The Tudors, Part 1 of 2

It is late March 1502. A cold wind howls through the battlements of Ludlow Castle near the English border with Wales. A servant shivers as he mixes well along a cold stone corridor. The flickering candle in his lantern gives a weak light to guide the way for his visitor, a Catholic priest in a long black casak. The mood in the castle is somber, even its great hall once filled with laughter and the melody of lutes stands silent. At last the pair reach the royal bed chamber where they knock lightly on the door. A weak female voice tells them to enter. Beside the bed, the 16-year-old Spanish princess Catherine of Arrigan sits with her hands clenched in silent prayer for her ailing husband, while a young woman attends the fire in the hearth. Rushes strewn across the flagstones muffled the priest's footsteps as he approaches the great oak bed. And there amid the scent of burning medicinal herbs lies Arthur, the Prince of Wales, eldest son of King Henry VII. The 15-year-old heir to the throne is almost motionless, gaunt, hollow-eyed and skeletal. He is unrecognizable from the healthy young man who returned to the castle in December after his opulent wedding celebrations in London. Now beads of sweat cling to Arthur's waxy brow and every exhalation is a struggle. The priest begins to murmur in Latin. The room's candlelight catches the glint of his golden cross as he raises it over Arthur. The young prince stirs briefly. His lips part, though no words come, only another shallow rattling breath. Princess Catherine tells the servant urgently to fetch the doctor again. He makes his way back out into the castle corridors. The physicians he knows have already tried all their remedies. Even so, no one is prepared to give up on the future monarch, whom everyone hoped would become the second Tudor King. In a line established fewer than 20 years ago by his father. The days pass in this way, hurrying from room to room, fetching another doctor or another priest, while the prince heads to his inevitable destination. And then at last it comes. The servant is hidden in the shadows of the room when the first light of dawn creeps through the leaded glass on April the second. Prince Arthur's chest rises, falls and does not rise again. The fire is left to die in the great and the windows are opened to release the sickly fog of impotent remedies, sickness and death. Somewhere in the distance a raven calls. And though nature is oblivious, the course of England's future has changed forever. The Tudor dynasty ruled England from 1485 to 1603, beginning with Henry VII and ending with his granddaughter Elizabeth I. The Tudors are the most famous royal family in English history. Every school child can recite rhymes about Henry VIII, famed for his six marriages and break with the Catholic Church. While his daughter, known as Good Queen Bess, oversaw the Elizabethan Golden Age. Marked by political, religious and cultural change, the Tudor era shaped the course of English history, paving the way for modern Britain. But how did the first Tudor king fight his way to power? What drove his son to break away from Rome and establish his own church with himself at its head? And who were the astonishing women who defined his reign and the years that followed? I'm John Hopkins. From the Noison Network, this is a short history of the Tudors, part one of two. If Prince Arthur had not died, his younger brother Henry would never have become England's most famous king. But to understand the rise of the Tudor dynasty, we need to go back a little further. By April 1483, the wars of the roses between the rival houses of Lancaster and York have dominated England's political landscape for almost 30 years, resulting in tens of thousands of deaths. Disagreement about the true royal lineage is the subject of bitter dispute. And now the death of the once warlike King Edward IV of the House of York leaves a succession crisis. Though the crown immediately passes to the late King's 12-year-old son, who becomes Edward V, the future is by no means secure. Soon, young Edward and his brother are confined to the Tower of London by their uncle Richard, who then proclaims himself King. The boys are never seen again. But when Richard's own son dies, the next in line becomes his distant cousin, the 28-year-old Lancasterian Henry Tudor. Tracey Bourman, OBE, is chief historian at historic royal palaces and the author of several historical biographies, including the private lives of the Tudors. They're claimed to the throne, actually descended from an illegitimate line. Ultimately, they traced their descent from the sons of Edward III, an in particular John of Gaunt. But from John of Gaunt's affair with Catherine Swimford. So that's where the Tudor line came from, or the Tudor claimed to the throne came from. So yeah, it didn't bear close scrutiny. Henry Tudor began life in Pembroke in Wales in 1457, but his arrival was a traumatic one. Before he is even born, his father was captured by the Yorkists and died of the plague in captivity. Henry's mother, Margaret Beaufort, widowed at just 13, almost lost her life giving birth to Henry. She never has another child, but believes Henry is destined to be king, and she will stop at nothing to secure the future for him. He