The Tudors is a 2007 ten-part television series co-commissioned by Showtime and Peace Arch Entertainment in production with Reveille, LLC. The series examines the early reign of Henry VIII, with Jonathan Rhys Meyers in the lead role.[1] The first two episodes debuted before the series premiere on DirecTV, Time Warner Cable OnDemand, Netflix, Internet Movie Database and on the series website. The series formally debuted on Showtime on April 1 2007 with the highest rated Showtime series in three years. [2] As of April 2007, the show has been renewed for a second season. [3] The theme song is based on the beginning of Joseph Haydn's Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser, which is the melody to which the German national anthem is sung. The series is filmed in Ireland.
| The Tudors | |
|---|---|
| File:TudorsShowtimeposter.jpg Promotional picture for The Tudors | |
| Genre | Historical fiction |
| Created by | Michael Hirst |
| Starring | Jonathan Rhys Meyers Sam Neill Jeremy Northam |
| Country of origin |  USA |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 9 |
| Production | |
| Executive producers | Ben Silverman Teri Weinberg |
| Production location |  Ireland |
| Original release | |
| Network | Showtime |
| Release | April 1 2007 – June 2007 |
Cast
Episodes
Historical inaccuracies
There are numerous ways in which the series does not coincide with history. Like any work of historical drama, liberties are taken with character names, relationships, physical appearance and time sequences.
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 more than a decade older than Anne Boleyn (her year of birth is uncertain), 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, Princess Margaret Tudor (to avoid confusion with Henry's daughter, Mary I of England).[4] Henry's sister, Princess Mary, did marry Charles Brandon after being widowed, but her first husband was the French King Louis XII, not the Portuguese king as portrayed in the series. Princess Mary was married to her first husband for roughly three months instead of a few days, and there is no historical evidence that she murdered her first husband in his sleep to escape the matrimonial bonds. Additionally, her two marriages took place about 10 years earlier than is represented. By the time of the events of this series, Brandon (who was already in his early 40s) and Princess Mary were long married with three children. Henry's eldest sister, Princess 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.
There is 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 fianceé Anne Boleyn.[5] The Palace was not referred to as Whitehall Palace until as much as a decade after.
References
- ^ IMDb page for The Tudors
- ^ "Showtime's Tudors continues reign" - Variety 12 April 2007
- ^ "Showtime's Tudors continues reign" - Variety 12 April 2007
- ^ "Renaissance Romping With Henry and His Rat Pack" ~ The New York Times 30 March 2007
- ^ Fraser, A: "The Six Wives of Henry VIII", page 214. Phoenix Press, 2002
Trivia
- In Episode II, the song that can be heard in the background during the scene where Thomas Boleyn tells his older daughter, Mary, that the king has asked for her is "Helas Madame", an original composed by Henry VIII.
- In Episode III, a portrait of Henry V of England hangs on the wall as Henry and Thomas More discuss Henry's pamphlet against Luther.
- In Episode IV, a portrait of Prince Arthur Tudor can be spotted on the wall outside of the room in which Henry seduces the French Princess.
- In the same episode, a portrait of Henry V can been seen on the wall behind Henry and Wolsey as Henry angrily tells the cardinal that he wants a divorce.
See also
External links
- Official website (USA access only)
- The Tudors at IMDb
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