Historical Inaccuracies - 'The Tudors', Series 2, Episode 2

• The first thing to point out is that the timeline in this episode is horribly mixed up. At the beginning, you see that it is snowing, and that the court is exchanging Xmas gifts (which were actually exchanged during New Years). We surmise that it is Xmas 1532. However, this scene precedes those where Anne is created Marquess of Pembroke (happened in September 1532), and where Henry tells Anne about the trip to France (happened autumn 1532 after she became Marquess). Thomas More is also still the chancellor, when he had already resigned because of the submission of the Clergy.
• As above, the scene where Cromwell and Cramner are talking is marred by confused timeline. If it was during the winter of 1532, then the old Archbishop Warham would already have died, in August, and Cranmer would have been named as Archbishop, although it took him some time to come back from his post abroad.
• When Anne finds the cards in her rooms, she is finally wearing the right sort of costume! Not an inaccuracy, I know, but worth mentioning as the costumes in the series have tended to be inaccurate when it would be so easy to have just made them properly.
• When Henry confronts the church members about their oath, Cromwell and Boleyn are shown standing on the raised platform that holds Henry's throne, under the canopy of estate. They never would have stood there, as this area was reserved for the King only. 
• Henry and Anne attend a sermon by a friar, William Peto. Firstly, Henry is not in his private closet, as he would have been. Secondly, the sermon was given at Easter 1532, not Xmas.
• When Anne is made Marquess, she is given lands worth £100,000 a year. This was an unbelievably large sum for that time, and the actual figure would have been £1000.
• Mark Smeaton talks to Mary Boleyn whilst they are in France, and she mentions that her husband is dead. Her first husband, William Carey, had actually died of the sweating sickness in 1528, several years before this episode is set.

Historical Inaccuracies - 'The Tudors', Series 2, Episode 1

• Parliament is shown meeting at Westminster, but they use the same set as they did for the Legantine trial at Blackfriars. Parliament itself looks very small; I'm sure it was made up of more members than are shown in this scene.
• During the Parliament scene, it looks like the members for the House of Commons and the House of Lords are all in the same room, when they would have met seperately. Henry is not sitting under a canopy of estate, which he would have been. There are also several men seated behind him on a raised platform when, in reality, no one would have sat higher than the King.
• Warham says he will put Henry's new title to Convocation (parliament of the church), but then conducts a vote right there. Convication actually met seperately from Parliament so there was actually a lot of running back and forth with messages etc, and many delays.
• The arial view of Rome apparently shows buildings which were not built until much later.
• The pope suggests assasinating Anne Boleyn. No such plot was ever concocted, so the following scenes about it through the series are complete fabrication.
• Cranmer is introduced to George Boleyn when the two would have known each other already, as Cranmer was a friend of the Boleyn family.
• Boleyn is shown hiring Bishop Fisher's cook to poison him. There was actually an incident where poison was put into soup at the Bishop's household, and several poor people supping there died. The Bishop became ill but survived. Thomas More was not dining there at the time, as the series depicts. However, there was no proof that the Boleyn's were behind it. The cook said he'd put it in as a joke. 
•  Thomas More was not present when Katherine left the palace.

Historical Inaccuracies - 'The Tudors', Series 1, Episode 10

• The King's council is shown meeting in the Great Hall of the palace when I think they avtually met at Westminster.
•  The protestant reformer, Simon Fish, is arrested for heresy by Thomas More and burned. Fish was indeed arrested for heresy but died of plague before he could stand trial, in 1531.
• Anne Boleyn is shown dining with Henry in the great hall, and again she is wearing a rediculous head-dress which would not have been fashionable or seemly at the time. 
• Henry tells Anne that he is giving her Wolsey's old palace of York Place. This did indeed become a royal residence, and was re-named Whitehall. The series has consistently shown Whitehall to be Henry's palace from the start, even though he did not aqcuire it until the 1530s, and he had many palaces which he lived in on a sort of 'rotation' basis.
• Wolsey is shown being forcibly arrested by guards and the Duke of Suffolk He was actyally arrested, very civily, by the young Duke of Northumberland, acting on behalf of the King. Wolsey questioned Northumberland's authority and initially refused to go with him.
•  Katherine tells Chapuys (who wasn't leaving, just having a few months break) that she could not condone a war to help her. Chapuys actually spent the next few years constantly pestering both her and the Emperor to agree to a war to overthrow Henry. Thankfully, the Emperor was never interested.
• Wolsy commits suicide whilst a satirical play about his life is performed. The play 'On the Cardinal going to hell' was actually performed as depicted, but Wolsey did not kill himself. He died of what is believed to be dysentry whilst staying at Leicester Abbey on his way to London to stand trial. 

