Original subtitles

Downloaded from YTS.MX

Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX

(dramatic violin music) (thunder cracking)

- [Narrator] For those in power or vying for it,

there can be no rest.

(Henry VII battle cries)

(swords clashing)

(horse whinnying)

Over centuries, kings and queens are crowned,

overthrown, imprisoned, reinstated and murdered.

(dramatic violin music)

- [Dr. Emmerson] If this had been the work of fiction,

we would think it was pushing credulity.

- [Dr. Norton] He still did not have a legitimate male heir.

- [Dr. Emmerson] And I think this is

the beginning of the end.

- [Narrator] This is a dangerous game of strategy,

cunning and deception.

- [Dr. Norton] Mary is undoubtedly

the biggest threat to Elizabeth.

(dramatic violin music)

- [Narrator] Dynasties will rise and fall

all in answer to the ever present question

that fueled civil war and blood feuds,

which pitted brother against brother,

father against son, cousin against cousin.

(horse whinnying)

- [Dr. Emmerson] Family who killed one another.

- [Narrator] Who will wear the bloody crown of England?

(dramatic violin music)

- [Henry VIII] I am the king, I am the king!

- [Dr. Norton] There was no dynasty

like the Tudor dynasty for drama.

- It's this wretched thing!

(Henry VII battle crying)

(swords clashing)

- [Narrator] This is The Game of Crowns.

(dramatic violin music)

It's 1484, civil war has raged on in England

for almost half a century.

Richard III, who's rumored

to have killed his infant nephews,

the rightful heirs to the throne

after imprisoning them in the Tower of London,

sits on the throne safe behind castle walls in London.

He is yet to learn that 250 miles west of the capital,

a young man is about to land

on the craggy Pembrokeshire coast,

an army of French mercenaries in tow.

He is about to set his sights on the very throne

Richard III has battled and butchered his way onto.

- [Dr. Emmerson] Now his claim to the throne

was rather tenuous.

His father was the illegitimate son of Catherine of Valois

and a relationship with an Owen Tudor.

So not only was his claim an illegitimate one,

but it also only came through his mother.

The odds really were stacked against Henry Tudor

at the Battle of Bosworth.

(epic music playing)

Not only did Richard III have the support of the nobles

and a much larger army, he was also a seasoned warrior,

whereas Henry Tudor had much less experience.

(epic music playing)

(Henry VII battle cries)

(swords clashing)

(soldiers yelling)

But the battle was really decided by the Stanley brothers

who held back their troops of around 6,000

and waited to see which side was likely going to win.

(Lord Stanley battle cries)

They then joined and fought alongside Henry Tudor.

(epic music playing)

- [Narrator] On the battlefield at Bosworth,

two armies clashed to decide who will sit on the throne.

On the battlefield at Bosworth,

a king will die caught in the fray of soldiers,

swords and horses hooves.

On the battlefield at Bosworth,

a king will emerge triumphant and go on to found

one of the greatest dynasties in British history.

His name is Henry Tudor.

Born January the 28th, 1457

to Margaret Beaufort and Owen Tudor in Pembrokeshire,

Henry's claim to the throne is a tenuous one.

@ - Henry VII had a veryú difficult hereditary claim

to the throne, of which he was well aware.

@ It was almost no claim at all.

- [Narrator] He becomes king in 1485

when King Richard III is slain

at the battle of Bosworth field.

He is crowned King Henry VII of England on October the 30th.

Knowing that many of the nobles surrounding him

have a stronger claim to the throne than he does,

Henry is endlessly paranoid.

His reign is one of terror.

- He very much rules with an iron fist.

People are scared of Henry VII

and he rules through finances.

Very cunningly, he dates his accession to the throne

to the day before Bosworth field

and that means that anyone who fought for Richard III

was actually committing treason against their

lawful king of England,

which means of course he can seize their property

or say that they owe him money.

And this very much keeps nobility in line,

but he doesn't rule through love.

- [Narrator] A key part of establishing

the Tudor dynasty on the throne

is Henry's marriage to Elizabeth,

the heiress to the House of York

in a union which unites the two warring families as one.

- And the House of York had always used

the symbol of the white rose

and we see it all the time in Yorkist iconography.

The house of Lancaster had on occasion

used a red rose symbol

and Henry very cleverly actually,

noted these two symbols and created the Tudor rose,

which is a red and white rose

and which symbolized the union

of the House of Lancaster and the House of York.

- [Narrator] Henry knew that any children

they should have would be of

both the Lancastrian and the York line,

ending in perpetuity the wars of the roses.

They have a successful marriage

and no less than seven children are born,

securing the next generation in the Tudor dynasty.

- [Dr. Norton] Prince Arthur is their eldest

and he is the future of the dynasty.

@ - Arthur, Prince of Wales, ú was supposed to be the heir

@ that succeeded to Henry Tudor

@ and much hope and expectationú lay on his shoulders.

- He wants to use ideas of

the legendary king of the Britons,

because of course the Tudors are Welsh,

the descendants of the Britons.

