The Tudors Season 2, Episode 2 is packed with political intrigue, religious upheaval, and romantic scandal. This historical fact check unpacks the truth behind Anne Boleyn’s elevation to the Marquess of Pembroke, her tense diplomatic visit to France, Sir Thomas More’s resignation as Lord Chancellor, and William Peto’s fiery sermon comparing Henry VIII and Anne to Ahab and Jezebel. The Showtime drama leans into rumors about Anne’s virtue, Charles Brandon’s shifting loyalties, and Thomas Wyatt’s invented escapades, but the real Tudor history tells a more complex and fascinating story.

Inside This Post:

• A Chilling Prophecy in the Cards
• Charles Brandon’s Sudden Shift
• Preaching Fire: The Ahab and Jezebel Sermon
• Sir Thomas More Bows Out
• Wyatt, Darrell, and Showtime’s “Sexy” Subplot
• Anne Boleyn: From Lady to Marquess of Pembroke
• Small Details, Big Mistakes (Minor Inaccuracies)

Episode 1: Tears of Blood

Events move rapidly in this episode, in which Anne becomes a marquess, finds acceptance from King Francis, and eventually surrenders her nonexistent virtue to Henry while on a diplomatic visit to France. Distraught by what is happening politically, Sir Thomas More resigns as Lord Chancellor and warns his daughter he may become a martyr. Brandon gets booted from court for telling the king rumors about Anne, and Thomas Wyatt seduces one of Catherine of Aragon’s ladies.

A Chilling Prophecy in the Cards

In an early scene, Anne ventures into her room and finds three playing cards, crudely inscribed with the initials of the king, queen, and herself, with her own head severed. She calls it a “book of prophecy.”

This is a reference to an unsubstantiated (and likely invented in hindsight to darkly foreshadow her death) incident in which she found a drawing left in her apartment of Henry and Catherine and herself, but she lacked a head. Her lady-in-waiting worried about the drawing, but Anne said she would still marry the king, “… yet for the hope that I have that the realm may be happy by my issue [male infant]. I am resolved to have him, whatever might become of me.”

Charles Brandon’s Sudden Shift

Charles Brandon warns Henry that rumors abound about Anne fornicating with Thomas Wyatt and often entering his rooms at night, before she met the king. Henry dismisses these accusations as false, and Anne convinces him to banish Brandon from court for the insult.

The show never explains why Brandon, who was pro-Boleyn in the first season, is now anti-Boleyn in the second, except that when he visits Catherine of Aragon to harass her on Henry’s behalf, he is visibly moved by her piety, beauty, and refusal to surrender her rights. It’s implied that his new marriage to Catherine Willoughby may be influencing him, since she is sympathetic to Catherine and Brandon calls it a “marriage of true souls.” But there’s more to the story than this.

Catherine Willoughby was the daughter of Baron Willoughby and Maria de Salinas, Catherine of Aragon’s lady-in-waiting and a close friend. (In my novels, I call her Estrella, since there are so many Marys running around Tudor England.) She was on the queen’s side in the Great Matter, as Brandon had been before her, since his earlier wife, Mary Tudor, also sided with Catherine. Henry banished Maria from court and refused to allow her to serve Catherine in her exile to The More, but Maria defied him to be at Catherine’s deathbed. But I will elaborate more on that when we reach Catherine’s last episode.

Brandon was not banished from court for standing against Anne. He was diplomatic and kept his personal feelings about her private until after she fell from favor, then shared his negative opinions about her. He oversaw her coronation, which shows that he kept royal favor despite having personal resentments against her. He would not have risked royal resentment by warning Henry about any rumors about her beforehand.

Preaching Fire: The Ahab and Jezebel Sermon

An unnamed priest preaches a sermon before the king, likening him to “Ahab, who married the whore Jezebel.” Royal guards drag him out, still shouting that if Henry does not change his ways, “the dogs will lick your blood!”

Indeed, however, this incident happened. William Peto preached the sermon on Easter Sunday, when the king and Anne were in attendance. Ahab and Jezebel were two monarchs who led the Israelites into idolatry with the god Baal (a reference to the Church of England), perverted justice, and persecuted prophets (the king silencing anyone who defies him or stands up for Catholicism). Ahab was killed in battle, but Jezebel was thrown from a window and killed, after which her body was partially eaten by dogs.

