Pod Insights Short History Of... The Tudors, Part 1 of 2 About this episode The Tudors are the most famous royal family in English history, ruling from 1485 to 1603. The dynasty began with the reign of King Henry VII, and ended with his granddaughter, Elizabeth I. Marked by political, religious, and cultural change, the Tudor era shaped the course of English history, and paved the way for modern Britain.
But how did the first Tudor king fight his way to power? What drove his son, Henry VIII, to break away from Rome and establish his own church? And who were the astonishing women who defined the reign of the Tudors?
This is a Short History Of The Tudors, part one of two.
A Noiser production. Written by Nicola Rayner. With thanks to Tracy Borman OBE, Chief Historian at Historic Royal Palaces and the author of several historical biographies, including The Private Lives of the Tudors.
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1:05 Speaker 02 It is late March 1502. A cold wind howls through the battlements of Ludlow Castle, near the English border with Wales. A servant shivers as he makes his way along a cold stone corridor. The flickering candle in his lantern gives a weak light to guide the way for his visitor, a Catholic priest in a long, black cassock.
1:31 Speaker 02 The mood in the castle is somber. Even its great hall, once filled with laughter and the melody of lutes, stands silent.
1:42 Speaker 02 At last, the pair reach the royal bedchamber, where they knock lightly on the door.
1:49 Speaker 02 A weak, female voice tells them to enter.
1:55 Speaker 02 Beside the bed, the sixteen-year-old Spanish princess Catherine of Aragon sits with her hands clenched in silent prayer for her ailing husband, while a young woman attends the fire in the hearth.
2:10 Speaker 02 Rushes strewn across the flagstones muffle the priest's footsteps as he approaches the great oak bed. And there, amid the scent of burning medicinal herbs, lies Arthur, the Prince of Wales, eldest son of King Henry VII.
2:30 Speaker 02 The fifteen-year-old heir to the throne is almost motionless. Gaunt, hollow-eyed and skeletal, he is unrecognizable from the healthy young man who returned to the castle in December after his opulent wedding celebrations in London.
2:47 Speaker 02 Now, beads of sweat cling to Arthur's waxy brow, and every exhalation is a struggle.
2:55 Speaker 02 The priest begins to murmur in Latin. The room's candlelight catches the glint of his golden cross as he raises it over Arthur.
3:06 Speaker 02 The young prince stirs briefly. His lips part, though no words come, only another shallow, rattling breath. Princess Catherine tells the servant urgently to fetch the doctor again. He makes his way back out into the castle corridors. The physicians, he knows, have already tried all their remedies. Even so, no one is prepared to give up on the future monarch whom everyone hoped would become the second Tudor king, in a line established fewer than twenty years ago by his father.
3:42 Speaker 02 The days pass in this way, hurrying from room to room, fetching another doctor or another priest, while the prince heads to his inevitable destination.
3:55 Speaker 02 And then at last it comes.
4:03 Speaker 02 The servant is hidden in the shadows of the room when the first light of dawn creeps through the leaded glass on April the 2nd. Prince Arthur's chest rises, falls, and does not rise again.
4:18 Speaker 02 The fire is left to die in the grate, and the windows are opened to release the sickly fog of impotent remedies, sickness, and death. Somewhere in the distance, a raven calls. And though nature is oblivious, the course of England's future has changed forever.
4:49 Speaker 02 The Tudor dynasty ruled England from 1485 to 1603, beginning with Henry VII and ending with his granddaughter Elizabeth I.
5:02 Speaker 02 The Tudors are the most famous royal family in English history. Every schoolchild can recite rhymes about Henry VIII, famed for his six marriages and break with the Catholic Church. While his daughter, known as Good Queen Bess, oversaw the Elizabethan Golden Age.
5:21 Speaker 02 Marked by political, religious, and cultural change, the Tudor era shaped the course of English history, paving the way for modern Britain.
5:32 Speaker 02 But how did the first Tudor king fight his way to power? What drove his son to break away from Rome and establish his own church with himself at its head? And who were the astonishing women who defined his reign and the years that followed?
5:50 Speaker 02 I'm John Hopkins. From the Noiser Network, this is A Short History of the Tudors, Part 1 of 2.
6:08 Speaker 02 If Prince Arthur had not died, his younger brother, Henry, would never have become England's most famous king. But to understand the rise of the Tudor dynasty, we need to go back a little further.
6:24 Speaker 02 By April 1483, the Wars of the Roses between the rival houses of Lancaster and York have dominated England's political landscape for almost 30 years, resulting in tens of thousands of deaths. Disagreement about the true royal lineage is the subject of bitter dispute. And now, the death of the once warlike King Edward IV of the House of York leaves a succession crisis.
6:54 Speaker 02 Though the crown immediately passes to the late king's 12-year-old son, who becomes Edward V, the future is by no means secure.
7:03 Speaker 02 Soon, young Edward and his brother are confined to the Tower of London by their uncle, Richard, who then proclaims himself king. The boys are never seen again.
7:19 Speaker 02 But when Richard's own son dies, the next in line becomes his distant cousin, the 28-year-old Lancastrian Henry Tudor.
7:31 Speaker 02 Tracy Borman, OBE, is chief historian at historic royal palaces and the author of several historical biographies, including "The Private Lives of the Tudors".