So Arthur is named Arthur, to reference King Arthur

and he's raised in his own household

and he's raised to become a king.

- [Dr. Emmerson] He was the Prince of Wales.

He therefore set up court at Ludlow.

In order to secure the realm

and to have alliances with other countries,

he was also married to the enfanter of Spain,

Catherine of Aragon.

Tragically their marriage was to be a short lived one

for Arthur contracted the sweating sickness

and died suddenly in 1502.

(epic music playing) (thunder cracking)

- [Dr. Norton] This is devastating

both for Henry and for Elizabeth.

- [Narrator] All of his father's hopes

are undone in his eldest son's death

and must now rely upon his only remaining male heir,

Prince Henry.

- Everything changed for Henry when Arthur died.

- He is the second son of Henry's VII and Elizabeth York.

- From having been the spare, he was now the heir

and all of England's hopes rested upon his shoulders.

- And he's always intended to be a great nobleman,

but of course isn't raised to become king.

He's declared Prince of Wales

and he now becomes the sole focus of his father's ambitions

and his father's efforts,

because his father has no brothers,

he has no other surviving sons.

So Henry VIII is the future of the Tudor Dynasty.

- [Narrator] Henry VII died in 1509,

leaving the throne to his 17 year old son, now Henry VIII.

- Henry VII was never a popular king.

Most of his court feared him,

so on his death there is a sense of celebration, you know,

of joy that England is now gonna get this

young and charismatic king.

Henry VIII very much resembled his grandfather,

Edward IV who'd been very, very popular

and there is a real sense of hope for the future.

He's seen as a true renaissance prince.

He's highly educated, he's incredibly good looking.

The young Henry VII was described as so beautiful,

he'd make a pretty woman.

- [Dr. Emmerson] He was very much

conversant in the language of courtly love.

He enjoyed singing, dancing, composing music,

and also playing instruments.

- He's athletic, he's very into his sports.

He's very muscular and well built. He's very, very tall.

He is a king of which England can be proud

and there is very much celebration

at his accession to the throne in 1509.

(jubilant music playing)

- [Dr. Emmerson] When Henry VIII ascended to the throne,

one of his first acts was to ask his brother's widow,

Catherine of Aragon, for her hand in marriage.

- [Narrator] However, to marry,

the new king has to gain a special dispensation

from the Pope in Rome.

The Pope approves this and Henry and Catherine are wed

and crowned King and Queen of England,

strengthening once again England's alliance with Spain

and the rest of Catholic Europe.

- [Dr. Norton] When she marries Henry VIII

after several years of waiting,

she must have felt that all her prayers have been answered.

He is incredibly good looking

and undoubtedly Catherine fell deeply in love with Henry.

(suspenseful music playing)

Catherine of Aragon was raised her whole life to be queen.

Both her parents are monarchs.

Her mother is Isabella of Castile

and her father is Ferdinand, King of Aragon.

So she's incredibly royal.

- She was wily and determined and also courageous.

Catherine in many ways was an ideal queen consort.

She was supportive of Henry and his many campaigns abroad,

but she was also happy to be subservient to him.

She was a loyal wife to Henry

and also expected loyalty back.

- [Narrator] Catherine proves herself to be a good wife

and a great queen.

Henry adores her and the country follows suit.

She fulfills all her duties as queen,

save one, securing a male heir.

- [Dr. Emmerson] For the first 10 years

of her life married to Henry,

Catherine spent most of it pregnant

and tragically out of six children,

only one was to survive.

In 1516, after many years of sadly losing children,

Catherine of Aragon gave birth to a daughter

who was christened Mary.

Now it is often stated that Henry was disappointed

at the birth of a daughter,

but actually I think we have evidence

that he was relieved that at last a child was surviving

into it's infancy.

- And while for Catherine,

as the daughter of a female sovereign,

the idea of a reigning queen is not so alien.

For Henry, coming out of the wars of the roses,

it is a terrifying prospect.

- [Narrator] With Catherine six years older than Henry

and nearing middle age, the king begins to worry.

With only one daughter and no legitimate sons,

the succession of the Tudor dynasty is not yet assured.

(tense music playing)

The king prays and prays,

asking God for a son and for a wife who could give him one.

In his wife's gaggle of ladies in waiting,

he finds the answer to his prayers.

A young, fertile and beautiful woman named Anne Boleyn.

Henry had many mistresses

during his marriage to Catherine of Aragon,

but Anne was a wily woman

and does not want to fall victim

to every whim and wish of the King,

like many of his mistresses had,

including her own sister Mary Boleyn.

- [Dr. Emmerson] Henry VIII was actually quite slow

in his advances towards Anne Boleyn,

who joined his court in 1522.

He actually had a relationship with Anne's sister,

Mary Boleyn, in the interim years

before he turned his attentions towards her.

But we know for certain by 1526,

that Henry VIII was falling

head over heels in love for Anne Boleyn.

- [Dr. Norton] Anne Boleyn had always looked

for a good marriage,

because marriage is a way towards social status for women.

There is no doubt that Henry adored Anne.

He loved her deeply.

In his letters he talks about

being struck by the dart of love.

