Departures from history

There are numerous ways in which the series does not coincide with history. Like any work of historical drama, liberties are taken with character names, relationships, physical appearance and time sequences. The most significant liberty with respect to physical appearance has been taken with the potrayal of Henry VIII himself. By all accounts, Henry was extremely tall (almost a giant of a man by the rennaisance standards) and fair-headed. By contrast, Jonathan Rhys Meyers is of short-to-middling stature and is dark-haired.

Time is conflated in the series, giving the impression that things happened closer together than they actually did. By the time of most of the events in this series, King Henry VIII was already in his mid-to-late 30s. Catherine of Aragon was really only six years older than Henry VIII, instead of the 15-year age gap implied by the show (Henry is said to be 25 as the series opens) and the relative ages of the actors. Henry was more than a decade older than Anne Boleyn (her year of birth is uncertain), and did not seriously begin his pursuit of her until he was in his mid-thirties. By the time of the events at the end of the first season (Wolsey's fall, More's chancelorship) Henry was beginning to noticably age and gain weight.

The character of Henry's sister, called "Princess Margaret" in the series, is actually a composite of his two sisters: the life events of his youngest sister, Princess Mary Tudor, coupled with the name of his eldest sister, Princess Margaret Tudor (to avoid confusion with Henry's daughter, Mary I of England).[3] Henry's sister, Princess Mary, did marry Charles Brandon after being widowed, but her first husband was the French King Louis XII, not the Portuguese king as portrayed in the series. Princess Mary was married to her first husband for roughly three months instead of a few days, and there is no historical evidence that she murdered her first husband in his sleep to escape the matrimonial bonds. Additionally, her two marriages took place about 10 years earlier than is represented. By the time of the events of this series, Brandon (who was already in his early 40s) and Princess Mary were long married with three children. Henry's eldest sister, Princess Margaret Tudor was actually married to King James IV of Scotland and became the grandmother of Mary, Queen of Scots. Altogether, Mary and Brandon were married for 18 years, not several years as implied in the series.

While Bessie Blount was famously one of Henry VIII's mistresses and did give Henry an illegitimate son (Henry FitzRoy), historically, her son did not die as a small child. FitzRoy died at the age of 17 in 1536, a month after the execution of Anne Boleyn and roughly 10 years before the death of his father, Henry VIII. Blount was also not married until after the birth of Henry FitzRoy.

The papal politics depicted in the first several episodes of the series also have no clear relation to actual events. A Pope Alexander is depicted as on his death bed at the time of the Field of the Cloth of Gold meeting between Henry and Francis (in 1520), whereas the actual pope at that time, Leo X, died suddenly at the very end of 1521, and there had not been a pope named Alexander since 1503, before the beginning of Henry's reign. A Cardinal Orsini is depicted as being elected following the death of the fictional Alexander, which, again, does not correspond to actual history, when the Emperor's tutor Adrian of Utrecht was elected to succeed Leo, and, following his death just a year later, Cardinal Medici, who as Clement VII would refuse to permit Henry's divorce, was elected to the papal throne.

There is no historical evidence that composer Thomas Tallis was bisexual, as portrayed in the series.

The Palace of Whitehall, shown as the home of Henry VIII from the beginning of the series, actually came into Henry's hands in 1530 after he removed Cardinal Wolsey from power. It was taken by Henry to be his home with his fiancee Anne Boleyn, and until that time was called York Place.[4] It was not referred to as Whitehall Palace until a decade later.

Cardinal Wolsey was not imprisoned and there is no historical evidence that he committed suicide. After being accused of treason, he set out for London to answer the charges and died en route in Leicester. The order for him to come to London was delivered by the Duke of Norfolk, not the Duke of Suffolk as is portrayed in the series. Wolsey's death came in 1530, three years before the death of Henry's sister Mary; in the show the two events are transposed.

The livery collars that many of the male characters wear are inaccurate. Thomas More is shown as wearing the Collar of Esses which signifies that he is Lord Chancellor, even before he assumed that office. (Wolsey would have worn it when he was Lord Chancellor.) The Duke of Norfolk, the Duke of Suffolk, the Duke of Buckingham and Thomas Boleyn would all have been wearing the collar of the Order of the Garter.

Henry VIII is referred to as King of Ireland in several episodes. However, the position of King of Ireland was not created until 1541. During the period that the show depicts, Henry would only have been referred to as Lord of Ireland.

By all accounts, Henry and Anne only consummated their relationship in 1532 on the way back from a pseudo-royal visit to France, not 1530 as depicted in the series.

In Episode 2 of Season 1, the Dauphin of France was introduced as "Prince Henri Phillipe" by Cardinal Wolsey, although his name was actually Francis (most likely after his father, Francis I of France). There is no indication that Princess Mary was ever betrothed to the youngest son of Francis I as shown in Episode 6 of Season 1, who was known as Charles II de Valois, Duke of Orleans.

Source: Wikipedia