Historical Inaccuracies in The Tudors | Season 1, Episode 9 by Charity Bishop

In The Tudors Season 1, Episode 9, courtroom drama and political scheming take center stage. Catherine of Aragon faces humiliation before foreign ambassadors. Margaret Tudor meets a tragic fate. Cardinal Wolsey makes his final misstep. And somewhere in the chaos, Henry VIII might be writing Greensleeves. But how much of it is rooted in real Tudor history, and how much is pure TV drama? As a historical fiction author and lifelong Tudor researcher, I’m breaking down what’s accurate, what’s exaggerated, and what never happened at all.

Inside This Post:

The Papal Court & Catherine’s Public Humiliation
Catherine’s Sharp Mind Behind the “Dumb Fool” Act
Margaret Tudor’s Death: TV vs. Reality
Bishop Fisher’s Bold Herod Comparison
Tyndale’s Banned Book & Henry’s Break with Rome
Did Henry VIII Compose Greensleeves?
Wolsey’s Fall from Grace: Guilt, Grudges & Goodbye
Quick Fixes: Minor Timeline Tweaks & Errors

Episode 9: Look to God First

The king’s trial continues as the papal court tries to decide between Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon’s cases, but the king grows impatient and Anne Boleyn gives him a copy of a dangerous Reformist book that states kings have higher authority than popes. After the court refuses to reach a decision and defers the case to Rome, Cardinal Wolsey falls from grace, Sir Thomas More becomes the Lord Chancellor of England, and Margaret Tudor-Brandon perishes from consumption.

The Courtroom as a Stage: Catherine’s Humiliation

I can’t imagine the humiliation of Catherine of Aragon, having her wedding night discussed in public in front of the entire court, and by extension, the populace. Although queens were less modest about these things in those days; her mother, Queen Isabella of Spain, showed her stained sheets to the crowd outside the palace after consummating the marriage with King Ferdinand!

The basic facts of this trial are accurate; they brought forth a couple of witnesses who talked about Arthur boasting about being “in the midst of Spain” and commenting its thirsty work to have a wife. Whether he ever said that, we’ll never know. But they did not “show” the bloodstained sheets in court (there were none).

More Than a Meek Queen: Catherine Outsmarts the Court

Wolsey again tries to convince Catherine to surrender, and she plays the fool, sarcastically remarking she is “only a poor woman, lacking in wit and understanding.” This is a delicious irony, because Catherine stalled the annulment for years. Every way to get at her, she thought of first and got there ahead of them, from papal bulls to theological debates. She was so good at it, the only way to circumvent her was to play dirty! Cromwell finally encouraged the break from Rome, which allowed Henry to annul his own marriage. Catherine did “play dumb” a few times, but everyone knew she wasn’t a fool (hence Anne Boleyn telling Henry every time he argues with the queen, “She is sure to have the upper hand!” SICK BURN!).

Margaret Tudor: Childless & Dead

Dive into The Usurper’s Throne, a gripping Tudor-era historical novel exploring the fierce power struggles, royal intrigue, and unbreakable will of Catherine of Aragon and Henry VII. — *Love Catherine of Aragon? Me too!*

In this episode, Princess Margaret (Mary) withdraws from her husband, turns melancholy, and abruptly perishes of consumption in her husband’s absence. She has a horrific death of choking on her own blood. The series makes no reference to her children with Brandon, so she dies alone in the middle of the night. Brandon did not know about her illness and looks abashed when Henry tells him off for not even letting him know she was sick.

It’s unclear what caused her death at age thirty-seven in 1533 (long after Anne’s coronation), but historians speculate it could have been consumption, appendicitis, or cancer. She fell ill often throughout her life, and never fully recovered from the sweating sickness she caught in 1528. If she died of consumption, it would be a tragic throwback to her father’s death. Since Brandon was home a great deal at this time, he would have known about her illness and been at her bedside, not off with another woman. There’s no reason to assume she didn’t receive the last rites.