- [Narrator] She is insistent

if he was ever to have her,

it would be as his wife and queen.

- She favored the French fashions

but also she was highly intelligent.

She had been afforded an education

that was quite different to the women around her in England

and she also had very radical religious ideas too.

So she really rebuffed Henry's advances

until she got to the point where

Henry offered her a legitimate path,

a hand in marriage and a crown.

- [Narrator] For the second time

pertaining to his relationship with Catherine of Aragon,

the King has to seek a special dispensation from the Pope.

(religious music playing)

- [Dr. Emmerson] The only real way

that Henry was going to be able to marry Anne was if

the Pope would annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon.

And Anne and Henry knew that the best mechanism

for achieving that end

would be through the King's minister, Thomas Wolsey.

- [Narrator] At Henry's behest,

Cardinal Wolsey travels to Rome,

where he'll petition Pope Clement

to grant the annulment of the King's marriage to the Queen

on the grounds that it was and had always been illegitimate.

- [Dr. Norton] Anne and Henry

place their hopes in Cardinal Wolsey

and he was dispatched to Rome

to try to bring about the annulment.

- [Narrator] The cardinal appeals to Pope Clement

for an annulment of Henry and Catherine's marriage

on the basis that the initial dispensation was void

as the marriage clearly disobeyed instructions

in the book of Leviticus,

which states that the marriage of a brother's wife

was incestuous and would bear no children.

- [Dr. Norton] Henry wanted to annul his marriage

to Catherine Aragon on the basis

that she had been his brother's wife.

So they're related to within the first degree of affinity,

they are as far as the church is concerned,

brother and sister.

- [Narrator] This became a matter of international tension.

Catherine's nephew, the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V,

is vehemently against the annulment,

as is Queen Catherine herself.

Pressure comes from all sides for Pope Clement,

as Queen Catherine and King Charles V

urge him not to annul the marriage

and Wolsey and Henry push for the dispensation to be made.

- [Dr. Norton] While the pope is in the emperor's power,

he will never grant the annulment

of the Emperor's aunt's marriage.

The English try and Cardinal Wolsey tries,

but he's in an impossible situation.

He can never do it.

He will never be able to annul this marriage.

- [Narrator] Caught between the wills of two powerful kings,

the Pope delays his decision as long as possible.

The indecision infuriating both Henry and Anne,

who begin to doubt Wolsey's loyalty to the crown

over the church.

Wolsey returns to England without the Pope's annulment.

- Wolsey ultimately fails to secure an annulment for Henry

from his marriage to Catherine of Aragon

and this leads to his dramatic fall.

- [Narrator] Enraged by Wolsey's failure

to secure the annulment, Wolsey is arrested.

Henry turns to more drastic measures.

Thomas Cromwell, one of Henry's key ministers at court,

proposes a new plan to grant Henry's divorce, reformation.

- Henry knows that the Pope is not going to grant

his annulment to his first queen, Catherine of Aragon.

- There is no solution other than

breaking away from the Pope.

Because if the Pope will not grant the annulment,

then perhaps the church needs to move from the Pope.

- And therefore he is greatly influenced

by these new thinkers, including Anne Boleyn,

and taking the unprecedented step

to break with the Church of Rome

and to install himself as King,

@ as the head of his new church.

- As soon as Thomas Cranmer is confirmed

@ as Archbishop of Canterbury,

he disavows his oath of allegiance to the Pope

@ and declares the Englishú church separate from Rome

with the King as it's supreme head

and this is the moment that the English church

goes its own way.

- [Dr. Emmerson] In order to do this,

Henry actually elevates himself beyond kingship

and proclaims that he is an Emperor of his own empire.

This is really the beginnings of the British Empire.

This is where it all begins.

- [Narrator] Anne and Cromwell's shared reformist views

make them indomitable allies.

And so begins to break from Rome,

fueled more by political affair than theological dispute.

(religious music playing)

Having installed himself as the supreme head

of this new church in England,

Henry grants his own divorce

and begins preparations to marry Anne Boleyn.

Catherine is given the title, The Dowager Princess.

Such was Catherine's impression on people

that even her enemy, Thomas Cromwell, said of her,

"If not for her sex,

she could have defied all the heroes of history".

In the winter of 1532,

Anne and Henry journey to Calais

to gain the approval of King Francis I of France.

In a private conference with Anne,

he gives them his blessing.

And by the time they reach Dover on their ship,

they are lovers.

They wed hurriedly in secret

and again publicly two months later

and Anne is crowned queen.

- [Dr. Emmerson] Henry had moved heaven and earth

@ to marry Anne Boleyn andú the price for crowning her

@ was the delivery of theú much longed for male heir

that Henry so desired.

@ But the child that Anneú had in 1533 wasn't a son,

it was a daughter, the future Elizabeth I.

- Elizabeth was born at Greenwich Palace in September, 1533.

She's the first child of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn,

the first since the break with Rome.

So her birth was really looked forward to.

Henry certainly was expecting his son.

We know that in fact,

because he prepares the birth announcements

for the birth of a Prince.