sent to Britain for his safety for a while, and by 1485, he's become a magnet for Lancasterian exiles, unhappy with Richard III's reign. He now learns that Richard has designs on marrying his niece, Elizabeth of York, the sister of the princes in the tower. It's bad news for Henry, who is keen to match with Elizabeth himself. If she and Richard had children, Henry's own claim to the throne would be weakened. He needs to make his move. Henry leaves Britain with a rack-tag army of prisoners and mercenaries. Richard in turn rallies his forces and the pair meet at the fateful Battle of Bosworth Field. With his royal army now almost 10,000 strong, the king looks like the favourite to win against this Welsh underdog to begin with. Really, it was one family, and in fact two brothers, the Stanley brothers, who were very powerful nobleman. One of them was married to Henry Tudor's mother, Margaret Beaufort, but despite that it looked like they were going to fight on the side of Richard III. But then at the last moment when they saw the way the battle might be going, they changed allegiance and fought for Henry Tudor, and that was decisive. Richard makes a final, last ditch bid to kill Henry himself. He comes within striking distance before Henry's men descend upon him with swords and halberds. His corpse, stripped naked, is paraded through the streets of Leicester, a brutal and bloody end to the wars of the roses. Henry Tudor is crowned Henry VII in October 1485. The following year he makes good on his promise to marry Elizabeth of York. Their union not only symbolizes the reconciliation of the warring houses, but also marks the dawn of the Tudor dynasty. At their wedding, the white rows of York and the red rows of Lancaster are conjoined to form the Tudor rows. The marriage between Henry and Elizabeth is a fertile one. The couple have seven children, four of whom survive into adulthood. Arthur, Margaret, Henry and Mary. In his reign, the first Tudor king wastes no time quelling rebellions and cementing his position. Henry VII was a very wildly king. He was very clever. And what he did brilliantly was to secure England's position internationally, so he was very good at international diplomacy. He made this brilliant alliance with Spain with the mighty monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella. And this was cemented in a marriage alliance between his eldest son Prince Arthur and their daughter Catherine of Arrigan. And that really was a moment. Arthur, the Prince of Wales, marries Catherine of Arrigan on November the 14th, 1501, at St Paul's Cathedral. Thousands of people line the streets to catch a glimpse of the glittering Spanish princess. After a wedding feast, the couple proceed to nearby Baynuts Castle. Even after Arthur climbs into bed next to his new wife, their guests do not leave. The royal couple are blessed in bed and wine and spices are served their guests in the bed chamber before the newlyweds are finally left in peace to consummate their marriage. But do they? Far from being a private affair, this question will have far-reaching consequences in the years to come. Whatever happened behind closed doors, the couple are soon on the move. The royal court is a mobile one, traveling from someptuous residence to someptuous residence, with Ludlow Castle being the traditional seat of the Prince of Wales. But after retreating here for the cold winter that follows, both now fall prey to what is known as the Great Sickness, a deadly strain of influenza. Catherine survives, but Arthur dies at just 15. His brother Henry, a charismatic 10-year-old, is now next in line to the throne. In 1503 to maintain the political alliance between England and Spain, the king begins discussions about marrying Catherine of Arrigan to his younger son, though her unpaid diary and her previous marriage complicate matters. That summer, young Henry's sister, Margaret, marries James IV of Scotland, creating a strategic alliance between England and Scotland. It is a crucial moment for the Tudor dynasty. [Music] Flame, head and handsome, the air to the English throne becomes a teenager, throwing himself into his lifelong passions, jousting, hunting, wine and women. His behaviour alarms his more temperate father, but young Henry proves irrepressible. Though he's keen for more contact with his possible fiancé, Catherine, the two are kept apart, while the negotiations continue. [Music] As the youthful Henry becomes more vigorous, his father, now in his 50s, suffers recurring bouts of tuberculosis. His own devoted mother, Lady Margaret, moves into Richmond Palace to nurse him, but to no avail. In April, 1509, Henry VII, England's first Tudor king, takes his final breath. The coronation of Henry VIII in June 1509 seems to herald a bright new era. In the place of his dour, Wily Father, is a vigorous youth of 17, an athletic figure of six foot two, Henry is popular and charismatic. The new king seems to have the world at his feet, but he is gathering a reputation for a nasty temper, as well as a paranoid streak. But there's another, less well reported sight to him too. There was one quote that really changed things for me about Henry VIII, because you think of this tyrant and all-powerful, mercurial man, and yet one visitor to Henry's