History Characters / TheTudors

* BadassBeard: In Season 4. Generally speaking, he gets more facial hair as he gets more badass, but the Season 4 one is truly notable.

%%* BadassBeard

* Alphabitch: She acts this way even before beocming queen.

* FlawlessVictory: His martyrdom alongside John Fisher.

* UnwantedSpouse: Averted at first, but as soon as Anne failed to bear Henry a son, she became this very quickly. And unlike Katherine, she was not given the option of annulment and retire quietly, instead she gets executed but not before Henry annuls their marriage and made their only child together a bastard.

* NotSoDifferent: Infidelity is a constant problem with both him and Henry. Charles makes a conscious effort to be faithful to his second wife, until Catherine makes it clear the two of them will never reconcile. Henry does who he wants, when he wants, and doesn't give a damn what any of his wives think.

->'''Played By''': Lothaire Bluteau

* TheBluebeard: Henry ordered two wives to be put to death. He abandoned his first wife, and many suspect that he poisoned her. His third way died in childbirth; although Jane's death is not his fault, it adds to his black reputation as a husband. Princess Christina of Denmark, while she will obey the wishes of the Holy Roman Emperor if he orders her to marry Henry, flatly says that she'd only be ''willing'' to do so if she had two heads. When Catherine Parr realises he's considering making her his wife, she's terrified: "You know what happens to his queens! ''Everyone'' knows what happens!"

** After Jane Seymour's death and her household is dissolved, Lady Missledon tells him of her plans to return home to her mother since she knows her fiance will never marry her after he found out about her affair with the king, he offers to give him one of the abbeys if she agreed to marry her. She graciously refused.

* BigBeautifulWoman: She is the most fat and husky of king Henry VIII's wives, but she is not ugly.

* HistoricalVillainUpgrade: The historical Katherine Howard was not as bitchy as she is portrayed in the tv show. She also made amends with Princess Mary. That historical fact is left out. The historical Katherine Howard was quite kind during her brief reign as queen, even towards prisoners.

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: She's more ditzy and clumsy then actually evil. She can be spoiled, but she's not mean-spirited and callous like Anne Boleyn. She also gets over her jealousy towards Anne of Cleves.

* SexGoddess: She is talented at having sex. Probably the most of all of king Henry VIII's wives.
* SexIsGood: She certainly thinks so.

* WeHardlyKnewYe: She only lasts about half of season 4. Then she dies.

* AwfulWeddedLife: Possibly the worst. Her ArrangedMarriage to George Boleyn begins with her nearly becoming a RunawayBride within sight of the altar; ends with [[WomanScorned her]] [[AbominationAccusationAttack falsely accusing]] him of BrotherSisterIncest; and in between includes his invocation of MaritalRapeLicense, her realization that he's been [[ForcedOutOfTheCloset keeping company with men]], and their [[DestructiveRomance complete mutual hatred]].
* CoDragons: To Anne Boleyn and Anne of Cleaves with Lady Hertford.

* CoDragons: She is this to Anne Boleyn and Anne of Cleves with Lady Rochford.

* ReallyGetsAround: With Sir Francis and Thomas Seymour.

* GetTheeToANunnery: Says her jealous husband has been threatening to do this. She fears he will renew this threat after her pregnancy is revealed, but he does not.

* CreatorsFavorite: The directors/producers/writers really like her a lot, according to the interviews.

* DoomedMoralVictor: She is portrayed as the true wife and queen in the show.

* GrandDame: She has traits of this.

* IronLady: She acts this way.
* JackOfAllTrades: She is one of the most talented of all of king Henry VIII's wives.

* MasterOfAll: She is good at anything she sets her mind to in the Tudors.

* StrongAndSkilled: She is shown to be both strong and skilled in the Tudors.

* ArcVillain: Of Season 2.

* TheBaroness: She acts this way in the tv show.
* BecomingTheMask: Is sent in to seduce Henry for her family's ambitions, but falls genuinely in love with him--which makes her story all the more heartbreaking.

* BloodKnight: She loves arguing and causing fights as well. Despite being a DirtyCoward and a WeakButSkilled person.

* DirtyCoward: She is one of the most cowardly of the six wives alongside Katherine Howard.

* EntitledBitch: She is extremly entilted. In her eyes, she deserves all kinds of special privileges and treatment just because she is the queen. Which she did not get through her own merit but by scheming with her family, Thomas Cromwell and Thomas Cranmer.
* EvilOverlord: For the Catholics both in England and abroad, she is this.
* ExtremeDoormat: While it's hard to see her as this, Anne Boleyn tends to defer to her father. He controls her by threatening her, even physically abusing her as he sees her as a way to power.

* GeneralFailure: She fails to destroy the Catholic Church, win the people's support over her rivals Katherine of Aragon and Jane Seymour and fails to break the alliance England has with Spain and Portugal. Her only consolation is after she had died, as Elizabeth would ascend as one of the most popular monarch's in English history. At best during her lifetime she's known as one of the reformers.
* GetTheeToANunnery: After one too many delays, Anne wondered that if this was going to be her final fate. Unfortunately for her, Henry was determined that she's executed.

* GreenEyedMonster: She is the most envious and jealous of the six wives.

* HeroKiller: She manages to kill several Catholic characters before she dies. Her encouragement of king Henry VIII to execute Thomas More and John Fisher is potrayed as particularly vile.