Unfortunately for her parents,

of course, she is a girl.

And the birth announcements are

amended to add an S to say Princess.

- Now some historians have suggested that

Henry was furious at Anne

for the delivery of a daughter

and indeed that this was the beginning

of the end of their relationship,

but actually we have good evidence

that Henry consoled Anne and suggested that

the delivery of a healthy daughter

was a good sign for the sons that would follow.

- Elizabeth's birth was disappointing.

He really did want to have a son,

but he knew that both he and Anne

were young enough to have more children

and Anne does quickly become pregnant again

the following year.

Henry VIII loved jousting

and it is an incredibly dangerous sport.

Once in his youth actually,

he came close to being killed

when he forgot to put the visor down on his helmet

and his friend the Duke of Suffolk didn't notice

and jousted at him and actually the lance splintered

and he was very lucky to survive.

(tense music playing)

- [Dr. Emmerson] In 1536,

Henry suffered a disastrous accident whilst jousting.

(tense music playing)

Some reports state that he was unconscious

whilst others just mentioned the fact

that he was severely injured.

(tense music playing)

- [Dr. Norton] He fell badly

and his horse landed on top of him.

(tense music playing)

- [Dr. Emmerson] This really changed Henry's lifestyle.

It, in many ways, emasculated him.

- [Dr. Norton] One account suggested

he was unconscious for several hours

and there were also suggestions that perhaps

there was some sort of brain damage.

(tense music playing)

- I think this is a turning point in Henry's life

and not for the better.

- [Narrator] He will never recover from his injuries.

- [Dr. Emmerson] I think this narrowing of his abilities

and I think this continual pain that Henry is in,

really changes his personality.

I think he becomes hotheaded and irrational

and would lash out to a degree that he hadn't previously.

- [Dr. Norton] And it really hammered home

to the King and to his court,

he still did not have a legitimate male heir.

- [Dr. Emmerson] Not long after Henry's jousting accident,

Anne tragically miscarries.

- [Dr. Norton] Anne Boleyn would blame her final miscarriage

on the news of the King's accident.

- And I think this is the

beginning of the end of Anne's life.

(pensive music playing)

- [Dr. Norton] Henry told Anne that he could see that

he would have no more boys by her,

which was particularly ominous.

- [Narrator] The trauma of Henry's injury

and Anne's miscarriage has put the couple at odds.

- Henry by this stage was involved with

Anne's lady in waiting, Jane Seymour,

who had herself declared

that she would not become the King's mistress.

- [Narrator] Thomas Cromwell and Anne,

who had once been united in the pursuit of the same cause,

are now warring over the King's favor.

In the ensuing weeks, Anne makes one crucial mistake.

She threatens Cromwell's life.

- The end for Anne came very quickly.

(dramatic music playing)

- [Dr. Emmerson] Very dramatically, on the 2nd of May, 1536,

Anne is arrested at the Palace of Greenwich

and is taken to the Tower of London.

She has no idea why she has been arrested,

but two people do.

Her husband Henry VIII and his minister Thomas Cromwell.

- [Narrator] Cromwell poisons Henry against her

and she is arrested and charged

with adultery, incest, and treason.

(dramatic music playing)

Anne is executed on the 19th of May, 1536,

by the blade of a French swordsman.

- [Dr. Emmerson] Henry ordered that a cannon was fired

at the moment that Anne was executed.

(sword slicing)

And this was his cue to move on.

Indeed, he proposed to Jane Seymour the next day

and they were married only two weeks later.

Compared to Henry's first two queens,

Jane Seymour was rather less complicated.

She was rather meek and slightly milder

than Catherine and Anne

and was certainly happy to be more pliant to Henry's will.

- [Dr. Norton] It is a marriage

that he hopes will bear sons.

Jane comes from a very fertile family.

She has many brothers and he's hopeful that Jane

will prove a very different wife to Anne Boleyn.

Finally at the start of 1537,

Jane realizes she's pregnant

and when she feels the baby quicken,

so she feels the baby move,

the whole country erupts into celebration.

Henry is incredibly solicitous throughout her pregnancy,

he vows to remain close to her,

so she's not frightened by any rumors.

This is probably a reference to

Anne Boleyn's final miscarriage

and the fact that she blamed it on

Henry's fall from a horse.

- [Dr. Emmerson] After many years of heartache,

Jane Seymour finally gave Henry the son and heir

that he so desperately craved.

- When Jane goes into labor in October, 1537,

the whole country hold their breath

and it's a very long, very arduous labor.

Finally, after two days, Jane gives birth

and it is a healthy prince and everybody celebrates.

(joyous music playing)

- [Dr. Emmerson] Henry was elated.

There was much celebration throughout the kingdom

and lavish feasts and jousts were prepared.

- [Dr. Norton] This is the moment

that Henry has been waiting for, for nearly 30 years.

(joyous music playing)

- [Narrator] To Henry's great relief, in October, 1537,

a son is born, whom they call Edward.

- [Dr. Norton] And everything seems all right with Jane.

She seems to be recovering well.