7:42 Speaker 03 Their claim to the throne actually descended from an illegitimate line. Ultimately, they traced their descent from the sons of Edward III, and in particular, John of Gaunt, but from John of Gaunt's affair with Catherine Swinford. So that's where the Tudor line came from, or the Tudor claim to the throne came from. So, yeah, it didn't bear close scrutiny.
8:08 Speaker 02 Henry Tudor began life in Pembroke, in Wales, in 1457. But his arrival was a traumatic one. Before he is even born, his father was captured by the Yorkists and died of the plague in captivity.
8:25 Speaker 02 Henry's mother, Margaret Beaufort, widowed at just 13, almost lost her life giving birth to Henry. She never has another child, but believes Henry is destined to be king. And she will stop at nothing to secure the future for him.
8:49 Speaker 02 He's sent to Brittany for his safety for a while, and by 1485, he's become a magnet for Lancastrian exiles, unhappy with Richard III's reign. He now learns that Richard has designs on marrying his niece, Elizabeth of York, the sister of the princes in the Tower. It's bad news for Henry, who is keen to match with Elizabeth himself. If she and Richard had children, Henry's own claim to the throne would be weakened. He needs to make his move.
9:26 Speaker 02 Henry leaves Brittany with a ragtag army of prisoners and mercenaries. Richard, in turn, rallies his forces, and the pair meet at the fateful Battle of Bosworth Field.
9:39 Speaker 02 With his royal army now almost 10,000 strong, the king looks like the favorite to win against this Welsh underdog, to begin with.
9:51 Speaker 03 Really, it was one family, and in fact, two brothers, the Stanley brothers, who were very powerful noblemen. One of them was married to Henry Tudor's mother, Margaret Beaufort. But despite that, it looked like they were going to fight on the side of Richard III. But then, at the last moment, when they saw the way the battle might be going, they changed allegiance and fought for Henry Tudor, and that was decisive.
10:17 Speaker 02 Richard makes a final, last-ditch bid to kill Henry himself. He comes within striking distance, before Henry's men descend upon him with swords and halberds.
10:35 Speaker 02 His corpse, stripped naked, is paraded through the streets of Leicester. A brutal and bloody end to the Wars of the Roses.
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11:31 Speaker 02 Henry Tudor is crowned Henry VII in October 1485. And the following year, he makes good on his promise to marry Elizabeth of York.
11:45 Speaker 02 Their union not only symbolizes the reconciliation of the warring houses, but also marks the dawn of the Tudor dynasty. At their wedding, the White Rose of York and the Red Rose of Lancaster are conjoined to form the Tudor Rose.
12:03 Speaker 02 The marriage between Henry and Elizabeth is a fertile one. The couple have seven children, four of whom survive into adulthood. Arthur, Margaret, Henry, and Mary.
12:21 Speaker 02 In his reign, the first Tudor king wastes no time quelling rebellions and cementing his position.
12:30 Speaker 03 Henry VII was a very wily king. He was very clever. And what he did brilliantly was to secure England's position internationally, so he was very good at international diplomacy. He made this brilliant alliance with Spain, with the mighty monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella. And this was cemented in a marriage alliance between his eldest son, Prince Arthur, and their daughter Catherine of Aragon. And that really was a moment.
13:02 Speaker 02 Arthur, the Prince of Wales, marries Catherine of Aragon on November the 14th, 1501, at St. Paul's Cathedral. Thousands of people line the streets to catch a glimpse of the glittering Spanish princess. After a wedding feast, the couple proceed to nearby Baynutt's castle. Even after Arthur climbs into bed next to his new wife, their guests do not leave. The royal couple are blessed in bed, and wine and spices are served to their guests in the bedchamber, before the newlyweds are finally left in peace to consummate their marriage. But do they?
13:43 Speaker 02 Far from being a private affair, this question will have far-reaching consequences in the years to come. Whatever happened behind closed doors, the couple are soon on the move. The royal court is a mobile one, travelling from sumptuous residence to sumptuous residence, with Ludlow Castle being the traditional seat of the Prince of Wales. But after retreating here for the cold winter that follows, both now fall prey to what is known as the Great Sickness, a deadly strain of influenza.
14:22 Speaker 02 Catherine survives, but Arthur dies at just fifteen. His brother, Henry, a charismatic ten-year-old, is now next in line to the throne. In 1503, to maintain the political alliance between England and Spain, the king begins discussions about marrying Catherine of Aragon to his younger son, though her unpaid dowry and her previous marriage complicate matters. That summer, young Henry's sister Margaret marries James IV of Scotland, creating a strategic alliance between England and Scotland.
15:06 Speaker 02 It is a crucial moment for the Tudor dynasty.
15:11 Speaker 02 Flame-haired and handsome, the heir to the English throne becomes a teenager, throwing himself into his lifelong passions: jousting, hunting, wine, and women. His behaviour alarms his more temperate father, but young Henry proves irrepressible. Though he's keen for more contact with his possible fiancee Catherine, the two are kept apart while the negotiations continue. As the youthful Henry becomes more vigorous, his father, now in his 50s, suffers recurring bouts of tuberculosis. His own devoted mother, Lady Margaret, moves into Richmond Palace to nurse him, but to no avail.
