preview

The Lion In Winter Character Analysis

Decent Essays

The movie, The Lion in Winter, is the story of a Christmas Court in 1183 in Chinon Castle. The purpose is for Henry II to announce his successor to the throne; nonetheless, negotiating the crown is complex. Henry has three sons, Richard, Geoffrey, and John. Henry favors John and wants him to marry Alice while Eleanor favors Richard and wants him to be king and marry Alice. The deal with Philip II though, is that Alice has to marry Richard for the VExin to be passed on, but this is not what Henry wants. Henry is trying to negotiate with Philip the second to make Alice marry John, so John will then be powerful with the Vexin. Based upon the research involving several topics it is clear that the movie is historically inaccurate in some areas. …show more content…

Additionally, from Eleanor of Aquitaine by Alison Weir, Philip agreed that the Vexin should be assigned to Alys, but Henry has to pay Margaret a large allowance.4 More simply, the dowry of the Vexin was not actually Alice’s, but was Margaret’s at first and it was later transferred to Alice. Alice’s dowry was supposed to be given to John, and Margaret was supposed to mary Young Henry, and her dowry was the Vexin. When young Henry died, Margarets dowry, which was the Vexin was given to her sister, Alice. The Lion in Winter portrays this much simpler than it actually was. It did not specifically say that the Vexin has always been Alice’s, so this proved the movie to be half inaccurate, for that information is very important. The Vexin was not the only question raised historically. The Lion in Winter both accurately and inaccurately portrays the sons. First, the movie portrays John more negatively than how he really was in real life. The book, “Medieval History the Life and Death of a Civilization” by Norman F. Cantor states, “John... was something of an administrative genius.”5 This description does not even closely align with the characteristics of John in film. John in the movie may simply be described as weird, socially awkward, paranoid and often foolish. The Lion in Winter directors and writers have failed to present the other side of John, which is a

Get Access