Historical Inaccuracies - 'The Tudors', Series 1, Episode 9

• Henry's sister Mary (not Margaret) did in fact die of tuburculosis. However, she died in 1536, not in 1529 when this episode was set. 
• Wolsey is removed from office by Norfolk and Brandon, and told to go to the house at Jericho. He actually went to one of his own houses at Esher, which was in a state of some neglect.

Historical Inaccuracies - 'The Tudors', Series 1, Episode 8

Firstly, I did not find anything majorly wrong with episode 7, as it was focussed on Henry's fears about the sweating sickness. In fact, the portrayl of Henry's worries about illness and death, and his ametuer efforts to prevent them, was very good. Below is a summary of the innacuracies in episode 8.

• In the first scene, Henry and Katherine are sitting for an artist. No joint painting of Henry and Katherine exists. Of course, this does not mean that one wasn't produced but, during the time when this episode was set, Henry would not have agreed to be painted alongside Katherine as he no longer thought of her as his true wife and Queen. 
• The scene where people are dancing in the great hall brings up a point about costume. The dresses the ladies wear are more Elizabethan than Henrician in their design. The most notable thing about this is that they do not have long, flowing sleeves. Henrician dresses had sleeves which were so long they almost touched the ground and, which for the richest, contained many layers of sumptuous fabric. It's a shame that little details such as this, which are not hard to do, were ignored during the making of the series.
• Katherine is visited by Bishop Tunstall and Archbishop Warham, and accused of perhaps plotting against the King. In reality, she was visited by a large delegation of Bishops and other notable figures, and this was not the only time Henry attempted to intimidate her in this manner.
• Anne Boleyn makes a new motto, which should have read 'that's how it will be, grudge who likes'. She only kept it for a short time, after she learnt that it was part of a motto for the court of Bourloigne, part of the Emperor's territory, and people were mocking her for it. 
• Thomas More brings Bishop Fisher to Queen Katherine. Fisher was actually already a part of the Queen's legal team, and she had known him for many years. She had written to him asking for advice when the issue of the divorce first arose, to which he publicly replied that she should obey the King, but he privately begun reading arguments against the King's case. He would always remain an increadibly steadfast supporter of the Queen.
•  Henry and Anne play cards, and Henry remarks on Cromwell's mission to the Pope. It was actually Gardiner who wrote the lines about paster-noster and creed when he was sent to the Pope to persuade him to act on the divorce.
• A small matter, but in the records of the Legantine trial it states that Katherine was wearing a red gown, not the purple/blue in the series. 

Historical Inaccuracies - 'The Tudors', Series 1, Episode 6

• Thomas Boleyn talks to Henry about things he found out in his post as Comptroller of the Household. This is set after Boleyn is made Lord Rochford. In reality, he had to resign his post as Comptroller when he was elevated to the peerage, as it was not seemly for a Lord to have a 'proper job'. He complained about it endlessly, as he had derived substantial income from the office.
• Wolsey is shown walking into the throne room and past the throne without doffing his hat. Everyone was meant to doff their hat and bow at the throne, even when the King was not there, and the throne room was strictly guarded and off limits to all but a very few people.
• In the final scene, Anne Boleyn is shown wearing a rediculous head-dress, which certainly would not have existed at the time. Women did wear head-dresses, but these were meant to be demure and certainly not as elaborate. The most common types in England at the time were the 'gable hood' (worn by Jane Seymour in her portrait) and the 'French hood' (worn by Anne Boleyn in her portraits).