15:55 Speaker 02 In April 1509, Henry VII, England's first Tudor king, takes his final breath. The coronation of Henry VIII in June 1509 seems to herald a bright new era. In the place of his dour, wily father is a vigorous youth of 17. An athletic figure of six foot two, Henry is popular and charismatic. The new king seems to have the world at his feet, but he is gathering a reputation for a nasty temper, as well as a paranoid streak.
16:39 Speaker 02 But there's another less well-reported side to him, too.
16:44 Speaker 03 There was one quote that really changed things for me about Henry VIII, because you think of this tyrant and all-powerful, mercurial man, and yet, one visitor to Henry's private apartments described him as being "the most timid man you could hope to meet", and that is astonishing, and I thought, "I must have misread it. Are they talking about Henry VII?" No, they're not. And the reason was, Henry VIII was a hypochondriac. He was absolutely paranoid about sickness and disease, and you can understand why: his brother Arthur died when he was just 15. Then shortly afterwards, Henry's mother, Elizabeth, whom he adored, she died in childbirth, aged just 37. So life was short, and Henry was very aware of that.
17:26 Speaker 03 And he was also aware that by the time he came to the throne, he was his father's last throw of the dice, the only surviving male heir in an age when, of course, boys counted. So he was aware of the fragility of life, and I think this really did make him very, very paranoid about sickness and disease. If anybody so much as sneezed in his presence, they'd be banished from the court.
17:53 Speaker 02 Now he is king, producing his own heir becomes a priority. But for that to happen, he needs a wife.
18:02 Speaker 02 Special papal permission is now in place for Henry to marry his brother's widow, on the condition that she swears her virginity is still intact. In one of his first acts as king, Henry finally weds Catherine of Aragon in a quiet June ceremony at Greenwich Palace. This time, there is no doubt that the wedding has been consummated.
18:29 Speaker 02 Catherine's first pregnancy is announced in November 1509, but it sadly ends with a stillbirth. Before long, though the Queen is pregnant again, the king embarks on the first of his many extramarital affairs. The woman in question is banished to a convent, and with another baby on the way, Catherine and Henry patch things up.
18:54 Speaker 02 In the early hours of New Year's Day, 1511, the Queen gives birth to a boy. A son and heir, named Henry, after his father. The kingdom rejoices. There are jousts, pageants, and fireworks to celebrate. No one can party like the Tudors, and their feasts at this time are prodigious.
19:20 Speaker 02 But the bonfires have barely fallen cold before tragedy strikes. The young prince dies at just two months old.
19:30 Speaker 02 His tiny coffin is carried in procession from Richmond to Westminster. His parents are heartbroken.
19:38 Speaker 02 Within a couple of years, Catherine is pregnant again, but by this stage, she also has more immediate concerns.
19:51 Speaker 02 Her husband has launched an invasion of northern France, personally leading his army on the campaign. Honoring the so-called "old alliance" with France, the Scottish king declares war on England and invades the north. With Henry away, a heavily pregnant Catherine dons armour and rides north to rally the troops. The conflict culminates in the catastrophic Battle of Flodden, where James IV of Scotland is killed, leaving his infant son to become King James V. Catherine sends Henry a piece of James's bloodied coat to use as a banner,
20:31 Speaker 02 but miscarries shortly afterward. Finally, in 1514, peace is restored. Henry signs a treaty with the French Louis XIII and marries his sister to him to further solidify the alliance. Both events are brokered by his indispensable right-hand man, Cardinal Wolsey. And there is more good news on the horizon, for Catherine at least. In 1516, she gives birth to a healthy daughter, Mary. A few years later, the restless king does finally get his wish of a son,
21:12 Speaker 02 but as he's born to one of his wife's ladies-in-waiting, he is illegitimate. So the problem of succession remains. After many failed pregnancies, Catherine is no longer in her youth, and Henry's frustration is growing. But a fork in the road appears when, in 1521, an aristocratic household returns from working with Henry's sister in France: a family by the name of Berlin.
21:46 Speaker 02 It is the elder sister, Mary Bullion, who first catches Henry VIII's eye. Though she's already married, she becomes his mistress and bears him two children, though the king never acknowledges them as his own.
22:01 Speaker 02 Once the affair is over, Anne learns from her sister's mistakes.
22:07 Speaker 02 Petite and fragile-looking, with long, dark hair, Anne's intelligence, charisma, and Parisian sense of style are praised by her many admirers, chief among them, the king himself. But though he showers her with jewels, rich fabrics, and increasingly passionate letters, Anne refuses to sleep with him while he's still married to Catherine.
22:34 Speaker 02 As Henry's admiration for his new favorite grows, his affection for Catherine dwindles.
22:42 Speaker 02 Claiming that he has realized that God is displeased with his marriage to his brother's widow, in 1527, he commands Wolsey to secure an annulment. Henry's argument does little to convince the Pope, who is in sway to Charles V, the most powerful man in Europe, who happens to be Catherine's nephew.
23:07 Speaker 02 The Pope refuses to annul the marriage, and Wolsey's failure marks his downfall. Stripped of his titles and palaces, he is arrested and summoned to the Tower, but he dies on the way south from York. And if the Pope thought Henry would take no for an answer, he is very much mistaken. So all-consuming is his quest for a divorce that it becomes known as the "King's Great Matter".
