Saturday, October 30, 2010

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. 

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