Episode 6 of The White Princess represents the complete collapse of historical accuracy in the series. What should have been a grounded portrayal of the Perkin Warbeck crisis instead becomes a showcase of anachronistic feminism, distorted religious attitudes, fabricated diplomacy, and a wholesale misunderstanding of Tudor politics. From a public execution staged like modern protest theater, to an impossible royal visit to Spain, to a battle that never happened and a speech borrowed from Elizabeth I nearly a century too early, this episode abandons history in favor of spectacle.

Inside This Post:

• A Failure on Every Level
• A Noble Death: Sir William Stanley
• The Death of the Dowager Queen
• Perkin Warbeck: The Pretender
• Marriage in Tudor Times
• Marrying for Love: A Modern Fantasy
• Did Henry VII Travel to Spain?
• Isabella Done Dirty
• Lizzie’s Battlefield Speech
• Minor Inaccuracies and Clarifications

Episode 6: English Blood on English Soil

Lord Stanley is executed, but not without denouncing King Henry VII, who leaves for Spain with Elizabeth of York to negotiate a marriage with Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand of Spain for Prince Arthur, while Perkin Warbeck / the Pretender “Richard of York,” threatens to invade. After Elizabeth rallies the troops around her husband, they win the battle and arrest the Pretender.

A Failure on Every Level

This is the worst, most ridiculous episode in the series. I just can’t with it. I hate it as much now as I did when it aired. From a 1500s mindset, it’s just really stupid.

It suffers from faux-feminism in the worst ways. True feminism is when a woman is equal to a man—not inferior or superior. If you vilify the man to make a woman look good, that doesn’t speak to her merit; it diminishes them both. And this series does this all the time. Instead of being diverse, rich, nuanced female characters with distinct personalities who love and support each other, have intelligence, and negotiate, all the female characters in this series are Girl Bosses: an unlikable, bitchy, control freak who steamrolls over men and always has the solution even if a man thought of it in the historical narrative.

For example: Henry VII being portrayed as a weak, insecure king rather than a shrewd, intelligent one. He needs Lizzie to constantly remind him that he is a king, that he has her support, and that he can win in battle. She has to go out and rally his troops to fight for him with an epic speech about how if they won’t fight for him, they should at least fight for her, the daughter of Edward IV! And it doesn’t stop with her. If it’s not her telling him what to do, it’s his mother. Even in our visit to see Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand, he barely says anything, because she is a fierce girl boss who does all the talking—to Lizzie, because the men don’t exist in this universe except to be sneered at and downtrodden.

I am all for making strong female characters, but not at the expense of having strong male characters to balance them out; and this series fails at both.

Its anti-Catholic bias shows in how it makes its religious figures villains. The only references to God are made by arrogant jerks who insist, “God’s will is my will,” which is a backwards view of how religion in that time period worked. It was dangerous to assume you knew God’s will, and heretical to proclaim it. You could claim it by saying that because it worked out, it must be God’s will (I am king because God let me win the battle). There were no atheists; everyone was religious. Here, nobody cares about their faith except Margaret Beaufort and her priest, both of whom are “corrupt.”

A Noble Death: Sir William Stanley

The episode opens with the beheading of Sir William Stanley for his support of “Richard of York,” the Pretender. While the royal family watches (Henry chides Arthur for looking away), Stanley denounces the king from the scaffold: “Before I die, you are not a king, nor fit to be one. England rots beneath you, so kill me, and you will kill many others after me, men who will line up to say long live the true, able king, Richard.”

This show reveals the historical ignorance of its writers in depicting how people went to their deaths. A modern person would be resentful of the person about to chop their head off, but medieval figures were pragmatic and aware of the social, political, and religious consequences of their words.

People rarely denounced the king or queen because it had serious and life-threatening consequences for their loved ones. The most they might do is position themselves as a martyr, like Mary Queen of Scots when she wore red to her execution.

