The Favourite goofs

Several close-up shots plainly reveal second and third piercings in Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz's earlobes. Multiple ear piercings were not commonplace in the early 1700s, particularly among English women at court.

Someone from the upper classes is commonly described as "posh." The Oxford English Dictionary records the earliest documented instance of the word used in that sense as dating from 1914.

The characters say "OK", an Americanism that was not recorded until over a century afterwards.

Mascara was first developed in 1913.

Wisteria in full flower can be seen.

On screen, Robert Harley is depicted as a young man. In reality, he was around 47–49 years old at the time. This youthful representation is likely influenced by William Pitt the Younger, who became Prime Minister at the age of 24 in 1783.

In reality, Queen Anne did not exile the Marlboroughs from England. John Churchill chose to leave the country with his wife Sarah for several reasons: he had been dismissed from his post as commander‑in‑chief of the English army; he was facing bankruptcy, which prevented him from completing Blenheim Palace; and he was subjected to personal attacks in both the press and Parliament amid a number of scandals.

Godolphin presses Queen Anne to dispatch an additional "division" to support Marlborough in the war. The notion of a military "division" and its use as a term did not emerge until roughly thirty years later, when the French general and military theorist Maurice de Saxe (1696–1750) coined it. De Saxe was still an adolescent at the time depicted in the film.

Emma Stone's freckles are intermittent. In the era portrayed, an upper‑class woman would rarely spend sufficient time outdoors to develop them. Abigail, however, had fallen on hard times before she appeared at court; having worked as a domestic servant, she would likely have been exposed to sunlight long enough to acquire freckles.

The term "prime minister" was originally applied to George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham (1592-1628), the "favourite" of James I and Charles I. It did not denote the same authority now associated with the office of Prime Minister.