There are numerous ways in which the series does not coincide with history. Liberties are taken with character names, relationships, physical appearance, and the timing of events.
Time is conflated in the series, giving the impression that things happened closer together than they actually did. By the time of most of the events in this series, King Henry VIII was already in his mid-to-late 30s. Catherine of Aragon was really only six years older than Henry VIII, instead of the 15-year age gap implied by the show (Henry is said to be 25 as the series opens) and the relative ages of the actors. Henry was more than a decade older than Anne Boleyn, who was born circa 1507, and did not seriously begin his pursuit of her until he was in his mid-thirties.
The character of Henry's sister, called "Princess Margaret" in the series, is actually a composite of his two sisters: the life events of his youngest sister, Princess Mary Tudor, coupled with the name of his eldest sister, Margaret Tudor (to avoid confusion with Henry's daughter, Mary I of England).[4] Historically, Henry's sister Princess Mary first married the French King Louis XII. The union lasted approximately three months, until his death; Louis was succeeded by his cousin Francis I, who was married to Louis' daughter Claude of France. Mary subsequently married Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk. As The Tudors begins, Henry is already negotiating a peace treaty with Francis; the series' Princess Margaret thus marries the Portuguese king, who lives only a few days until she murders him in his sleep.[5] By the time of the events of this series, the historical Brandon (who was already in his early 40s) and Princess Mary were long married with three children. Henry's eldest sister, Margaret Tudor, was actually married to King James IV of Scotland and became the grandmother of Mary, Queen of Scots.
While Bessie Blount was famously one of Henry VIII's mistresses and did give Henry an illegitimate son (Henry FitzRoy), historically, her son did not die as a small child. FitzRoy died at the age of 17 in 1536, a month after the execution of Anne Boleyn and roughly 10 years before the death of his father, Henry VIII. Blount was also not married until after the birth of Henry FitzRoy.
The papal politics depicted in the first several episodes of the series also have no clear relation to actual events. A Pope Alexander is depicted as on his death bed at the time of the Field of the Cloth of Gold meeting between Henry and Francis (in 1520), whereas the actual pope at that time, Leo X, died suddenly at the very end of 1521, and there had not been a pope named Alexander since 1503, before the beginning of Henry's reign. A Cardinal Orsini is depicted as being elected following the death of the fictional Alexander, which, again, does not correspond to actual history, when the Emperor's tutor Adrian of Utrecht was elected to succeed Leo, and, following his death just a year later, Cardinal Medici, who as Clement VII would refuse to permit Henry's divorce, was elected to the papal throne.
In the first episode an English ambassador described as the "uncle" of Henry VIII is murdered in Italy by Frenchmen; Henry VIII had no such uncle. There is also no historical evidence that composer Thomas Tallis was bisexual, as portrayed in the series.
The Palace of Whitehall as shown to be the home of Henry VIII from the beginning of the series, only fell into Henry's hands in 1530 after he removed Cardinal Wolsey from power. Up until this point in time it was called York Place, and was taken by Henry to be his home with his fiancée Anne Boleyn.[6] The Palace was not referred to as Whitehall Palace until as much as a decade after.
Cardinal Wolsey was not imprisoned and did not commit suicide. After being accused of treason, he set out for London to answer the charges and died en route in Leicester. Wolsey's death came in 1530, three years before the death of Henry's sister Mary; in the series, the two events are juxtaposed.
In the second episode of season one Henry VIII is seen celebrating his bastard son and fires a flintlock musket to do so. However, this type of musket was not invented until 1630, a century later.
Similarly, Henry VIII was historically never addressed as "Your Majesty"; this expression began with Elizabeth. While "Majesty" began to be used to refer to Henry VIII, the king himself was addressed as "Your Grace".
