History Series / TheTudors

** Henry's great desire to continue the Tudor line ends up indirectly causing it to end, since ''none'' of his children have children of their own because of his actions. Edward, due to being overprotected by his father [[ItMakesSenseInContext (or so the ghost of Jane Seymour claims)]] grew up sickly and died before he had a chance to marry and produce his own heir. Henry never gets around to arranging a marriage for Mary due to her constantly fluctuating status and the threat her husband might prove to him...so by the time ''she'' became queen she was in her late thirties with no children, and unlikely at that stage to be able to have any; her unsuccessful marriage to Philip II of Spain also failed to produce an heir. Elizabeth tells Mary that after seeing what happened to Katherine Howard (and no doubt remembering what happened to her own mother) she has decided she will never marry; this is TruthInTelevision as Elizabeth really did say this at age 9. For various reasons she stuck to this decision throughout her life, and upon her death, the English throne passed to the House of Stuart.

* AllForNothing: Henry goes through deplorable lengths in order to beget the son he always wanted for the sake of securing the Tudor Dynasty. As history would show, and as constantly foreshadowed by the series itself, all his efforts come to naught because his long awaited heir dies as a teenager before he could have any children himself, and would end up having a comparatively unremarkable reign to the ones his older sisters would have. To pour even more salt in the wound, Henry himself is to blame for the dynasty dying out, as his refusal to let Mary get married led to her marrying at too old an age to have children, while Elizabeth absolutely ''refused'' to get married herself due to her view of marriage being warped by his actions.

** Anne Boleyn and infant Elizabeth: "Because the pope, and he, and the emperor all AGREE. She is a bastard and you are not my wife." Sadly for Anne, this also went for most of the English people at that time.

* IllGirl: Jane Seymour.

* NiceHat: Anne of Cleves. Henry has his moments too. As does Catherine of Aragon. And Mary Tudor in the Season 4 trailer.

* HistoricalBeautyUpdate: A parade of [[TheBeautifulElite pouty-lipped sexpots]] of both genders in GorgeousPeriodDress? ''The Tudors'' is the ''god'' of this trope. After all, we can't have all that hot and [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment sexy sex]] being had by ''ugly'' actors, can we? Not to mention that the women are all very thin. When someone comments on Katherine Howard's round bum, well... it isn't (historically, she was described as 'pleasingly plump' as having some extra weight was desirable in those times). Noted in [[http://harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=230 this Kate Beaton comic]]. "The Sexy Tudors" has become a FanNickname for the show in some quarters.

** Also, the Duke of Buckingham, who told way too many unreliable people he's planning treason and also can't control his temper in front of the king.

** When the ghosts of Henry's first three wives appear to him in the series finale, Katherine of Aragon and Jane Seymour berate him for how he's ruined their children's futures, but Anne Boleyn only mentions how proud she is of her daughter, hinting that Elizabeth has the best fate in store.

* NiceMeanAndInbetween: of the first three wives, Jane Seymour is nice, Anne Boleyn is mean and Catherine of Aragon is inbetween. Of the second trio of wives, Anne of Cleves is nice, Katherine Howard is mean and Katherine Parr is inbetween.

** Multiple viewers expressed confusion and dismay in regards to how Katherine of Aragon was portrayed as physically much older than Henry. In real life, Henry and Katherine were married for 23 years and were both in their early-mid forties by the time he finally divorced her and she was his longest marriage by far (Anne Boleyn and Katherine Parr are tied for second place at a comparatively measly 3 years each). It often gets overlooked due to her simply being the first wife of six. In addition, while Katherine was reportedly quite beautiful in her youth, by that point, the multiple stillbirths and deaths of her children in infancy had understandably aged her quite a bit (Mary was the only one of ''six'' children the pair had together who survived to adulthood.) If anything, rather than Katherine looking too old, Henry looks far too young (Jonathan Rhys Meyers was 29 during the filming of Season 1.)

