2022 The Serpent Queen
I was sewing like a demon for Venice carnival, which has just ended (sob) — and that meant I needed to binge TV shows like whoa. So I watched some things that had already been reviewed for the blog and that included The Serpent Queen (2022)! Trystan already did detailed recap reviews, so honestly we’ve got the show covered, except there are a few things that I would have emphasized that she didn’t touch on, so here we go: in addition to Trystan’s excellent reviews, here’s five things that stood out to me in The Serpent Queen. Yes, only one is costume-related — hey, her reviews were thorough!
“Friends”
I don’t care WHAT circumstances ensue, no-one who isn’t also a Top Royal would ever think that a QUEEN (consort, dowager, or regnant) is THEIR FRIEND. And be offended when said QUEEN turns out to have ulterior motives. The QUEEN uses you for her own purposes? You said YES PLEASE THANK YOU YOUR MAGNIFICENT QUEENSHIP. She cleans her chamber pot with your head? DITTO.
I could also rant about Mary Queen of Scots 1) thinking she could even possibly rule France after her husband’s death, and 2) showing up in Scotland with no notice and about four ladies and having a chat with a random guardsman, but I gotta keep this list to five.
Loose Doublets
Okay, so I doubt every man in 16th-century Europe wore a super stiffened doublet for every occasion, but menswear of the Renaissance wasn’t floppy, loose, or comfortable. To wit:
A look through any of the examinations of extant 16th-century doublets included in Janet Arnold’s Patterns of Fashions books shows you that they were almost always lined, frequently interlined with canvas (meaning, an additional stiffening layer was added) and possibly even more layers of things like wadding (the kind of padding you would put into a quilt), and even sometimes boned. Sure, you occasionally get a look like this:
But let’s note that’s a working man at work. For formal occasions, I want to see STIFF and FITTED, not these comfy shlumpy doublets:
Pups!
So Trystan is decidedly anti-pup, but I’m not, so let us appreciate:
The Ottomans
Trystan rightly points out that Ottoman Sultan Suleiman, who is fictionally visiting for the wedding of Catherine de Medici and the future Henri II, is nicely dressed in the European version of Ottoman dress, including huge turban:
I don’t believe Suleiman the Magnificent, sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1520-66, ever visited France. But what bothered me most was his retinue, specifically, the women. I sincerely hope these are supposed to be prostitutes, because upper-class Ottoman women would have been veiled and secluded from Western visitors. Instead these are wearing very modern interpretations of Ottoman dress, allegedly just hanging in their tent in the French palace gardens where any Western man could see them. And I’m pretty sure at one point there’s a quick shot where an Ottoman woman is just randomly belly-dancing in front the pavilion, which, no.
Most 16th-century images of Ottoman women were Western fantasies:
Some of the earliest artwork painted by actual Ottoman artists come from the mid-17th century, so about a century later, but they’re still a good reference for the kind of thing upper-class Ottoman women wore outside the home:
Instead we get this:
Hot Guises
And finally, honestly, the whole reason for this post. Trystan and I have very different tastes in men, but I was jaw-dropped throughout over the FLAMING HOT GUISE BROTHERS, played by Ray Panthaki (the cardinal) and Raza Jaffrey (the other one):
Did you share any of my thoughts about The Serpent Queen?
Find this frock flick at:
![Portrait of a lady said to be Jeanne de Valois, comtesse de la Motte [I would be shocked if this was accurate] by Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun, c. 1780 [I'd say post-1783], via Wikimedia Commons](https://i0.wp.com/frockflicks.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Jeanne_lamotte_valois.jpg?fit=300%2C175&ssl=1)
That tailor in the portrait is cute!
Totally agree about the Turkish women. A Sultan didn’t let his women (Ottoman sultan’s technically didn’t have wives, only concubines) be seen by any male who wasn’t a eunuch. And indeed nor did any Turk well-enough-off that he could afford to keep his womenfolk at home and send servants to do the shopping, etc.
I like to think that the entire daft ‘Suleiman as wedding guest’ was thrown in there mainly because the costume designer was pining to have a crack at replicating that turban but wasn’t really interested in concubine gear (and probably knew the director wouldn’t want anything authentic but would insist on belly-dance stylev gear.
Re Mary of Scots: I don’t know about chatting up random guardsmen, but actually it is true that she turned up unexpectedly. The Scots were expecting her but they hadn’t expected her quite so soon, and the welcoming delegation and the organisers of the ceremonial processions, music and feasts had to scramble to get ready. Also, she had left france in a flotilla of two galleys and two ships, but the ships had been detained by Queen Elizabeth’s fleet and only turned up later – minus all Mary’s horses which had been kept back as having no import papers! – so she didn’t have anything like the full royal retinue that would have been expected for the reigning queen of Scotland and dowager queen of France.
Dogs FTW! :)
Oh, yeah, Ray Panthaki is so hot, those bedroom eyes and that beard!
PUPPERS! And thank you for more of the eye candy with those hot hot hot men too. Looking at the Turkish women, they could have even done something like Eva Green’s costume in mmm was it Kingdom of Heaven, which was gorgeous and total hotness (although that might’ve been just, well, Eva Green).
The Titan portrait, minus the hat, shows a style that shows up a fair amount in Italian, specifically Venetian art. Basically Venetian ladies taking the short sleeved, hip length jacket like the one that the Turkish lady in the b&w woodcut is wearing, and wearing them over an Italian chemise as informal, at home wear.
I had high hopes for this series, and instead it was a hot mess. Who wants a passive doormat version of Catherine de Medici? sobs
In all fairness, we’ve only just got to Queen Catherine’s time as regent: she’s got far more room to manoeuvre now that the men in her life are mostly overgrown boys and the King is her baby boy.
I expect even more blatant Evil Queen-ing future seasons.
But why waste the first season with a passive doormat when she could already be scheming her way to power?
I admit to having a fondness for this species – it might just be that those opening titles created an overwhelmingly positive first impression, but Ms. Liv Hill didn’t hurt and CHARLES DANCE as Il Papa (RIP) just sealed the deal on this one as a guilty pleasure.
Then the show’s version of Mary, Queen of Scots, showed up and I cast aside shame with all the force of Saint Michel casting Lucifer out of Heaven.
She is my very, very favourite adaptation of the historical person and I dearly want her to appear in a satirical murder mystery in which the former Henry, Lord Darnley, is revealed to have been murdered with half the Scottish political establishment as accessories to the crime (and the other half chewing the Early Modern equivalent of popcorn as they watched the entertainment).