If you’re anything like me, school history lessons left you yawning and, with a faint mouldy scent in your nostrils. English history especially always seemed so tedious with its endless supply of royal Charles’ and James’. The one English king who stood out from the rest was Henry VIII – the rather portly man with the neat red beard, elaborate clothing, and a penchant for chopping off his wives heads!
It’s good to be king and in Showtime’s Golden Globe-nominated series The Tudors, prepare to see King Henry VIII as never before. The handsome, athletic, virile Henry (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) is in a loveless marriage to his brother’s widow, Catherine of Aragon (Maria Doyle Kennedy). The young, hot-blooded Henry delights in combat sports and chasing women. His obvious philandering doesn’t seem to make much of an impact until he falls desperately in love with Catherine’s lady-in-waiting Anne Boleyn (Natalie Dormer). Henry didn’t happen to meet Anne by chance; she was “pimped” by her father Thomas Boleyn (Nick Dunning) so that he and the Duke of Norfolk (Henry Czerny) could gain favour with the king.
Will Henry get the jewel he desires? More after the jump.