Strange but True ? |

Michael Hirst, writer & one of the Tudors creators said:

"I was constantly surprised by how extreme everything was! I know I am sometimes taken to task
for “inventing” things, but believe me the general rule of thumb is that the more extraordinary
and unbelievable a scene is, the more likely it is to be based on historical “fact”.
I simply could not make up the story of Henry wrestling,virtually naked, with the King of France;
or the “orgy” that followed the birth of his bastard son; or the fact that the King fell head first
into the mud and nearly drowned trying to vault over a ditch.
Again and again I stumbled over amazing anecdotes and stories, often in the foot-notes
of very dry and learned texts, which gave me insights into an extraordinary reality."

Season 1 Episode 2

"Field of Cloth of Gold" in France.

Francis I & King Henry VIII

Season 1 Episode 2

Celebration of the King's Bastard son's birth

Season 1 Episode 3

Mary (age 6) is presented to her betrothed, Emperor Charles (age 22) at Greenwich in 1522. His need for a heir prompted Charles to withdraw his commitment to Mary four years later in order to marry Isabella of Portugal.

Season 1 Episode 4

Henry attempts to pole vault over a mud puddle and ends up head first in it.

Season 1 Episode 5

Season 1 Episode 10

Anne Boleyn tells Katherine of Aragon's ladies in waiting that she would rather 'see her hanged than acknowledged as my mistress'

Season 1 Episode 10

After the downfall of Cardinal Wolsey, Thomas Boleyn commissioned a play that satirized Wolsey's corrupt influence

Season 2 Episode 1

A cook is bribed to poison the bishops and when it is found out, he is sentenced to be boiled alive - which was the actual sentence for such an offence

Season 2 Episode 1

Katherine of Aragon continued to sew shirts for the King after their separation and this caused Anne Boleyn to fly into a jealous rage.

"Anne created one of her angry scenes when she found one of the servants of the privy chamber taking linens to the Queen, in order that the King should have his shirts made - no doubt for the good sound masculine reason that Catherine had always done so, and he wanted the shirts he knew. On this occasion the King refused to give in and confirmed the linen was sent on his instructions. Such jealousy on the part of the Lady seemed highly unreasonable to Queen Catherine's supporters and it lost nothing in the telling. At the same time, Anne Boleyn had a point: sewing the King's shirts did have a symbolic significance. Queen Catherine, in continuing to do so, was being allowed by King Henry to assert the rights of a wife." - PG 172 Antonia Fraser, The Wives of Henry VIII

Season 2 Episode 2

Anne Boleyn was presented to King Francis I during the winter of 1532 in Calais during an elaborate masque. Anne had served at the court of King Francis previously but was formally presented in 1532 as Henry's betrothed.

William Webbe & his mistress played by Katie McGrath

"In the late 1530s, a man called William Webbe complained that, while he was riding in broad daylight with his mistress near Eltham Palace, they encountered the King, who took an immediate fancy to the "pretty wench", pulled her up onto his horse, and rode off to the palace where he ravished her and kept her for some time." - PG. 337 Alison Weir, Henry VIII: The King and His Court

Season 2 Episode 8

Henry did have a jousting accident on January 24, 1536. He was knocked unconscious for several hours and many feared he would die

Season 2 Episode 8

Jane returns the gift of a purse of sovereigns and a letter from the king in a gesture that preserves her chastity and her desire wait for marriage before she comes to the king's bed

Anne holding her daughter , Princess Elizabeth Tudor pleads with an angry King Henry VIII.

In 1559, Alexander Ales, a Scottish Lutheran, sent an account of this to Queen Elizabeth I. He said he had been at court seeking the payment of a gift the King had promised him from Thomas Cromwell.
"Never shall I forget the sorrow which I felt when I saw the most serene queen, your most religious mother, carrying you, still a little baby, in her arms and entreating the most serene king your father, in Greenwich Palace, from the open window of which he was looking into the courtyard, when she brought you to him. I did not perfectly understand what had been going on, but the faces and gestures of the speakers plainly showed that the king was angry, although he could conceal his anger wonderfully well. Yet from the protracted conference of the council (for whom the crowd was waiting until it was quite dark, expecting that they would return to London), it was most obvious to everyone that some deep and difficult question was being discussed."
[Eric Ives' Life and Death of Anne Boleyn]

Season 2 Episode 10

Anne's last moments of life before she is beheaded for treason.