I am an artist."

    Where It's Surprisingly Accurate: Though the details of the film are suspect, the overall truth of Grace's celebrity and her feelings of disconnection in Monaco are probably true. One detail it seems to have gotten right: Grace didn't prioritize learning French, the language of her people.

  • Mary Queen of Scots on Random Least Accurate Movies About Historical Royals

    (#4) Mary Queen of Scots

    • Saoirse Ronan, Margot Robbie, David Tennant, Jack Lowden, Martin Compston, Joe Alwyn, Brendan Coyle, Guy Pearce

    What It Gets Wrong: At the film's climax, Queen Mary of Scotland secretly meets her cousin and political rival Queen Elizabeth of England. Though it's a richly conceived scene, there's one problem: It never happened. Mary and Elizabeth exchanged letters, but they never actually met. 

    The film has also received criticism for giving Mary a Scottish accent. She grew up in France and probably had a French accent. 

    Where It's Surprisingly Accurate: Though the Catholic Queen Mary largely accepted Scotland's Protestantism in the wake of the Scottish Reformation, firebrand theologian John Knox nonetheless butted heads with her. Lord Darnley was a terrible husband and had a hand in the slaying of David Rizzio, Mary's secretary and friend.

    Director Josie Rourke's decision to cast ethnically diverse actors in the film also highlights the indisputable fact that Stuart Scotland and Tudor England weren't exclusively white.

  • Elizabeth: The Golden Age on Random Least Accurate Movies About Historical Royals

    (#10) Elizabeth: The Golden Age

    • Cate Blanchett, Clive Owen, Eddie Redmayne, Abbie Cornish, Geoffrey Rush, Samantha Morton, Rhys Ifans, Tom Hollander, Susan Lynch, Jordi Mollà, Laurence Fox, John Shrapnel, Adrian Scarborough, Sam Spruell, Rosalind Halstead, Stuart McLoughlin, Coral Beed, John Atterbury, Hayley Burroughs, Penelope McGhie, Aimee King

    What It Gets Wrong: This sequel to Elizabeth sees Cate Blanchett again take on the role of Queen Elizabeth I. Though released a few years after the first film, Elizabeth: The Golden Age takes place several decades after Elizabeth ends, and Blanchett's Elizabeth should have aged more. In the 1580s, Elizabeth was in her fifties

    Sir Walter Raleigh really was a dashing figure in Elizabeth's court. Though Elizabeth was a notorious flirt, she wasn't in love with him, as the film suggests. His role in repelling the Spanish Armada was a bit different than what the movie shows; he remained on land during the attempted incursion in 1588.

    Where It's Surprisingly Accurate: The film depicts the queen getting advice from her royal astrologer John Dee. Dee was a real figure at her court. 

  • The Private Life of Henry VIII on Random Least Accurate Movies About Historical Royals

    (#1) The Private Life of Henry VIII

    • Charles Laughton, Merle Oberon, Elsa Lanchester, Robert Donat, Miles Mander, John Loder, Claud Allister, William Austin, Gibb McLaughlin, Franklin Dyall, Laurence Hanray, Sam Livesey, Helen Maud Holt

    What It Gets Wrong: This film emphasizes the titillating bits of Henry VIII's chaotic personal life while ignoring some of the most significant developments in English history, like the English Reformation. It also incorrectly depicts Henry as an uncouth glutton. By contrast, Henry VIII's court was celebrated for what an ambassador from Venice described as "elegant manners."

    Its depiction of Anne of Cleves, Henry's fourth wife, is especially misguided. The film portrays her as actively trying to get out of the marriage, a representation that basically absolves the real Henry of his role in divorcing Anne. In actuality, he rejected her in part because he didn't find her attractive.

    Where It's Surprisingly Accurate: By centering on the king's private life, the film acknowledges that Tudor power was often negotiated through personal interactions. In other words, the personal was political.

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About This Tool

People are fascinated with royalty, perhaps because we’ve never had any of our own royals. Or maybe we read so many romantic fairy tales about prince and princess, queen or king in childhood. Over the decades, movies about historical royals, both fictional and real, usually do well with viewers. Real-life royals are not as charming and chic as their fictional counterparts. History paints most of their lives somewhat differently.

Are you also curious about the historical royals? British royal or aristocratic movies are especially popular. The random tool has collected 13 entries, there are the least accurate movies about historical royals, please check the interesting collection of the movies.

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