How to write History ? On watching Firebrand

Posted on by James Woodward
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I first came across the Midland Art Centre  in 1987 through my Birmingham MPhil supervisor, Professor Stephen Pattison, who lived nearby in Mosley. It was a good place to walk after supervisions to ingest both the intensity of feedback and quality of conversation which is always a characteristic of Stephens engagement.
It was crystal clear what stimulated him about any given piece of writing but most crucially what it’s floors and weaknesses lay!
Little did I know that three years later I would move from Oxford to Birmingham for what were two decades of exhilarating and stimulating ministries, first at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Edgbaston, then to 2 rural parishes north of Sutton Coldfield where I was given the time by Bishop Mark Santer to finish my PhD before moving for a decade working in the Foundation of Lady Katherine Leveson in Temple Balsall.

Temple Balsall lies halfway between the villages of Knowle and Balsall Common. The manor of Balsall was granted to the Knights Templars who built the church. The history of the Manor and its buildings, the Templars and the Hospitallers is well documented by the local historian Eileen Gooder (Temple Balsall: from Hospitallers to a caring community – 1322 to modern times by Eileen Gooder, 1999; Temple Balsall: the Warwickshire Preceptory of the Templars and their fate by Eileen Gooder, 1995 T and emple Balsall: a short history by Eileen Gooder, 1986)

In 1324, after the dissolution of the Templars, the manor was taken over by the Knights Hospitallers (or Knights of St. John of Jerusalem). Their ownership of Temple Balsall came to an end in 1540 when they in turn were dissolved and the manor passed to the Crown.The manor was given by Henry VIII to his last wife, Catherine Parr and then given by Elizabeth I to Sir Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester. His grand-daughter, Lady Katharine Leveson, (widow of Sir Richard Leveson of Trentham) died in 1674 and, by her will, she founded a charity at Temple Balsall. A hospital was to be built near the church for 20 poor widows of the district and the old ladies wore gowns of grey cloth, with the letters ‘K.L.’ in blue cloth. A free school for 20 poor boys was also founded and provision was to be made for a minister for the church, who would also be the Master of the Hospital and teacher of the boys. 

So here is the historical link between Temple Balsall  Lady Katherine Leveson and the sixth wife of Henry the Eighth.And – of course the file Firebrand which I saw last night at the Midland Art Centre !

This British made film is a historical drama. based on the 2013 novel Queens gambit by Elizabeth Fremantle it has been re-written by Henrietta Ashworth and Jessica Ashworth. It is spectacularly directed by.Karim Ainouz. Beautiful and powerful photography managed to hold of multiplicity of conflicting moods and powerful individulas  around the court of the King.

Its focus is and Katherine Parr. Jude Law manages to portray with great artistic skill the failing health of the King as he lived with intense  pain and failing mobility. Throughout we see his raging temper admist the complexities of power and influence at the Court. 

Katherine is the sixth wife of Henry VIII. While The King is abroad battling with foreign powers,  Catherine is named Regent. However when the King returns his illness intensifies as does his  paranoia. Catherine finds herself fighting for her own survival admits the courtiers and court led by Stephen Gardner, the Bishop of Winchester. Religion and power, personality, the threat of death and possibilities of survival through the nightly attempts at producing an heir are all vividly acted out.

I will not spoil your enjoyment of the film if historical drama is something which you love, but the end of the film is in all kinds of ways is simply just surprising! The historical purists have dismissed this film but there is more to its narratives  than might meet the eye, What motivates us? Where are we to find the truth? Is religion so bound up with power and authority that it loses its distinctiveness, its radical edge to bring down even the greatest of Monarchs? What is truth? 

When reading history there are bound to be conflicting versions of any given narrative. Sometimes we just do not know what happened and there will be a multiple versions of what happened or what we think should’ve happened! We might ask ourselves – Where are the limits in Art and Story ? How much freedom should the artist have to retail the story in a way which suits their ends?

In this case there is a powerful and persuasive representation of the agency and authority of women.

We see in Catherine a person who possess the skill and insight to remain independent, wise and powerful in a world of toxic masculinity and misogyny. Perhaps we need to read beyond the academic questions about what is truthful and to see in the particular ending of this film a far more complex and perplexing set of truths about human nature. Power is complex and add religion to it and it becomes a tapestry of many patterns and pictures. We might ask ourselves :  What  shape does religion take in us? 

Not surprisingly, most of the critics have been pretty dismissive, but not this filmgoer. It yielded  much  – visually, aesthetically, historically, culturally and theologically ! 

 

 

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