I’ve been rewatching the BBC’s The Musketeers and I can’t stop thinking about something:
Was Aramis really in love with Anne?
I really loved their storyline (I still do), but as I rewatched the first two series, I just couldn’t help but think that Aramis’ feelings for Anne were more along the lines of respect, pity, and the love a person has for the mother of their child.
As I watched, I noticed that Anne makes the first move when they kiss. I also noted that Aramis was always more worried about their son than anything else.
I realize that, because of many things, the two couldn’t be alone in scenes - but aside from him giving her some longing looks. Plus, outside of 1.9 and their moments in "Emilie", the two never interacted. It does make sense that they wouldn’t be in love - they had a handful of private conversations. When Porthos asks if Aramis loves Anne, Aramis states that he could, not that he does.
I’m not there yet (I’m on 3.4) but there was an alternate take of their kiss in theh series three finale. I’ve seen the screencaps and Aramis and Anne put their foreheads together, he strokes her check, and then he leans in for the kiss first.I wish they would have used that. Firstly, because the kiss looked better and secondly, because it would have shown (at least to me) that they are equal in their feelings.
I could also make the case that Anne wasn’t in love with Aramis. She just saw him as her protector, the father of her child, and someone who treated her with love and care when she was lonely. That she clung to him when she felt alone or scared.
At the end of the day, while I love the hell out of this couple, during this rewatch, I’m yet to be convinced that they are truly in love with one another. It feels more like he wants to save and protect her (while being near his son) and she wants to care for him and be protected by him.
Side note: Does he wear the coss in series three?
Someone feel free to point out scenes, dialogue, etc that prove me wrong. Iwant someone to prove me wrong.
Edit to add: Remember is 1.9 how Louis was upset that Anne was missing? His: “I don’t know what I should do without her.” and then him wanting to rush to Anne, but it not being the proper thing to do. Yeah, during S2 - when he thought the baby was his - he still always worried about the baby instead of/before Anne.
Conclusion: Anne really was alone the whole time. She had a few friends who loved her. She had Rochefort who was obessed with her.
I think some key things to remember with Annamis is their respective positions, who they are as people, and how dangerous their relationship is.
Anne is Thee Queen, Aramis is not supposed to even think about acting familiar with her. And so after their flirty “I’ve got you” moment, he pushes her hand away. When they meet for her to give him the crucifix, he starts off very formal and chivalrous with his “Not at all” when she asks if his wound hurt. But then he sees her hand reaching out and quickly changes his answer to “Well, perhaps it is a little sore” so she can touch and fuss over him. He melts under her touch and then turns on The Stare™ and leans in closer. “She’s a very attractive woman” after all, as he says to Porthos after she leaves (and then he smells? the crucifix, which seconds ago had been nestled in her bosom). He definitely finds her attractive, but as Porthos reminds him, “She’s not a woman, she’s the Queen” and he can’t go any further with her.
For their 1x07 interaction, this post does a wonderful job describing it.
1x09 is all about showing Anne as a woman, not a queen. She spends 99% of the episode in a bathing suit simple dress and without all the trappings of a queen. And instead of complaining about living it rough or demanding that the boys (and later the nuns) tend to her every need while she lounges or cowers somewhere off to the side, she looks to help them all, and this is how Aramis really falls for her (and her for him, because he listens to her and lets her help). She tries to cook despite never having done so before, she fetches baskets for Isabelle, prepares? Aramis’ little gunpowder packets for him, and the following day tells Aramis she wants to stay and help him rather than sit around and with the nuns. He doesn’t pity her, he admires her. Her courage, her endurance, her kindness.
