Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Historical Innacuracies - 'The Tudors', Series 2, Episode 8

  • Jane Seymour is shown becoming a lady in waiting to Anne Boleyn when in fact she had held this position for a few years already. 
  • Anne is shown as being pregnant again. However, the timing of this is wrong. Anne miscarried her final pregnancy on the day Katherine of Aragon was buried, in January 1536. She was executed in May. Katherine died in the previous episode and, by looking at Anne's tummy, we surmise that this episode is set several months after. However, this does not fit with the actual timeline of what happened. There is actually no reason for the show to change the real timing of the events; the fact that Anne miscarried when Katherine was buried could have made an interesting scene. 
  • Anne is shown performing the traditional role of washing feet of the poor and giving them maundy money. This also doesn't fit with the timing of her still being pregnant, as she miscarried in January and Maundy is the day before Good Friday in easter. 
  • Henry did indeed suffer a jousting accident in 1536 (though I'm not sure he was jousting against Norris), but it was in January. Again, therefore, the timeline in the episode is not accurate. 
  • Anne was told the news of Henry's accident by her uncle, the Duke of Norfolk (who seems to have been cut out of history after season 1 of this show). She later blamed his crass manner of telling her as one of the reasons for her miscarriage. 

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