The Bishop vs. the King: John Fisher’s Herod Moment

In a ballsy move, Bishop Fisher stands up in court and likens Henry’s desire for an unlawful divorce to King Herod jilting his first wife to marry Herodias, and executing John the Baptist for objecting to it. He states he is ready to die for the indissolubility of marriage. Believe it or not, this actually happened! Fisher was a dogmatic man, a stubborn adherent to the Church and aware he might perish a martyr for his beliefs. He served as Margaret Beaufort’s confessor for years, and kept a human skull among his possessions, to remind him of the inevitability of death. His likening of Henry to Herod enraged the king so much, Henry composed a long Latin address in response! (Fisher did not fear the royal anger, nor care what Henry said in his defense.)

He joined the priesthood by special dispensation in his young teens, helped Margaret Beaufort found St. John’s and Christ’s Colleges at Cambridge, earned a doctorate of sacred theology, and served as a vice-chancellor. He attracted leading scholars from Europe to serve at the college, promoting the study of not only classical Greek and Latin but also Hebrew authors.

Smuggling Heretical Books: Tyndale, Heresy, and Kings

After Campeggio cannot rule in the king’s favor, he refers the trial to Rome and the Pope. Henry claims to Anne the Pope demands he come to Rome and “account for myself,” which never happened (a king could not be expected to leave his territory; he would have sent emissaries to argue his case). Anne uses this as an opportunity to introduce him to Tyndale’s book, which gives kings full authority.

It’s unclear when Anne gave Henry that book; we know it was in 1528, but not whether it was before, during, or after his failed trial. The series places such emphasis on Henry’s willingness to “break with Rome” that it seems unlikely he would not have read the book before that. Kings as a governing church authority would have been an entirely new concept, and I doubt Henry would have come up with the idea for it on his own, which makes me think he saw the book earlier than the series depicts, and had it in his back pocket in case the court did not decide in his favor.

A Musical Myth: Did Henry VIII Pen Greensleeves?

The show shows Henry composing Greensleeves, and then the musicians playing it. It’s true Henry loved music and composing and wrote lots of lyrics and compositions, but scholars believe Greensleeves dates from the Elizabethan era, since it’s based on an Italian musical style that emerged only after his death. The earliest recorded publication of the song is in 1580.

The Cardinal’s Collapse: Wolsey’s Final Fall from Favor

Estrella Salinas and Baron Willoughby fall in love in The Secret in the Tower — *Meet my Sir Thomas More!*

The series depicts a rocky relationship between Henry and Wolsey, with Henry reassuring Wolsey after the trial (“They tell such lies, these people… who can I trust? We’ve come a long way, Cardinal. Did you think I had forgotten it? Don’t be afraid, we’ll talk tomorrow”) and abruptly riding off without him the next morning, barring the cardinal from speaking to him.

It was a common tactic of Henry to be pleasant to someone one moment, and the next day, cut their knees out from under them. Though he stripped Wolsey of most of his offices, he left him as the Archbishop of York and the Bishop of Winchester, maybe hoping to reinstate the cardinal after a period of brief humiliation for his failure to get a divorce. Henry had to know the Pope was in a difficult position, since he received pressure from Emperor Charles to vote in Catherine of Aragon’s favor, and that it was not all Wolsey’s fault.

It’s possible that Anne Boleyn, who harbored resentment for Wolsey breaking off her engagement to Henry Percy, turned the king against the cardinal. (And with the Boleyns looking on in disapproval, it’s implied that they swayed the king against his cardinal at dinner in an off-screen scene.)

Slippery Dates: Minor Inaccuracies

The series has Sir Thomas More going to Cambri for peace talks and arriving a week late; he did this, but a year later than depicted.
Wolsey wanted to argue that Catherine and Arthur never consummated their marriage, so the dispensation that allowed her to marry Henry was founded on a mistake and therefore void, which made their marriage also void. This would have nullified Catherine’s insistence on her virginity and allowed the Pope to grant an annulment, but Wolsey was not present at court when the annulment preceding started, so his argument became impractical after Henry established his own case.

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