Season 1 Season 1 chronicles the period of Henry VIII's reign in which his effectiveness as king is tested by international conflicts and political intrigue in his own court. Cardinal
Thomas Wolsey plays a major part, acting as Henry's trusted advisor. In episode 1, Wolsey persuades Henry to keep the peace with France, and the two kings meet at
Calais to sign a pact of friendship. The pressure of wanting a male heir compels Henry to question his marriage to
Catherine of Aragon. He also has a string of affairs and fathers an illegitimate son in episode 2 with his mistress
Elizabeth Blount, who is also one of Queen Catherine's ladies-in-waiting. Henry has the traitorous
Duke of Buckingham executed.
Anne Boleyn returns from attending the French court, and she catches Henry's eye. Her
father and
uncle encourage her to seduce the king, though she also falls in love with Henry as the season unfolds. She refuses to become his mistress but insists that he marry her, which pushes him to use Cardinal Wolsey to take action against Queen Katherine. The king instructs Wolsey to get papal agreement for an annulment of his marriage, on the grounds that his wife's previous marriage, to Henry's elder brother
Arthur, was indeed consummated. In episode 6, Wolsey makes increasingly desperate efforts to persuade the Catholic Church to grant this, but it proves difficult as a result of the influence wielded over the Pope by Katherine's nephew
Emperor Charles V, and this starts to weaken Wolsey's position. In episode 7, the mysterious
sweating sickness arrives in England, killing both the high-born and low-born, and Henry is terrified of catching it; he secludes himself in the countryside away from court with his herbal medicines. Anne Boleyn contracts the illness but recovers.
A papal envoy arrives in England to decide on the annulment. The court convenes a special session at which both Henry and Katherine initially are present, and it eventually decides in favor of Katherine. Cardinal Wolsey is stripped of his office as Lord Chancellor in episode 9 and banished to York, where he pleads with the king to restore him to office. Henry chooses his loyal friend Sir
Thomas More to be Wolsey's successor as Lord Chancellor. In the final episode, Wolsey makes one last desperate attempt to save himself by allying himself with his former enemy Queen Katherine, but their plot is discovered and Wolsey kills himself during his imprisonment in the
Tower of London after saying a brief prayer apologising for his sins.
Season 2 Henry will do whatever it takes to
marry Anne Boleyn, even defying
Pope Paul III. He prepares to take Anne on a royal visit to France, having demanded loyalty from the English clergy. The papacy in Rome organises an assassination plot against Anne, but this fails. In episode 3 the newly appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Thomas Cranmer annuls Henry's marriage, clearing the way for Henry to marry the by now pregnant Anne, which also increases the growing rift between England and Rome.
Bishop Fisher refuses to recognise the validity of Henry's marriage — after Henry issues a decree ordering all his subjects to recognise their new Queen — and is finally joined by Sir
Thomas More, who is granted permission by Henry to retire from the chancellorship. In episode 5, Fisher and More's refusal to sign an oath of allegiance recognising Henry's supreme authority as head of the English church eventually leads to their execution. In episode 6,
Thomas Cromwell, who has become Henry's chief advisor, announces his plans to cleanse England of dissenters to the new regime. Also, England's relationship with France is complicated by
King Francis's refusal to unite their kingdoms in marriage, thus causing Henry to question his decision to have married Anne. Episode 7 sees an increasingly ill and disillusioned
Katherine, who has been forbidden to see her daughter,
Lady Mary, and Cromwell has legislation approved by Parliament agreeing to the
dissolution of first the smaller and then the larger abbeys and monasteries. In episode 8, Henry has Cromwell initiate overtures to the Emperor to make peace with Rome as a bulwark against a hostile France, and the king starts to pay court to
Jane Seymour after Anne's two miscarriages, which follow the birth of
Princess Elizabeth. It is his long-time friend
Charles Brandon who, with Cromwell, alerts Henry to Anne's apparent indiscretions, and her fate is sealed. She is conducted to the Tower of London, and her four supposed lovers, one of whom is her own
brother, are executed, followed eventually by her own execution — delayed by some hours as a result of the French executioner's late arrival from Calais. Her devious
father, who shows little remorse at the death of his son and Anne's impending death, is allowed to go free but is banished from court and is shown leaving the Tower without even acknowledging his daughter waving from her cell window. On the morning of his
queen's execution, Henry enjoys a lavish breakfast, symbolically consisting of the mate of a swan he has seen outside his window, as he looks forward to a new start and heirs with Jane Seymour.