The person facing the block would receive confession and a blessing from a priest and pray before kneeling. A “good death” would reflect on them in heaven. Often, they admonished those in the crowd to obey god and the king/queen, or said that if they had done so/better, they would not be here now. Many would “pardon” the executioner for their role in their death.

On a religious level, kings were viewed as an extension of God on earth. God put them on the throne and ordained their actions. Disrespecting the monarch just before your death would be a sin against God, and might incur divine judgment (a longer stint in Purgatory).

Not speaking your mind or your true feelings would protect your family from any political retribution; a public outburst could mean their imprisonment and your land never being returned to your family after being confiscated; the return of their property would leave them less destitute, and provide for their future. So unless you were a careless jerk, you kept your mouth shut so Jr. could get rich someday.

As a reward for your good behavior, your executioner would try to give you the cleanest, fastest death possible. The risk of anguish at the thought of being “hacked at” multiple times deterred most people from public defiance.

There’s no record of Henry VII attending an execution; he orchestrated them for known traitors (his preferred method was to avoid killing them if possible), but rarely attended in person. His children would not have been forced to watch either. It is easier in the abstract sense to order someone’s death than to see them die.

The Death of the Dowager Queen

In this series, the Woodville women are witches who have “discernment.” Elizabeth Woodville dies, but not before begging her daughter to be there for her brother and to help her son Richard win the throne. “Keep him from danger. Promise me. He is coming, Lizzie, I feel it.” I won’t go over how dumb this is, since I’ve talked about it in previous episodes. (Yes, support your brother’s return, who will put your children to death, just like mine vanished into the Tower and never returned!) She references a ghostly woman from their pagan roots wailing for her (I guess a banshee?) and dies alone in a room with her daughter. The date of her death is unknown, but implied to be near Perkin’s arrival in England (1496).

In reality, she died in 1492 and was buried without receiving any of the traditional funerary rites. Nobody knew why until they found a letter in the English National Archives from 1511 that said, “The Queen-Widow, mother of King Edward, has died of the plague, and the King is disturbed.” (“King Edward” being the boy Richard III usurped to take his throne.) So, that may have been the reason for her hasty burial.

Unlike on the show, a priest would be with her at her death. People on their deathbeds confessed and received the last rites, including Communion. She, and all Catholics of the period, believed (and still believe) that receiving last rites is crucial. It gives you forgiveness, strength, comfort, and forges a union with Christ by preparing your soul for eternal life. It removes punishment for your sins. Your final Holy Communion will sustain you on your spiritual journey to heaven.

Perkin Warbeck: The Pretender

Henry VII says his informants found out the truth about the Pretender who claims to be Richard of York. He is “Perkin Warbeck, and comes from Tournay,” which gives Lizzie pause, since her mother told her brother to make his way to Tourney to live with the Warbeck family.

Richard of York was indeed a Pretender, and his name was Perkin Warbeck. In his confession, he gave the names and details of his Flemish family; the municipal archives of Tournai mentions most of his relatives by name. While in the service of a merchant, Warbeck visited various countries and learned several languages. He wound up in Ireland, whereupon seeing him dressed in fine clothes, the Yorkists there came up with the scheme to pass him off as the missing Prince Richard.

He went to Burgundy and gained favor by claiming his older brother had been murdered, but the murderer spared him because of his age and “innocence,” forcing him to swear he would not reveal his true identity for years. This gained him favor with Margaret of York, who educated him in all the ways of the York court to be convincing. Warbeck’s greatest triumph was that when he attended a royal funeral there, they recognized him as “King Richard IV of England.” Whether or not she believed in him, Margaret knew that to have someone who “owed” her something on the English throne would be good for their trade negotiations.

The series implies he has “the support of all Europe minus Spain,” leaving Henry VII isolated. This is not true. Henry was a strategic negotiator with power and money, who got Warbeck kicked out of France, imposed a trade embargo on Burgundy, and had already negotiated an alliance with Spain that aligned him with Europe’s most formidable kingdom.

