In The Tudors Season 1, Episode 8, the long-anticipated annulment trial between Catherine of Aragon and Henry VIII finally takes center stage. This episode is a fan favorite for its powerful dramatization of Catherine’s unwavering dignity and fierce conviction, but how much of it is rooted in truth? From her legendary courtroom speech to Cromwell’s supposed trip to Rome, we’re here to untangle the fact from fiction in one of the series’ most memorable chapters.

Inside This Post:

• Catherine’s Courtroom Speech: What Really Happened?
• Wolsey’s Plea: A Logical Yet Impossible Ask
• The “Bed and Board” Debate
• Catherine’s Legal Team and the Real Bishops
• Tyndale, Cromwell, and the Book that Shaped a Reformation
• Margaret Tudor (aka Mary): Where Was She Really?
• Brandon’s Affairs: Fiction vs. Fact

Episode 8: Truth and Justice

The annulment trial between Catherine of Aragon and Henry VIII looms upon them, but Cardinal Wolsey fears the wrong response from the papal legate, Cardinal Campeggio, may cause Henry to break from the Church. His enemies, the Boleyns and Howards, scheme to bring him down while Charles Brandon and Margaret Tudor’s marriage suffers from his infidelities. But when the trial springs forth, public support for the queen causes her to make a speech that leaves everyone speechless, as she walks out of the court and refuses to return like an absolute BOSS.

Catherine’s Mic Drop: The Speech That Silenced a Court

I have to fangirl a bit, before we dive into the inaccuracies in this episode. Michael Hirst gives Catherine of Aragon her due here in a way no other series or movie has ever done. This is her standing ovation moment, where she “owns” her husband in court and sweeps out with the full knowledge that she is in the right, he is in the wrong, and everyone is aware of it. Most of the details, from Henry’s false piety to Bishop Fisher suggesting not all the bishops agree with Henry’s case, to Catherine’s speech about being a “stranger” in a foreign court, and swearing her virginity in public, are all accurate.

Most historians agree Catherine told the truth and was in the right; the major exception is David Starkey, who suggests a variety of reasons about why she might have lied. But I think he’s wrong, because he cannot understand what Catherine believed as a devout Catholic. Everything in her life, as the series shows us, was about her Catholic faith, among them, total allegiance to the rites of the Church. Her argument, when Henry and his bishops try to pressure her into stepping down from the throne and entering a nunnery, is that God did not call her to the Church, but to “the covenant of marriage.”

Catherine interpreted marriage as a covenant, as the Church taught; it could not be dissolved; it was binding, eternal, and a mirror reflection of the Church’s marriage to Christ. A sacrament. To violate this sacrament upon a lie or the allowance of a lie, she would interpret as a grave sin against her soul and her conscience. Catherine believed that lying to your Confessor was a cardinal sin that would earn you an eternal punishment. So, when she went before Campeggio and told him Arthur never touched her “in that way,” she meant it. She believed that lying would damn her soul.

That means she told the truth. Period. And Henry knew it, because he never contradicted her in public. He allowed suspicions and lies to be told at the trial, but he never once risked his own soul by stating with certainty that she deceived him and lied to the court and to her confessors. He merely tried to prove her wrong, as we will see in the next episode.

The public adored and supported Catherine in the divorce for several reasons. First, she had won over the English. When she arrived, she dazzled them as a great auburn-haired beauty, with her exotic Spanish hairstyles and clothes and customs. They saw her again and again at public exhibitions and on prayer pilgrimages. She gave them alms and advocated for them.

But what won them over the most is the May Day Riot aftermath. The influx of foreigners moving into London took over many of the trades and jobs, leading to public resentment. Some young men rebelled, attacked foreigners, and escalated the situation into a riot. Four hundred of them were arrested, imprisoned, and the king considered killing them for treason, but Catherine went before him in a public appeal to forgive them—young men who had acted against immigrants like herself. This made a huge impression on them. She got them all pardoned, which meant many Londoners owed the lives of their sons, grandsons, etc., to her.

Another reason people sided with her was that if the king could divorce and overthrow a queen, that made no woman in England safe from her husband throwing her over for someone else. (And then there were those who believed her and felt she was in the right.) Catherine had tremendous public support and remained popular throughout the country, even after her husband evicted her from court.

Wolsey’s Warning: Sound Advice or Political Suicide?

Cardinal Wolsey makes an impassioned and logical argument for Catherine to enter a nunnery and spare them all this ordeal, by pointing out she has lived a good, exemplary and pious life, and now can set a good example. He isn’t wrong. But Catherine could not go against her conscience without feeling called to the Church. And to be honest, she was also stubborn and proud. I love her, but she was not going down without a hell of a fight. She knew this trial was bullshit and wasn’t having it. 😛

A Royal Bed, A Legal Trap

Much is made of a disagreement between Henry and Anne over Henry stating his lawyers told him he must return to his wife, share her bed, and eat at her table during the trial so her lawyers have no case against him and it looks as if he will remain with her, if the clerical court decides in her favor. But this makes no logical sense within the narrative. Henry believes they are living in sin, so to continue to sin would damn his soul even more; and to visit her at night would indirectly imply Catherine has a case. This would not have happened (it’s just an excuse to give him multiple scenes in which he argues with Catherine about the annulment and tries to guilt-trip her).