Surprisingly, Peto was not killed for this sermon because of the language he used (“if” the king were to behave like Ahab), but imprisoned until the end of 1532, at which point he went abroad to the safety of Antwerp.

Sir Thomas More Bows Out

Because he cannot support Henry’s recent actions, Sir Thomas More resigns as Lord Chancellor, and takes this opportunity to speak to Henry as a “friend, like we once did” about the Great Matter. He says merely that if Henry were to return to his wife, he feels the great divisions of his kingdom would at once be healed.

The real More was not as foolish as his on-screen counterpart. More knew that any public statement in favor of the queen or his dislike of Henry’s actions would bring about punishment, so he kept his mouth shut. He made up an excuse about his health so that he could resign and hoped that his public silence on the matter would be enough to protect him and his household from royal disfavor.

On a walk with his daughter, More says that they must consider the fact that he will become a martyr. It’s possible he had this conversation with her (though her husband never wrote it into his biography of More), but More tried to use his legal skills to avoid condemnation. He knew they could not implicate him in treason if he kept silent.

Wyatt, Darrell, and Showtime’s “Sexy” Subplot

There’s a stupid time-wasting subplot with Thomas Wyatt being sent to The More to demand the queen’s jewels and meeting her only lady-in-waiting, a girl named Elizabeth Darrell. She wants to become a nun, but he wants to get inside her skirt. She rejects him once before they make out and strip off their clothes against a tree (how romantic!). As a personal aside, he unties the back of her dress and takes it off. She’s wearing nothing under it to fill the boob quota of Showtime. Tudor gowns were laced up, not tied with a couple of ribbons, and she would have had a chemise and a corset-like garment underneath.

The “real” Elizabeth Darrell served Catherine of Aragon, but did not become Wyatt’s mistress until a year after her mistress died (1537). She bore him two and possibly three sons.

Wyatt did not travel to The More to demand the return of the royal jewels; he was not of sufficient rank to perform this office for the king.

Anne Boleyn: From Lady to Marquess of Pembroke

Henry elevate Anne to the Marquess of Pembroke so she will outrank everyone at court and then takes her on a diplomatic visit to France so King Francis can acknowledge her as queen. While there, Anne dances in a masque for their amusement, partners with the king, then removes her mask to expose her true identity to a delighted Francis. She then had a “private conversation” with him.

On the show, the costumes for the dancing maidens are quite revealing; historically they were “elaborate” (strange apparel made of cloth of gold, compressed with crimson tinsel satin and with cloth of silver lying loose and knit with laces of gold). Show Anne also asks Francis to keep her secrets from when she was in France (implying he knows she is not virtuous). Francis agrees. Again, there’s no evidence that Anne became anyone’s mistress while in France, or had any scandal hanging about her name, so there’s nothing for Francis to conceal.

Francis mentions to Henry that his wife and sister refused to come because they dislike Anne, but the show gives no context. His wife, Eleanor of Austria, was the sister of Emperor Charles, which meant she sided with Catherine of Aragon and saw Anne as “indecent.” His sister, Marguerite of Navarre (remember the woman The Tudors trashed by having her sleep with Henry while on a diplomatic visit?), out of fear of insulting Charles, which hurt Anne’s feelings because they had been friends in France and shared many of the same Reformist ideals.

Afterward, Henry and Anne consummate their relationship at last, with Anne telling him, “Now, let me conceive.” Most historians agree that this is the first time they slept together, and it happened during storms that delayed them in Calais for several days. (I’m surprised they kept this scene so tame. Small favors!)

Small Details, Big Mistakes:

• The assassin is stalking her through the palace with a pistol. There were pistols but they were relatively inaccurate and slow-firing, so the odds of being caught before he could kill her were high. It makes for nice dramatic scenes, though.
• Anne asks her servant to draw her a bath to warm her up; but it would be faster to drink something hot and sit by the fire. In those times, they had to haul water into the kitchens, heat it in a massive pot, then haul it in buckets up the stairs to the royal apartment and dump it into a tub. It would take a long time.
• Mark Smeaton is gay and doesn’t mind Mary Boleyn knowing it, after she confesses she can’t wait to get down and dirty with some French boys. Even if he were (there’s no evidence), he would not share it with anyone, since “sodomy” was illegal.  

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