She's able to send out the official birth announcement

shortly after the birth.

- But tragically all was not well in the birthing chamber.

- Childbirth was a very, very common form of death

for women in the period

and Jane holds on until the 24th of October,

12 days after the birth of her son,

before sadly dying in the night.

- [Dr. Emmerson] Henry VIII was absolutely crestfallen

at the death of Jane Seymour.

He really appears to have entered into

a prolonged period of mourning and depression.

Henry at this point had gone through

a huge amount of heart ache.

He had gone to extraordinary lengths

to secure this son and heir

and then tragically his wife

had been snatched away from him.

He really must have felt that

everything was stacked against him at this point.

(melancholy music playing)

- [Narrator] Heartbroken without his third queen,

Henry falls into a deep depression.

Thomas Cromwell, one of the king's closest advisors,

visits the king.

He has a proposal.

- [Dr. Norton] So most kings in the period

chose their wives for diplomatic reasons.

They wanted to make a grand foreign alliance

which would bring friendship between the countries.

Henry had been unsuccessful in finding a French bride

and then an imperial bride.

- Rather like Anne Boleyn,

Thomas Cromwell was something of a religious radical

and he understood that Henry's kingdom

was rather less secure than it should be,

because of his newly founded Church of England.

Therefore, Cromwell's proposal was to

create an alliance with a Protestant country.

- [Narrator] He explains that

Henry should marry Anne of Cleaves,

in a diplomatic move that would ensure

a good relationship with the powerful duchy

in the holy Roman empire.

Intrigued by the proposition,

Henry dispatches his favorite court painter,

Hans Holbein the Younger, to take her likeness.

Months later, the painter returns

with a portrait of a young and healthy woman.

Henry agrees to the union.

- [Dr. Norton] The marriage contract

was signed in September, 1539,

and Anne then made her way towards England.

- [Dr. Emmerson] Henry VIII's first meeting

with Anne of Cleaves couldn't have gone worse.

Anne was supposed to voyage to court to meet Henry,

but like a love sick boy, Henry can't wait to meet her

and decides to visit her in disguise.

- [Dr. Norton] Henry VIII arrived to find

Anne of Cleaves looking out a window

at a bear baiting below.

- [Dr. Emmerson] Now, as part of court etiquette

and as part of the language of courtly love,

@ Henry's courtiers knew that

Henry would often appear in disguise

@ and they in turn wereú supposed to recognize the King

@ no matter what he was wearing.

@ This was to flatter the king.

Now Anne grew up in

a completely different environment to this.

She wasn't conversant in the language of courtly love at all

and when Henry VIII burst into her chamber,

she was completely unimpressed with this man

that stood before her.

- [Dr. Norton] Her visitor then left the room

and returned wearing a purple cloak,

@ which was a cue for everyoneú to recognize the king.

@And as they fell to their knees,

Anne of course realized her mistake

and recognized that this was Henry VIII,

this was her suitor.

But the damage had already been done.

- And I think, actually, in that moment,

Henry VIII saw, perhaps for the first time in his life,

a genuine reaction to how unattractive he had become.

Anne hadn't recognized him

as this all powerful majestic person.

She'd simply seen an obese

and slightly aging man before her.

Henry would leave that chamber and proclaim,

"I like her not" and state that she was nothing like

as was depicted in her painting.

- Actually most people seem to have agreed

that the portrait was a good likeness,

but there was just something about Anne

that didn't appeal to Henry.

- But I think the truth of the matter was

that there was an ugly, aging and smelly person

in that chamber and it wasn't Anne of Cleaves, it was Henry.

- [Narrator] Unable to get out of the marriage

for fear of offending Europe, the couple marries.

Though they divorced soon,

as an alliance with Cleaves is less desirable.

(tense music playing)

Anne is afforded the title, the King's sister,

and gifted a great portfolio of properties.

Henry is now 49 years old and once more without a queen.

- Having served Henry loyally for many years,

Thomas Cromwell was now seen by the king

as the architect of this incredibly awkward marriage

between Anne of Cleaves and himself

and he really blamed Cromwell.

- [Narrator] The Duke of Norfolk,

a noble of conservative views,

and an old rival of the reformist Cromwell,

has another proposal for the king.

- [Dr. Emmerson] Noticing how vulnerable Cromwell now was,

waiting in the wings was the Duke of Norfolk

who had never been fond of Cromwell.

And he had a niece who was in Anne of Cleaves employ,

Catherine Howard.

He saw this as an opportunity,

not only to place his young niece in the King's bed,

but also to bring down Cromwell.

- [Narrator] He offers Henry the hand of his young niece,

Catherine Howard, and convinces him that Cromwell

no longer prioritizes the King's wishes, but his own.

Having fallen far from the King's graces,

on the 28th of July, 1540,

Cromwell is led to the scaffold at Tower Hill,

where the executioner's axe awaits him.

- Cromwell has been sent to the Tower of London in disgrace

and he isn't even afforded a trial.

He is actually condemned to death by an act of attainder.

In his last letter to King Henry VIII,

he writes a post script at the end of the letter

begging three times for "Mercy, mercy, mercy".