Canon Lawyers, Bishops, and a Papal Bull: Catherine’s Legal Arsenal

The show has Catherine visited by her lawyers, who attempt to browbeat her into submission by inferring she is inciting a rebellion against the king by appearing in public to wholehearted support and not taking the proceedings seriously. She argues with them and sends them packing.

In reality, Catherine’s counsel for the divorce case included, William Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury, John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, Dr. Henry Standish, Bishop of St Asaph’s, Cuthbert Tunstall, Bishop of London and John Clerk, Bishop of Bath and Wells. Some of them served her better than others, and she came up with a lot of the bulk of the arguments herself. It is true Henry accused her of making light of the situation, because she continued to host banquets and behave as a queen throughout the annulment proceedings. Catherine had in her possession a copy of the papal bull that permitted her to marry Henry, even though it never did her any good (since that wasn’t his true motive for the divorce).

I like the casting and writing of Bishop Fisher, who is firm in his arguments and aware they may not do any good. He knows Henry wants Anne Boleyn and won’t accept any answer other than to have her, but he still wants to play by ecclesiastical rules and beat him on a theological level. (If the dispensation is bad, surely the Pope could just issue a new bull to replace the old one and erase any “sin” that the king might be worried about.) He seems to want to expose Henry’s ulterior motives.

Cromwell’s Imaginary Field Trip

Thomas Cromwell has a slightly larger role in this episode than in the others. Henry sends him to Rome to consult with the Pope, and he writes back that the Pope seems disinterested in helping him because of pressures from Emperor Charles. While the latter is true, the former is not; Cromwell never went to Rome.

The Book That Changed Everything

Cromwell gives Anne Boleyn a copy of Tyndale’s The Obedience of the Christian Man, which will influence his decision to break from the Church. If you are unfamiliar with the book, it stated that the King of the country is the head of that country’s church, rather than the Holy See, and advocated for the divine right of kings. It emphasized that the king must enforce the law as it is written in scripture. He is not more important than the Church, but its facilitator and supreme authority. The king must ensure that his ministers are preaching scripture and maintaining the integrity of the Church. It is the king’s responsibility to serve others, not for others to serve him.

It talks about experiencing God through reading scripture (rather than having it interpreted for you by a priest) and condemns the Church for teaching ecclesiastical law rather than scripture. Tyndale advocated for translating scripture into English so that anyone could read it.

He ascribed to the divine order of kings—if a king is a king, God put them there, their powers are ordained by God, and the bishops who want to usurp earthly authority from kings are in the wrong. He stated that whoever resists the king, resists God. (No wonder Henry liked the sound of that!)

Margaret/Mary Tudor: The Real Sister & Anne Boleyn Hater

The show reduces the screen time of Princess Margaret, who is the “historical” Princess Mary. She has a brief scene with her husband in which she accuses him of adultery, then turns up at court to shame her brother and warn him off Anne Boleyn. As usual, the series gives us no indication of why she doesn’t like Anne.

Anne accompanied Mary to France when she married her first husband and remained there as part of the new queen’s royal court after Mary married Brandon and returned to England. It’s unclear what happened between them in France, but Mary returned home with a low opinion of Anne that only increased when Henry turned his attentions to her. Rather than being apart from court as depicted, Mary was highly active there until her disgust over her brother’s behavior caused her to leave. They quarreled about his behavior, Anne, and his treatment of Catherine of Aragon, and she retired to the country to tend her children.

Brandon the Womanizer?

Contrary to what’s seen on the show, Brandon disliked Anne rather than trying to undermine Wolsey in the Boleyns’ favor. He famously did not get along with Thomas Howard, her uncle, which led to violence between their households over harsh words said about Anne. Rather than fight with the king about his intentions, Brandon and his wife left the court for the country.

The series depicts him as a serial philanderer, when there’s no evidence of it. He had a few scandals attached to his name as a young man, since he engaged himself to whomever had the most money and sometimes jilted the girl after spending most of it. He also had at least two mistresses, but I doubt he was rutting around the court as much as the series implies.

In an absurd scene, Brandon sexually propositions the Queen of France and tries to bait her into cheating on Francis with him in retaliation for Francis having a mistress. This is historically impossible. Claude was dead, and even if she were alive, she wasn’t the type. Claude imposed a “strict moral code” upon her household, which only a few chose to violate. The historical Brandon would have never dared to make such an inappropriate suggestion. It would be unthought off and a serious breach of royal protocol.

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