The Tudors

Synopsis

Season 1

Season 2

Season 3

Season 4

Cast

Episodes

Departures from history

General

• Time is compressed in the series, giving the impression that things happened closer together than they actually did. King Henry VIII was already in his mid- to late-30s by the time covered in the series. Catherine of Aragon had auburn hair and fair skin, much like her daughter Mary, and she was only six years older than Henry; he was approximately 10 years older than Anne Boleyn. Anne was recalled to Henry's court from France three years after her sister Mary Boleyn, not simultaneously, and Henry did not begin to court her until 1526. There was a period of seven years from Henry's infatuation with Anne until her coronation and his break from the Roman Catholic church. In the series, the timeline from introduction to marriage seems to take little more than a year. The assassination attempt on Anne during her coronation procession was a completely fictional event, invented by Hirst "to illustrate how much the English people hated her".
• Many characters were introduced to the series only when they would produce the most drama or when they become prominent in the story arc for some reason. In reality, Jane Seymour is believed to have become a lady-in-waiting to Catherine of Aragon around 1527; Anne Boleyn had been serving Catherine in the same capacity for five years at that point, which means that they were at court at the same time. Catherine Howard was lady-in-waiting to Anne of Cleves, and Henry's pursuit of her began during that time rather than after the end of his fourth marriage, as is shown in the series. Sir Francis Bryan is featured in the series only during Season 3, but he actually became a member of Henry's Privy chamber sometime between the king's ascent and 1519. He was instrumental in the machinations behind Anne's downfall, earning him the sobriquet "The Vicar of Hell". The Earl of Surrey was present in the court during the tenure of his cousin Anne Boleyn, but the series portrays him as coming back to England around the time that Jane Seymour became Queen.

  First season

• Cardinal Thomas Wolsey died of an illness in Leicester in 1530 while en route to London to answer charges of treason. The series implies that this report of illness is part of a cover-up by Henry and Thomas Cromwell to prevent anyone from knowing that the cardinal had committed suicide.
• The Duke of Norfolk does not appear after season one of the series, implying that he retired. In reality, he played important roles in both the purge of the Boleyns and the suppression of the Pilgrimage of Grace, deeds fulfilled by Charles Brandon in the show.
• Henry's sister is called "Princess Margaret" in the series, but she is actually a composite of his two sisters, the life of his younger sister Princess Mary Tudor coupled with the name of his older sister Margaret Tudor. This was done to avoid confusion with Henry's daughter Mary I of England.
• Early in the series, Henry VIII is also styled as King of Ireland, a title which he did not use until his break from the Roman Catholic Church. Until that point, he was only Lord of Ireland.
• Louis XII has already died as the series begins, and Henry is already negotiating a peace treaty with Francis. The show's Princess Margaret thus marries a fictional, elderly Portuguese king who lives only a few days until she smothers him in his sleep. This composite character and her story technically eliminates the children who led to Mary, Queen of Scots and Lady Jane Grey.
• The king's illegitimate son Henry Fitzroy is born near the beginning of the series and dies at a young age from the sweating sickness. In fact, he lived until 1536, long enough to marry Mary FitzRoy, Duchess of Richmond and Somerset and to witness Anne Boleyn's execution.
• Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor is given a Spanish accent when dealing with the king of England, when in fact he was Flemish-born.
• Sir Thomas More is seen ordering the death of Simon Fish by burning at the stake. However, Simon Fish died in prison of bubonic plague.

  Second season

• Imperial Ambassador Eustace Chapuys has a Spanish accent, but the historical Chapuys was a native of Savoy and his mother tongue was French.
• Chapuys is also treated somewhat anachronistically for dramatic effect. He was a replacement for Íñigo López de Mendoza y Zúñiga, but this transition occurred earlier than in the show. Mary is told of his "death in Spain", but Chapuys died in Belgium well into Mary's reign, outliving Henry by a number of years.
• During the trial of Anne Boleyn, the series depicts George Boleyn, Mark Smeaton, Sir Henry Norris, and William Brereton being executed as co-conspirators. Francis Weston is omitted.
• Paul III is depicted as suggesting that a character should join the Jesuits and carry out the assassination of Anne Boleyn. Anne was crowned in 1533, and the first band of Jesuits did not assemble until 1534. Paul III remarks in the episode that he had approved their company, but he did not do so until 1540.

  Third season

• The Countess of Salisbury was executed during Catherine Howard's time as Queen-consort. In the series, however, she and her son, Lord Montagu are executed before Henry meets Anne of Cleves.
• The court of Cleves shows not the coat of arms of the United Duchies of Jülich-Cleves-Berg but of the Kingdom of Prussia of the 18th century.
• At the welcoming reception for Anne of Cleves, Henry introduces his daughters as "Princess." As both Mary and Elizabeth were still considered by Henry to be illegitimate, he would never have accorded them such a title, as it would in effect be declaring them legitimate. Neither Mary nor Elizabeth ever regained the title of Princess, and continued to be known as "Lady" until they each in turn succeeded to the throne.