Historical Inaccuracies - 'The Tudors', Series 1, Episode 5

• George Boleyn calls Anne his 'little' sister. In reality, George was actually the youngest of the three Boleyn children, with Mary being the eldest, then Anne. 
• Henry was indeed angry with his sister Mary (not Margaret) for marrying Charles Brandon, but this did not take place as the same time as he was beginning to seek his divorce. The whole episode with Mary and Brandon actually occured before 1520. By the time this series was set, they had been married some years and had children.
• The scene where Henry and Anne are dancing whilst Katherine is in the room brings up an interesting point, which is that Katherine and Henry continued to live together for the first few years of their divorce proceedings, as if nothing was happening. This got more and more bizarre as Anne gained influence and was given her own suite of rooms at court, where people would come to visit, and the situation only ended when Henry finally sent Katherine away in 1531.
• At the end of the episode, little Henry Fitzroy is dead of the sweating sickness. In fact, Henry Fitzroy lived until 1536, when he died of what was believed to be tuburculosis. He was a teenager and, after the downfall of Anne Boleyn, starting to look like the only possibility of a male Tudor inheriting the throne. He had been married to the daughter of the Duke of Norfolk, but the marriage was probably never consumated as they were both teenagers. Henry's 'nutiness' at the time is illustrated by the fact that he ordered Norfolk to bury Fitzroy without ceremony, but then flew into a rage when Norfolk carried out this order.

Historical Inaccuracies - 'The Tudors', Series 1, Episode 4

• As a point of interest, Henry did not adopt the title 'your majesty' until the 1530s. Before that, he used 'your grace'. This would have been confusing in the series as the Dukes were also addressed as 'your grace', so I can understand why they used the other one.
• Henry addresses his sister and wishes her well for her trip abroad. Then everyone kneels on the bare wooden floor to pray. This would not have happened. The religious service would have taken place in the palace chapel, not in the great hall, and Henry would have observed the service from his 'closet', which was a private area in the chapel just for him. He never would have knelt on the floor. 
• Henry is shown going into a church service with his wife and sitting on chairs near the altar. Again, Henry would have observed church services in this 'closet', with the Queen also having her own closet. They would have only gone into the main body of the church to recieve holy sacrament. As an aside, Henry often conducted state business during these services, as it was perhaps the only time when officials like Wolsey would find him sitting in one place! 
• Anne Boleyn is shown travelling to her family's home in a carriage which would not have been common until the 18th century.
• Wolsey mentions a new 'visitor', Marguerite of Navarre. Marguerite was actually sister to the King of France, and as such, any visit by her would have been an occasion of much formality and not one which Henry would be unaware about. All of which is somewhat irrelevant, as she never did visit England. 
• Thomas Boleyn tells the Duke of Norfolk that Wolsey has just appointed himself Bishop of Winchester, as the previous Bishop died. The series has the date of this wrong. If we are to assume that the episode is set during the early-mid 1520s (Henry not yet persuing his divorce etc), the current Bishop would be the elderly Richard Fox, who did not die until 1528. Wolsey did appoint himself as Bishop in 1529 but only served for a year.
• Henry is once again shown dining in the great hall without the canopy of estate, which he would have dined under. The canopy of estate was a highly important indicator of his status (and also that of royal children, who also dined under their own canopy). 
• Thomas More talks about his friendship with the King and how, if his head were to win a castle, the King would have it cut off. This anecdote was in fact told to his son-in-law, William Roper, and not at the court.
• The jousting accident where Henry was hit in the face occured when he was jousting against Charles Brandon, not Knyvet. 
• The scene where Margaret Tudor meets the elderly King of Portugal is completely false, as it was actually Mary Tudor, Henry's younger sister, who was married to the King of France. I mentioned this in my comments on episode 3.
• Margaret did not smother the King of Portugal. In reality, Mary was married to King Louis of France for only a short period of time before he suddenly died, of what people at the time thought was over-exertion in the bedroom.