But no mercy came and Thomas Cromwell

was taken to the public scaffold site on Tower Hill

and beheaded on the very day

that the king married Catherine Howard.

- [Dr. Norton] Catherine Howard is really

Henry VIII's midlife crisis.

She'd been a lady in waiting to Anne of Cleaves.

She's a teenager.

- Henry VIII is absolutely besotted by Catherine.

He lavishes gifts upon her, jewelry and clothes,

but soon rumors start a court,

that all is not well with Catherine's past.

- [Dr. Norton] She was a woman with a past,

or a girl with a past really,

and she'd had two previous lovers,

one of which had been consummated.

- [Dr. Emmerson] And the Archbishop of Canterbury,

Thomas Cranmer, leaves a letter for the king to find

which details some troubling facts about Catherine's past.

At first, Henry VIII is entirely dismissive of these claims,

but he does order that Thomas Cranmer investigate.

But then things take a turn for the worse.

A letter is discovered in the possession of Thomas Culpeper,

one of Henry VIII's favorites at court.

This is a romantic letter.

It talks of Catherine longing to see him

and this sends Henry into an absolute rage.

He is blinded by this rage and suggests that

he's going to kill Catherine with his own sword.

She is confined to her apartments

and then is imprisoned at Syon Abbey.

But rather unlike Anne,

who is dispatched within 19 days of her arrest,

Catherine languishes in prison.

Henry can't quite believe what has happened.

It is reported at this time

that there is no more room in the Tower of London,

for it is so full of Howard relatives.

And eventually Catherine is taken herself

to the Tower of London.

She is taken to the Queen's Apartment

and is afforded a private execution on Tower Green.

(sword slashing)

(crow cawing)

(relaxing music playing)

Henry VIII's sixth and final queen was Catherine Parr.

Catherine was a relatively young woman

when Henry first took notice of her,

but actually she had already been twice widowed.

- She was very, very reluctant to marry Henry

and actually seems to have been quite horrified

when he declared his interest in her.

Henry, however, would not be refused.

There are claims that Catherine actually said

it was better to be his mistress than his wife.

But if that was the case,

he ignored her and insisted on marriage.

- [Dr. Emmerson] I think at this point in his life,

Henry is looking for peace and stability

and looks to Catherine Parr

to rehabilitate his family life,

to bring his children together,

and to bring harmony once more to the royal family.

- Catherine is incredibly fond of the King's daughters,

Mary and Elizabeth, and indeed persuades Henry

to restore the girls to the line of succession.

- Catherine Parr is an incredibly intelligent woman.

She is very well read,

and has very radical religious ideas too.

She's also the first queen to ever publish a book

and the first woman to publish a book in England

under her own name and in English.

- Henry VIII had been ill on and off

for the latter part of 1546.

And just before Christmas he leaves the queen

and his daughter Mary and goes to Westminster.

(dramatic music playing)

And it's clear very quickly that he's dying.

He spent his last few weeks

cloistered away with his counselor

and particularly his secretary, William Paget,

who is very close to Edward Seymour,

Henry's brother-in-law, the brother of Queen Jane

and the uncle of the heir to the throne.

(sinister whispering)

During this period, Henry asks that a new will is drawn up.

He previously made a will

in the early days of his marriage to Catherine Parr

and he seems to have named her as Regent

in the event of his death,

but this new will completely overturned that.

Instead of naming anyone as Regent,

Henry in fact established

a council of equal ranking executors.

So all of these men have an equal role to play.

And it was hoped that they would guide Edward

through his minority into his adult reign.

(sinister whispering)

- [Narrator] On the 28th of January, 1547,

Henry dies at age 55 at the Palace of Whitehall.

(dramatic music playing)

His son Edward is little more than nine years old

and is now King of England.

- Obviously he came to the throne as a child.

He's nine years old.

He's a shy, uncertain boy at his succession,

to the extent that, at his coronation,

he actually forgets his French

when he's talking to the ambassadors.

(holy music playing)

- [Dr. Emmerson] Edward VI

was a highly intelligent young man.

He was well versed in most subjects

and he was also a radical religious thinker.

This was certainly encouraged by his uncles

who shared the Protestant faith.

In fact, he was something of a religious zealot

and unlike his father, who remained a traditional Catholic,

Edward imposed a fully Protestant reformation on England

for the first time.

(holy music playing)

- [Narrator] Edward enacts many Protestant reformations

during his short reign.

By the time he is 12,

multiple Catholic rebellions have been quelled,

prayer books published in his native English,

and his uncle and protector, Edward Seymour,

the Duke of Somerset has been executed.

- [Dr. Norton] And although his laws are overturned,

in the reign of his half sister,

his is a model that is followed by Elizabeth

in her religious settlement

with her book of common prayer,

which is, of course, Edward's book of common prayer.

He matures as a ruler in his six years.

There are just signs, there are just hints

of the monarch that he could have become.

- [Narrator] Edward is now 15 and is gravely ill.

He has not had a chance to marry and sire an heir

and is loath to let his new Protestant England

fall into his sister, Mary's Catholic hands.