Season 3 The third season focuses on Henry's marriages to Jane Seymour and
Anne of Cleves, the birth of his son
Prince Edward, his ruthless suppression of the
Pilgrimage of Grace, the downfall of
Thomas Cromwell, and the beginnings of Henry's relationship with the free-spirited
Catherine Howard. Henry marries Jane as his third wife, but his honeymoon period is soon spoiled by a growing resentment against the
Reformation in the north and east of England. The growing band of rebels disperses in Lincolnshire but gathers strength in Yorkshire, primarily because of its able leaders such as
Robert Aske and
Lord Darcy. The royal troops, commanded by the Duke of Suffolk, are severely outnumbered and are forced to parley, whilst on the Continent the papacy sends a newly appointed English
cardinal to persuade the Spanish and French monarchs to support the English rebellion, called the Pilgrimage of Grace by its followers as their objective is to restore the old Catholic religious practices. In episode 3, Henry is determined to stop at nothing to suppress the revolt, his fears stirred by remembrances of the
Cornish uprising during his father's reign. He deceitfully persuades the rebel leaders to lay down their arms and disperse their followers, promising to hold a Parliament in York to answer all their grievances; this is never held. A second uprising is savagely suppressed and the leaders executed as Henry, via Cromwell, instructs
Suffolk to shed quantities of blood to act as an example. Queen Jane goes into labour and produces a
son, but she dies soon afterwards. In episode 5, Henry retires from public view, bereft at the loss of his queen, but finally emerges; his first act is to get the church leaders to agree on a new protestant doctrine. In the ensuing episodes, the king has the last remaining
Plantagenet heirs, the Pole family (mother, son, and grandson), put to death as a result of Reginald Pole's attempts to undermine his rule. This creates a schism with Spain and France, and at Cromwell's urging, Henry agrees to an alliance with the Protestant League by marrying
Anne of Cleves after first dispatching the English Ambassador to Cleves to negotiate terms, followed by
Hans Holbein, who is to paint her likeness. However, Cromwell's plans to bolster the Reformation are undone by Henry's dislike for Anne, whom he calls a 'Flanders mare'. He is unable to consummate his marriage and vents his frustration on Cromwell, which is encouraged by the Duke of Suffolk in league with
Edward Seymour, as both want Cromwell removed from office. With his enemies encircling him, Cromwell pleads with Anne of Cleves to submit herself to her husband, but she is powerless to reduce King Henry's antipathy towards her. Finally, Cromwell is taken to the Tower after being accused of being a traitor by the King's Council and, despite writing a letter begging his master's forgiveness, is gruesomely beheaded by an executioner, hungover due to a prior night of drinking with Cromwell's enemies in a final act of vengeance. Only intervention by the commander of the guard delivers Cromwell from his agony. In the meantime,
Sir Francis Bryan is instructed by the Duke of Suffolk to find a woman to rekindle Henry's jaded love interest, and the beautiful and very young
Catherine Howard, a relation of the Duke of Norfolk, is introduced at court and catches the King's interest. He beds her in secret, and a new romance begins.
