Tudors, The
Year
2007
Genre
Drama, History, Romance, War
Country
Ireland, Canada, USA
Director
Actors
Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Henry Cavill, James Frain, Anthony Brophy, Guy Carleton, Sarah Bolger, Natalie Dormer, Nick Dunning, Rod Hallett, Maria Doyle Kennedy, Simon Ward
Description
This costume drama features England's splendid Renaissance dynasty under King Henry VIII. Beginning in Season 1 when Henry VIII was growing desperate for an heir and growing distant from his first wife, the series moves quickly to the period when Anne Boleyn became his obsession. During this time Cardinal Wolsey rose to become the power behind his throne, ruling ruthlessly and nearly absolutely while Henry (played by Johnathon Rhys Meyers) for the most part followed the Cardinal's advice, maneuvering through a series of betrayals and plots against him. When Anne Boleyn plays much harder to get than any woman ever has, Henry begins to search for a way out of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, so that he can make Anne his wife. Needing a divorce, Henry turns to Wolsey, who promises to help him create waves of backlash from the church, as well as the Spanish Habsburg dynasty and its overseas empire. Against this background gyrate the private lives and political intrigues of several members of the royal court and chancery. This includes Henry's friend and his sister Margaret's true love Charles Brandon, the Habsburg ambassadors, greedy and power-hungry schemers, their incidental victims and composer Thomas Tallis...
Episodes
- Season 1: 1. In Cold Blood (2007). King Henry VIII, the young and ambitious monarch of England, prepares for war with France but is dissuaded by the diplomatic manipulation of his powerful Lord Chancellor, Cardinal Wolsey, who proposes that the King sponsor a "Treaty of Universal Peace." The harmony of the King's domestic affairs is threatened, however, when he discovers that Elizabeth Blount, the young and beautiful lady-in-waiting to his Queen, Katherine of Aragon, is pregnant with his child.
- Season 1: 2. Simply Henry (2007). Henry and his court look to sign the treaty with France, though tempers of both kings flare up at the summit. Meanwhile, Henry takes on a new mistress named Mary Boleyn, though he soon tires of her and Mary's sister, Anne, is summoned to the court.
- Season 1: 3. Wolsey, Wolsey, Wolsey! (2007). The King asks Charles to escort his sister, Margaret, to her betrothed and promotes him to Duke of Suffolk. The envoys from the Holy Roman-Emperor meet with Cardinal Wolsey and determine how to cement the treaty between the two nations. Anne catches the King's notice in a play. The Emperor is invited to the King's court. It is learned that the King of France knows of the treaty talks- and the Cardinal is quick to find a scapegoat. We learn more of why Anne's father and uncle want her to seduce the King.
- Season 1: 4. His Majesty, The King (2007). As a reward for his denunciation of Martin Luther, the Pope christens Henry "Defender of the Faith," but a brush with death causes the king to seek a solution to his lack of an heir. Princess Margaret marries the decrepit King of Portugal reluctantly, but the union is short-lived; Henry's desire for Anne Boleyn intensifies.
- Season 1: 5. Arise, My Lord (2007). Henry is displeased to learn that the Emperor Charles V, Queen Katherine's nephew, has released King Francis of France from prison and is forced to look for a foreign ally elsewhere. Meanwhile Katherine's alliance with Charles intensifies as does her hatred of Wolsey. Anne Boleyn turns down the king's proposal that she be the royal mistress, demanding nothing less than being declared queen.
- Season 1: 6. True Love (2007). Henry is still besotted with Anne Boleyn, queen Catherine asks a diplomat to appeal to her Habsburg relatives. Now the emperor has captured the pope in Italy, cardinal Woolsey promises the king to get a mandate from the cardinals to handle Henry's divorce demand and personally goes to Paris in triumph, to sign a treaty with the French king Francis I. Ann's father Thomas Boleyn tells the incredulous king about the cardinal's stealing confiscated monastical goods. After utterly abject humiliation at Henry's feet, Charles Brandon is allowed to win his return to court by ...
- Season 1: 7. Message To The Emperor (2007). Sir William Compton is diagnosed on his Warwickshire estate with highly contagious 'sweating sickness', the physician bleeds his back- death comes swift, his body is burned before burial, Thomas Tallis breaks his lute on the fresh grave, then courts Joan Larke. The Cardinal flatters Ann and announces the alliance with France against the emperor is a fact, while he sends lawyers Stephen Gardiner and Foxe to pope Clement VII in Orvieto, requesting an annulment of the royal marriage to Catherine, if necessary by threats, while the emperor demands confirmation. The duke ...
- Season 1: 8. Truth And Justice (2007). Cardinal Campeggio's long awaited papal legation has arrived at court to decide with colleague-cardinal Thomas Wolsey on the royal request for divorce, claiming Catherine's first marriage to Henry's late elder brother nullified his. When Campeggio learns the king won't yield, he suggests an alternative: the queen could retire to a monastery, but only voluntarily, which she refuses, swearing in confessional she came as a virgin to Henry. Thomas Tallis proposes to his late lover Joan's sister Jane. Under Anne Boleyn's love spell, Henry sends bishops to tells the queen ...