** Anne Boleyn would have liked to see Mary killed and developed a paranoia that Mary would eventually have Anne herself burned alive. She does try to make amends with Mary, however, but Mary understandably rejects this. A TruthInTelevision, Anne actually asked Mary several times to acknowledge her as Queen with the promise of reconciliation with Henry if she does so. Mary would always throw it back to her face. Though not shown, Anne during her imprisonment, actually begged one of her jailors to send a message of apology for how Anne had treated her and stated she only feared Mary because of what she and Katherine of Aragon stood for. Unfortunately, Mary would reject this as well for she believed Anne was this trope so much even when it became increasingly clear that a lot of Mary's misery came from her father, she still blamed Anne for all her ills.

[[caption-width-right:350:"You think you know a story, but you only know how it ends."]]

[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/TudorsShowtimePoster.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:250:"You think you know a story, but you only know how it ends."]]

A character page [[{{Characters/TheTudors}} has been created.]]

* HollywoodHomely: Anne of Cleves as played by [[http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=joss%20stone&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi Joss Stone]]. Henry seems to be the only person in and out of universe that doesn't find her at least a little attractive. Probably the point: Anne of Cleves was considered quite attractive by most people who weren't Henry, and if you look at the portraits by Hans Holbein the Younger, she even looks a bit like Joss Stone. Henry's reaction was likely more down to his being irrationally temperamental than her actual appearance. In real life, it's quite likely that Henry was already more interested by then in pursuing the 16 year old Catherine Howard, and so needed an out from the marriage. As well as a reaction to her lack of attraction to him - understandable given the state of Henry in real life by this point, but obviously a thing he would take umbrage with.

* MisaimedFandom: Similar to BrokenBase, this series seems to have gotten more likes, views and buyers among Catholics then Protestants, despite it being about king Henry VIII and the Protestant Reformation. It doesn't help that even the more typically "villainous" Catholic characters like Mary Tudor, Thomas Howard and Bishop Gardiner still get some "pet the dog" moments, whereas the Protestant characters are rather unlikable with a few exceptions.
* TheMistress: Charles Brandon has an official one! And besides the ones he married, Henry has a couple other girls on the side, like Mary Boleyn and Bessie Blount.

* TheOtherMarty: Some scenes from Season 2 were re-shot in Episode 3.01 .

** Multiple viewers expressed confusion and dismay in regards to how Katherine of Aragon was portrayed as physically much older than Henry. In real life, Henry and Katherine were married for 23 years and were both in their early-mid forties by the time he finally divorced her and she was his longest marriage by far (Anne Boleyn and Katherine Parr are tied for second place at a comparatively measly 3 years each). It often gets overlooked due her simply being the first wife of six. In addition, while Katherine was reportedly quite beautiful in her youth, by that point, the multiple stillbirths and deaths of her children in infancy had understandably aged her quite a bit (Mary was the only one of ''six'' children the pair had together who survived to adulthood.) If anything, rather than Katherine looking too old, Henry looks far too young (Jonathan Rhys Meyers was 29 during the filming of Season 1.)

-->'''Henry VIII''': My Lords, I assure you I am ''not'' content. I have relied upon you to inform and counsel me, and yet I am the most deceived. I have trusted and favoured all of you, and I have formed a sinister opinion that most of you are liars and flatterers who look only to your own profits. I know what you are planning, and if God gives me the strength, I will see to it that none of your projects ''ever'' succeed! ''[sadly]'' I mourn Cromwell's death. ''[His advisors looks shocked]'' Yes, I mourn him! I mourn him, now that I perceive that my counsellors, by light pretext and by false accusations, made me put to death the most...faithful servant I ever had.

** Interestingly, Edward and Thomas Seymour fit the personality types of this tropes much better than any pair of two sisters. At first they seem okay with each other, but then Thomas states he hates him and sleeps with his wife. This hatred would become even clearer after Henry died.
* GreatOffscreenWar: The war of the roses. King Henry VII and Elizabeth of York were both involed in it.

* HistoricalVillainDowngrade: The show downplayed the villainy of some Protestant characters, such as Anne Boleyn, Thomas Cromwell, and Thomas Cranmer. It also downplays the fanaticism of Edward VI and says that King Henry VIII and Elizabeth I changed the history of the United Kingdom forever. It also refers to Elizabeth I's reign as the "golden age". That is not exactly subtle. It also seems to insinuate that the Protestant side was much more tolerant (though not exactly more heroic) than their Catholic counterparts. Anyone who is familiar with the history of the Protestant Reformation knows that is objectively not true and Protestant fundamentalism is very much a real thing.

