Dreaming of Philip Augustus...

[fajrdrako]

I dreamed that I was in another city with my cousin George, and we were shopping at antique shops, flea markets, and other stores, including second-hand bookstores. I was looking for a biography of Philip Augustus.

I woke up and thought: what is my subconscious trying to tell me?

Philip Augustus, if you were wondering, was king of France from 1180 to 1223. He went on crusade with Richard Lionheart, and had a messy divorce. (These two facts are unrelated.) I've always found him interesting, and not just because I picture him as looking like the young Timothy Dalton in The Lion in Winter - Jonathan Rhys Meyers hasn't had time to supersede that image yet, but he's just as good.

The Ottawa Public Library lists only one book about Philip Augustus, in English, by William Holden Hutton - great name! - published in 1896, and not available. (So why is it listed?) Philip is described as a 'foreign statesman'. Heh. Ottawa U has the Gesta Philipi Augusti, a bilingual French/Latin edition, which looks interesting. And why does a search of his name bring up a title, Homosexuality and Civilization? There seem to be a number of hagiographic works about Philip from his own lifetime, which is handy but not necessarily surprising. Just when I was despairing of finding more modern biographies of Philip I found one in English (by Jim Bradbury) and one in French (by Gerard Sivery), I'll give them a look.

Comments

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

And why does a search of his name bring up a title, Homosexuality and Civilization?

20C writers reading Roger of Howden with dirty minds. The whole Richard/Phil 'romance' myth is based on this. John Gillingham, Richard I (1999) is very good at dissecting the origins of this.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I was studying with John Gillingham while he was first writing Richard I, and this was one of many subjects we discussed in and out of class.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

You're a Gillingham student?! Wow!!! You must tell more! (Preferably on oltramar!)

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Yes, John Gillingham was my thesis supervisor. I think I learned more from him than any other teacher I ever had.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

Jonathan Rhys Meyers as Phil looks more as I imagine a healthy Baldwin IV would have done...

Real Phil wasn't very prepossessing, apparently...

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

Fantastic!
Hugh Crusader Castles/Abbasid Caliphate Kennedy was one of my tutors at Honours.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Isn't it wonderful when you get to work with someone whose work you really admire? And whose brain you admire?

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Jonathan Rhys Meyers as Phil looks more as I imagine a healthy Baldwin IV would have done...

I would have thought he had a Plantagenet look rather than a Capetian look, but what do I know? Maybe he took after his mother!

Real Phil wasn't very prepossessing, apparently...

How disillusioning! Young Timothy Dalton made such an impression on me. It'd be hard to give up that mental image.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

Yes! The Magdalinos are friends of mine, too.
And I did once get to meet Sir Steven!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I am so envious!

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

Baldwin was tall and slim, with long fair hair; apparently attractive before his face was affected by his disease. And he didn't live long enough to get porky (as his father, cousin Henry, and Richard did).

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

Sir Steven was lovely. He must have been fun in his Brideshead Revisited youth!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I'm sure Jonathan Rhys Meyers can do fair hair.

So may fair-haired men in our era - considering that fair hair is a recessive gene, it's a wonder!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Now, there's a thought!

I should make a list of the historians who are my heroes. The ones who inspire me, dead or alive.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

He was fair in Lion in Winter.

So may fair-haired men in our era - considering that fair hair is a recessive gene, it's a wonder!

I suppose that may mean there were more of them then than now?

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

It looks that way!

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

Normally I prefer brunets. This is unusual for me...

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

In real life I tend to prefer dark hair... but not always. In history, that doesn't seem to be the case, as more and more of the guys I like and admire (including those Plantagenets!) turn out to be fair-haired.

At least Aimery, as far as I know, remains dark-haired.

[wanderinunicorn.livejournal.com]

Have you read John Boswell's "Same-sex Unions in premodern Europe"? I wanted to read this book but it's only available in English- so I thought,let it be. Maybe it's a reason of the search result?

I once saw the "Lion in Winter" - and I was very surprised by the movie. I would like to see the new version with Jonathan Rhys Meyers- but it's also not available here.

BTW. I've read the biography of Richard by John Gillingham (a very good book, and really refreshing after so many people now dislike him (I mean Richard). Gillingham was your teacher! I spend with his book the whole hot July in this year! How strange...

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

Yes, with so many of the family having the nickname "le Brun" (Brown or Swarthy), the Lusignans don't exactly convince as being fair.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

I would probably get on with him better had he not gone to Outremer.
But I like the various Bertran de Born songs about him and his brothers, the Young King and Geoffrey - great fun! Bertran is one of my favourite trobadors.

[wanderinunicorn.livejournal.com]

I'm still waiting for the CD you've recomended, I hope it comes next week (from Amazone) I'm so courious to hear the sound of the lanque d'Oc. Last week I've got the KOH - the Director's cut, but I have to bring myself to watch it.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

All the elder males were called LeBrun, I think. And once it's a habit, I'm not sure it says anything about their looks, but it still makes a convincing case for brown hair.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Yes, I've read John Boswell's "Same-sex Unions in premodern Europe". Enjoyed it very much. Not that he's generally talking about any of 'my' people in the middle ages, it's not so much about gay relationships in history as about legal marriages/regularized relationships between people of the same gender in times and places where you wouldn't expect them.

So did you like "The Lion in Winter"? It's one of my favourites. I wouldn't take the history in it very seriously, but it's such fun. I liked the Patrick Stewart version (with Jonathan Rhys Meyers) almost as much.

Yes, John Gillingham was my teacher, and my thesis supervisor. It's thanks to him that I did crusading history. I learned so much from him.

And yes, I like his book about Richard I too. His thinking about Richard seriously influenced my interpretation of the man.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I like Bertran de Born too. Not to mention the Young King and Geoffrey, and their half-brother Geoffrey the Bishope-Elect of Lincoln, and the whole crazy Plantagenet family.

I think most people now, in retrospect, think that Richard should not have gone to Outremer. I've heard a lot of people say that Richard should have 'stayed in England', which of course is nonsense, and shows little understanding of medieval circumstances. And I'm not implying that you ever implied it! Just saying.

I'm not sure that I think he hsuldn't have gone to Outremer, though he may himself have wished he hadn't, considering how it all turned out.

If I thought (as you do) that he was responsible for Conrad's murder, I might feel differently about him.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

As long as you don't mind the bad acting and the bad script, you'll do fine!

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

I like him better when he's messing around in the Limousin.

The murder thing can never be proven; but whether he did it or not, I think his intervention in the kingship issue was not helpful to anyone on either side. It's clear from Gillingham that when he was "supporting" Guy, what this meant in fact was that he was behaving as King of Jerusalem. This did not look good for Guy, either, as it showed him up very visibly as just a puppet for someone who was going to be going off home again soon.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

And the worse history...

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

It'sa gorgeous language. I've got myself a course book and some discs to learn it properly.

[wanderinunicorn.livejournal.com]

Now the last question, I know I'm boring, have you seen the movie "Velvet Goldmine" with Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Ewan McGregor? It was based on the biography of David Bowie ( Bowie's Cd Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars is one of my favourits). Bowie was allegedly not amused with the film because it's relly a plagiat on his (early) life;I've read a biograpfy of him, so I know it's really almost a plagiat, but I still like the movie.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I know I'm boring,

No, you're not - what a silly thing to say!

have you seen the movie "Velvet Goldmine" with Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Ewan McGregor?

Yes. It was actually the movie that made me a Jonathan Rhys Meyers fan in the first place.

I'm a Bowie fan, too.