23:39 Speaker 02 In 1529, he convenes what is called the Reformation Parliament to challenge the Pope's authority in England. It is a move that marks the beginning of his legislative efforts to reduce papal influence. But though it will take a while to enact so seismic a shift, Henry has no intention of waiting much longer for Anne.
24:03 Speaker 02 So, in 1531, he banishes Catherine from court. Worse still, she is forbidden from taking Mary with her. She will never see her daughter again.
24:16 Speaker 02 Meanwhile, alongside Anne Berlin, someone else's star is on the ascendant.
24:25 Speaker 02 Thomas Cromwell, the son of a blacksmith, is a shrewd and capable administrator, emerging now as one of the king's most trusted advisers.
24:38 Speaker 03 The Tudors loved a favourite. I think Henry VIII and Elizabeth had more favourites than any of the other Tudor monarchs. And they seemed in particular to like to keep ministers and noblemen close, although the exception to that was Thomas Cromwell, of course. He was low-born, he was the son of a blacksmith. Henry VIII's other favourite and powerful minister, Thomas Wolsey, was the son of a butcher. So you get these two commoners. But as a general rule, favourites tend to be dukes or earls or other members of the nobility.
25:14 Speaker 02 With Catherine now absent from court, Henry and Anne are now living almost as husband and wife.
25:22 Speaker 02 By December 1532, Anne is pregnant. And early the next year, the pair marry in secret, ignoring the small matter of Henry's bigamy. Just a few months later, Henry's first marriage is finally annulled by the Archbishop. Another favourite, he has manoeuvred into position.
25:44 Speaker 02 Now visibly pregnant, Anne is crowned as Queen Consort in June 1533.
25:52 Speaker 02 But when she gives birth in September in one of the grandest of beds in Henry's possession, it is to a healthy baby girl.
26:01 Speaker 02 "Boys will follow," her husband tells her.
26:05 Speaker 02 He is not consoling his wife, he is issuing an order.
26:12 Speaker 02 In spite of the king's disappointment, Anne is besotted with her daughter, whom she names Elizabeth. She declares her intention to breastfeed herself, highly irregular for royal consorts, but Henry puts a stop to this, and a wet nurse is promptly hired.
26:32 Speaker 02 Before long, Elizabeth is sent off to Hatfield House to be raised away from court, as is traditional. In the meantime, though Henry seems to have what he wanted from Rome, he's unable to walk away from the grudge match.
26:49 Speaker 03 Eventually, after seven long years of negotiations, Henry broke with Rome, so separated England from the rest of Catholic Europe, and created this new church, the Church of England, and appointed himself Supreme Head. And that title was later watered down to Supreme Governor, and the current monarch is still Supreme Governor of the Church of England. Once the genie was out of the bottle, if you like, of course then there's the dissolution of the monasteries, there's sweeping reform, there's translations of the Bible from Latin into English, and there's, really then, England starts to embrace all of these reformist ideas that had been gathering ground in Europe earlier in the 1500s.
27:30 Speaker 03 Henry himself, however, is often a myth that he became Protestant. He never did, he always remained Catholic, he just wasn't Roman Catholic.
27:44 Speaker 02 Henry turns to Cromwell to oversee the revolutionary religious reforms that follow. The most controversial is the dissolution of the monasteries, in which he seizes vast monastic lands and treasures, often selling the properties themselves to his loyal supporters. The dissolution brings Henry enormous riches, but it also sparks widespread opposition from the people, many of whom struggle to accept this sudden radical transformation of their religion.
28:15 Speaker 02 Meanwhile, bitterly disappointed by what he sees as Anne's failure to provide him with a male heir, the king's eye starts to wander again.
28:27 Speaker 02 In the summer of 1535, he visits Wolf Hall in Wiltshire, the family home of Jane Seymour, one of Anne's ladies-in-waiting.
28:37 Speaker 02 Fair and pale, Jane's beauty and charisma are seldom remarked upon in the way of Anne's, but her meek docility is appealing to the king.
28:49 Speaker 02 Even so, all is not lost for Anne, who is once more expecting a baby. And though many still consider Catherine of Aragon the rightful queen, her death in 1536 is a cause for celebration in court,
29:03 Speaker 02 with Henry and Anne wearing joyous yellow.
29:07 Speaker 02 But the good times don't last long. Anne now miscarries a baby boy. Then the king falls from his horse while jousting, badly injuring his leg.
29:20 Speaker 03 1536 wasn't a great year for Henry, probably be his annus heribilis, in the words of the late queen. But I don't buy into the theory, which has had a lot of airspace recently, that Henry sustained a head injury during that jousting accident and that that changed his whole personality. It wasn't such a sudden change as that. Also, there's no reliable evidence that says he had a head injury, to start with just a leg injury. And I think really, the traits that came out in his later life had always been there. He was an indulged, spoiled child, used to getting his own way. And you definitely see that in his later reign. And I think really, his personality darkens, partly because he's tormented by the pain of his ulcerated legs
30:05 Speaker 03 and it makes him irascible and short-tempered. But also, it's born of disappointment.
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31:59 Speaker 02 In the wake of his injury, the king decides his marriage to Anne Boleyn is cursed. He returns the full beam of his attention onto Jane Seymour, and he sets Thomas Cromwell the task of getting rid of Anne. By the end of April, she's becoming increasingly uneasy. And when one of the court musicians, Mark Smeaton, is arrested on suspicion of adultery with her, the net is clearly tightening and fast.
