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The Tudors
Showtime Channel
Website: http://www.sho.com/site/tudors /characters.do

Showtime Network in association with Peach Arch Entertainment has brought audiences the TV docu-drama "The Tudors." The series is loosely based on the life and times of Henry VIII, King of England from 1509 - 1547. I say loosely based because from the opening scene of the first episode, which was aired on Showtime in 2007, Henry's older brother, Arthur Tudor, the Prince of Wales is seen being brutally stabbed to death by French soldiers. Contrary to English history (viewed at Tudorhistory.org and royal.gov.uk), which claims that Prince Arthur died of a fatal illness at his home in the English countryside. The opening scene is meant to titillate audiences and should not be interpreted as a historical fact. Such in the case for most of the TV series.

Audiences need to sift through the series, being mindful of what is a fact, and what is fiction simply created to entertain audiences interest for suspense, danger, and intrigue, of which Henry VIII's life was always full of having gone through six wives that go: divorced (Catherine of Aragon), beheaded (Anne Boleyn), died (Jane Seymour), divorced (Anne of Cleves), beheaded (Kathryn Howard), survived (Katherine Parr). Showtime has undertaken a very ambitious project to tell the story of Henry VIII's reign, but keep in mind that the creator and head writer, Michael Hirst has used his artistic license to tell this story.

A historical fact is that Henry VIII (played by Jonathan Rhys Meyers) did marry his brother's wife, Catherine of Aragon (played by Maria Doyle Kennedy), the daughter of the King and Queen of Spain, and six years Henry's senior. But in history, the couple got along very well in the beginning which is completely eclipsed in the series by jumping straight into Henry's liaison with Lady Blount (played by Ruta Gedmintas) who bore him an illegitimate son named Henry and surname Fitzroy, which was generally given to illegitimate children during the Medieval times. Maria Doyle Kennedy's performance is excellent. She plays Catherine the way the Queen has been portrayed in history books: a woman devoted to the faith of the Roman Catholic Church, a virtuous woman who supplied alms to the poor, and a woman desperate to stay married to Henry and to give him a son even holding onto this belief into her 40's and after several miscarriages.

Jonathan Rhys Meyers portrays Henry VIII more like the way he would be if he had been in the position

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