From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Tudors
Promotional picture for The Tudors
Genre	Historical fiction
Created by	Michael Hirst
Starring	Jonathan Rhys Meyers Sam Neill Jeremy Northam
Country of origin	Ireland Canada
Language(s)	English
No. of seasons	1 (Season 2 in production)
No. of episodes	10
Production
Executive producer(s)	Eric Fellner Tim Bevan Ben Silverman Teri Weinberg Sheila Hockin
Producer(s)	James Flynn Gary Howsam
Location(s)	Ireland Canada
Running time	60 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	Showtime
Original run	April 1, 2007 –
External links
Official website
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

The Tudors is an Emmy Award-nominated television series based upon the early reign of Henry VIII, with Jonathan Rhys Meyers in the lead role.^[1]

The series is produced by Peace Arch Entertainment for Showtime in association with Reveille Eire (Ireland), Working Title Films and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and is filmed in Ireland. The first two episodes debuted on DirecTV, Time Warner Cable OnDemand, Netflix, Verizon FiOS On Demand, Internet Movie Database and on the series' website before the official series premiere on Showtime. The Tudors' April 1, 2007 debut was the highest rated Showtime series debut in three years.^[2] In April 2007, the show was renewed for a second season,^[2] and in that month the BBC announced it had acquired exclusive United Kingdom broadcast rights for the series, which began airing on 5 October 2007. Canada's CBC, began airing the show on 2 October 2007.^[3]

Contents 1 Cast 2 Episodes 3 Departures from history 4 Reception 4.1 Awards 5 References 6 See also 7 External links

Main article: List of The Tudors characters

Role	Actor
King Henry VIII	Jonathan Rhys Meyers
Cardinal Wolsey	Sam Neill
Anthony Knivert	Callum Blue
Charles Brandon	Henry Cavill
Duke of Norfolk	Henry Czerny
Anne Boleyn	Natalie Dormer
Katherine of Aragon [4]	Maria Doyle Kennedy
Thomas Boleyn	Nick Dunning
Thomas Cromwell	James Frain
Thomas More	Jeremy Northam
William Compton	Kristen Holden-Ried
Margaret Tudor	Gabrielle Anwar

Main article: List of The Tudors episodes

There are numerous ways in which the series does not coincide with history. Liberties are taken with character names, relationships, physical appearance, and the timing of events.

Time is conflated in the series, giving the impression that things happened closer together than they actually did. By the time of most of the events in this series, King Henry VIII was already in his mid-to-late 30s. Catherine of Aragon was really only six years older than Henry VIII, instead of the 15-year age gap implied by the show (Henry is said to be 25 as the series opens) and the relative ages of the actors. Henry was about a decade older than Anne Boleyn, who was born circa 1501, and did not seriously begin his pursuit of her until he was in his mid-thirties.

The character of Henry's sister, called "Princess Margaret" in the series, is actually a composite of his two sisters: the life events of his youngest sister, Princess Mary Tudor, coupled with the name of his eldest sister, Margaret Tudor (to avoid confusion with Henry's daughter, Mary I of England).^[5] Historically, Henry's sister Princess Mary first married the French King Louis XII. The union lasted approximately three months, until his death; Louis was succeeded by his cousin Francis I, who was married to Louis' daughter Claude of France. Mary subsequently married Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk. As The Tudors begins, Henry is already negotiating a peace treaty with Francis; the series' Princess Margaret thus marries the Portuguese king, who lives only a few days until she murders him in his sleep.^[6] By the time of the events of this series, the historical Brandon (who was already in his early 40s) and Princess Mary were long married with three children. Henry's eldest sister, Margaret Tudor, was actually married to King James IV of Scotland and became the grandmother of Mary, Queen of Scots.

While Bessie Blount was famously one of Henry VIII's mistresses and did give Henry an illegitimate son (Henry FitzRoy), historically, her son did not die as a small child. FitzRoy died at the age of 17 in 1536, a month after the execution of Anne Boleyn and roughly 10 years before the death of his father, Henry VIII. Blount was also not married until after the birth of Henry FitzRoy.

The papal politics depicted in the first several episodes of the series also have no clear relation to actual events. A Pope Alexander is depicted as on his death bed at the time of the Field of the Cloth of Gold meeting between Henry and Francis (in 1520), whereas the actual pope at that time, Leo X, died suddenly at the very end of 1521, and there had not been a pope named Alexander since 1503, before the beginning of Henry's reign. A Cardinal Orsini is depicted as being elected following the death of the fictional Alexander, which, again, does not correspond to actual history, when the Emperor's tutor Adrian of Utrecht was elected to succeed Leo, and, following his death just a year later, Cardinal Medici, who as Clement VII would refuse to permit Henry's divorce, was elected to the papal throne.

In the first episode an English ambassador described as the "uncle" of Henry VIII is murdered in Italy by Frenchmen; Henry VIII had no such uncle. There is also no historical evidence that composer Thomas Tallis was bisexual, as portrayed in the series.

The Palace of Whitehall as shown to be the home of Henry VIII from the beginning of the series, only fell into Henry's hands in 1530 after he removed Cardinal Wolsey from power. Up until this point in time it was called York Place, and was taken by Henry to be his home with his fiancée Anne Boleyn.^[7] The Palace was not referred to as Whitehall Palace until as much as a decade after.

Cardinal Wolsey was not imprisoned and did not commit suicide. After being accused of treason, he set out for London to answer the charges and died en route in Leicester. Wolsey's death came in 1530, three years before the death of Henry's sister Mary; in the series, the two events are juxtaposed.

In the second episode of season one Henry VIII is seen celebrating the birth of his son and fires a flintlock musket to do so. However, this type of musket was not invented until 1630, a century later.

Please help improve this section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (December 2007)

The series was nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Drama Series in 2007. Jonathan Rhys Meyers was also nominated for the Best Actor in a Television Drama Golden Globe for his role.^[8]

• List of The Tudors characters
• List of The Tudors episodes

• Official website
• The Tudors at the Internet Movie Database