private apartments described him as being the most timid man you could hope to meet. And that is astonishing and I thought I must have misread it, are they talking about Henry VII? No, they're not. And the reason was, Henry VIII was a hyperchondriac. He was absolutely paranoid about sickness and disease and you can understand why his brother Arthur died when he was just 15. Then shortly afterwards, Henry's mother, Elizabeth, whom he adored, she died in childbirth, age just 37. So life was short and Henry was very aware of that and he was also aware that by the time he came to the throne, he was his father's last throw of the dice, the only surviving male heir. In an age one, of course, boy is counted. So he was aware of the fragility of life and I think this really did make him very very paranoid about sickness and disease. If anybody so much has sneezed in his presence, they'd be banished from the court. Now he is king, producing his own heir becomes a priority. But for that to happen, he needs a wife. Special papal permission is now in place for Henry to marry his brother's widow. On the condition that she swears her virginity is still intact. In one of his first acts as king, Henry finally weds Catherine of Arrogant in a quiet June ceremony at Greenwich Palace. This time, there is no doubt that the wedding has been consummated. Catherine's first pregnancy is announced in November 1509, but it sadly ends with a stillbirth. Before long, though the queen is pregnant again, the king embarks on the first of his many extra marital affairs. The woman in question is banished to a convent and with another baby on the way, Catherine and Henry patch things up. In the early hours of New Year's Day 1511, the queen gives birth to a boy, a son and heir named Henry after his father. The kingdom rejoices, there are jostles, pageants and fireworks to celebrate. No one can party like the tutors and their feasts of this time are prodigious. But the bonfires have barely fallen cold before tragedy strikes. The young prince dies at just two months old. His tiny coffin is carried in procession from Richmond to Westminster. His parents are heartbroken. Within a couple of years, Catherine is pregnant again, but by this stage, she also has more immediate concerns. Her husband has launched an invasion of northern France, personally leading his army on the campaign. Honoring the so-called "old alliance" with France, the Scottish king declares war on England and invades the North. With Henry away, a heavily pregnant Catherine, Don's armor, and rides North to rally the troops. The conflict culminates in the catastrophic battle of Flodden, where James IV of Scotland is killed, leaving his infant son to become King James V. Catherine sends Henry a piece of James's bloodied coat to use as a banner. But Miss Carries shortly afterward. Finally, in 1514, peace is restored. Henry signs a treaty with the French Louis XIII and marries his sister to him to further solidify the alliance. Both events are broken by his indispensable right-hand man, Cardinal Wolsey. And there is more good news on the horizon for Catherine, at least. In 1516, she gives birth to a healthy daughter, Mary. A few years later, the restless king does finally get his wish of a son, but as he's born to one of his wife's ladies in waiting, he is illegitimate, so the problem of succession remains. After many failed pregnancies, Catherine is no longer in her youth, and Henry's frustration is growing. But a fork in the road appears when, in 1521, an aristocratic household returns from working with Henry's sister in France, a family by the name of Berlin. It is the elder sister Mary Bullin, who first catches Henry VIII's eye. Though she's already married, she becomes his mistress and bears him to children, though the king never acknowledges them as his own. Once the affair is over, Anne learns from her sister's mistakes. VIII and fragile looking with long dark hair, Anne's intelligence, charisma and perision sense of style are praised by her many admirers. Chief among them, the king himself. But though he showers her with jewels, rich fabrics and increasingly passionate letters, Anne refuses to sleep with him while he's still married to Catherine. As Henry's admiration for his new favorite grows, his affection for Catherine dwindles. Claiming that he has realized that God is displeased with his marriage to his brother's widow, in 1527 he commands Woolsey to secure an annulment. Henry's argument does little to convince the Pope, who is in sway to Charles V, the most powerful man in Europe, who happens to be Catherine's nephew. The Pope refuses to annul the marriage and Woolsey's failure marks his downfall. Stripped of his titles and palaces, he is arrested and summoned to the tower. But he dies on the way south from York. And if the Pope thought Henry would take no for an answer, he is very much mistaken. So all consuming is his quest for a divorce that it becomes known as the King's Great Matter. In 1529, he convenes what is called the Reformation Parliament to challenge the Pope's authority in England. It is a move that marks the beginning of his legislative efforts to reduce papal influence. But though it will take a while to enact so seismic a shift, Henry has no intention of waiting