Anne Boleyn

Remembering Anne Boleyn, who was executed on 19th May 1536. 

'These bloody days have broken my heart'

Allergy Watch: The Halzephron Inn, Cornwall.

As you may have realised from my post about the prime ministerial debate, I suffer from an allergy to tomatoes and an intolerance to gluten and wheat. The difference between an intolerance and an allergy is that the first will make you be sick for a while, the second will kill you.

Last week (10th to 17th April), I was on holiday in Cornwall with my family, my boyfriend, and my brother's girlfriend. We were staying in a lovely self-catering place in The Lizard. On the Tuesday, we'd spent a day at the beach and decided to dine out for dinner. We went to the Halzephron Inn, a dining pub that is known for high quality food. The family had been there once before, in 2006, which was before I got my allergy but after my Mum had developed her nut allergy, and we'd been fine. When my Dad had phoned to book the table during the day, he'd mentioned the allergies but the people at the place hadn't said anything.

We arrived at the Inn and asked for our table. The woman behind the bar, who was obviously in charge of everything, asked us to tell her, once again, what allergies we had. I listed them, along with the severity, and she went off to see what was suitable for us from their menu. I was expecting her to come back saying 'well you can't have the X, but you can have Y, or we can do Z but without the sauce'. However, she came back and promptly refused to even serve us because we were too risky. Bearing in mind this was in the middle of the Inn, in front of other customers, this was very embarrassing. I quietly said I understood and decided to go home and have a spud.

My Mum had other ideas, and said we were quite cabable of choosing our food and determining what risk we were at. The woman said again she couldn't serve us, and that we should have phoned in the morning so they could have done special food. We pointed out that my Dad had phoned earlier and no concerns had been raised then. We eventually sat down and had dinner, but we had been made to feel like freaks. We've never been refused service at a restaurant before, and felt this was unacceptable. We also felt that it would have been better if the woman had quietly taken us to one side and said 'i'm really sorry but chef says our particular menu tonight isn't safe for you'. As it was, she practically yelled about our problems to the whole pub. 

My Mum and I have decided never to go back to the Halzephron Inn again, so I'm posting this to warn anyone with an allergy about a place that doesn't seem to want our custom.  

The Prime Ministerial Debates and Me

If you live in the UK then, unless you've been in a hole, you can't have failed to notice it's election time. You also probably know about the three 'leaders debates' that are occuring on television, one having been broadcast on ITV last Thursday. Tonight it's the turn of Sky News, who's debate on foreign affairs is being held in Bristol, where I happen to live.

A few weeks ago, whilst playing God of War III, I got a knock on the door asking if I'd like to attend this debate. I said yes please, that would be very interesting, and proceeded to answer several questions about my political opinions and wether I was an axe-weilding illegal immigrant. By virtue of being unemployed and a Lib Dem supporter, I was duely selected for the carefully balanced audience, having signed to say I wouldn't boo or hiss, stamp my feet, or throw things at the three leaders. 

So, why am I not there right now, being bored out of my skull whilst sound and lighting make sure we don't all look and sound like the tired, dissolusioned mass of public we really are? Well it has something to do with a small, triangular yellow box I have to carry with me absolutely everywhere and which could potentially save my life. 

To put it bluntly, it's because I have an allergy.

For the past three years I have suffered from an allergy to tomatoes that's so severe I cannot even walk past an Italian restaurant without coughing my guts up and having my eyes water like someone's just shoved an onion in my face. If my boyfriend decides to eat something with the dreaded red death ball in it, I can't kiss him until he's washed his mouth out. Eating out is such a nightmare that I just don't do it. Whilst I was on holiday in Cornwall last week, my mother and I (she has a nut allergy), were refused service at a pub restaurant because we were too complicated to cook for. I also have an intolerance to wheat and gluten, and might as well walk around with the word 'freak' emblazoned onto my forehead.

