Season 3, Episode 3 of The Tudors depicts the aftermath of the Pilgrimage of Grace, as Henry VIII confronts rebel leaders like Robert Aske while celebrating Christmas with his court and anticipating the birth of his heir with Jane Seymour. The episode captures the tense political climate and emotional stakes of Tudor England, but alters timelines, exaggerates punishments, and assigns historical actions to the wrong figures, especially in its portrayal of Thomas Howard, Charles Brandon, and court artist Hans Holbein the Younger. Here’s what the series changed and what really happened.

In This Post:

• A Catholic Christmas 1536
• The End of the Rebellion
• Did Edward Seymour Really Do That?
• Did Henry VIII Order Women and Children Killed?
• Holbein the Nude Artiste
• The Affair That Never Happened

Episode 3: Dissention and Punishment

Henry VIII receives good and bad news as he welcomes the Christmas Season. Cardinal Reginald Pole is threatening him from abroad as the Last Plantagenet heir. After a failed uprising, Robert Aske and others involved in the Pilgrimage of Grace are arrested. Charles Brandon receives orders to go into the north and execute thousands. And Queen Jane Seymour announces she is pregnant.

A Catholic Christmas 1536

Henry and his family celebrate Christmas at the Tudor court in the Catholic fashion, which really happened. In 1536, the court returned largely to the old religious Catholic traditions, which foreshadowed Henry’s eventual reversal to “Catholic lite” religious beliefs and mandates within the next few years.

It could have been in response to the Pilgrimage of Grace and realizing how deeply entrenched Catholicism was in England, or a reflection of Henry’s own views on the matter; he was always a militant Catholic and, as Cromwell points out, he only became a Reformist because he refused to have anyone (such as the Pope) tell him what to do. He “divorced” the Catholic Church for the right to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon after nobody would give it to him, rather than sharing any of Martin Luther’s beliefs. This harks back to Sir Thomas More saying at the end of the first season that when the lion knows his own strength, no man can control him.

The series depicts Henry’s interactions with Robert Aske as civil; and that’s true. He spent the holiday with them at Greenwich Palace, and Henry was polite, informing Aske that whatever he desired, it would be the king’s pleasure to grant it. Aske targeted Thomas Cromwell in their conversations by claiming the king allowed himself to be governed by a tyrant. He added, “Everyone knows that if it had not been for him, the 7,000 poor priests I have in my company would not be ruined wanderers as they are now.” Henry pretended to agree with him and asked him to prepare a history of the last few months to explain his views, along with giving him a red silk jacket as a present.

Closing the monasteries and rerouting the funds into the royal treasury not only upset the common order of the small parishes by removing their source of charity in times of famine, but it also left hundreds of thousands of priests and nuns without a home. Some of them had spent their entire adult lives in monastic service, now had nowhere to go, and were thrust out into the world and expected to find their own way, earn a living they were ill-prepared for, or wound up preyed on and were killed. Most were too poor to leave England and flee to Catholic countries.

Catholics at the time were CALLED to join the Church and felt they belonged there; so not only were they kicked out of their home, with all of their religious traditions taken away from them and replaced with new thinking, the king (and Cromwell) had effectively told them that God had not summoned them to serve Him, in a denial of their beliefs and desire to serve.

The End of the Rebellion

The Tudors reduces what happened next to a military defeat by a second northern uprising, but historically things went slower and happened in stages. There were oaths of loyalty and promises made, arrests and interrogations, and Sir Thomas Howard put down the rebellion easily. (Charles Brandon does all this on the show.) Howard arrested 800 men and randomly executed 74 of them under martial law. Henry sent him specific instructions for how they were to be dismembered and their bodies displayed in public, but Howard didn’t cut them apart.

Five weeks later, the men’s wives and daughters took them down in secret in the middle of the night and buried them, which was a dangerous thing for them to do, since the king had not given them permission. He saw this as treasonous. It enraged Henry, but it never dawned on him that women could defy him, so he wasted time and military energy trying to find the men responsible.

Historically, there were trials of those arrested, but most of them were acquitted. In violation of his former promise of pardons, he arrested Lord Darcy, Robert Aske, and Robert Constable, and fabricated evidence against them to get them convicted. The series has Brandon promising to write them letters of recommendation, instead of Sir Thomas Howard, and all leaving Pontefract together (nope).

Did Edward Seymour Really Do That?