much longer for Anne. So in 1531, he banishes Catherine from court, worse still, she is forbidden from taking Mary with her. She will never see her daughter again. Meanwhile, alongside Anne Berlin, someone else's star is on the Ascendant. Thomas Cromwell, the son of a blacksmith, is a shrewd and capable administrator, emerging now as one of the King's most trusted advisors. The tutors loved the favourite. I think Henry VIII in Elizabeth had more favourites than any of the other tutor monarchs. They seemed in particular to like to keep ministers and noblemen close, although the exception to that was Thomas Cromwell. Of course, he was low-born, he was the son of a blacksmith. Henry VIII's other favourites and powerful minister Thomas Woolsey was the son of a butcher. So you get these two commoners. But as a general rule, favourites tend to be dukes or elves or other members of the nobility. With Catherine now absent from court, Henry and Anne are now living almost as husband and wife. By December 1532 Anne is pregnant. And early the next year, the pair marry in secret, ignoring the small matter of Henry's bigomy. Just a few months later, Henry's first marriage is finally annulled by the Archbishop. Another favourite he is manoeuvred into position. Now visibly pregnant Anne is crowned as Queen Concort in June 1533. But when she gives birth in September in one of the grandest of beds in Henry's possession, it is to a healthy baby girl. Boys will follow her husband, Tells her. He is not consoling his wife. He is issuing an order. In spite of the king's disappointment Anne is besotted with her daughter whom she names Elizabeth. She declares her intention to breastfeed herself, highly irregular for royal consorts, but Henry puts a stop to this and a wet nurse is promptly hired. Before long Elizabeth is sent off to Hatfield House to be raised away from court as is traditional. In the meantime, though Henry seems to have what he wanted from Rome, he is unable to walk away from the grudge match. Eventually after seven long years of negotiations, Henry broke with Rome, so separated England from the rest of Castellate Europe and created this new church, the Church of England, and appointed himself Supreme Head. And that title was later watered down to Supreme Governor and the current monarch is still Supreme Governor of the Church of England. Once the genie was out of the bottle, if you like, of course then there's the dissolution, the monasteries, the sweeping reform, the translations of the Bible from Latin into English, and there's really then England starts to embrace all of these reformist ideas that had been gathering ground in Europe earlier in the 1500s. Henry himself however is often a myth that he became Protestant. He never did, he always remained Catholic, he just wasn't Roman Catholic. Henry turns to Cromwell to oversee the revolutionary religious reforms that follow. The most controversial is the dissolution of the monasteries in which he sees his vast monastic lands and treasures, often selling the properties themselves to his loyal supporters. The dissolution brings Henry enormous riches, but it also sparks widespread opposition from the people, many of whom struggle to accept this sudden radical transformation of their religion. Meanwhile, bitterly disappointed by what he sees as Anne's failure to provide him with a male heir, the king's eye starts to wander again. In the summer of 1535, he visits Wolf Hall in Wiltshire, the family home of Jane Seymour, one of Anne's ladies in waiting. Fair and pale, Jane's beauty and charisma are seldom remarked upon in the way of Anne's, but her meek desility is appealing to the king. Even so, all is not lost for Anne who is once more expecting a baby, and though many still consider Catherine of Arrigan the rightful queen, her death in 1536 is a cause for celebration in court, with Henry and Anne wearing joyous yellow. For the good times don't last long, Anne now miscarries a baby boy. Then the king falls from his horse while jousting, badly injuring his leg. In 1536, it wasn't a great year for Henry, probably his Anna's Herabilis in the words of the Queen, but I don't buy into the theory which has had a lot of airspace recently, that Henry sustained a head injury during that jousting accident and that that changed his whole personality. It wasn't such a sudden change as that. Also, there's no reliable evidence that says he had a head injury to start with just a leg injury, and I think really the traits that came out in his later life had always been there. He was an indulged, spoiled child, used to getting his own way, and you definitely see that in his later reign. And I think really his personality darkens, partly because he's tormented by the pain of his ulcerated legs and it makes him irascible and short tempered. But also, it's born of disappointment. In the wake of his injury, the King decides his marriage to Anne Bolin is cursed. He returns the full beam of his attention onto Jane Seymour, and he sets Thomas Cromwell, the task of getting rid of Anne. By the end of April, she's becoming increasingly uneasy. And when one of the court musicians, Mark Smeaton, is arrested on suspicion of adultery with her, the net is clearly tightening and fast. It is May 1, 1536, a day