32:32 Speaker 02 It is May the 1st, 1536. A day of festivities at Greenwich Palace that marks the arrival of spring. Henry VIII's court is celebrating with a customary jousting tournament.
32:47 Speaker 02 Accompanied by her ladies-in-waiting, Anne Boleyn enters the enclosed arena known as a "tilt yard." The stands are already brimming with excited spectators.
32:59 Speaker 02 Anne takes a seat in the royal stand and straightens her sumptuous gown of rich velvet and brocade, its square neckline adorned with a string of pearls. As usual, a French hood, a crescent-shaped headpiece embellished with jewels, frames her face.
33:18 Speaker 02 In the preparation area, she spots her brother George putting on his armor. A servant tightens the leather straps on his breastplate and hands him his shield, which is decorated with the Boleyn coat of arms. His horse is armored too, in a decorative covering and protective headgear. It's a pleasant spring day with celebratory flags fluttering in the breeze. But things have been uneasy lately between Anne and her husband, and the rumors about him and Jane Seymour are only growing.
33:51 Speaker 02 Now, there is a roar from the spectator stand. Henry has arrived. As the crowd leaps to their feet, her husband greets her cordially but does not quite meet her eye.
34:05 Speaker 02 Perhaps he's unhappy to be missing the action. Henry intended to joust himself today, but the ulcerous wound in his leg is showing no signs of healing. He's no longer the athlete he once was, but though he's both heavier and angrier, he's still the king.
34:22 Speaker 02 And now he is here, the tournament can begin.
34:27 Speaker 02 The contestants are ready. Their armor gleaming, their lances couched, held horizontally under their arms.
34:36 Speaker 02 At a signal, the two knights ride at each other from opposite sides of the long wooden barrier known as the tilt, which prevents collisions between the horses. Anne's brother leads the challengers, thrilling the crowd with collisions so hard that they cause the lances to splinter and snap.
34:56 Speaker 02 Anne feels a flush of pride at her brother's skill. And when one of the defender's horses becomes skittish and refuses to enter the arena, the king calls down that the rider could take his own mount.
35:10 Speaker 02 Anne sneaks a glance at her husband. Perhaps he is not in bad spirits after all.
35:17 Speaker 02 But then, halfway through the contest, a page appears with a folded piece of paper for Henry. The king reads it, and his face flushes hotly. Anne knows the expression too well. A look of fury.
35:33 Speaker 02 Anne strains to make out the words on the paper.
35:38 Speaker 02 Is that Mark Smeaton's name? She never should have allowed the musician into her chambers to hear him play. Has court gossip twisted her mistake into something more sinister? Henry leaps to his feet, almost knocking his chair over, and marches out of the arena, a clutch of noblemen following behind.
36:00 Speaker 02 The queen gestures for the jousting to continue, fixing a smile on her face. But she can't take her eyes from the diminishing figure of her husband in the distance.
36:12 Speaker 02 What she doesn't know is that this will be the very last time she sees him.
36:25 Speaker 02 Capitalizing on rumours and gossip spurred by Anne's natural flirtatiousness, Cromwell orchestrates an adultery case against her. He implicates no fewer than five men, including her own brother, George Berlin. Though the accusations are based on little more than rumour, the fact that they show Henry willing to play the cuckold are a sign of how keen he is to get rid of his second wife. On May the 2nd, Anne is arrested without warning on a charge of adultery and taken to the Tower of London. Her trial takes place around a fortnight later, presided over by the Duke of Norfolk, Anne's own uncle,
37:07 Speaker 02 who represents the absent king. There, Anne is charged not just with adultery, but also with incest and perversion. Her defence of herself is convincing. The only crime she can admit to is allowing Mark Smeaton into her chambers to listen to his playing the virginals. But her estranged husband has already sent for an expert executioner from Calais. The Queen is convicted of adultery, a treasonable offence in a royal wife, and sentenced to death. On May the 19th, 1536, she walks the brief distance from her royal apartments at the Tower of London
37:50 Speaker 02 to the scaffold site. Stylish to the last, she wears a mantle of ermine over a dark grey gown and a petticoat in crimson, the colour of martyrs. After being blindfolded, she is put to death in front of the assembled crowd with one clean swipe of the sword. The first time in England's history that a king has executed his own wife. Five of the men accused of adultery with Anne, including George, meet a similar fate, though they must make do with the traditional axe. The day after Anne's death,
38:31 Speaker 02 Jane Seymour travels by barge in secret to Hampton Court. She and Henry marry later that month.
38:43 Speaker 02 The new queen is careful to distinguish herself from her predecessor with a modest English style of clothing. She also insists that all her ladies sport a higher neckline, in a bid to control the king's lustful urges.
38:59 Speaker 02 Before long, Jane conceives. Her pregnancy leaves her with a craving for cucumbers, which her stepdaughter Mary duly provides. Her other stepdaughter, three-year-old Elizabeth, is soon officially removed from the line of succession, thanks to Henry's insistence that his marriage to her mother was unlawful. Now demoted from princess to Lady Elizabeth, she remains at Hatfield House.
39:31 Speaker 02 In May 1537, Jane travels to Hampton Court to escape a plague raging across London. The queen enjoys a summer of seclusion at the refurbished palace before Henry VIII's longed-for son finally arrives on October the 12th.