The yellow box I mentioned earlier contains my epi-pen. An epi-pen is a spring activated injection of adrenaline that I have to jab into my upper thigh should I suffer from an anaphalactic shock. Such an allergic reaction is so severe that it closes your windpipe, causes your organs to go into shock and shut down, and could leave you in a coma or kill you completely. The adrenaline keeps your heart going until the paramedics arrive. 

What has this got to do with the leaders' debate? Apparently, carrying a tube with perhaps the biggest needle you will ever see in your life into a room containing three potential prime ministers is not a good idea. When I recieved my ticket for the debate and read the restrictions that said I'd have to leave my handbag in a completely different building and go through an 'airport style' search, I got a bit worried and spoke to the company who'd organised the audience recruitment. After a lenghty discussion with the woman about what exactly an epi-pen was and why I couldn't just leave it at home, she checked and came back to say I'd have to give it to an 'audience handler'. I said this wasn't good enough. After all, they could be across the other side of the room, or even taking a piss, and it's not like I can wave for help when I'm choking to death. I suggested I put it in a plastic wallet and plopped it under my chair. Eventually her colleague phoned to say actually I couldn't even take it to the debate venue. It would have to stay with my handbag in another building. 

I promptly told them to shove the debate up their bottoms. 

These sort of debates have never taken place in the UK before, and the chances of me being able to attend another one are extremely remote, but I do not understand why I should have to sit for hours feeling unsafe and worrying about what the person next to me had for lunch just in case I might use my medication as a weapon. The phrase 'second class citizen' gets thrown about way too much but, in terms of provision for people with allergies, this country is appaling. Places are only just waking up to the fact that not everyone can eat everything, and that's only for wheat and gluten problems, and even then it's not that good (wheat free does not mean gluten free, starbucks and costa). You cannot prohibit people with certain conditions from taking their medication with them. I'm not talking about a paracetemol in case you get a headache, I'm talking about asmathics, diabetics, and people like myself, for whom this medication can mean the difference between life and death. 

It's probably for the best that I don't have Sky News, because I wouldn't watch the debate now if I did. They weren't prepared to accomodate me, so why should I give them my time?

Historical Inaccuracies - 'The Tudors', Series 1, Episode 3

• Henry tells Charles Brandon that his sister, Margaret, is to marry the King of Portugal. This contains several inaccuracies. Firstly, Henry's elder sister Margaret was married to James IV of Scotland in 1503. His younger sister, Mary, had been married to the aging King Louis of France, not Portugal, but this took place some years before the series is set (Louis is dead and Francis I is King in the series). 
• Henry makes Brandon the Duke of Suffolk. In reality, he did this after the French campaign of 1513.
• In the masque, the castle is defended by ladies, when in real life those parts were played by boys from the chapel royal. Henry takes the part of 'honesty', when he actually played 'amourness'.
• Thomas Boleyn gives William Cornish, the pageant master, some money for putting Anne in the masque. Anne would actually have been chosen because of her own merits.
• Brandon did not accompany Mary to France (not Margaret to Portugal, grr). He was sent to pick her up after her husband died. At that point they married in secret. At the time the series is set, they were already Duke and Duchess of Suffolk, Henry had forgiven them, and they were happy. 
•  The emperor had already visited England briefly, as King of Spain, just before the Field of Cloth of Gold. He did then visit again in 1522.
• Henry's interest in Anne did not begin until several years later, in about 1525-1526.
• St. Paul's Cross, in London, looks like it's in a farm, when in fact it was a well-known public preaching point where people would often gather to hear preachers.
• They keep showing fireworks, when I don't think England had fireworks at this time. 
• Richard Pace, the secretary, was not arrested. He did, however, have a bit of a nervous breakdown and was removed as secretary.
• Traitors Gate wasn't called Traitors Gate at this time.