of festivities at Greenwich Palace that marks the arrival of spring. Henry VIII's court is celebrating with a customary jost in tournament. Accompanied by her ladies in waiting, Anne Bolin enters the enclosed arena known as a tiltyard. The stands are already brimming with excited spectators. Anne takes a seat in the royal stand and straightens her sumptuous gown of rich velvet and brocade. It's square neckline adorned with a string of pearls. As usual, a French hood, a crescent-shaped headpiece embellished with jewels, frames her face. In the preparation area, she spots her brother George putting on his armor. servants, Titans. the leather straps on his breastplate and hands him his shield, which is decorated with the Berlin coat of arms. His horse is armoured too in a decorative covering and protective headgear. It's a pleasant spring day with celebratory flags fluttering in the breeze, but things have been uneasy lately between Anne and her husband, and the room is about him and Jane Seymour are only growing. Now there is a roar from the spectator stand. Henry has arrived. As the crowd leap to their feet, her husband greets her cordially, but does not quite meet her eye. Perhaps he's unhappy to be missing the action. Henry intended to joust himself today, but the ulcerous wound in his leg is showing no signs of healing. There's no longer the athlete he once was, but though he's both heavier and angrier, he's still the king. And now he is here, the tournament can begin. The contestants are ready. They're armoured gleaming, their lancies couched, held horizontally under their arms. At a signal, the two knights ride at each other from opposite sides of the long wooden barrier known as the tilt, which prevents collisions between the horses. Anne's brother leads the challenges, thrilling the crowd with collisions so hard that they cause the lancies to splinter and snap. Anne feels a flush of pride at her brother's skill, and when one of the defenders' horses becomes skittish and refuses to enter the arena, the king calls down that the rider could take his own mount. Asnik's a glance at her husband, perhaps he is not in bad spirits after all. But then halfway through the contest, a page appears with a folded piece of paper for Henry. The king reads it and his face flushes hotly, and knows the expression too well, a look of fury. And strains to make out the words on the paper. Is that Mark Smetan's name? She never should have allowed the musician into her chambers to hear him play. Has caught Gossip twisted her mistake into something more sinister. Henry leaps to his feet, almost knocking his chair over, and marches out of the arena a clutch of noble men following behind. The queen gestures for the jasting to continue, fixing a smile on her face. But you can't take her eyes from the diminishing figure of her husband in the distance. What she doesn't know is that this will be the very last time she sees him. Capitalizing on rumors and gossip spurred by Anne's natural flirtatiousness, Cromwell orchestrates an adultery case against her. He implicates no fewer than five men, including her own brother, George Berlin. Though the accusations are based on little more than rumour, the fact that they show Henry willing to play the cuckold, a sign of how keen he is to get rid of his second wife. One may the second, Anne is arrested without warning on a charge of adultery and taken to the Tower of London. Her trial takes place around a fortnight later, presided over by the Duke of Norfolk Anne's own uncle, who represents the absent king. There Anne is charged not just with adultery, but also with incest and perversion. Her defense of herself is convincing. The only crime she can admit to is allowing Mark Smith and inter-chambus to listen to his playing the Virginals, but her estranged husband has already sent for an expert executioner from Calais. The queen is convicted of adultery, a treasonable offense in a royal wife, and sentenced to death. On May the 19th, 1536, she walks the brief distance from her royal apartments at the Tower of London to the scaffold site. Style-ish to the last, she wears a mantle of ermine over a dark grey gown and a petticoat in crimson, the colour of martyrs. After being blindfolded, she is put to death in front of the assembled crowd with one clean swipe of the sword. The first time in England's history that a king has executed his own wife. The wife of the men accused of adultery with Anne, including George, met a similar fate, though they must make do with the traditional acts. The day after Anne's death, Jane Seymour travels by barge in secret to Hampton Court. She in Henry marry later that month. The new queen is careful to distinguish herself from her predecessor with a modest English style of clothing. She also insists that all her ladies sport a higher neckline in a bid to control the king's lustful urges. Before long, Jane conceives. Her pregnancy leaves her with a craving for cucumbers, which her stepdaughter Mary duly provides. Her other stepdaughter, three-year-old Elizabeth, is soon officially removed from the line of succession, thanks to Henry's insistence that his marriage to her mother was unlawful. Now demoted from princess to lady Elizabeth, she remains at Hatfield House. In May 1537, Jane