39:51 Speaker 02 The overjoyed king rides to Hampton Court, where Edward is christened.
39:57 Speaker 02 His half-sisters, 21-year-old Mary and little Elizabeth, witness the ceremony in which their baby brother is carried into the chapel, dressed in a white gown and wrapped in a gold cloth. Afterwards, Edward is carried back to his parents to be blessed, but his triumphant mother, sitting up in bed, begins to sicken.
40:22 Speaker 02 In a matter of days, she is gone, felled by pure pral fever, a bacterial infection caused by lack of hygiene in the delivery room.
40:33 Speaker 02 The mourning period is pronounced. Courtes and servants are issued with black gowns and cloth, while the king and his immediate family don the traditional royal mourning color of deep blue.
40:49 Speaker 02 Jane Seymour goes down in history as the only wife Henry really loved. He keeps her clothes, unlike those of his other wives, preserving them at the Palace of Whitehall. And hers is the only portrait that hangs in the royal collection until the time of his death.
41:09 Speaker 02 For two years, the Tudor widower Henry VIII remains a bachelor. It is the longest time England has been without a queen. But in 1539, he is persuaded by the ever-present Thomas Cromwell to consider Anne of Cleves, a noblewoman from a small Protestant-leaning state in modern-day Germany. Henry allows Cromwell's negotiations to begin.
41:36 Speaker 02 But in the meantime, he wants to see what his future wife looks like.
41:41 Speaker 02 The preeminent artist Hans Holbein is dispatched to capture the lady's likeness.
41:47 Speaker 03 Holbein, who's really like the court photographer. You know, his works are so dazzlingly realistic and detailed. And for the first time, really, after the more stylized art of the medieval period, you get this window into the Tudor world, thanks to this rich legacy of art.
42:07 Speaker 02 Though it's possible that Cromwell advises Holbein to paint Anne from a flattering angle, Henry is delighted with the resulting portrait, and a marriage treaty is finalized.
42:20 Speaker 02 Anne begins the journey to England, while the excited king plans a surprise.
42:27 Speaker 02 He arranges to meet his betrothed in disguise, while she stays at Rochester Castle, following the old chivalric tradition that a lady would instantly recognize her true love.
42:38 Speaker 02 But Anne is terrified when a group of masked men burst into her room at Rochester. And when one of them tries to kiss her, she curses him in German.
42:51 Speaker 02 Both parties are a disappointment to each other. Unlike Henry's petite first three wives, Anne is tall and big-boned, with skin pitted with the marks of smallpox. Henry is furious with Cromwell for matching him with her.
43:09 Speaker 02 Whatever her physical appearance, it's fair to say that Henry, forty-eight years old to Anne's twenty-four, is no longer the dashing figure he once was. His jousting injury has left the formerly sporty king with an ever-expanding waistline. He now dons a huge, loose-fitting coat over other layers of clothing to disguise his bulk and leans on a gold-topped staff for stability.
43:41 Speaker 02 Though the couple can only communicate with a translator, the wedding takes place as agreed. Publicly, the royal event is celebrated with pageantry and splendor. But behind closed doors, it's a disaster. The pair are unable to consummate their union. And though Henry is likely suffering from impotence by this stage, he blames Anne, and even calls her virginity into question. Despite his failing prowess, the old patterns continue. And this time, it's one of the Queen's maids of honour who turns his head. Catherine Howard is the Orban-haired teenage niece of the Duke of Norfolk and a cousin of Anne Berlin.
44:25 Speaker 03 Well, for Henry, this was his midlife crisis, I think. So Catherine was much younger than him, probably about thirty years younger, really. We don't know exactly how old she was, but probably a teenager when she met and married Henry. And he sort of fell head over heels in love. But I think he was just trying to recapture something, recapture his lost youth.
44:44 Speaker 02 Raised by her father's stepmother, the dowager Duchess of Norfolk, this is not the first time pretty Catherine has drawn the attention of a much older man.
44:58 Speaker 02 Unbenedict to the king, Catherine might have been as young as twelve when her music teacher took sexual advantage of his position. A later, physical relationship followed with her kinsman, Francis Dieram.
45:12 Speaker 03 She was this very pretty, fairly flighty young girl, but she had also been preyed upon. And I think that's something that we've seen in recent years. We've reassessed Catherine. She was seen as this kind of airhead, really, until recently, when now actually we realise what a victim she'd been, how she'd been preyed upon throughout her life, probably child abuse, really.
45:35 Speaker 02 The problem is, as usual, that Henry has an inconvenient wife still in place, a situation for which he is unable to forgive his former favourite, Thomas Cromwell. Now, the increasingly powerful Duke of Norfolk seizes his opportunity to accuse his rival Cromwell of corruption and heresy.
45:54 Speaker 02 Cromwell is arrested in June 1540, and executed not long afterwards.
46:04 Speaker 02 The marriage is swiftly annulled, but pragmatic and no doubt all too aware of the fate of her predecessors, Anne complies readily. She is richly rewarded with the gifts of Richmond Palace and bleachingly manor for life, as well as a generous annual income. And she is given the new exalted status of the king's sister.
46:30 Speaker 02 Shortly after the annulment, and on the very same day that Cromwell is executed, Henry wastes no time in marrying Catherine Howard. But it is a case of marry in haste, repent at leisure in his fifth unhappy match.
