Favourites

Definition of favourite - 

'a person or thing that is preferred to all others of the same kind or is especially well liked.'

This post has been inspired by a post of Kathryn Warner's blog - here  and of course the recent film 'The Favourite', about Queen Anne.  Kathryn rightly makes the claim that Piers Gaveston and Hugh Despencer are always called 'favourites' of Edward, but Roger Mortimer is called Isabella's 'lover.'   Part of it must surely be down to 'tradition' - that it has also been so.   It seems unbelievable to former historians that Queen Isabella could ever have invaded England with an army and allies without there being a sexual element to her relationship with Roger Mortimer.  She could not have possibly have intended to invade England and attempt some sort of reconciliation with her husband ?  That she was in thrall to Roger Mortimer - her puppet master?   Undoubtedly the role women were assigned in the Middle Ages meant that Isabella needed strong, male supporters - but not necessarily a lover.  She was French, and she must have known England would not tolerate a French woman - even their Queen - to usurp the crown from her husband and rule England through her son.  But with strong, male allies she stood an excellent chance.   Throw in historical romance, and we have a poor, deserted Isabella desperate for love and driven away from her evil husband and his favourite into the arms of a virile, handsome lover.  There is of course not a shred of evidence that Isabella and Roger Mortimer were ever lovers, but it's become 'traditional' and the source of good, old romantic history novels.

The 'tradition' of Isabella and her romance is played against Edward and his 'excessive love' of his male favourites.  Again, this is down to tradition - Medieval chroniclers would never dare to refer to Piers or Hugh as the king's lovers - even if they knew.  Instead there are veiled references to 'an evil male sorcerer' and 'the king's brother', and the love between Edward and Piers was like that of 'David and Jonathan'.   Again, we have no concrete evidence that Edward and Piers/Hugh were ever lovers.  Just interpretations and the term 'favourites' which were used in early histories and again, romantic novels.   I purchased a book written in 1899 and repackaged by Walter Phelps Dodge in which Piers Gaveston is described as Edward's 'prime minister' - a post which never existed at the time.

The recent film 'The Favourite' is based on Queen Anne and her 'favourites' - Sarah Churchill and Abigail Hill.  It is made clear in the film that Queen Anne has a sexual relationship with both women.  There is not a shred of evidence she ever did.   In my opinion, the love of Anne's life, George of Denmark, her husband, is totally omitted.  Anne endured 17 pregnancies with her husband, with none of her children surviving her.   So why isn't this film called 'Queen Anne's Lovers'?   Again, it comes down to tradition - anyone who had a strong personal attachment with the monarch was 'a favourite'.    The term was also used to infer if that relationship might have been sexual.

'The Favourites' could easily be a film about Elizabeth 1st and her male favourites.   There are never called her lovers - and yet she displayed jealousies when they married and acted in intimate ways which left her open to accusations of not being the Virgin Queen.  Was that Elizabeth's way of saying 'no matter what my relationships with men look like, there is nothing to them'.   Robert Dudley, Christopher Hatton, Walter Raleigh etc were all in 'high favour', yet none are ever referred to as Elizabeth's lovers, except in discussion about her private life.

For me, I don't think it's purely a case of being 'squeamish  about the idea that some men have sex with other men' as Kathryn recently wrote.  I think it's more to do with habit, tradition, lack of 100% of concrete proof - and good old historical romance, which from the age of 9 I constantly read and then went off and did some research.