
I remember having mixed feelings about A Royal Affair (2012) back when it came out, and found it hard to bring myself to rewatch it given it features SO MANY recycled costumes… but, I have a quest! To watch all the 18th-century movies I can get my hands on… and most importantly, to review them for this blog! I think I enjoyed the film more the second time around, since I was prepared for my main issues with it, so hopefully this review will be fairer? Who knows.
A Royal Affair tells the story of Caroline Matilda of Great Britain, younger sister of George III (their father was Prince of Wales and died before he could become king). She was betrothed to the heir to the Danish throne; as wedding preparations were underway, the king died, and her intended — now Christian VII — became king. Christian was, as far too many royal brides seem to have found out in this era, Not Okay. He may have had schizophrenia, but whatever was going on, there was some definite mental illness, which cause major tension in the marriage, which began when she was age 15ish and he was 17ish.
At one point, German physician Johann Friedrich Struensee was hired to be the king’s personal doctor. Over time, Christian increasingly relied on Struensee, even for political matters… and over time, Caroline and Struensee started an affair. Struensee used his position to implement numerous reforms in Denmark, and Caroline supported these. Eventually, the two were found out, and politicians and the dowager queen (Christian’s step-mother) led a coup. Christian divorced Caroline, Struensee was executed, and Caroline lived out her very few years left in exile before dying of scarlet fever at age 23.
It’s a pretty damn good story, I’ll admit! And I think the movie does a good job capturing these in’s and out’s, various motivations, and repercussions. My one peeve is that neither actor cast as Caroline nor Struensee look much like the people they’re playing. Alicia Vikander (Tulip Fever, The Danish Girl) is far too thin to play Caroline, and Mads Mikkelsen is hot but way too casually dressed for Struensee. But, that’s my preference for historical accuracy (and not everyone’s!) — I know the real Caroline isn’t the current beauty ideal, and I think Struensee’s casual dress was there to make the point that he’s practical and down with the people.



Onwards, to costumes!
Costumes in A Royal Affair
The costumes were designed by Manon Rasmussen, a Danish designer who’s done a TON of films including Melancholia (with Kirsten Dunst) and the TV series 1864 (about war between Prussia, Austria, and Denmark).
As I mentioned, MANY of the costumes — particularly on lead actress Alicia Vikander as Caroline Matilda — are recycled, which makes me think there must not have been much budget for this production. I wouldn’t actually be hugely bothered by this, except that most of the styles worn are late 1770s-early 1780s, instead of late 1760s-early 1770s as they should be.
Robes à la française
The classic gown of the 1730s through the 1770s, with long hanging back pleats. The late 1760s/early 1770s version should be open in front over a stomacher and petticoat:

Caroline gets a number of these, but:













Robes à l’anglaise
It is plausible that Caroline Matilda would wear the English “nightgown,” precursor to the robe à l’anglaise, since that was a style popular in England throughout the 18th century. However, the nightgown of her era would look like this:

Caroline Mathilda does have one of these:


Instead, we get many of the later French robe à l’anglaise, which was indeed worn in England and throughout Western Europe (and the American colonies), but not until the 1780s:






Other Gowns



Hair!
This is where things get a bit wonky. Here’s some real Caroline Mathilda hair action:



Here’s what we get:




Minor Characters


The Boys
I thought the men’s costumes were great! Struensee is super pared down in order to communicate his progressive “man of the Enlightenment”-ness to the audience. Christian, on the other hand, may be insane but he has a FABULOUSLY SPARKLY wardrobe that I loved!