- [Dr. Emmerson] Edward is a boy king

and a fiercely Protestant one too.

And his heir, at the time, is his elder sister Mary,

who is a devout Catholic and a Roman Catholic too.

This causes enormous tensions between the two.

Their differences are so great,

that Edward cannot conceive of his sister Mary

succeeding to the throne

and undoing the Protestant reformation

that he has enacted upon the country.

And he goes to great lengths

in order to disinherit his sister

from the line of succession.

- [Narrator] By June, he knows that he is dying.

He redrafts his will, naming his cousin,

the 16 year old, Lady Jane Grey, his successor.

She will only be queen for nine days.

- He unfortunately dies at the age of 15,

but his legacy is certainly the Protestant reformation,

because it is under Edward

that Protestantism becomes established in England.

When we think about Edward,

we often think of him as a boy King,

as a footnote to the reign of his father,

but actually the Protestant reformation

really should set his reign apart

and we should look more closely

at just what Edward achieved.

- In the wake of Edward's death,

Lady Jane Grey is suddenly proclaimed Queen

and is taken to the Tower of London,

which is usually at the center of political power

at the point of a coronation.

(suspenseful music playing)

- [Narrator] Mary arrives in London with an army of men

and seizes the Tower of London.

Lady Jane Gray is arrested and later executed.

And Mary takes her rightful place on the throne of England.

The eldest child of Henry VIII, Mary is a devout Catholic.

She swiftly unravels all of

the Protestant policies of her brother

and declares her parents' marriage valid.

Now age 37, she starts her search for a husband.

She decides to ally herself with Catholic Spain

by marrying her cousin, King Philip II.

Philip would become her co-ruler

and King of England, as well as King of Spain.

- [Dr. Emmerson] When Mary came to the throne,

one of her first actions was to finally marry

and she chose for her husband, King Philip II of Spain.

- [Dr. Norton] And it's a really good match for Mary.

He is the son of the Holy Roman Emperor,

so one of the most powerful princes in Europe.

And Mary has always been very close to her Spanish relatives

and so she is very, very excited by her marriage to Philip.

- Mary was desperate to beget a son and heir

to secure her own succession.

- Unfortunately, it is an incredibly

@ unpopular marriage in England

@ because in the 16th century,

the husband of a Queen, is a King,

@ so whoever Mary marriesú will become King of England

@and nobody wants a Spanish King.

- [Narrator] Such was the dislike for a foreign man

to sit on the throne of England alongside Mary,

rebellion sparks.

- [Dr. Norton] Early in 1554,

there is a great rebellion against Mary.

It is led by Sir Thomas Wyatt and it begins in Kent.

- Thomas Wyatt rebels in favor of

Princess Elizabeth ascending to the throne.

- [Dr. Norton] Wyatt marches his troops up to London

and actually it's really, it's a very, very dangerous

situation for Mary and she's urged

to flee her capital by her advisors.

She refuses and actually makes a speech

at the Guild Hall in London

and it's absolutely the speech of her life

and we can see Elizabeth modeling later speeches on this.

Mary talks about being married to her country

and it really rallies the people of London in her support

so that when Wyatt's troops cross the river into London,

they are met with a substantial army

and they are defeated that day.

- [Dr. Emmerson] Mary believes that Elizabeth

is part of this conspiracy and arrests her sister,

imprisoning her in the tower of London.

Indeed, it is likely she is held in the very same rooms

that her mother was once held in.

@ This must have beenú terrifying for Elizabeth,

however, Mary ultimately knew that

@ Elizabeth was her only heir.

There was no one else to succeed her,

@ so therefore she had no choiceú but to let Elizabeth go.

- [Narrator] She is desperate for an heir of her own.

She learned from her own succession to power

that without an heir all her reformation would be undone.

- Mary believed that she came to the throne

with God's favor, that God had supported her,

so she sees her queenship as divinely inspired.

So it seems only natural

that she will give birth to a Catholic heir to the throne

to keep her half sister away from the crown.

- Mary was determined to have a son and heir,

and at one point she believed very much

that she was pregnant.

- So she has all the symptoms of pregnancy.

The doctors agree.

Everyone is very, very excited

and she makes preparations for the birth.

She then retires for her lying in,

which is usually about a month before

a woman believes she'll give birth,

and so she waits, and then she waits,

and she waits some more and nothing happens.

- Tragically, this was a phantom pregnancy

and no children ever came from her marriage to Philip.

(tense music playing)

- [Narrator] Heartbroken and grieving,

Mary considers her false pregnancy to be God's punishment

for her having tolerated heretics in her realm.

With her husband away at war with France,

the queen's persecution of Protestants

becomes more and more violent.

To believe in a different God than that of the monarch

was an act of disloyalty,

so heresy was both a civil and religious offense

which amounted to treason.

As a result, many people were arrested,

imprisoned, and executed,

including the Archbishop of Canterbury,

Thomas Cranmer, who served both Henry VIII and Edward VI.

The Archbishop would be one of the thousands

burned at the stake for their faith during Mary's reign.