Season 4 The fourth and final season covers Henry's ill-fated marriage to Catherine Howard and his final, more congenial marriage to
Catherine Parr. The ageing King seeks military glory by
capturing Boulogne, France. In his final hours, he is troubled by the ghosts of his dead
wives. Henry marries 17-year-old Catherine Howard and is besotted by her beauty, calling her "his rose without a thorn", and feels rejuvenated. Catherine starts to dally with the King's groom,
Thomas Culpepper, and is encouraged by her senior lady-in-waiting,
Lady Rochford — Henry's sister-in-law via Anne Boleyn's brother — who is also being bedded by Culpepper. In episode 2, Henry invites his former wife, Anne of Cleves, to court to celebrate Christmas as he wants to reward her for keeping her word to him and for her loyalty. She, in turn, is grateful for the charity he has shown towards her. After the festivities, he is struck down once again by his leg wound — from his former jousting days — while Catherine is with Culpepper. Feeling the need for company, Henry visits Anne of Cleves and has a brief liaison with her. He and Catherine embark on the
royal Passage to the North to forgive the former rebels, accompanied by Princess Mary, who is popular with the King's northern subjects. It is during this period that Catherine and Culpepper consummate their relationship and Catherine falls in love with him. In episode 4, Henry makes friendly overtures to the French ambassador, hoping to prevent an invasion, and
Francis Dereham, Catherine's former lover when they both resided with the
Dowager Duchess of Norfolk, arrives at court and blackmails the queen into making him her private secretary. Some weeks later Henry receives a secret letter about their prior sexual exploits. In episode 5, the King grants permission to the
Earl of Hertford to investigate the queen's alleged liaison with Dereham. He plans to pardon her but is then informed by his Council of her affair with Culpepper — revealed by Dereham under torture — and he has all three executed, along with Lady Rochford, who has gone mad in the Tower. On the scaffold, Catherine states that, although Queen of England, she would have preferred to have been Thomas Culpepper's wife. In episode 6, Henry is courted by both Spain and Rome to form a military alliance against the French, who have allied with the Turks, and he is persuaded to form an alliance with the
Holy Roman Emperor and invade France.
Thomas Seymour introduces Catherine Parr at court, and she catches the king's eye, even though she is married. Henry pursues her and sends Seymour to the Low Countries to remove him as a love rival. Military preparations are made, and English troops lay siege to
Boulogne, bombarding it with cannon as an Italian engineer digs a tunnel to blow up the castle. Charles Brandon captures a French father and daughter and falls in love with the daughter, Brigitte. At home, Catherine Parr is acting as regent in Henry's absence and uses her power to further the Protestant cause but is checked by
Bishop Gardiner and his Catholic faction, supported by Princess Mary. In episode 8, the castle of Boulogne is overcome and the keys to the city handed over to Henry by the French mayor. Henry returns to court in triumph, leaving the
Earl of Surrey in charge of the new possession. At home, Henry is disturbed by the struggle between the Catholic and Protestant factions, and Catherine alienates him through her support of the Protestant reformation. Bishop Gardiner continues his campaign against Protestants and gathers enough evidence to persuade the king to issue an arrest warrant against the queen for heresy. In the meantime, Henry Howard, now Lieutenant General Surrey, loses a disastrous battle at Boulogne, and whilst making an attempt to usurp power from the 'new men' like the Seymours and
Richard Rich, he is arrested, tried for treason, and executed, despite the paucity of evidence against him. In episode 10 an increasingly frail Henry is facing his own mortality. His mind is on the succession, and he appoints the Earl of Hertford to be Lord Protector until Prince Edward comes of age. Catherine, knowing the mortal danger she is in, orders her ladies-in-waiting to destroy all their heretical books and no longer to discuss religious matters; she also submits herself to her husband, and he pardons her. The dying Charles Brandon is reunited with Henry for one final and nostalgic meeting. As the king's own end approaches, the ghosts of Henry's first three wives confront him over their deaths and his treatment of their children. Henry orders his family to spend Christmas at Greenwich, bidding them his final farewell and instructing the princesses Mary and Elizabeth to care for their brother. The final scene has him approving the portrait painted for him by Hans Holbein, depicting him as a virile, youthful King. ==Cast==