Only Scotland supported Warbeck, who fled there after two unsuccessful attempts to take English territory. James IV knew he could use Warbeck as leverage against England and went with him on a minor invasion. Their hoped-for support in Northumberland never materialized, and the Scottish army retreated as soon as Lord Neville’s men approached from Newcastle.

James IV provided Warbeck with a ship to get him out of Scotland and made peace with England. Warbeck made several more thwarted attempts, each time easily routed.

Unlike in the series, Warbeck didn’t rush off the battlefield to greet his newborn son; he fled every time he might die and knew he had no claim to the throne. Rather than being in a muddy fight within sight of Henry VII, he gathered support in Cornwall by saying he would stop the taxes levied to help fight against Scotland. When Henry VII sent his chief general and his army to attack, Warbeck panicked and deserted them. He was captured at Beaulieu Abbey. He did not claim sanctuary, and Margaret Beaufort did not ride there to collect him. She did not violate sanctuary, nor leverage power against the priest by forcing him to turn over the traitor. Warbeck surrendered.

Marriage in Tudor Times

The series makes Henry look stupid, since he hasn’t thought about making a Spanish alliance before now to secure their future. Lizzie interrupts a council meeting to inform the men that the Pretender has “all of Europe behind him” and they should settle Prince Arthur’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon immediately and secure a Spanish alliance.

This is in 1497. She’s a little late with her brilliant idea.

Henry began serious negotiations for a Spanish alliance in 1489, only three years after he became king. They agreed on a treaty in March, settling terms for the marriage and involving a shared policy against France. This immediately stabilized his new dynasty and legitimized him in the eyes of Europe, since Spain would not have risked an alliance with an unstable throne. They renegotiated terms in 1492 and again in 1497, which led to the marriage in 1501.

Marrying for Love: A Modern Fantasy

There’s a dumb conversation between Henry and Lizzie:

Henry: You used to say Arthur is too young and will choose his wife for love.

Lizzie: Now I have changed my mind. It will give him something good to dwell on and ally us with the strongest force in Europe.

Marrying for love was not something that happened much among the aristocracy in Tudor times; King Edward’s choice of Elizabeth Woodville for love rather than strategy shocked everyone at his court. Court marriages created alliances between powerful households. Arthur and Catherine of Aragon were raised knowing they would marry whoever their parents chose and needed for an alliance. Elizabeth of York expected nothing less for her children; she hoped they might find happiness within this arranged marriage.

The idea of marrying for love rather than money or political advancement was not popularized until the Enlightenment ideals of the 18^th century. After the Industrial Revolution gave people financial independence, they had the luxury of choosing their own partners, and it became widespread.

Did Henry VII Travel to Spain?

Sending Henry and Lizzie to Spain is more visually interesting than a series of dull letter exchanges, but it also made me facepalm so hard.

No English monarch visited Spain until Queen Victoria.

The timing is ridiculous. Henry is threatened by a Pretender who could invade, and he chooses now to make a voyage to Spain, leaving his court unattended and ripe for traitors to take it over? The voyage could take anywhere from a few days to two weeks, depending on the weather, which was “tempestuous” in the Channel. (Bad weather delayed Catherine of Aragon from sailing multiple times and then drove her off course several hundred miles.)

Even if you suspend disbelief, the treatment of the Spanish is horrendous and stereotypical.

When they arrive at the Alhambra (a journey that took a couple of weeks over treacherous terrain), Catherine of Aragon dances for them. She is olive-skinned and dark-haired, with black eyes. A lot like history, amiright?

No?

If you think, “Eh, that’s not awful,” allow me to show you Isabella of Spain:

Someone needs to explain this to me, because what the actual hell? It’s like someone in the casting department thought, “Oh, Spain. That place of olive-skinned, dark-haired, dark-eyed people!”

Yeah, Spain had some of those, particularly in Aragon, where King Ferdinand came from, but the Castilians were lighter. Isabella was fair-haired, which means reddish-blonde, round-faced, blue-eyed, just like her daughters and grandchildren.

