The Tudors has never been shy about bending history for drama, but Season 2, Episode 3 is packed with historical inaccuracies worth talking about. From distorted timelines to fabricated assassination plots, this episode blurs the line between fact vs fiction in Tudor history. If you’ve ever wondered what really happened versus what Showtime invented, here’s a detailed look at the truths, half-truths, and outright myths behind the drama.

Inside This Post:

• Sanctuary in Tudor Times
• Hungry for Apples
• Cranmer’s Wife in a Box Myth
• Papal Bulls & Mixed-Up Dates
• The Assassin Who Never Was
• Anne’s Real Coronation Splendor
• Missed Opportunities: A Historical Stand-Off
• Catholic Astrology: Why the Stars Still Mattered
• 1500s Virtue Signaling
• Minor Mistakes That Sneak In

Episode 3: Checkmate

Henry VIII gets fed up with waiting on Rome to decide his annulment and places Cranmer in charge of the English Church, who decrees his marriage to Catherine of Aragon unlawful and makes his secret marriage to Anne Boleyn valid. Bishop Fisher and Sir Thomas More fear what may come, as the country slides into heresy. Both Catherine and her daughter, Princess Mary, remain defiant against the king’s edicts, while an assassin takes a shot at Anne in the coronation procession and misses.

Sanctuary in Tudor Times

This episode opens with Thomas Boleyn and Charles Brandon’s servants accosting one another in the street. Brandon’s servant calls Anne Boleyn a “whore,” which causes the other two to attack him and force him into a church, where he is murdered before the altar despite his claim of “sanctuary.”

In medieval times, people could claim “sanctuary” inside a church. This practice went back to the Greek and Roman temples, which offered protection to fugitives. By the 4^th century, sanctuary was part of Roman imperial law. If someone murdered someone and ran into the church to claim sanctuary, no one could harm, remove, or arrest them for punishment. The Roman Catholic leaders believed a consecrated church was a “protected space,” and most did not allow weapons inside.

The catch was that if fugitives claiming sanctuary were not already Christians, they were supposed to convert. Once a fugitive entered a cathedral, their pursuers could wait for them outside, but could not fire into the church to kill them, nor could the fugitive keep any weapon to defend themselves. Usually, people used this temporary protection as time to negotiate their safe departure, but in other instances, they were exiled. A fugitive could claim sanctuary for only 40 days in England.

The concept of sanctuary faded away after the Reformation, largely because the aristocracy used it to avoid punishment for their crimes and insisted on staying as long as they wanted to. England outlawed it in 1623.

Plot-wise, this incident furthers the idea that the Boleyns so despise all the trappings of Catholicism, their servants feel free to do whatever they please, even though after killing him, they are remorseful and fall to their knees to beg God’s forgiveness.

Historically, this did not happen in the exact way the show says it did, and it transpired earlier in the timeline (when Princess Mary/Margaret/his wife and Wolsey were both still alive). The Duke of Norfolk (Anne’s uncle)’s men quarreled with Brandon’s men about Anne and the Great Matter, and it escalated into a fight in which Brandon’s servant wound up dead. When he heard what had happened, Brandon went to confront them, but Wolsey stopped him. Henry VIII pardoned the murderers, which did not endear the Boleyn/Howard family to Brandon.

Hungry for Apples

In an incident taken right out of history, Anne Boleyn emerges from her room and confides in Thomas Wyatt that she has a “furious desire to eat apples, such as I have never had before. The king says it must mean that I pregnant, but I say not at all.” If this really happened, why am I mentioning it?

Because of how clever Anne was being. Few people knew she and Henry had become intimate in France, or that she was now his unofficial wife and queen. Henry still wanted a pretense of goodness and obedience to the Catholic Church, hoping to obtain his annulment. This was Anne’s way of announcing her double triumph (she will be queen, and she will bear a son and heir) without announcing it.

Cranmer’s Wife in a Box Myth

Cranmer becomes the archbishop in this episode, and his wife arrives from Germany smuggled in a crate, because it’s illegal for a priest to marry in England. He married and kept an illegal wife in his palace. She had to remain hidden, as a closely guarded secret for many years, and he even sent his wife and their children back to Germany in 1539 to keep them safe… but her name was Margaret, not Katarina, and she never arrived in a box! This myth originated from stories about Cranmer’s particular affection for a “precious” wooden chest being saved from a fire in his palace. Catholic propagandists during the reign of Queen Mary fabricated a story that the reason must be because he kept his wife inside it! They published it after his death, intending to depict his marriage in an absurd light.  