Directions for Musters, published in 1638, described a musketeer’s principle equipment: “The musketier must be armed with a good musket (the barrel of 4 foot long, the bore of 12 bullets in the pound rowling in), a rest, bandelier, head-piece, a good sword, girdle & hangers.” The procedure for loading and firing a matchlock musket and how to organise and manage bodies of musketeers was described in a number of drill books. One of the most popular, running to asix editions between 1635 and 1661, was William Barriffe’s Military Discipline. This drill was based on that developed at the end of the 16th Century in the Netherlands by Prince Maurice of Nassau and it would become the universal drill of the Thirty Years War. The complete matchlock musket drill explained by Barriffe consisted of 60 different movements, each with its own command, of which 30 dealt with the process of loading and firing. Part of the complexity of the drill was due to the need to keep separate the powder and the means of igniting it, the slow-burning match. After firing, reloading was carried out without any further orders. . Kate Gray . #musket #musketeers #gun #war #battle #drill #drillmanual #photoreenactment #reenactment #reenactors #reenacting #reenactorstyle #reenactorslife #reenactorsofinstagram #reenactmentphotography #livinghistory #history #photohistory #historicalreenactment #17thcentury #sealedknot #dailyphoto #photoaday #photooftheday #photoadaychallenge #englishcivilwar #instadaily https://www.instagram.com/p/B_yLg6JHw02/?igshid=15eyrf7fhzse
There’s no smoke without fire - and no musket firing without gunpowder! Nathaniel Nye was a master gunner from Worcester during the English Civil War and gave a recipe for black powder in 1647 of “four parts petre, one part Brimstone and one part Cole", which is four parts potassium nitrate (or saltpetre), one part sulphur and one part charcoal. Some powder used may have been manufactured by simply powdering the three components separately and then grinding them together in a mortar by hand. Larger scale production would be carried out in stamp mills where the powder mixture was pounded in wooden mortars by wooden-headed stamps, which were moved up and down by using horse or water power. . Powder was always in short supply, especially for the King’s forces. In his capital of Oxford, two corn mills were converted to produce gunpowder (helping precipitate a food shortage) and by the summer of 1643 a munitions plant established in the Schools at Oxford was supplying a range of military stores including gunpowder, slow match, bullets, pikes and bills. However, production was limited: in July 32 barrels of gunpowder were delivered and the following month a further 15 but it was not until November that a further 50 barrels were supplied. As there were no natural deposits of saltpetre in the country, Oxford, like all other gunpowder mills in England, was dependent upon supplies manufactured by a slow and unpleasant process from human and animal waste. Despite the best efforts of the king’s ordnance officers at Oxford, production in the city was not sufficient to meet the demand for arms and ammunition. . Karen Morris . #musket #musketeers #fire #smoke #gun #gunpowder #blackpowder #photoreenactment #reenactment #reenactors #reenacting #reenactorstyle #reenactorslife #reenactorsofinstagram #reenactmentphotography #livinghistory #history #photohistory #historicalreenactment #17thcentury #sealedknot #dailyphoto #photoaday #photooftheday #photoadaychallenge #englishcivilwar #instadaily #historyhit #oxford #oxforduniversity https://www.instagram.com/p/B_n4tGXHqQI/?igshid=1cojwa9ic9tya
Musketeer Kel keeps his match burning during an event at Peterborough Cathedral by gently blowing on it. ‘Slow match’ was thin hemp or flax cord that had been soaked in a solution containing saltpetre – otherwise known as potassium nitrate and commonly extracted from urine – which would burn slowly and steadily. It was estimated at the time that a single soldier on guard duty would burn through a mile of match in a year. As well as being almost useless when it was raining, musketeers who were careless about their match and gunpowder could easily find themselves scattered over a wide area. The rise of the flintlock, which ignited its gunpowder with a piece of flint scraped along a metal plate, gradually saw the matchlock replaced though it persisted well into the 1700s. During the English Civil War, flintlocks were mostly used for guard duty and for soldiers guarding powder stores where burning match might cause a problem. . #musket #musketeers #match #slowburn #photoreenactment #reenactment #reenactors #reenacting #reenactorstyle #reenactorslife #reenactorsofinstagram #reenactmentphotography #livinghistory #history #photohistory #historicalreenactment #17thcentury #sealedknot #dailyphoto #photoaday #photooftheday #photoadaychallenge #englishcivilwar #instadaily https://www.instagram.com/p/B_W9u_2n8I7/?igshid=ej7knu9o4pc0
“it is a wonder that men selected and packed off to war in this way … should ever have stood their ground at first musket fire.” - Stephen J. Stearns, ‘Conscription and English Society in the 1620s’ . The historical record focuses much more on men who were forced to fight in the wars of the 17th Century than those who volunteered willingly, and so the view of military service in the Civil Wars is usually a negative one. This seems obvious in view of the account of the desperation that could drive one man to cut his own throat or another to cut off his own toe to avoid service. Men seized by recruiting partiesn for both sides were herded together and imprisoned before being marched off for minimal basic training and almost certain injury or death — the time-lapse between recruitment and action could be as little as three days. Desertion was a constant problem for armies relying on impressment, particularly Parliament’s “newly modelled” army, which was perennially short of both men and pay. Stories of almost half the impressed men who fought at Naseby fleeing the field or deserting soon after paint a vivid picture of unwilling recruits, unprepared for action. This image is sharply contradicted by reports from European sources, who noted English hardiness in war, and praises English and Scottish armies for their courage and resilience. As always, every soldier had his own story and this moment in history between the 'patronage’ armies of the medieval period and the professional armies of the late 17th Century onwards reveals so much about the many and varied reasons why men would march to war. . ABN Photography . #photoreenactment #reenactment #reenactors #reenacting #reenactorstyle #reenactorslife #reenactorsofinstagram #reenactmentphotography #livinghistory #history #photohistory #historicalreenactment #17thcentury #sealedknot #dailyphoto #photoaday #photooftheday #photoadaychallenge #englishcivilwar #instadaily #musketeers #musket #recruitment #recruiting #recruit https://www.instagram.com/p/CAL5vc2HXhQ/?igshid=1vf1ku7x6nmuh