** Catherine de Medici is shown to one of the worst 16th/17th century monarchs to have ever lived. In reality,, she was no worse than any other nobleman or noblewoman in Europe.

** Henry's great desire to continue the Tudor line ends up indirectly causing it to end, since ''none'' of his children have children of their own because of his actions. Edward, due to being overprotected by his father [[ItMakesSenseInContext (or so the ghost of Jane Seymour claims)]] grew up sickly and died before he had a chance to marry and produce his own heir. Henry never gets around to arranging a marriage for Mary due to her constantly fluctuating status and the threat her husband might prove to him...so by the time ''she'' became queen she was in her late thirties with no children, and unlikely at that stage to be able to have any; her unsuccessful marriage to Philip II of Spain also failed to produce an heir. Elizabeth tells Mary that after seeing what happened to Katherine Howard (and no doubt remembering what happened to her own mother) she has decided she will never marry; this is TruthInTelevision as Elizabeth really did say this at age 9. For various reasons she stuck to this decision throughout her life, and upon her death the English throne passed to the House of Stuart.

* BrokenBase: Some Catholic viewers found the series to be to biased towards the Protestant side, whereas there are also Protestants who thought it was to biased towards the Catholic side.
** Some Catholic characters are definitely unfairly villainized, such as Katherine Howard, Thomas Howard and Bishop Gardiner. On the other hand, Mary Tudor's sympathetic potrayal definitly ticked off many Protestant viewers, who regard her and Catherine De Medici as among the worst 16th/17th century monarchs. (If not people to ever live.)
** The tv show also downplayed the villainy of some Protestant characters, such as Anne Boleyn, Thomas Cromwell and Thomas Cranmer. It also downplays the fanaticism of Edward VI and says that king Henry VIII and Elizabeth I changed the history of the United Kingdom forever. It also refers to Elizabeth I's reign as the "golden age". That is not exactly subtle.
** The show does seem to insinuante that that the Protestant side was much more tolerant (though not exactly more heroic) then their Catholic counterparts. Anyone who is familar with the history of the Protestant Reformation knows that is objectively not true and Protestant Fundamentalism is very much a real thing.
** It's not a streach to say that the directors/writers/producers did use Protestant/Puritan sources for some of the Catholic characters. Some of those sources most academic historians correctly reject as anti-Catholic propaganda. While not to the same degree as say, Wolf Hall (which is very biased/one-sided towards the Protestant side). Some Catholics reviews said that the Tudors reinforces the myth of "pure good Protestants, pure evil Catholics".
* ButtMonkey: Anne Boleyn, Thomas Cromwell and Thomas Cranmer.

* ComicBookTime: Season 1. The events in this season at a minimum cover the period from 1520-1530, including some events thay occurred before and after these years, but dates are never used and all adult characters avoid aging. This approach to time passing is likely to avoid the confusion of different storylines playing out of sync, and to avoid jarring time skips after almost every episode. Later seasons are much more centred around specific years.

* CostumePorn

%%* GorgeousPeriodDress: Everyone, all the time, but especially Anne Boleyn and Jane Seymour.
%%* TheHeretic: Thomas Cromwell, Anne Boleyn, Cranmer and quite a few others, not helped by the fact that the definition of heresy changes at least once per season. By Season 4, there are loads of them. Henry's last queen, many of her ladies, the Seymours and Anne Askew all had reason to fear being branded as such. Not to mention, Edward and Elizabeth are being raised as heretics, or so Mary complains.
* HeirClubForMen: The whole reason why Henry had six wives. Extremely ironic when you know that both his daughters not only got to be queens regnant but also were both competent rulers and are remembered to this day.

* HistoricalBeautyUpdate: A parade of [[TheBeautifulElite pouty-lipped sexpots]] of both genders in GorgeousPeriodDress? ''The Tudors'' is ''god'' of this trope. After all, we can't have all that hot and [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment sexy sex]] being had by ''ugly'' actors, can we? Not to mention that the women are all very thin. When someone comments on Katherine Howard's round bum, well... it isn't (historically, she was described as 'pleasingly plump' as having some extra weight was desirable in those times). Noted in [[http://harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=230 this Kate Beaton comic]]. "The Sexy Tudors" has become a FanNickname for the show in some quarters.