Papal Bulls & Mixed-Up Dates

As a minor aside, the timelines in this episode are condensed. It’s supposed to be 1533, but the Pope signs an edict to forbid the enslavement of the people of the new world, which historically happened in 1537, then excommunicates him a few months later (and kindly informs the audience of what that means) for marrying Anne. That happened in 1538, although he threatened to do this in 1533 if Henry disobeyed his edicts.

The Assassin Who Never Was

The series makes William Brereton an assassin hired by Ambassador Chapuys and later commissioned by the Pope to kill Anne Boleyn, which is a cool idea. He fires on Anne during her coronation procession, but misses and kills her groom instead. The Pope tells him that his mission may be to become a martyr in this great cause.

None of this is true, of course. The Pope hired no one to kill Anne Boleyn, and Brereton was a trusted servant of the king. Rather than a man lurking in the shadows, he accompanied Henry on many hunting expeditions and ran important errands for him. He brought Anne Boleyn the royal jewels (rather than Henry, as depicted in the previous episode) and witnessed their secret marriage in a private chapel.

Anne’s Real Coronation Splendor

The series downplays Anne’s procession to save money and show her as unpopular (she remarks no one threw their caps or shouted, and her father asks, “Where are the crowds?” while riding to the cathedral for the coronation). In reality, it was a lavish and grand affair with decorated barges on the Thames, street pageants, and extravagant displays.

The celebrations began in May, when she proceeded amid an enormous flotilla of barges up the Thames to the Tower of London, to maintain the tradition that the monarch stayed in the Tower before attending their coronation at Westminster Abbey. She stayed there for two days, amid feasting and the ceremonial creation of the new “Knights of the Bath,” as part of the traditional festivities. The creation of knew nights was a ritual associated with the coronation of a new monarch. The king chose eighteen knights, among them Sir Francis Weston and four others, all of whom perished alongside Anne Boleyn.

The celebrated artist Hans Holbein had designed the physical appearance of the sets upon which the plays and verses would be enacted. Her celebratory pageantry took place over four days.

On the morning of her coronation, Anne wore a white cloth of gold gown, a coif made of white silk, and a coronet made for her. Her coronation procession was over two miles long. White horses carried her wheelless litter via harnesses, the interior of white satin and white cloth of gold. She stood out amid the dark colors of her attendants. 400 gentlemen walking in pairs led the way, along with crimson-clad judges, the Knights of the Bath, the archbishops, marquesses, earls and barons on horseback, along with her father (her brother was absent) and Brandon right in front of her. After Anne came seven of the highest ladies in the land, followed by two more litters of prominent ladies dressed in velvet and silk. Then came the Master of the Guard and the London constables in damask coats. The streets had been swept and cleaned and prominent buildings decorated with carpets, expensive cloth, and repainted. Wine flowed freely from conduits along the road.

Pageants unfolded along the way, featuring fertility, virginity, and romantic affection between lovers. The crowds had mixed reactions to her procession, and Anne noted few men removed their caps in a sign of respect. Most of London sided with Catherine of Aragon!

Wearing crimson velvet edged in ermine, and a purple velvet mantle, with her hair loose about her waist, Anne made the journey barefoot from Westminster Hall to Westminster Abbey under a canopy of cloth of gold for her coronation. The show has Henry take the crown out of the archbishop’s hands to place it on Anne’s head himself, as a sign of his total sovereignty in England, but historically, Cranmer did it.

Missed Opportunities: A Historical Stand-Off

The show misses out on one of my favorite historical moments, and one I would have loved to see play out on screen! Brandon visits Catherine to tell her about her annulment and to remind her that she is stripped of her titles. She may keep her property (a wedding gift from Prince Arthur) but the king will no longer provide for her expenses.

Catherine has a now-famous statement about, “If I had to choose between extreme happiness and extreme sorrow, I would always choose sorrow, for when you are happy, you forget…You forget about spiritual things. You forget about God. But in your sorrow… He is always with you.”

I remember a reference to this in one of my Tudor wives biographies, but it seems the more popular source comes from Sir Winston Churchill’s history volumes.

There’s no evidence she ever said this, and it may have been created as a myth to support the popular Catholic depiction of her as a martyr. In those days, it was pious to suffer alongside Christ, and to value one’s relationship with and closeness to God above all else. The Tudors’ depiction of her as stubborn but magnificent in her calm grace also furthers this idea of her as a saint.