The Spanish show Isabel did a bang-up job with the casting of these people; why couldn’t this series? Behold, an actual casting that made me think “Oh hell yes!” when I saw it, and not “Oh HELL NO.”

Plus, their personalities were a lot like the real ones, I think. Isabella is a bit of a hard-ass but still likable and pious, and Ferdinand is a good-natured strategist who smiles while he plots behind your back.

Isabella Done Dirty

This is where my Castile/Aragon inner nerd comes out to complain. History knows them as “Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand.” Yes. Isabella reigned over the larger portion of Spain, which was Castille; but even though she was a literal feminist for her time and an absolute icon, she also allowed her husband to do a lot of the public speaking, and let him sign his name first on legal documents. Isabella knew what his Pride needed and gave it to him.

Here, of course, because the men suck and the women are Girl Bosses, she does all the talking with and to Lizzie, since only Lizzie knows Spanish (no, she didn’t). Henry gets to stand around looking like a doofus, while Isabella is a bitch to Lizzie and informs her in no uncertain terms that they’re not marrying their rich and desirable daughter off to Arthur until they execute the two Pretenders to the throne.

Now, this was actually part of the negotiations; but it was King Ferdinand who stipulated that the Pretenders had to die for obvious reasons; he would not risk his daughter’s life and their alliance on her being dethroned. He and Henry had fierce negotiations through their ambassadors, while Lizzie and Isabella wrote letters to one another, full of joy and excitement over the proposed marriage alliance. Everyone played their gender roles of the period, with men negotiating and the women caring about their children’s future happiness together and sharing their hopes, dreams, and wishes for the next generation. And that’s nice.

Isabella was unlikable or rude; she would not have insulted a visitor. Instead of being arrogant about her wealth, she was humble and pious because of her faith. But this writer hates Isabella of Spain. Probably a combination of contempt for her Catholicism and her being an “actual” feminist icon from history.

There’s a throwaway line about her being pompous and full of her “new wealth.” By 1497, she had been married to Ferdinand for 28 years. By this time, she had bought back lands under-sold by her brother to increase their wealth, funded Columbus’s explorations, and received Papal permission to financially profit from the New World. Her wealth was not new, but built up with strategy.

There’s an awkward moment where Isabella expects Henry to speak Spanish, and he doesn’t know it; but the universal common language of the time was Latin, which everyone in the upper class and most in the merchant class learned and spoke, so they could communicate despite language barriers.

Lizzie’s Battlefield Speech

Since Lizzie never went to the battlefield, Henry never went to fight Warbeck in person, and there was no attempted mass exodus of his troops to the other side (every time Perkin tried to gain support in England, he was beaten), this rousing Girl Power Speech never happened, but I figured I’d include it here for posterity’s sake.

Lizzie: Listen to your queen when I command you! England is invaded by a Pretender and the Scots! Since when have Englishmen feared gales and Celts and run from warfare with their tails between their legs? If he were Richard, he would be my brother, and I would tell you so myself! But he is here to kill your king and rob England of what was never his! If you fear God, then you will honor your true king, Henry Tudor! And if you will not do it for your king, then do it for me! The daughter of Edward IV and Queen Elizabeth Woodville, who has just passed from this life into God’s hands.

She leads all his men back in triumph, saving the day!!!

The writers had to try so hard to make her relevant, lol.

They obviously borrowed this from Queen Elizabeth I’s speech to her troops, almost a hundred years later.

Minor Inaccuracies & Clarifications:

• Prince Harry has brown hair and dark eyes, instead of blue eyes and red hair
• The series mentions that Prince Harry and Margaret Beaufort like each other, which is true; she adored him and he lived on a property next to hers for a long time, allowing them daily visits. The court records from the time note many lovely, expensive gifts she gave to him (including a special saddle and dressings for his pony)
• Margaret Beaufort is told by her priest to give more money to the church to ease whatever troubles her conscience; in reality, she funded schools, libraries, and religious houses out of religious devotion, not guilt

See you next week. This show can’t get any worse. Right?!

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.