  Fourth season

• The incident of rape/murder, which marks the introduction of Sir Thomas Culpeper in the series, was a real event, but it took place in 1539, a full year before Catherine Howard's marriage to Henry and nearly two prior to the beginnings of their affair. In reality, Culpeper was a favorite of Henry's at court and a knight of the realm, having served as a courtier for other nobility as early as 1535. He was a member of Henry's Privy chamber by 1540, when he was a member of the envoy that greeted Anne of Cleves, when she arrived in England to marry Henry.
• After the annulment of his marriage with Anne of Cleves, it was only rumored that they had an affair: there is no evidence of this and it seems likely that Anne remained a virgin until her death. Anne is portrayed as being extremely popular, with just about everyone preferring her to Catherine Howard. Although it is true that both Mary and Elizabeth remained close to Anne and seem to have preferred her company to Catherine's, Anne was a rather neutral figure, who inspired no great affection from either courtiers or commoners.
• Catherine Howard was referred to as a "distant relation" of the 3rd Duke of Norfolk in the series. In reality, he was her uncle, just as he was to Anne Boleyn, who was Catherine's first cousin; Norfolk helped orchestrate both marriages. Contrary to the series' portrayal of the household of the Dowager Duchess of Norfolk as a shelter for distantly related "aristocratic bastards" and the resulting implication that Catherine Howard was an illegitimate child, in real life the Dowager Duchess was Catherine's step-grandmother, wife of Catherine's deceased grandfather the 2nd Duke of Norfolk, and Catherine was born to one of the 2nd Duke's many sons in lawful wedlock – she was sent to live in the household because her father was impoverished and recently widowed. Norfolk is also barely mentioned with regards to Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, being called a mere kinsman to him, when in actuality Surrey was the Duke's eldest son and heir.
• By the time he married Catherine Howard, the real Henry was middle-aged and obese, not a, still relatively healthy man as portrayed on the show. This is perhaps quite relevant to appreciating historical context since Catherine's affair with Sir Thomas Culpeper and her declaration of true love to him on the block would sit better with a 17-year-old girl trapped in a marriage to a much older and obese king.
• A few liberties are taken with Catherine Parr as well. Parr is portrayed as meeting Henry while her husband, Lord Latimer, is still alive and she was a casual acquaintance of Mary's. In fact, she came to court only after his death, using her status as Catherine of Aragon's goddaughter to secure a place in Mary's household. Further, Mary is shown to be openly hostile towards Catherine Parr after discovering her Protestant views. In fact, Mary got on rather well with Parr and did not fall out with Catherine until after Henry's death. Even then, her hostility had little to do with religion: she was angered when the dowager Queen married Thomas Seymour so soon after Henry's death.
• Also, in season 4 during the execution of Lady Rochford and Catherine Howard, it is depicted in the series that Rochford was beheaded first. In fact this was the other way round and although Rochford appears to weep on the block, many accounts have praised both her and Catherine for their alleged bravery in the face of death. Though Rochford had suffered a nervous breakdown during her pre-execution imprisonment, the series exaggerates her mental instability just prior to her death. In reality, one eyewitness, a merchant named Ottwell Johnson, wrote that both Lady Rochford's and Catherine Howard's souls must be with God, for they made the most godly and Christian end.
• Catherine Parr was only four years older than Mary I and Mary was seventeen, when her younger sister Elizabeth was born. The series portrays Mary as much younger: barely an adolescent at the time of Elizabeth's birth and at least a decade younger than Catherine Parr. Also, Catherine Parr was a member of Mary's household at the time of Lord Latimer's death. Elizabeth, on the other hand, is depicted as being much older, with the series portraying her as a teenager, when Henry married Catherine Howard. Historically, she was six years old at the time. Although Laoise Murray does indeed bear resemblance to the historical Elizabeth, being pale-skinned and copper-haired, she looks nothing like the dark-haired Jonathan Rhys-Meyers ; historically, Elizabeth was the spitting image of her father, although she had her mother's eyes.
• Historians debate that Anne Askew was never given the mercy of a quick death through a sack of gunpowder tied to her neck. Witnesses say it took up to 15 minutes for her to die. Other details are accurate as her joints had been dislocated on the rack by the torturers depicted in the episode and she had to be brought to her execution, tied to a chair, removed in considerable agony to be tied to a seat on the stake. Other historians however support claims that Anne was given mercy through gunpowder death, but not through the direct work of Katherine Parr.
• In the last episode of the final series, Henry commissions Hans Holbein the Younger to paint his portrait, and the final result is shown shortly before his death. However, the portrait depicted was actually painted almost a decade before his death, in 1536. Holbein, in fact, had pre-deceased Henry by several years, dying in 1543.

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Ratings

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Awards and nominations