In truth, Catherine’s moods went up and down at this point in history; she both wanted to do right by her husband and by God, and experienced bouts of depression and misery. She felt forsaken, abandoned, mistreated, and maligned, for good reason. There’s also differing accounts of her level of forgiveness. Some (no doubt biased in favor of her saintly behavior) insist she forgave Anne and wished her well; but other accounts show us that Catherine could hold grudges (she refused to give ladies who displeased her a good reference or help them find new positions, since she regarded betrayal as unforgivable).

Brandon carried the news of the annulment to her (along with Norfolk), and she refused to accept the validity of Henry’s marriage to Anne or use her new title (“Princess”).

In December, Henry again sent Brandon to Catherine, this time to inform her she could no longer style herself Queen of England and must move from her present lodgings. And here is where the show misses an opportunity for drama!

Catherine said she would rather be hacked to pieces than be called the Dowager Princess, and she refused to leave the castle by slamming the door in his face. She remained holed up in her room for five days while Brandon’s men reluctantly removed all her furniture and tapestries and loaded them into carts. Catherine told Brandon she would only move if he broke down the door, which he did not want to do. This “standoff” resulted in Henry calling off the situation, because the local peasants had heard what was going on and amassed around her castle to defend her. (Fist Pump for the Peasants!) This is the Catherine I wanted to see!

Catholic Astrology: Why the Stars Still Mattered

Anne remarks to her sister that a famous astrologer has said her child will be a boy (he’s wrong!). But this brings up an interesting point.

Why were Catholic monarchs okay with astrology when scripture isn’t? Various verses say to avoid diviners and those who predict the future, but the Church had a dual view of astrology and separated it into two camps. It saw “Natural astrology” as a legitimate field that studied the influence of celestial movements on natural and physical events, and argued that since God created the stars, using them to better understand the natural world is not a rejection of divine will but an attempt to work within it. (This would include the “wise men” following the star that announced Christ’s birth.)

The Church condemned Judicial astrology, which predicted individual human fates and actions, which it saw as divination and a rejection of free will.

The philosopher St. Thomas Aquinas argued celestial bodies could influence a person’s temperament and passions, especially those not wise enough to resist them, and that astrologers could “foretell” the truth most times for the masses, but could not foretell the actions of a wise man who resisted the natural pull of the stars. Thus, Catholic monarchs could consult astrologers, as long as they believed God set the heavens in motion, and studying the celestial cycles was a way to understand God’s plan, not thwart it.

1500s Virtue Signaling

Now we come to a scene I dislike, in which Anne piously lectures her ladies and servants on their code of conduct, and tells them they will be godly, discreet, proper, not to swear or quarrel, and are forbidden from lewd behaviors of any kind. She gestures to the English Bible and recommends they read it faithfully and draw spiritual inspiration from it, now that the king has freed them from the darkness and confusion of Catholicism.

Taken by itself, it’s a good scene and is faithful to how Anne ran her household. She gave a virtuous impression to the world, in part because she believed these things were right, but also to model her household after the two queens whose courts she served in before establishing her own (in England and in France). Anne knew her reputation was precarious, and she had to appear pious to win over the masses.

The problem is how the series has depicted Anne makes her hypocritical in this scene. Natalie Dormer argued for this scene and others like it to make her Anne “more like” the real one, but the series has spent a season and a half showing us that Anne is promiscuous, sexually manipulative, and a liar. Having her turning over a pious leaf makes her seem “fake.”

I think the real Anne had morals, high standards, and believed in Reform. She was excited to have a proper Bible for her ladies to study and discuss. But with this Anne, there’s no sign that her faith affects her behavior, morals, or beliefs. If they had gone with the probably true narrative that Anne was a virtuous woman, pursued by a king who won’t take no for an answer, I would have loved this moment. But here, she’s just virtue signaling.  

Minor Mistakes:

• I adore Sarah Bolger as Princess Mary, but she had naturally red hair in real life, just like both of her parents.
• The quote Henry gives Anne after the birth of Elizabeth (“we are young, and boys will follow”) might have been said to Catherine instead.
• A woman named Eleanor Luke is invented to be the king’s mistress; she never existed. He had two mistresses while with Anne, Madge Selton in 1535 and an unknown lady a year earlier.
• The sovereign orb Anne holds at her coronation did not exist yet.