travels to Hampton Court to escape a plague raging across London. The queen enjoys a summer of seclusion of the refurbished palace, before Henry VIII's longed-for-son finally arrives on October 12th. The overjoyed king rides to Hampton Court, where Edward is christened. His half-sisters, 21-year-old Mary and little Elizabeth witnessed the ceremony in which their baby brother is carried into the chapel dressed in a white gown and wrapped in a gold cloth. Afterwards, Edward is carried back to his parents to be blessed, but his triumphant mother sitting up in bed begins to sicken. In a matter of days she is gone, felled by pure pearl fever, a bacterial infection caused by lack of hygiene in the delivery room. The mourning period is pronounced. Courteers and servants are issued with black gowns and cloth, while the king and his immediate family donned the traditional royal mourning colour of deep blue. Jane Seymour goes down in history as the only wife Henry really loved. He keeps her clothes, even like those of his other wives, preserving them at the palace of Whitehall, and hers is the only portrait that hangs in the royal collection until the time of his death. For two years the Tudor Widower Henry VIII remains a bachelor. It is the longest time England has been without a queen. But in 1539 he is persuaded by the ever-present Thomas Cromwell to consider Anne of Cleves, a noble woman from a small Protestant-leaning state in modern day Germany. Henry allows Cromwell's negotiations to begin. But in the meantime he wants to see what his future wife looks like. The preeminent artist Hans Holbein is dispatched to capture the date's likeness. Holbein, who is really like the court photographer, his works are also dazzlingly realistic and detailed. And for the first time, really after the more stylised art of the medieval period, he gets this window into the Tudor world thanks to this rich legacy of art. Though it's possible that Cromwell advises Holbein to paint Anne from a flattering angle, Henry is delighted with a resulting portrait and a marriage treaty is finalised. And the journey begins to England, while the excited king plans a surprise. He arranges to meet his betrothed into skies while she stays at Rochester Castle, following the old Shevaloric tradition that a lady would instantly recognise her true love. But Anne is terrified when a group of masked men burst into her room at Rochester. And when one of them tries to kiss her, she curses him in German. Both parties are a disappointment to each other. Unlike Henry's petite first three wives Anne is tall and big-boned, with skin pitted with the marks of smallpox. Henry is furious with Cromwell for matching him with her. Whatever her physical appearance, it's fair to say that Henry, 48 years old to Anne's 24, is no longer the dashing figure he once was. His jousting injury has left the formerly sporty king with an ever-adreed expanding West Line. He now dons a huge loose-fitting coat over other layers of clothing to disguise his bulk and leans on a gold-topped staff for stability. Though the couple can only communicate with the translator, the wedding takes place as agreed. Publicly, the royal event is celebrated with pageantry and splendor, but behind closed doors it's a disaster. The pair are unable to consummate their union, and though Henry is likely suffering from impotence by this stage, he blames Anne and even calls a virginity into question. Despite his failing prowess, the old patterns continue, and this time it's one of the queens' maids of honour who turns his head. Catherine Howard is the Orbanhead teenage niece of the Duke of Norfolk and a cousin of Anne Bullin. Well for Henry, this was his midlife crisis, I think. So Catherine was much younger than him for about 30 years younger. Really, we don't know exactly how old she was, but probably a teenager when she met and married Henry. And he sort of fell head over heels in love, but I think he was just trying to recapture something, recapture his lost youth. Used by her father's stepmother, the Dowager Duchess of Norfolk, this is not the first time pretty Catherine has drawn the attention of a much older man. Unbeknownst to the king, Catherine might have been as young as 12 when her music teacher took sexual advantage of his position. A later physical relationship followed with her Kinsman Francis Deere. She was this pretty, fairly, flighty young girl, but she had also been preyed upon. And I think that's something that we've seen in recent years. We've reassessed Catherine. She was seen as this kind of airhead, really, until recently when now she's been realised what a victim she'd been, how she'd been preyed upon throughout her life, probably child abuse, really. The problem is, as usual, that Henry has an inconvenient wife still in place, a situation for which he is unable to forgive his former favourite Thomas Cromwell. Now, the increasingly powerful Duke of Norfolk sees his opportunity to accuse his rival Cromwell of corruption and heresy. Cromwell is arrested in June 1540 and executed not long afterwards. The marriage is swiftly annulled, but pragmatic and no doubt all to aware of the fate of her predecessors and complies readily. She is richly rewarded with the gifts of richman palest and