The Significance of the King’s Children in The Tudors

Abstract

People’s fascination with sixteenth-century England appears unending. From The Private Life of Henry VIII in 1933 to The Other Boleyn Girl in 2008, the public has shown a growing enthusiasm for historical movies and television shows on this time period. Showtime’s The Tudors—actually only about Henry VIII, not the later Tudors—is mostly known for its sexualized view of history and sometime grotesque violence. As Jake Martin puts it, the show is “part stilted historical drama, part soft-core pornography.”¹ But there are aspects of the series that go beyond that, with some interesting characterizations and shifting points of view, so that characters who are sympathetic at one point become far less so, and unpleasant characters gain our understanding. One theme is the occasional deep tenderness that Jonathan Rhys-Myer’s Henry shows toward his young children. Along with all the adult drama, The Tudors shows that the royal children and the king’s deep concern for a legitimate heir to the throne are central to understanding the political events that occurred in sixteenth century England.