** Thomas Cromwell and above all, Anne Boleyn. Traditionally (before the 1960's at least) portrayed as the ruthless, evil villains in depictions of Henry's life. The show breaks away from that by simply making them ''human''. Cromwell does some pretty bad things, but James Frain plays him in a way that makes it clear that he doesn't ''like'' everything he does. He just [[Series/{{Rome}} turns loyalty into a vice]]. Anne meanwhile is portrayed as a spirited young woman who falls in love with the king and is driven by that love, rather than greed. She is also shown to be a very loving mother, which [[TruthInTelevision she was in real life]].

** Thomas Boleyn gets this, so very much (and so does many of his media adaptations). He for one is appalled at the very idea of his daughters being made whores by anyone, even by his King. When he found out that Mary had become mistress to King Francis, he was horrified and brought her back to wed someone just to save her reputation. And when Anne first caught Henry's attentions, he took a great risk to bring her back to Hever to lay low with hopes that Henry's feelings would cool down (to no avail). He even kept Anne's letters from her childhood for safekeeping and they were so well preserved historians still it used it as a source centuries later.

* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory
** The worst example is probably the treatment UsefulNotes/MargueriteDeNavarre received. In reality, she was a very intellectual and brave woman, who was a gifted writer and also traveled tirelessly to get her brother Francis freed when he had been taken captive at Pavia. Anne Boleyn was greatly influenced by her, and would as queen write that seeing her again was her greatest wish next to having a son. In the series, Marguerite is portrayed as TheDitz, who sleeps with Henry right after meeting him.
** As noted above, the show collapsed Henry's two sisters into one woman and then killed her off after just one son. It might have been fortunate that the show did not run into Elizabeth's reign, as it would have been hard-pressed to explain where Mary, Queen of Scots came from and why she had a claim to the English throne. Not to mention Edward's reign, explaining why Lady Jane Grey -- Mary's granddaughter through her daughter -- would be included in the succession, when they only show Brandon having one son.

* WellIntentionedExtremist: Thomas More on the Catholic side of the religous dispute, Thomas Cromwell and Archbishop Cranmer on the Protestant side.

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: The show has UsefulNotes/ThomasMore being drawn on a hurdle to his execution. In real life this only happened if you were being hung, drawn and quartered; More's sentence had been reduced to simple beheading. Wolsley died of a fever, not suicide (although this one is portrayed as being covered up). It wasn't Thomas and Anne who disowned Mary for marrying Stafford but Henry was furious and disowned her while Anne simply sided with him. These are just two of many changes from history.

** Bishop Gardiner is much more villainous here then he was in RealLife.

* HollywoodCostuming
* HollywoodHistory: The series follows the general trajectory of history, but the inaccuracies could fill up a page on their own. Not to mention that everything is sexed up a metric ton. To be fair, they do avoid some of the most common myths about Henry VIII's reign, such as portraying Henry as TheCaligula.
* HollywoodOld: The adult Mary is 17 when we see her first, and the actress who played her was 16. However, in her last appearance Sarah Bolger was 18, while Mary is 30. It creates some confusion for the viewer when Katherine Howard spitefully claims Mary is much older than her and past the age to marry; Tamzin Merchant is four years older than Sarah Bolger, and Sarah looks nowhere near "old maid" status in the scene.

* TheJester: The only one who dares to tell Henry off.

** The tv show also downplayed the villainy of some Protestant characters, such as Anne Boleyn, Thomas Cromwell and Thomas Cranmer.

** The departure from the series of Henry Czerny, who played the Duke of Norfolk, caused endless problems for the show given how very important the real Norfolk was to the story. Some of his actions were reassigned to Suffolk and Edward Seymour (in reality Norfolk was possibly the one who orchestrated the affair between Catherine Howard and Henry).

