Historical Inaccuracies in The Tudors | Season 1, Episode 2 by Charity Bishop

How accurate is The Tudors, Season 1, Episode 2? This episode blends dazzling spectacle with dubious history, from the Field of the Cloth of Gold and Buckingham’s downfall to Mary Boleyn’s reputation and the birth of Henry Fitzroy. While the costumes and drama are top-notch, the series often rewrites timelines and characters for dramatic effect. In this fact check, I dive deep into what really happened (and what didn’t), backed by over 25 years of Tudor scholarship. If you love Tudor court drama, but crave historical accuracy, you’re in the right place.

Inside This Post:

A Tent Fit for a King: The Field of the Cloth of Gold
WrestleMania: Tudor Edition
More Than a Mistress? Mary Boleyn’s Reputation
The Christmas That Wasn’t: Henry Fitzroy & A Royal Timepiece
Treason or Threat? Buckingham’s Trial
Dying Well in the Tudor Age
Popes and Plot Holes
Wolsey’s Palace Problems

Episode 2: Simply Henry

Henry VIII and King Francis meet at the Field of the Cloth of Gold to discuss their new treaty of perpetual peace in a lavish display of wealth and influence. But after Henry loses a wrestling match to the French king, his temper flares. He takes Mary Boleyn as his latest mistress. In England, the Duke of Buckingham is arrested, tried for treason, and executed, while the court celebrates the birth of the king’s illegitimate son by Bessie Blount, Henry Fitzroy.

A minor note: Henry has a silly conversation with Thomas Boleyn over a game of chess about Francis, by asking about him and whether his ‘calves’ are as nice as Henry’s. This actually happened, but Henry asked the Venetian ambassador instead (in 1515).

A painting of The Field of the Cloth of Gold

A Tent Fit for a King: The Field of the Cloth of Gold

The series sets up Henry’s visit with Francis as a spectacular affair; it was, only the real deal was even more expensive and lavish than what we saw on-screen.

They met in June 1520, near Calais, a northern territory in France ruled by English monarchs. Henry had a massive temporary palace covering 12,000 square yards constructed, in four blocks with a central courtyard. The only solid part was the 8 feet high brick base. The walls were of painted canvas and cloth on timber frames, decorated to look like stone and brick. (When Henry shows Brandon it’s just canvas, it’s true!) The slanting roof had oiled cloth painted to look like slates and lead, and the many glass windows made visitors “feel as if they were in the open air.” Almost 3,000 tents went up in the fields beyond the castle for those who could not stay within it. Combined, the two kings spent about 19 million (in today’s money) on their two-week party.

Both kings tried to outdo one another with their many dazzling tents and clothes, music, enormous feasts, games, jousting competitions, wine fountains, and other extravagances. The meeting came to be known as the “Cloth of Gold” because so many of the tents and fabrics were woven with costly silk and golden thread. About 12,000 people attended.

A Spanish lady's hairstyle from the same period as Catherine of Aragon

Their days were taken up with tournaments, in which both kings took part, wrestling, and archery displays. The first night, each king attended a banquet thrown by the other king’s wife. Catherine of Aragon dressed up in Spanish fashions, maybe as a reminder to Francis of her lineage and her traditional Spanish contempt for France. Her Spanish hairstyle in particular would have surprised the French and English courts. A long plait of her flaming red hair, tied up in a jeweled coif, like this:

The series depicts Henry presenting Francis with a pastry full of live birds; this was a common practice at the time at royal banquets. (This is where the song Four and Twenty Blackbirds Baked in a Pie originates.) The birds were placed beneath the cooked pastry, so when someone cut into it, they could fly out.

Contrary to what’s shown on screen, Princess Mary did not attend this event.

WrestleMania: Tudor Edition

Most historians agree Henry challenged the King of France to a wrestling match, but there are no contemporary English accounts of it. Unlike the rather scrawny JRM on-screen, Henry VIII was a remarkable athlete for his time, adept at jousting, archery, bowling, and wrestling. The real Henry did not challenge Francis out of resentment for Francis’ unkind remarks about the superiority of France to England, but drunk and in good spirits, issued a friendly challenge. After he lost, rather than throwing a tantrum in public, Henry went to dinner with Francis. The next day, the two kings competed in an archery competition, where Henry beat Francis. There are no youthful accounts of Henry having a volatile temper, though as he got older and crazy from a head injury and his uncontrolled diabetes and chronic pain, he became more unhinged.