46:46 Speaker 02 In spite of the jewels and gifts lavished on his young bride, and even a belated fitness regime Henry adopts for her, it is not long before Catherine wins a reputation for giddiness, and worse, adultery.
47:01 Speaker 02 Unlike her cousin Anne, Catherine takes it further than flirtation. Not long after her husband's 50th birthday, she begins an affair with one Thomas Culpepper, a gentleman from the king's privy chamber. To make matters worse, her former lover Francis Dearam returns from Ireland and gets back in touch. Possibly because of blackmail, the Queen appoints him as private secretary.
47:28 Speaker 02 Durham swiftly approves a liability, boasting that when the king dies, he will marry Catherine. The claim doesn't go down well with a jealous culpepper, and as the situation becomes a tinderbox, rumors begin to spread.
47:44 Speaker 02 Eventually, inevitably, they reach the ears of the king.
47:52 Speaker 02 Henry's first reaction is to call for a sword to slay the queen, before breaking down into tears about what he calls such "ill-conditioned wives."
48:02 Speaker 02 At first Catherine denies the accusations of adultery, but her ladies-in-waiting talk and the men also reveal the truth in interrogation.
48:12 Speaker 02 In 1541, she is deprived of the title of queen and imprisoned in Scion Abbey. We never know the exact age of Catherine Howard, but when she is executed the following February, she may be still as young as eighteen years old.
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49:19 Speaker 02 After Catherine's death in 1542, Henry VIII in many ways cuts a sad figure, humiliated, paranoid, and in almost constant agony from his leg injury. But though his personal life leaves much to be desired, he can maybe take some solace from his vast wealth. By this point in his reign, he boasts 100,000 precious objects in his possession and 56 residencies. In other ways too, his old zeal remains intact.
49:52 Speaker 02 To stop the Welsh coming under Catholic influence, he decides Wales should be ruled by England.
49:59 Speaker 02 Between 1536 and 1542, acts are passed, merging the two and ending the privileges of the Marcher Lords, the nobles appointed by the king to guard the border between England and Wales. In their place, Wales is allowed to send representatives to the English Parliament. It is an act of union that more closely resembles a forced marriage.
50:26 Speaker 02 Around the same time, a parliament meeting in Dublin salutes Henry as King of Ireland, superseding the title of Lord granted to English kings by the Pope centuries before. It's a shift that cements Henry's break with the Roman Catholic Church, putting control of the country in his hands instead of Rome's.
50:46 Speaker 02 And by pledging his son Edward to the infant Mary, Queen of Scots, for the first time, he brings together the component nations of the British Isles. But though there's unity in the kingdom, the Queen's throne is once again empty.
51:05 Speaker 02 The candidate to fill it emerges in Catherine Parr, a 31-year-old, twice-widowed noblewoman.
51:13 Speaker 03 She's a very important queen. She was a remarkable woman. She's often dismissed as being the kind of nursemaid to the ailing Henry. It wasn't like that. Henry was deeply attracted to Catherine and to her mind as well as her body. She was a bit of a powerhouse intellectually. She was quite radical in terms of her religious views. She had opinions, and she wasn't afraid to express them. She was great company for Henry.
51:41 Speaker 02 But Catherine's marriage to Henry comes at no small cost. When Henry first courts her, she is in love with another man, Thomas Seymour, the handsome but hot-headed brother of the late Queen Jane. When a jealous Henry learns of this, he finds a reason to send Seymour away from court. Catherine, putting her own desires aside, agrees to marry the king.
52:09 Speaker 02 Catherine is just four years older than her 27-year-old stepdaughter Mary, but she proves a loving stepmother and encourages Henry to reconcile with his daughters.
52:20 Speaker 02 Recognizing the intellectual abilities of both Edward and Elizabeth, she takes a keen interest in their schooling. And it is not long before Elizabeth joins Catherine at Hampton Court Palace. In 1543, trouble arises again in Scotland.
52:39 Speaker 02 The French mother of Mary, Queen of Scots, breaks her daughter's engagement to Prince Edward, instead arranging for her betrothal to the Dauphin of France, who is heir to its throne. It is a move that threatens to bring Scotland under French control, a prospect Henry VIII finds intolerable.
53:01 Speaker 02 He embarks on his final overseas campaign, leading an army to France in 1544. During his absence, he appoints his wife Catherine as Regent General and empowers her to rule in his name.
53:23 Speaker 02 It is the summer of 1544. It is warm in the vast, great hall at the heart of Hampton Court Palace. The everyday sounds of the court echo down from the hammerbeam ceiling. There is the usual low murmur of courtiers' whispers, and from somewhere in the palace, the strains of a lute.
53:46 Speaker 02 Seated on the throne on a raised platform amid a small cluster of advisors, Catherine Parr reads a parchment on her lap, her lips pressed into a contemplative line.
53:59 Speaker 02 Her stepdaughter, Lady Elizabeth, stands a few yards away at the periphery of things, half-hidden behind a column of carved oak.
54:09 Speaker 02 Barely eleven, her red hair gleams in the sunlight, streaming through the great hall's tall windows. In her skirts, she conceals a copy of Plutarch's Lives, borrowed from her stepmother's library.
54:25 Speaker 02 It is her beloved stepmother who nurtures Elizabeth's love of learning. But today's lesson is not one to be learned in books. It is of a more practical nature. Elizabeth has never seen a woman sit on her father's throne, never seen a woman in this kind of position of power at all.