* HoldMyGlasses: Her maids remove her pearl necklace and earrings in the final seconds before her beheading.
** This is something of a CallBack as she is wearing the exact same necklace and earrings during a particularly nasty argument with Henry four episodes prior.

* IdleRich: She goofs off with her extragent lifestyle and wastes her inherited wealth rather then earning it through talent and hard-work.

* IrrationalHatred: Of the Spanish and Portugese, as well as Catholics in general.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Anne can be manipulative, selfish, and ambitious (and influences Henry to increase these traits in himself), but she is also loyal to her family (poor sense of judgement in that though), grows to love Henry, and adores her daughter Elizabeth.
* KicktheDog: Her callous and mean-spirited mistreatment of the Catholic characters is clear sign she is a villain.

* LeanAndMean: She fits the character description.

* MagnificentBitch: She is intelligent, cunning and ambitious and she's shown as such during Season 1 and part of Season 2.

* MilesGloriosus: A female version. She loves bragging about her supposed political, economic, religious and military acomplisments. In reality, she is a blowhard.

* TheUsurper: She's viewed as the usurper to Queen Catherine of Aragon.

* WeakButSkilled: While she may be talented she is one of the weakest queens of the six wives alongside Katherine Howard.

* TheParagon: She is this the most out of the six wives. She is also one of the most tolerant Catholic characters alongside Cardinal Wosley, Katherine Howard and Eustace Chapuys.
* PetTheDog: She is kind to both Mary Tudor and Elizabeth I even though she is only their adopted mother.

* CreatorsPest: Many reviews have pointed out that the directors/writers/producers of the Tudors were really unfair in their potrayal of Catherine Howard. While she certainly was not a perfect "Mary Sue", she was not a "Complete Monster" either.

* DoomedMoralVictor: Not as much as the other Catholic characters, but she still counts as this. She is one of the most tolerant Catholics in the Tudors alongside Cardinal Wosley, despite her flaws.

* FragileSpeedster: She is one of the fastest of king Henry VIII's wives, being able to outrun the royal guards on several occasions.

* WellIntentionedExtremist: Despite his extreme hatred of the Protestant Reformation, he is mostly a good person. He even talks out against some of the abuses that take place in the Catholic Church and is against war and violence in general.
** He has a conversation with his daughter that acknowledges there are good Protestants and bad Catholics. His execution of 6 Protestants is rooted in a Renissance concept of resitributive justice. It's not done out of sadistic pleasure or hateful spite.

* FamousLastWords: Her execution speech moves the crowd to tears and prayer, and even makes the executioner beg her to "forgive [him] for what [he] must do."
-->''Good Christian people, I have come here to die, according to the law, and thus yield myself to the will of the King, my Lord. And if I ever in my life I did offend the King's grace, than surely with my death I do now atone. I pray and beseech you all to pray for the life of the King, my sovereign Lord and yours, who is one of the best princes of the Earth, who has always treated me so well. Wherefore I submit to death with a good will, humbly asking for pardon from all the world. If anyone should take up my case, I ask them only to judge it kindly.... Thus I take my leave of the world and of you. I heartily desire all of you to pray for me.''

* GetTheeToANunnery: After one too many delays, Anne wondered that if this was going to be final fate. Unfortunately for her, Henry was determined that she's executed.

* FamousLastWords: "I die as the king's good servant, but God's first."

* TheFundamentalist: He's the most fanatical Catholic the series has to offer, outshining both More and Cromwell in the religious zeal department.
** In RealLife, the historical Bishop Gardiner was not as fanatical as he is typically potrayed. See HistoricalVillainUpgrade below.

** The real life Bishop Gardiner could be surprisingly warm and affectionate towards people, even towards Protestants he did not see as a threat. He could be rutheless towards anyone who opposed him, but that was commonplace for the majority of people living in the 16th/17th centuries. (Not just Catholics either.) The Puritan regime in the United Kingdom under Oliver Cromwell in the 17th century dwarfs anything Bishop Gardiner ever did.
** Bishop Gardiner in RealLife saw the darker side of the Protestant Reformation being imposed on society first hand. He thought that it needed to be surpressed by force if necessary. Very similar to other figures of the Catholic counter-reformation at the time. It should be noted that he never had Mary Boleyn, Lady Margaret Bryan and Anne of Cleves (all Protestants, although Anne of Cleves later willingly converted to Catholicism to please Mary Tudor) imprisoned, exiled and/or executed. It's a myth (likely spread by anti-Catholic Protestant/Puritan propaganda) that he tried to have Edward VI and/or Elizabeth I executed.
** Too add insult to ingury, the RealLife Bishop Gardiner was not particularly close with Katherine of Aragon, who's fanatical Catholicism is almost never talked about. (She wholeheartedly supported the Crusades and the Spanish Inquistion and even other Catholics at the time found her rather difficult to get along with. She often ignored the Pope when it suited her and her hatred and fear of France is incompatable with Catholic orthodoxy.)
** Bishop Gardiner did not want the United Kingdom to become part of Spain and Portugal, despite the fact that they were both staunchly Catholic majority countries at the time. That in itself shows that he was not as fanatical as he is potrayed in the Tudors. He was not close friends with king Phillip II of Spain either. The Tudors potrays him as a staunch supporter of Charles V, but that is likely dramatized for the show.

* ZeroPercentApprovalRating: With the exception of [[YesMan Richard Rich]], who stays silent, everyone on the Privy Council denounces him immediately once he loses the king's favor.

* TheGoodChancellor: He's arguably even better at his job than Wolsey was, and without all of the attendant corruption.