 This weekend thousands worldwide have flocked to cinemas to enjoy the latest installment of the James Bond film franchise (and from the previews we've seen already, female moviegoers might be especially keen to see rather more
of the sixth 007, actor Daniel Craig, emerging from the
waters!).
Audiences will see a novice Bond shredding his cynical
view of love ("preferring married women because it keeps things simple"), open his heart, and trust a female with his soul: "I have no armour left. You've stripped it from me. Whatever is left of me — whatever I am — I'm yours."
When
it is revealed that Bond's great love, Vesper Lynd, is in fact an agent for the
enemy under orders to work on Bond. Before committing suicide, she
claims to have seduced Bond for the sake of her Algerian lover and now
has truly fallen for 007.
Stabbed in the heart, Bond ultimately and coldly declares: "The bitch is dead." (Bond's comment likening the possible love of his life to a female dog resonates with the opposition displayed against Marie Antoinette, who was born an Austrian
archduchess, (French "autrichienne"). "La chienne" also refers to
a female hound, or a bitch, hence to her detractors, the Queen of
France was both a traitorous foreigner and a fey woman.)
When
you manipulate someone's feelings and gain their trust for ulterior
motives, you earn every word of reproach. As Immanuel Kant states in
his practical imperative: "Act in such a way that you always treat
humanity whether in your own person or in the person of any other,
never simply as a means but always at the same time as an end."
In
short, using people for selfish purposes is an act of disrespect. How
can you ever again trust someone who has betrayed you?
But from where
do traitors come? The answer: a common source — divided loyalties — or
perceived by others as having the potential for clouded intentions and
actions.
In times past, questions have been raised as to whether royals put 'my country' first. Three
Elizabeths illustrate three reasons for suspicion:
1. Loyalty to Birth Family: Elizabeth Woodville
Although
she was the widowed Lady Grey upon her secret royal wedding, the
consort of Edward IV — later mother of the two princes in the Tower and
of Elizabeth of York, whose marriage to Henry VII ended the War of the
Roses —
Elizabeth
will always be known by her birth family name, Woodville. Because that
is where her loyalties always lie during her 20 years as consort.
Most
dowager queens would have lived their lives in quiet splendour and
honour. Unfortunately this wasn't to be in Elizabeth's case.
The Woodvilles had profited too ostentatiously from their kinswoman's
marriage. Through tributes, favours at court and in church, her sisters gained
noble spouses and her 20-year-old brother a wealthy widow, Lady
Katherine Neville, who was almost 80 years of age.
In comparison, Queen Elizabeth (The Queen Mother's) Bowes-Lyon family gained very little.
King George VI did give the Strathmores a
UK
title by creation, to supplement their Scottish titles. For the late
Queen Mother's favourite brother, David, the King gave him an
ambassadorship in the
US
and knighted him.
Meanwhile, Anne Bowes Lyon, the divorced Viscountess Anson,
became a princess by marrying Prince George of Denmark through the
influence of the King on the Danes ("If a Bowes Lyon is good enough for
me, it is good enough for you)."
A
non-Elizabeth example is Lucrezia Borgia, whose role of family pawn
precluded any possibility of transference of loyalty. Until her family
was deposed, she remained a Borgia despite three marriages.
In
the same way, Marguerite de Valois is rarely viewed as Queen of
Navarre. Portrayed by the stunning Isabel Adjani in the film La Reine
Margot, she is seen as an impulsive, morally ambiguous royal compelled
by her debauched brothers and ruthless mother, Catherine de Medici, the
Queen Mother, into a political marriage to the protestant Henri de
Bourbon, King of Navarre.
Lured to the wedding festivities in Catholic
Paris, hundreds of Protestants fell prey to the massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day. Henri de Bourbon, later known as le vert galante, converted to Catholicism to save his life, and later switched back, and
forth, as was expedient.
In the end, he made the final change to
Catholicism as the
Valois men died without heirs. As he said: "
Paris
vaut bien une messe" (Paris is worth a mass), and he and the childless
Margot divorced with a handsome pension, she living it up to an old
age, surrounded as always by a bevy of young male admirers, with the
title of Duchesse de Valois.
Fitting indeed.
2. Loyalty to Home Country: Queen Elisabeth of the Belgians (nee Duchess in Bavaria)
Due to their proximity to power and information, during wartime members of royal family's drew
accusations of spying for their birth country. In effect, they were accused of being blue blooded 007s passing along state secrets!
In
France,
the finger of suspicion was pointed at Marie Antoinette and later her niece, Marie Louise, the
Hapsburg consort of Napoleon. Both were accused of being traitors to their adopted home.
It
didn't take too long for Elisabeth, consort of Albert I of the
Belgians, to go public about where she stood. Not for her the fate of
other royals with a Germanic heritage, such as Alexandra of Russia, Sophie of
Greece, Frederike of Greece, George V of the UK.
This artistic royal declared: "Entre moi et Allemagne, un rideau est tombe"
to stake her future defiantly with her Belgian subjects. Alongside her
husband, nicknamed le roi chevalier, Queen Elisabeth earned great
respect during WWI.