What did you think of A Royal Affair?
I enjoyed the movie and thought the costumes so-so but pretty. But now I’m seeing Christian doing George III Hamilton’s song bc he has that vibe.
OMG…yes, you’re so right!
I always thought the dresses on Caroline were so pretty,but fit too tight around the bust and the sleeves seemed to end much above the elbow point.Otherwise they did well with the renting.
Those inaccurate side part half updo hairstyles,so pretty they are to behold,so inaccurate in silhouette for the historical accuracy to excuse.But the arranging of the side plait(or rather hot curled sausage of hair)is pretty accurate for some 1740s English portraits(but take my humble statement with a grain of salt and a chalice of vinegar,because said portraits have a weird abundance of similar hairstyles and satin silver dresses,so they might be allegorical.And some of those portraits do feature side parted hair,maybe that’s what the movie referenced?)
The movie: It was a mixed bag for me, but it’s been a while since I saw it. I think I expected it to be a forbidden historical romance movie and instead it was a historical political movie with a forbidden affair thrown in. Also, the insane king was off-putting in the sense of “Why does every historical royal movie have a crazy king?” It may be historically accurate, but it just tires me out. I thought Vikander and Mads Mikkelson (sigh) had good chemistry, and I would have preferred a “romantic” movie over a “realistic” one.
The looks: Is it shallow for me to admit that I would’ve loved for your post to consist solely of stills of Mads Mikkelson?? The best-looking items here are Mads Mikkelson (of course), the portrait of King Christian VII, the Robe a l’Anglaise from The Met, the dress recycled from The Duchess, and the satin riding habit. What color is that riding habit? It seems like a pale grey or pale blue, but I can’t tell from the picture.
I think the ‘maternity gown’ is some kind of pet en l’air; there’s a distinct hem at the back just above the bottom of the picture.
To be fair to the “lace bib”:
It used to be a thing for many centuries that at the funerals of royalty and upper nobility.a fully-dressed effigy of the deceased would be carried on top of the coffin. Westminster Abbey has a collection of these.In some cases the clothes were clearly made specially for the effigy, but in others they seem to have been the deceased’s real clothes. One of the latter is the effigy of Robert, Marquess of Normandy, who died in 1715 aged 3, poor little lad, and whose body was moved from St Margaret’s Westminster to the Abbey in 1721. It’s thought that the effigy was made for the move (although there’s apparently a side-bet on 1735-6 when his surviving brother dies and had an effigy made).
Anyway: wee Robert, not old enough to have been ‘breeched’, is dressed in a long Polish-style velvet open robe over a long coat of French silk brocade, fastened with a silver brocade ribbon sash. He wears a pleated stock of fine linen with two horizontal slits at the centre front; and a cravat made entirely of bobbin lace that’s only 16 inches long and folded to be about 2½ inches wide. It is worn simply slotted through the slits in the stock. This device means there’s no need to put stress on the lace by knotting or twisting it, and allows all the expensive lace to be seen. So it pretty much IS a ‘lace bib’, although a flat narrow one. There’s no telling how commonplace this was, or whether it was specific to small boys’ however, it did exist.
The arrangement in that picture above could have been (I don’t say it was) produced by similar means.
Poor Caroline Matilda! She was in a bad situation, but she showed some bad judgement too. Some historians think that his little sister’s disastrous marriage was the reason George III was reluctant to marry off his own daughters. It could be true. A doating father might well have nightmares over what might happen to his little girl if he sent her overseas to a strange court beyond his power to protect her.
I saw the film in the Cinema.
I had the Impression, that they did the most difficult part very well (Christian’s illness and the
situation in the later part of the film with the ruler under the orders of his own doctor) but the easier part very bad (Struensee just looks like a old highwayman and not like a politician). I would suppose that this was a low Budget production or all money went into the two leading roles (Vikander and Mikkelsen). The uniforms were looking poor and we don’t get the Impression of the scale of the Danish castles (Christiansborg for example) and the importance of Denmark during this period (ruling Norway too and Controlling the passage to the Baltic sea). It’s surprising that “1864” obviously had a far larger Budget as a TV-production. Maybe the Story was more important for Denmark.
I wish they’d cast actors that looked more like the historical Caroline Matilda and Struensee too (and in the latter case, closer to the right age – I feel like it’s important to the story that he was still only 34 when he was executed, and Mads Mikkelsen was over a decade older than that when they did this movie). But I did think they were both very good in their roles, so that helps. Alicia Vikander’s acting in the scene where she learns about Struensee’s death was particularly incredible.
Overall, I thought it was a very good movie, and stuck close to the history from what I can tell. The deviations they made (like giving Christian VII more agency in the story, as opposed to him just letting Struensee do whatever he wanted) I actually think were understandable, and made for a better story. The thing that bugged me most was definitely the styling of Struensee’s character, especially that stringy hairstyle! If you’re going to be inaccurate, at least do it in the name of something that looks good.
What is the fabric on Caroline Mathilde’s jacquard bed pillow?
I think the neck pillow is a brocade.