- Season 1: 9. Look To God First (2007). The legatine court's divorce trial continues in the Queen's absence, hearing testimony suggesting prince Arthur carnally consummated his marriage to Catherine: embarrassing for the court, amusing for the populace. Catherine's council, bishop Fisher, dares claim even heaven can't dissolve the royal marriage, comparing to Herod Antipas' adultery shamed by Saint John the Baptist who was executed for that truth. Woolsey sends Thomas More to Cambria (Cambray) to check if France and the pope remain irreconcilable with the emperor. After Anne walks off, disbelieving Wolsey's...
- Season 1: 10. Death Of Wolsey, The (2007). Now cardinal Wolsey lives in misery as penniless archbishop of and in York, barred from court, hoping in vain Ann Boleyn who broke his hold on the king will reward his efforts as she once wrote, honors and offices are mainly distributed to the Boleyn clan, with Norfolk in charge -Charles Brandon neglects his joint presidency- of the royal council. While the devout, rather ascetic new chancellor Thomas More is determined to crush heresy, personally attending the stake, Thomas Cromwell convinces Henry that under Luther's vision the king is above all earthly laws, even ...
- Season 2: 1. Everything Is Beautiful (2008). As he seeks the annulment of his marriage to Katherine of Aragon, King Henry VIII appoints himself the head of the Church of England. And Anne Boleyn insists that Henry remove Queen Katherine from the picture -- and Court.
- Season 2: 2. Tears Of Blood (2008). The Archbishop's capitulation to Henry results in Thomas More's resignation and a triumphal trip by Henry to France to show off his new queen to Francis.
- Season 2: 3. Checkmate (2008). After Henry breaks all ties with the church and marries Anne, the Pope threatens him with excommunication and authorizes Anne's assassination.
- Season 2: 4. Act Of Succession, The (2008). After princess Elisabeth's baptism, Henry orders Thomas Cromwell to draw up a bill of succession favoring his and Ann's offspring, to be accepted by an oath from all subjects. The affront to the imperialist party is maximized by making princess Mary a lowly lady in waiting to her half-sister, yet the French King still refuses openly to recognize the new Queen. Ann orders her rival lady Eleanor Luke eliminated, by false charges of jewel theft. Tired of Henry's schismatic obstinacy, Pope Paul III makes the loyal, hence jailed bishop Fisher a cardinal, Henry orders his ...
- Season 2: 5. His Majesty's Pleasure (2008). Fisher and More continue to resist the coercion to take the oath and pay with their lives as Henry's ardor toward Anne subsides after her miscarriage.
- Season 2: 6. Definition Of Love, The (2008). When King Francis refuses to approve an engagement involving the baby but proposes one between Mary and the Dauphin, Henry begins to turn against Anne.
- Season 2: 7. Matters Of State (2008). Henry warns Anne to stay out of state affairs, but her paranoiac fear of Catherine is only alleviated with her death and Anne's new pregnancy.
- Season 2: 8. Lady In Waiting (2008). The Pope excommunicates Henry, who recovers after a near-fatal jousting accident and begins a relationship with Jane Seymour.
- Season 2: 9. Act Of Treason, The (2008). As Jane Seymour's fortunes rise, Anne's fall. Several of those close to her including her brother are tortured into confessing treason and beheaded.
- Season 2: 10. Destiny And Fortune (2008). Anne goes to her death continuing to pronounce her innocence and that of the accused men.
- Season 3: 1. Civil Unrest (2009). Henry's new wife Jane urges him to reconcile with his daughter Mary while Robert Aske leads a pilgrimage of thousands against Cromwell's monastic reforms.
- Season 3: 2. Northern Uprising, The (2009). The Duke of Suffolk is unable to defeat the rebellion militarily, so he resorts to lies and subterfuges.
- Season 3: 3. Dissension And Punishment (2009). Henry feigns reconciliation with Aske but ultimately has the leaders of the rebellion arrested; later he becomes ecstatic over Jane's pregnancy.
- Season 3: 4. Death Of A Queen, The (2009). Forced to recant, Aske is hanged in Yorkshire, Cromwell coerces Brandon to execute more rebels as examples, and Jane suffers complications in childbirth.
- Season 3: 5. Problems In The Reformation (2009). While a grieving Henry remains in seclusion with his fool coming to grips with Jane's death, court intrigue turns to political assassination in his absence.
- Season 3: 6. Search For A New Queen (2009). frustrated in his efforts to assassinate Cardinal Pole, Henry has his relatives executed while Cromwell supports a marriage to Anne of Cleves.
- Season 3: 7. Protestant Anne Of Cleves (2009). Henry settles on Anne Of Cleves as his fourth wife but is disappointed with her attractiveness and blames Cromwell for his unhappy situation.
- Season 3: 8. Undoing Of Cromwell, The (2009). As Henry seeks to have his marriage to Anne of Cleves annulled and Cromwell removed, Bryan pimps teenage Catherine Howard as Henry's new mistress.
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