And as we know, Queen
Elizabeth I was more married to
England than the possibility of any man.
Unfortunately
the perception that royalty will turn traitor against their homeland also occurs during peacetime.
Queen Victoria and Prince Albert's eldest daughter, 'Vickie', the clever
Princess Royal, was too nakedly
British, despite speaking fluent German, for her adopted country.
Precisely because her upbringing was liberal, regardless of language,
under the progressive influence of Albert, the 17-year-old bride to
Frederik William of
Prussia had the cards stacked against her from the outset.
From within the Prussian court to crafty politicians like
Bismarck,
Vicky had almost no allies of note, her talents allowed to fallow, an
earlier version of Japan's Crown Princess Masako. Fear of Vicky's influence meant her own children were raised without
much influence from their mother.
How sad to think that, out of the liberal mind of Vicky and Fritz, sprang Kaiser 'Bill'.
3. Loyalty to Self: Empress Elisabeth 'Sissi' of Austria
Delightfully played by the late great Romy Schneider in the Sissi film trilogy, Elisabeth of the von Wittelsbach dynasty of
Bavaria, "Sissi" decided to live life to the full, according to her own terms. Not for her the life of self-sacrifice and reticence of other consorts,
such as Czarina Marie of Russia who died in a St. Petersburg palace while
the racing pattering feet of her husband’s children by his mistress
Catherine Dolgurky echoing through the halls.
Her choice of her first
cousin, Kaiser Franz Joseph II of
Austria, over her sister Helene, Elisabeth at age 16 was forced from her cozy
family home in
Bavaria to the formality of the capitol,
Vienna.
Although ostensibly the first lady of the empire (see the gorgeous
paintings by Winterhalter), in reality the teenage Sissi found out that
her mother-in-law and aunt, Archduchess Sophie, would relinquish her
hold neither over her son nor the court. Sissi was quoted as sadly
stating: "If only he were not emperor..."
The
free-spirited, eager-to-please Sissi, aunt of the future Queen Elisabeth
of the Belgians, eventually made the belittling and disrespectful
treatment work in her favour.
As the years passed, she no longer fought a battle to be allowed to mother her own children, instead seeking out freedom
from domesticity.
Eschewing the bulk of royal duties, she traveled
widely and frequently for personal reasons. The court may demand its
empress's time and attention, but Sissi decided if she cannot please the
nitpickers through trying, then she might as well displease by not even
caring about convention and protocol.
Finding herself respected by the
Hungarians, she defiantly championed the underdog, supporting the dual
monarchy that came to be with a new capital in
Budapest.
Sissi's priority was her physical health, following a diet and fitness and
sports regime not known in her day but now so prescient in our own.
An expert
equestrienne, Sissi also fell under the spell of the ideas of Ancient
Greece, hiring Greek experts to immerse her in the language. This
intense focus on self could have resulted from marital non-support
coupled with the Wittelsbach history of mental fragility (now where
have we heard that in recent times?!).
Other
royal figures who put loyalty to self over obligations to country and people
include a number of wayward sovereign queens who were found lacking and ultimately spent their last days in exile — Isabella II of
Spain in
Paris and Queen Christina of
Sweden.
In more recent times, King Edward VIII put his happiness ahead of the throne by marrying American divorcee Wallis Warfield
Simpson.
Today, thanks in part to his extravagant lifestyle and the controversy surrounding his second marriage to former mistress Camilla Parker Bowles, there have been mutterings about the Prince of Wales.
Even now, there are those who believe Charles should have put his loyalty to his people and country before his own private happiness — ironic considering the way in which his predecessor, Edward, was so roundly condemned (and even exiled from his own country) for doing exactly that.
So
how does loyalty come to us, as individuals? I think it is to be
earned, not offered freely — a mistake too many women make.
Loyalty takes time to develop and mutually nourish, like a hardy tomato plant.
Maybe
this is the mistake James Bond makes in Casino Royale — unconsciously needing
connection, he puts his faith on initial impressions and death-defying
incidents rather than the ordinary pace of life.
That is not an
advisable way of getting to know someone!
By taking a high-risk chance
with his heart on flimsy evidence of character vis-a-vis Vesper Lynd,
Bond found himself burnt badly. And the producers would have us
believe his heart is scarred and sealed forever, creating a Player,
who refuses to trust or believe again.
All of which may be great for the box office....
In real life, though, savvy men get through
the emotions and move on. Those who won’t do The Work, well....tis a pity
that they go through life thinking: "The Bitch is dead".
Those who do
'The Work' have truly earned their double O as survivors in life.
Who
else would you rather have serving on Her Majesty’s Secret Service?
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This weekend thousands worldwide have flocked to cinemas to enjoy the latest installment of the James Bond film franchise (and from the previews we've seen already, female moviegoers might be especially keen to see rather more
of the sixth 007, actor Daniel Craig, emerging from the
waters!).