bletchingly manner for life, as well as a generous annual income, and she has given the new exalted status of the king's sister. Shortly after the annullment, and on the very same day that Cromwell is executed, Henry wastes no time in marrying Catherine Howard. But it is a case of marrying haste repent at leisure in his fifth unhappy match. In spite of the jewels and gifts lavished on his young bride and even a belated fitness regime Henry adopts for her, it is not long before Catherine wins a reputation for giddiness and worse adultery. Unlike her cousin Anne, Catherine takes it further than flotation. Not long after her husband's 50th birthday, she begins an affair with one Thomas Culpeper, a gentleman from the king's privy chamber. To make matters worse, her former lover Francis Deerham returns from Ireland and gets back in touch. Possibly because of blackmail, the queen appoints him as private secretary. Deerham swiftly proves a liability, boasting that when the king dies he will marry Catherine. The claim doesn't go down well with a jealous Culpeper, and as the situation becomes a tinderbox, rumours begin to spread. Eventually, inevitably, they reach the ears of the king. Henry's first reaction is to call for a sword to slay the queen, before breaking down into tears about what he calls such ill conditioned wives. At first Catherine denies the accusations of adultery, but her ladies in waiting talk and the men also reveal the truth in interrogation. In 1541, she is deprived of the title of queen and imprisoned in Sion Abbey. We never know the exact age of Catherine Howard, but when she is executed the following February, she may be still as young as 18 years old. After Catherine's death in 1542, Henry VIII in many ways cuts a sad figure, humiliated, paranoid, and an almost constant agony from his leg injury. But though his personal life leaves much to be desired, he can maybe take some solace from his vast wealth. By this point in his reign, he boasts 100,000 precious object in his possession and 56 residences. In other ways, too, his old zeal remains intact. To stop the Welsh coming under Catholic influence, he decides Wales should be ruled by England. Between 1536 and 1542, acts are passed, merging the two and ending the privileges of the Marcha lords, the nobles appointed by the king to guard the border between England and Wales. In their place, Wales is allowed to send representatives to the English Parliament. It is an act of union that more closely resembles a forced marriage. Around the same time, a Parliament meeting in Dublin salutes Henry as king of Ireland, superseding the title of Lord granted to English kings by the Pope centuries before. It's a shift that cements Henry's break with a Roman Catholic church, put in control of the country in his hands instead of Rome's. And by pledging his son Edward to the infant Mary queen of Scots, for the first time he brings together the component nations of the British Isles. But though there's unity in the kingdom, the queen's throne is once again empty. The candidate to fill it emerges in Catherine Pa, a 31-year-old twice widowed noblewoman. She's a very important queen. She was a remarkable woman. She's often dismissive as being the kind of nurse made to the ailing Henry. It wasn't like that. Henry was deeply attracted to Catherine and to her mind as well as her body. She was a bit of a powerhouse intellectually. She was quite radical in terms of her religious views. She had opinions and she wasn't afraid to express them. She was great company for Henry. But Catherine's marriage to Henry comes at no small cost. When Henry first caught her, she is in love with another man, Thomas Seymour, the handsome but hot-headed brother of the late Queen Jane. When a jealous Henry learns of this, he finds a reason to send Seymour away from court. Catherine, putting her own desires aside, agrees to marry the king. Catherine is just four years older than her 27-year-old stepdaughter Mary, but she proves a loving stepmother and encourages Henry to reconcile with his daughters. Recognising the intellectual abilities of both Edward and Elizabeth, she takes a keen interest in their schooling. And it is not long before Elizabeth joins Catherine at Hampton Court Palace. In 1543, trouble arises again in Scotland. The French mother of Mary, Queen of Scots, breaks her daughters' engagement to Prince Edward, instead arranging for her patrol to the Doe fan of France, who is heir to its throne. It is a move that threatens to bring Scotland under French control. A prospect Henry VIII finds intolerable. He unbarks on his final overseas campaign, leading an army to France in 1544. During his absence, he appoints his wife Catherine as Regent General, and empowers her to rule in his name. It is the summer of 1544. It is warm in the vast, great hall at the heart of Hampton Court Palace. The everyday sounds of the court echo down from the Hammerbeam ceiling. There is the usual low murmur of Courtyers' whispers, and from somewhere in the palace, the strains of a loot. Seated on the throne, on a raised platform, amid a small cluster of advisors, Catherine Paa reads a parchment on her lap. Her lips pressed into a contemplative line. A stepdaughter, Lady Elizabeth, stands a few yards away at the