The series has Thomas More calming down Henry by shaming him about his behavior and how bad it will make him look, but the historical Henry was image-conscious and would not have created a public scene. Whether this incident soured Henry on the French alliance is unknown; but within two years, he violated the treaty and went to war against France.

More Than a Mistress? Mary Boleyn’s Reputation

Young Lambert Simnel and a hawk on The Queen's Falconer Cover — *The Tudors celebrate the Twelve Nights of Christmas in The Queen’s Falconer*

Mary Boleyn becomes Henry VIII’s mistress in this episode, after Francis points her out to Henry with a callous remark (“I call her my English mare, because I ride her so often”), but there’s no evidence she was ever Francis’ mistress (unlike some of his other mistresses) or that he made such a statement. It’s even questionable if Mary had any lovers other than Henry VIII.

Some sources say Mary went to France with her sister when Mary Tudor arrived to marry the King of France, and stayed there from 1514 to 1515. The Bishop of Faenza called her “the very great whore, the most infamous of all,” in 1536, 16 years later.

The series implies their affair only lasts for a few weeks, when it went on for three to five years.

The Christmas That Wasn’t: Henry Fitzroy & a Royal Timepiece

Henry’s illegitimate son, Henry Fitzroy, is born at Christmas. Because the writer moved the timelines around to have major events running concurrently, Fitzroy is born in December 1520 instead of in June 1519.

Buckingham gives the king a clock, which is accurate for the period; mechanical clocks were expensive and used only by the nobility who could afford to buy them.

Treason or Threat? Buckingham’s Trial

As covered extensively in this post for The Spanish Princess, in real life, there was no physical evidence Buckingham plotted against Henry VIII. It’s likely Henry saw his opulent lifestyle and self-styling on the level of a prince as a threat. Buckingham was known for dressing above his station and for flaunting his wealth. He was also from the Plantagenet royal line, and there were still York supporters in England.

Given that Henry had no male heirs, he and his advisors could have worried that Buckingham would make a bid for the throne, and preemptively ended him. Any nobleman executed for treason also forfeited his estates and income, which would have added a significant amount of money, land, and revenue to the royal treasury.

Henry VIII was not as good at “handling” the rich nobility as his father had been; Henry VII hobbled them with fines, fees, and taxes to keep them in line, but not wanting to become known as a miserly king like his father, Henry threw off most of those traditional restraints and resorted to executions instead.

Buckingham was tried and found guilty by a panel of his “peers” (high-ranking English noblemen), and accused of intending to murder the king and of listening to prophecies about the king’s death. Later, Sir Thomas More, complained that all the evidence was hearsay from servants who were threatened and tortured to extract false confessions.

Dying Well in the Tudor Age

Catherine of Aragon and Juana of Castile on the cover of Isabella's Daughter — *Love the Tudors? Read my series!*

In the series, Buckingham does not want to die, resists the executioner, and has to be pinned down so they can sever his head. The real Edward Stafford, Duke of Buckingham, faced his executioner “with composure” and requested the executioner make it quick, so he would not suffer. Modern audiences understand his trying to resist and pull away, but in a Middle Ages context, few people reacted that way, and here’s why.

In the Middle Ages, Christianity heavily emphasized the importance of a “good death” for attaining salvation. To face your death with courage and repentance could secure you a favorable afterlife judgment and potentially shorten your time in Purgatory. Therefore, rather than fight or bad-mouth the monarch putting them to death, people would confess to a priest, pay their executioner, ask the crowd to pray for them, speak a public atonement for their sins, and bare their necks. They saw it as a chance to show humility and piety before the crowd that came to see them executed, and to show remorse for their crimes.

Popes and Plot Holes

In Rome, Pope Alexander is dying… but Pope Alexander (Rodrigo Borgia) died in 1503. The Pope at this time in history was Pope Leo X, who lived until 1521. The cardinals also reference a “crazy English Pope.” They are speaking about Pope Adrian IV (1154-1159), a district disciplinarian, but who was never considered “crazy.”

Wolsey’s Palace Problems

The episode ends with Henry admiring Cardinal Wolsey’s fine new castle, Hampton Court. Since he does not want to displease the king, Wolsey makes him a “gift of it.” In reality, Wolsey constructed it in 1514, and the king inherited it when Wolsey fell from favor in 1529. It was an extremely lavish and expensive project; Wolsey spent 200,000 crowns on it, which today would cost 72.6 million.

As a minor note, wheeled carriages did not exist in Tudor times. People rode in a litter (carried by servants or borne between horses) or on horseback.

Curious what personality types feature in The Tudors? Check out my analysis here!