Reign: facts

[cactuswatcher]

The writer of the episode obviously saw the Kate Blanchett movie Elizabeth
The younger brother, Charles, married someone younger and more important than the little nag in the episode when he was an adult. Their wedding was celebrated by the famous gala party called the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre. The engagement between children shown wasn't out of line with the custom of the day, and, as the dialog between Queen Mary and Francis elsewhere indicates, such childhood engagements could be broken off with the changes of the political winds.
By the way the Duc d'Anjou in the movie Elizabeth was a still younger brother. Their engagement was set when Elizabeth was 46 and the Duc was 24. That sham lasted several years apparently as a counter to threats from Spain to England, and only was broken off when his military incompetence proved a great embarrassment.
Any heretics in the French woods in those days were likely Protestants, not folks actually interested in human sacrifice.

Reign is pretty over the top, but I enjoy it.

Comments

[dlgood.livejournal.com]

Nitpicking some of these facts:

Charles IX married Elisabeth of Austria, daughter of Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II. They had one daughter before he died. Queen Elisabeth was heavily pregnant at the time of the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre, which was situated around the wedding of Marguerite (younger sister of Francis II and Charles IX) to King Henry III of Navarre, a protestant leader who would eventually be crowned Henry IV of France in 1589.

I did study of the French Wars of Religion, which broke out in the early 1560s and lasted off and on for about the next 30 years.

[cactuswatcher.livejournal.com]

Corrections are always most welcome!

[dlgood.livejournal.com]

Cool. This was a time period I found particularly interesting. I expect this show to display the bare minimum of faithfulness, which is fine as long as it can enterta.