Historical Inaccuracies - 'The Tudors', Series 1, Episode 2

• Henry arrives at the Field of the Cloth of Gold with a small retinue. In reality, both he and Francis arrived with hundreds of people and it was feared there would be a battle.
• This is going to be a running theme of annoyance, but the clothes are very innacurate throughout all series of this programme. For example, Francis is shown wearing ermine, as he would, but Henry is shown in very 'relaxed' clothes. In reality, Henry would have 'dressed up' and worn fur also, as only royalty were allowed to wear ermine. 
• Little Princess Mary meets the Dauphin. In fact, her comment about wanting to kiss him took place at a 'proxy' wedding in London, when she asked the French representative if he was the Dauphin. She did not actually go to the summit.
• When Francis presents Henry with the jewelled necklace, the camera pans to show a black gentleman in the audience. Sadly, he would not have been there, as black people were thought of as infidels and inferior, and there were very very few of them in England or France at the time. 
• Mary Boleyn is shown wearing purple. In fact, only royalty were allowed to wear purple.
• In the series, the Field of Cloth of Gold is set whilst Henry's mistress, Bessie Blount, is pregnant with his child. In real life, she gave birth to his son in 1519, a year before the summit.
• Buckingham is shown taking pledges of allegiance from nobles. His conspiracy was actually stopped before it got that far.
• The Duke of Norfolk is shown giving Henry a new year's gift. There is a little confusion because the series keeps the same actor for this role throughout, when in fact one Duke of Norfolk died in 1524, and his son succeeded him. 
• The Duke of Norfolk says his father was executed by Henry VII. This is not true. The 1st Howard Duke died at the Battle of Bosworth fighting for Richard III. The 2nd died in 1524, and the third lived until the 1550s. 
• Buckingham's trial is depicted as taking place in the hall of the palace, when it would have actually taken place somewhere else, most likely in the Tower of London or at Westminster.
• St. Peter's Bascilica, in the Vatican, is shown, when it was not built until much later.
• Thomas Boleyn and his daughter, Anne, are shown talking in the courtyard of somewhere that looks like a prison, and I think this set is actually re-used for the Tower of London when Anne finds herself there in 1536.

Historical Inaccuracies - 'The Tudors', Series 1, Episode 1

• The ambassador who is murdered would certainly not have been Henry's uncle. Henry had only one, bastard, uncle at this time (Lord Lisle), who was mainly in charge of Calais. 
• Whitehall Palace did not exist until the 1530s, when this series is set in the 1520s. It was originally Wolsey's palace of York Place, until Wolsey fell and the King took it and renamed it.
• At the council meeting, Henry says the King of France has 'bullied the Pope into declaring him defender of the faith'. In fact, the French Kings had been styled 'most christian king' for many years. 
• Henry's mistress, Bessie Blount, did not at this time have a husband. She was married off after her affair with the King. 
• At the tennis match, Charles Brandon points out Buckingham's daughter. Although Brandon had a complicated martial life, there is no record of him ever having an affair with one of Buckingham's daughters.
• Wolsey, after talking to secretary Pace, enters the King's throne room. In real life, all who passed near the throne were required to bow and doff their hats, even if the King was not in the room. 
• Henry decides not to shave until he meets Francis. It was actually Francis who instigated this vow.
• The French bishop mentions the papal election, and assures Wolsey of the support of the French and 'with the support of your own cardinals' Wolsey will be elected. I'm not sure which cardinals he means, as Wolsey was the only English cardinal.
• Queen Katherine says Wolsey has dismissed her Spanish confessor. This was not true, as Katherine could not confess in any other language apart from Spanish, and retained a Spanish confessor until her death.
• Buckingham says Thomas Boleyn has come from an 'old' family. In fact, the Boleyns were a relatively new family, who had worked their way up through advantagous marriages and royal service. 
• Buckingham did not talk to other nobles about his conspiracy. The evidence, such as it was, came from his servants.
• Thomas Boleyn was not the ambassador to France at this time, although he had been previously.