** Anne Boleyn would have liked to see Mary killed and developed a paranoia that Mary would eventually have Anne herself burned alive. She does try to make amends with Mary, however, but Mary understandably rejects this. A TruthInTelevision, Anne actually asked Mary several times to acknowledge her as Queen but Mary would always throw it back to her face. Though not shown, Anne during her imprisonment, actually begged one of her jailors to send a message of apology for how Anne had treated her and stated she only feared Mary because of what she and Katherine of Aragon stood for. Unfortunately, Mary would reject this as well for she believed so much in this trope even when it became increasingly clear that a lot of Mary's misery came from her father's orders, she still blamed Anne for all her ills.

** Anne Boleyn would have liked to see Mary killed and developed a paranoia that Mary would eventually have killed. She does try to make amends with Mary, however, but Mary understandably rejects this. A TruthInTelevision, Anne actually asked Mary several times to acknowledge her as Queen but Mary would always throw it back to her face. Averted with Jane Seymour and Anne of Cleves, who are both very nice to Mary. Admittedly, Mary didn't like Anne of Cleves very much to start with because a) She's a Protestant and b) She's the replacement for Jane Seymour, who Mary adored. But Anne eventually wins her over, enough that she is not too keen on the next wife in line.

* HistoricalHeroUpgrade: Thomas Cromwell and above all, Anne Boleyn. Traditionally (before the 1960's at least) portrayed as the ruthless, evil villains in depictions of Henry's life. The show breaks away from that by simply making them ''human''. Cromwell does some pretty bad things, but James Frain plays him in a way that makes it clear that he doesn't ''like'' everything he does. He just [[Series/{{Rome}} turns loyalty into a vice]]. Anne meanwhile is portrayed as a spirited young woman who falls in love with the king and is driven by that love, rather than greed. She is also shown to be a very loving mother, which [[TruthInTelevision she was in real life]].

** Thomas Boleyn gets this, so very much (and so does many of his media adaptations). He for one is appalled at the very idea of his daughters being made whores by anyone, even by his King. When he found out that Mary had become mistress to King Francis, he was horrified and brought her back to wed someone just to save her reputation. And when Anne first caught Henry's attentions, he took a great risk to bring her back to Hever, to lay low with hopes that Henry's feelings would cool down. In the series he acts like titled pimp and would force his daughters to do anything to gain power.

* MisaimedFandom: Similar to BrokenBase, this series seems to have gotten more likes, views and buyers among Catholics then Protestants, despite it being about king Henry VIII and the Protestant Reformation. It doesn't help that even the more typically "villanious" Catholic characters like Mary Tudor, Thomas Howard and Bishop Gardiner still get some "pet the dog" moments, whereas the Protestant characters are rather unlikable with a few exceptions.

** Catherine Parr, when she receives presents from Henry, realising that he means to court her and probably marry her. "You know what happens to his queens! ''Everyone'' knows what happens!"

* RichBitch: Anne Boleyn.

* RagsToRoyalty: Cinderella style, but subverted. Anne Boleyn gets there mostly by ''pretending'' to be pure-hearted.

* TheRunnerUpTakesItAll: King Henry VIII inaverdantly ends up secularizing, liberalizing and modernizing the United Kingdom by undermining feudalism, promoting "Renissance humanism" and making treason a bigger cause for execution then hersey. He also allied with the Northern European Protestant-majority countries which are among the most liberal in all of Europe.
** The dissolution of the monastaries ended up leading to a decline in religiousity in the United Kingdom. It was panned in most of contiential Europe at the time however.

** Anne Boleyn would have liked to see Mary killed. Averted with Jane Seymour and Anne of Cleves, who are both very nice to her. Admittedly, Mary didn't like Anne of Cleves very much to start with because a) She's a Protestant and b) She's the replacement for Jane Seymour, who Mary adored. But Anne eventually wins her over, enough that she is not too keen on the next wife in line.

* HistoricalVillainUpgrade: Edward Seymour, for one. While he probably wasn't a great guy -- he was a major force at court for a good amount of time, you didn't do that and be nice -- he was definitely ''not'' the bastard shown in the series. When he was Lord Protector (read: ''de facto'' King) during Edward VI's minority, he was pretty well-liked by the common people because his policies were helpful to them. When he fell from power and was executed, they actually needed extra guards to make sure there wasn't a riot over it.

** Plenty of people at court does this. From Henry to his privy councils and even other European monarchs. It would be easier to list down when these people actually told someone else a genuine truth and followed through them.