Friday, November 5, 2010

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.

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

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.