periphery of things, Half hidden behind a column of carved oak. Early 11, her red hair gleams in the sunlight, streaming through the great halls' tall windows. In her skirts, she conceals a copy of Plutarch's Lives, borrowed from her stepmother's library. It is her beloved stepmother who nurtures Elizabeth's love of learning. But today's lesson is not one to be learned in books. It is of a more practical nature. Elizabeth has never seen a woman sit on her father's throne. Never seen a woman in this kind of position of power at all. As Catherine continues to read, the advises murmur recommendations buzzing like flies. Occasionally Catherine glances up to listen and nod, but she keeps her own counsel, assessing the document without haste or fluster. After pausing to think, she signs the parchment with a flourish of the quill. Then the great wooden doors fly open, and there's a sudden commotion, as a new arrival approaches bowing low to her in supplication. He has another petition in his hand. Elizabeth can't tell what it's about, but from the agitation of the advisors, she can tell it's one that is ruffling feathers. As the discussion continues, Elizabeth glances up at a tapestry hanging on the wall, depicting her father Henry's style of leadership, his brash roaring authority. But Catherine's power is different, a balance of strength and tact. She meets the petitioner's eyes and those of her advisors evenly, neither yielding nor dominating. She keeps her voice steady, her reasoning irrefutable. The fluster around her calms, and as the latest meeting ends, she rises, smoothing her skirts. Then, as if sensing Elizabeth's gaze, she meets her eyes and inclines her head just a touch. Perhaps hoping Elizabeth has learned the lesson. How to hold her own in male company. How to make herself heard, in spite of loud voices, should she ever need to do so. On Henry VIII's return from France, his health deteriorates. Recent research has suggested he may have been suffering from type 2 diabetes, which might account for his vast appetite and prodigious thirst. More recent analysis suggests he could have belonged to a rare blood group that can prevent a healthy partner from bearing an infant after a first pregnancy. For whatever reason, the king's health is poor. Now morbidly obese, he can't go up and down steps without a rope and pulley system that has since been called the world's first chairlift. Tormented by pain, Henry lashes out at those closest to him. In 1546, a conspiracy led by conservatives at court almost succeeds in turning the paranoid king against his wife, whose adherence to more radical reformist views is a source of some friction. A warrant is drawn up for her arrest, but clever Catherine hears of the rumour just in time, throwing herself upon her husband's mercy and blaming her womanly weakness. Luckily for her, she is forgiven, and the final storm between Henry VIII and one of his wives passes. That famous schoolyard rhyme to help remember his wives, divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived, might have ended up very differently. Deteriorating further, Henry falls sick with a fever in January 1547 at Whitehall Palace. The queen and her eldest stepdaughter Mary rush to be with him. He refuses to see them at first, but at last lets Catherine in. It is God's will that we should part, he tells her. Vadect in sumptuous nightclothes, the second Tudor King dies on the 28th of January, aged 55. He is interred next to Jane Seymour, instant George's chapel at Windsor Castle. One of his most famous kings, Henry VIII, did what had previously been considered undueable. He defied the Roman Catholic Church and survived. The most important and lasting legacy has to be in religion. Henry VIII of course breaks with Rome, makes himself supreme head, and then that title becomes supreme governor, and that's had a very long tale. King Charles III became supreme governor of the Church of England when he ceded to the throne in September 2022. So that's been a 500 year legacy really. And when he dies, Henry VIII knows nothing of the future. The England he leaves is still religiously divided and financially strained by costly wars. Internationally, his country continues to face tense relations with France and Scotland, while Protestant and Catholic powers vie for influence across Europe. Perhaps in his dying moments, Henry reminds himself that he leaves behind a son, Edward, who might reign for many decades to come, or did doubts linger in his mind about the fragility of life and his kingdom's uncertain future. Join us next time for the second part of this short history of The Tudors. Nice million dollar question, isn't it? We're all still obsessed with the Tudors. I think when it comes to Tudors, you couldn't make it up. It's got all the drama of a soap opera, the King who marries six times, the Virgin Queen, Shakespeare. It's a very self-confident age with the overseas exploration. And I think crucially as well, we feel closer to it thanks to art, as well literature, architecture, lots of Tudor buildings still exist. So there's a divide between Medieval and then The Tudors. They are sure in this beginning of modernity, really. But for me, it's all about the larger than life personalities and the sheer drama. [BLANK_AUDIO]