Historical Inaccuracies - 'The Other Boleyn Girl' DVD

The Other Boleyn Girl (DVD)

• When Mary Boleyn is getting ready for her wedding, Anne describes her as 'younger than me'. Recent new research into the birth dates of the Boleyns now confirms that Mary was actually the eldest of the three surviving children, with Anne next, and George the youngest. 
• Mary was married off to William Carey *after* her affair with the King.
• Queen Katherine is shown giving birth to a stillborn baby, then talking to her daughter Mary. Katherine's last pregnancy was in 1518, when she gave birth to a short-lived daughter, not a boy as the film states. Mary was born in 1516, so would only have been 2 at the time and not the older child she is shown as in the film.
• It is doubtful that Henry Percy would have attended the wedding of Mary Boleyn. His father, whilst being *one of* the richest landowners in the country, may not have been the richest. 
• Thomas Boleyn asks the Duke of Norfolk about the King. However, Boleyn was actually a prominent courtier before either of his daughters gained royal favour, and would have often been at court and known much about the King.
• Henry did not visit the Boleyn home as portrayed in the film. The part about Anne trying to capture his affections during this visit is, therefore, complete fiction. He also never had a fall whilst hunting with her. 
• In the film, Lady Boleyn is depicted as being greatly concerned about her daughters being used as tools for family advancement. In real life, howver, she seemed to have few qualms about this and was happy to share in the spoils when Anne won the King's heart, even going with them to inspect Wolsey's palace of York Place when Henry took it from his fallen minister.
• The image of Mary Boleyn as a chaste, homely woman wanting a life in the country is entirely wrong. She was as ambitious as the rest of her family, and rather free with her favours, first at the French court (Francis I described her as a 'great whore') and then at the English.
• When Mary is told she must go to court, her husband says he has been given a position in the privy council. The Duke of Norfolk then describes this role as 'attending on the King'. This is a confusion between privy council, which was a body of advisors, and privy chamber, which is where Carey would have attended on the King as one of his servants. 
• When she firsts sleeps with the King, Mary asks for some water. Nobody in that age drank water, as it was unclean and dangerous. People drank weak beer instead. 
• Anne never married Henry Percy, although they were both very taken with each other. They may have contracted themselves to each other before witnessess, which in that time was legally binding, but their relationship was curtailed by Cardinal Wolsey, not the Duke of Norfolk. 
• Anne was not sent to France in exile. She had already spent time at the French court, and before that the court of the Regent of the Netherlands. This was a common practice in noble families for the education of their daughters. 
• Mary Boleyn did not give Henry a son. Had she done, the child would have been acknowledged by the King, as was the case with his illegitimate son, Henry Fitzroy, who was borne by his mistress Bessie Blount. 
• When Anne returns to France, she talks to Henry about the 'new' French king. However, Francis I had ascended the throne earlier than the film is set. 
• George Boleyn visits Mary during her confinment, but in reality he wouldn't have done, as no men were allowed in the confinment room.
• Katherine of Aragon did not go on 'trial', as suggested in the film. Both her and Henry were required to appear before an ecclesiastical court, headed by Wolsey and Cardinal Campeggio, to try the validity of thier marriage. Only the two Cardinals could deliver a verdict, not 'bishops' as the film states. Bishops were certainly not all in favour of the King's case - John Fisher being the most notable example.
• The trial is depicted as taking place at the Tower of London. In fact, it was held at Blackfriars, near Bridewell Palace. Anne removed to her family's house at Hever and was not present. 
• The King's anulment was far more complicated than the film suggests, and the ecclesiastical implications are only barely hinted at.
• In the film, Katherine is sent away under armed guard. In real life, Henry went on progress with Anne and ordered Katherine to leave Windsor and remove to Wolsey's old house at the More, and then ordered her several more times to move further away. 
• Henry never raped Anne. They probably first slept together during a visit to Calais in November 1532. This was a couple of years after Henry seperated from Katherine, and not on the same day, as depicted in the film.
• Henry and Anne married in secret, not publicly like in the film, although Anne was later crowned.
• Mary did indeed marry Stafford, although he was not one of her father's servants. They married before, not after, Anne's death, and were both banished from court.
• Anne never planned to sleep with her brother, and the accusations against them were completely made up. The film makes no mention of the other men accused of sleeping with the Queen. 
• Mary Boleyn made no attempt to save her sister and was not present at Anne's execution.