In one of the nastiest scenes on the show, Edward Seymour interrogates John Constable (historically, Robert Constable) and when he doesn’t give them what he wants, he shoves a red-hot poker up his backside, killing him.

I’m not sure why this scene exists, since it never happened in real life. Is it to further vilify Edward Seymour, who already is a jerk for concealing the truth about their father’s death from his sister, Jane? If so, why? Why do we need to hate him? He is never this violent again, and despite his wife telling her lover that if Edward knew about it, he would try to kill him, he is tolerant of their affair. In the grand scheme of the show, he’s irrelevant. George Boleyn was much more hate-worthy.

The real Robert Constable was killed the same way as Robert Aske is on the show; they were both taken to the north and executed after being put on trial. We assume both were hanged in chains, but opinions differ on what happened to Aske. Constable was asked to confess to his treason beforehand and declined. Being hung in chains was a cruel way of killing someone, since you weren’t hanged around the neck; you got chucked off a wall, and hung there until you died of asphyxiation, dehydration, or exposure. The king wanted everyone to see you suffering for as long as possible, and then for your body to stay there as a reminder of the fate awaiting others if they even thought about inciting rebellion.

Did Henry VIII Order Women and Children Killed?

On the show, Henry is furious that so few men died in the north he tells Brandon to haul butt up there and commit mass slaughter of men, women, and children. This ruins Brandon’s marriage and makes him emo, but it never happened. Cromwell said more people had to die, but it did not include women or children, nor did it reduce the population. Only about 200 people were executed for their part in the rebellion.

Holbein the Nude Artiste

Hans Holbein paints a nude of Lady Ursula for the king’s pleasure; her fiancé bursts in and is outraged. The two of them have a spat, which Henry concludes by putting the noble in his place by saying if he had seven peasants, he could make seven lords. But if he had seven lords, he could not make one Holbein.

This encounter is based on a rumor from two hundred years later about Holbein getting into a quarrel over a woman, but there’s no contemporary evidence to support him painting her in the nude. Holbein was famous for his royal portraits, and all of them are in full dress, because portraits at the time were not only a way to remember yourself but also to show off your wealth and privilege. Holbein painted realistically, but included minor details that revealed what the person valued, such as the book they were holding, or an item in their hands to symbolize a family crest.

It’s true that Henry said this about him, but it was after courtiers complained about his privileges as a German-Swiss foreigner at court.

The painting itself is based on The Rokeby Venus, painted in the 1640s.

The Affair That Never Happened

Anne Seymour/Stanhope is having an affair with Francis Bryan, but while he was a notorious philanderer at court, no gossip ever connected them, and there is no evidence she was ever unfaithful to Edward Seymour.

She assumes he doesn’t know her name or who she is married to, which… is not how court morals worked in the 1500s. One-night stands didn’t happen, since a woman could get pregnant, disgraced, or forced to leave the court for having “low morals.” Married women who stepped out on their husbands were ostracized, but single women could become long-term mistresses to married men. (A double standard, I know, but that’s how it worked.)

Minor Inaccuracies:

• Jane announces to Henry her pregnancy by eating many quail eggs; she actually preferred eating quail to the eggs, and the court spent quite a lot of money to get them for her. In fact, quails were given to her by ladies of the court who were trying to win her favor and cull royal approval.
• Jane Seymour smiles at Robert Aske when he’s at the Christmas festivities, but it’s never mentioned they are distant cousins.
• Princess Mary reintroduces Margaret Pole to court; but she would need no introduction, since Henry already knows all about her, and spent much time in her company as a child.
• Henry mentions having to “thump” his cousin Richard Pole for rejecting being the Bishop of Winchester; in actuality, he tried to bribe Pole with Winchester if he would support annulling his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. He asked Pole to write a letter to support it, but Pole did the opposite and fled to Italy.
• Lady Rochford tells Jane that Henry has a mistress; but Ursula did not exist, and Henry had no mistresses while being married to Jane.
• Henry tells Cromwell to his face that his low birth makes him unfit to meddle in the matters of kings; historical Henry actually said this to the French ambassador, and he did not mention his low birth (he called him a “good household manager”). He only allowed attacks on his low birth when Cromwell had fallen from royal favor.

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

This article is part of my Historical Accuracy in Historical TV Shows & Movies series, where I break down the real history behind popular historical dramas.

About the Author: Charity Bishop writes historical fiction, historical fantasy, and suspense novels that explores the darkness in human hearts, and the light that refuses to be extinguished. Discover her books.