54:51 Speaker 02 As Catherine continues to read, the advisers murmur recommendations, buzzing like flies. Occasionally Catherine glances up to listen and nod, but she keeps her own counsel, assessing the document without haste or fluster. After pausing to think, she signs the parchment with a flourish of the quill.
55:15 Speaker 02 Then the great wooden doors fly open, and there's a sudden commotion as a new arrival approaches, bowing low to her in supplication.
55:25 Speaker 02 He has another petition in his hand. Elizabeth can't tell what it's about, but from the agitation of the advisers, she can tell it's one that is ruffling feathers.
55:37 Speaker 02 As the discussion continues, Elizabeth glances up at a tapestry hanging on the wall, depicting her father Henry's style of leadership, his brash, roaring authority.
55:50 Speaker 02 But Catherine's power is different. A balance of strength and tact. She meets the petitioners' eyes and those of her advisers evenly, neither yielding nor dominating.
56:05 Speaker 02 She keeps her voice steady, her reasoning irrefutable.
56:10 Speaker 02 The fluster around her calms, and as the latest meeting ends, she rises, smoothing her skirts.
56:19 Speaker 02 Then, as if sensing Elizabeth's gaze, she meets her eyes and inclines her head just a touch. Perhaps hoping Elizabeth has learned the lesson. How to hold her own in male company. How to make herself heard in spite of louder voices, should she ever need to do so.
56:49 Speaker 02 On Henry VIII's return from France, his health deteriorates. Recent research has suggested he may have been suffering from type 2 diabetes, which might account for his vast appetite and prodigious thirst. More recent analysis suggests he could have belonged to a rare blood group that can prevent a healthy partner from bearing an infant after a first pregnancy.
57:16 Speaker 02 For whatever reason, the king's health is poor. Now morbidly obese, he can't go up and down steps without a rope and pulley system that has since been called "the world's first chairlift". Tormented by pain, Henry lashes out at those closest to him.
57:35 Speaker 02 In 1546, a conspiracy led by conservatives at court almost succeeds in turning the paranoid king against his wife, whose adherence to more radical reformist views is a source of some friction. A warrant is drawn up for her arrest. But clever Catherine hears of the rumor just in time, throwing herself upon her husband's mercy and blaming her womanly weakness. Luckily for her, she is forgiven, and the final storm between Henry VIII and one of his wives passes.
58:10 Speaker 02 That famous schoolyard rhyme to help remember his wives: divorced, beheaded, died; divorced, beheaded, survived might have ended up very differently.
58:26 Speaker 02 Deteriorating further, Henry falls sick with a fever in January 1547 at Whitehall Palace.
58:35 Speaker 02 The Queen and her eldest stepdaughter Mary rush to be with him.
58:41 Speaker 02 He refuses to see them at first, but at last lets Catherine in. "It is God's will that we should part," he tells her.
58:52 Speaker 02 Bedecked in sumptuous nightclothes, the second Tudor king dies on the 28th of January, aged 55. He is interred next to Jane Seymour in St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle.
59:18 Speaker 02 One of history's most famous kings, Henry VIII, did what had previously been considered undoable. He defied the Roman Catholic Church and survived.
59:30 Speaker 03 The most important and lasting legacy has to be in religion. Henry VIII, of course, breaks with Rome, makes himself supreme head, and then that title becomes supreme governor, and that's had a very long tail. King Charles III became supreme governor of the Church of England when he ceded to the throne in September 2022. So that's been a sort of 500-year legacy, really.
59:58 Speaker 02 But when he dies, Henry VIII knows nothing of the future. The England he leaves is still religiously divided and financially strained by costly wars.
1:00:10 Speaker 02 Internationally, his country continues to face tense relations with France and Scotland, while Protestant and Catholic powers vie for influence across Europe. Perhaps, in his dying moments, Henry reminds himself that he leaves behind a son, Edward, who might reign for many decades to come. Or did doubts linger in his mind about the fragility of life and his kingdom's uncertain future?
1:00:45 Speaker 02 Join us next time for the second part of this short history of The Tudors.
1:00:51 Speaker 03 That is the million dollar question, isn't it? We're all still obsessed with the Tudors. I say long may it continue because this is the reason I became a historian. I think really when it comes to the Tudors, you couldn't make it up. It's got all the...
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1:01:14 Speaker 05 Price and participation may vary. Promotion pricing may be lower than meal pricing.
1:01:17 Speaker 04 Your sausage McMuffin with egg didn't change, your receipt did. The sausage McMuffin with egg extra value meal includes a hash brown and a small coffee for just $5. Only at McDonald's for a limited time.
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1:01:32 Speaker 03 Drama of a soap opera, the king who marries six times the virgin queen, Shakespeare. It's a very self-confident age with the overseas exploration. And I think crucially as well, we feel closer to it thanks to art as well, literature, architecture, lots of Tudor buildings still exist. So there's a divide between medieval and then the Tudors. They usher in this beginning of modernity really. But for me, it's all about the larger-than-life personalities and the sheer drama.
1:02:10 Speaker 02 If you can't wait a week until the next episode, you can listen to it right away by subscribing to Noiser Plus. Head to www.noiser.com/subscriptions for more information.
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