As a result of these burnings,

she gains the name Bloody Mary.

- [Dr. Norton] By the start of 1558,

it is clear that it's only a matter of time

before Elizabeth takes her throne.

Mary is not going to have a child

and her health is declining.

- [Dr. Emmerson] Mary has gone down in history

as Bloody Mary, which I think is particularly unkind.

She was England's first Queen Regnant,

who reigned in her own right,

so I think it's uniquely unfair

and even misogynistic to land Mary

with this really unfortunate title.

- [Narrator] The Bishop of Winchester, John White,

praises Mary at her funeral service.

"She was a King's daughter, she was a King's sister,

she was a King's wife, she was a Queen

and by the same title, a King also".

- [Dr. Emmerson] After only five years on the throne

and having provided no heir, Mary dies in 1558,

leaving her throne begrudgingly

to her Protestant sister, Elizabeth.

- [Dr. Norton] Following her accession at Hatfield,

Elizabeth makes her way to London.

She's met by cheering crowds.

She is Henry VIII's daughter, and in fact,

her coronation portrait

is very much reminiscent of her father.

She's displaying herself as Henry VIII's daughter.

(holy music playing)

- [Narrator] Her coronation is set

for 15th of January, 1559, an auspicious day

selected by the court astrologer, Dr. John D.

- [Dr. Emmerson] And they hoped that the young Elizabeth

would provide more stability, more peace and harmony.

- [Narrator] Elizabeth like her brother before her

is zealous in her commitment to the Protestant cause,

but she knows from witnessing firsthand

the decisions made by her sister, Mary,

pertaining to religion, that forced conversion

can only end in terror and in bloodshed.

- When Elizabeth became Queen,

England was a Catholic country.

And so the question of what the state religion would be

was really on everybody's lips

because she was well known to be a Protestant.

In 1559, she created her religious settlement

where she set the state religion

and it was a Protestant church.

- But when she came to the throne,

she knew that she had to be pragmatic.

She knew that she needed to unify her kingdom.

She stated that she had no desire

to open windows into men's souls

and this must have been something of a relief

to her kingdom.

- Elizabeth tried to take

something of a compromise approach,

something of a middle way.

Some Catholics refused to come to church.

And actually, although Elizabeth

has this reputation for moderacy,

the penalties against Catholics who wouldn't conform

could be very severe and went all the way up to execution.

- Elizabeth unfortunately suffered many illnesses

during her early reign, including catching smallpox.

This created great anxiety throughout the country

and not least in her counsel.

Elizabeth, of course, was unmarried at this point.

She had no children, no heir.

- [Dr. Norton] Under the laws of succession,

the next in line to the throne was Catherine Grey.

However, she was then a prisoner in the tower

because she had made a secret marriage

to the Earl of Hartford,

and Elizabeth in her anger had invalidated the marriage

and imprisoned Catherine and her husband

and Catherine's infant children.

If you look at strict hereditary,

the heir to throne was Mary Queen of Scots,

who was unlikely to appeal to anyone in England.

She's a Catholic, she's educated in France,

she's a foreign ruler.

So it's a real constitutional crisis

and the Privy Council meet to decide who will be the heir.

- What would happen to the Tudor dynasty

if she were to die without one?

- No one is quite clear what will happen

and it really hammers home the uncertainties,

the fact that the stability in England

hangs on the life of just one woman.

- [Narrator] The monarch must secure

the succession of the house of Tudor.

She knows that she is the last of her siblings.

She is the third and final

of Henry VIII's surviving children.

Her advisors think she needs a husband to support her

and an heir to succeed her.

- Elizabeth actually receives a deputation

from the House of Commons

not long after she becomes Queen,

where they petition her to marry.

She takes it in very good grace,

but she says to them, you know,

"Since I've been a child,

I have decided that I'm going to remain unmarried

and I'm going to be a virgin.

I'm gonna reign as a virgin queen".

And it doesn't really cause any stir,

which is surprising, but really,

it's because nobody believed her.

It was a ridiculous suggestion that this young girl of 25

would hope to reign as Queen.

Of course, she had to marry.

Of course, she had to give England a King.

Her role was to produce heirs to continue the dynasty.

- [Dr. Emmerson] I think Elizabeth chose not to marry

for a number of different reasons.

I think it began at an early age.

I think she knew from the example set

by firstly her mother,

and then her stepmother, Catherine Howard,

how vulnerable a Queen could be at the hands of a King.

I think this left a psychological imprint

on Elizabeth's mind.

I think the thought of marrying

terrified her, quite frankly.

But also Elizabeth was determined,

perhaps for the first time in her life,

to have control over herself and of her kingdom.

She had been left incredibly vulnerable

by the downfall of her mother,

and she had been de-legitimized,

she had been removed from the succession.

And I think, in a way,

Elizabeth wanted to rule without a husband.

She knew that if she had married,

her husband would automatically have become a King Regnant.

And Elizabeth wanted control not only of her own destiny,

but that of her kingdom too.

- Mary Queen of Scots is undoubtedly Elizabeth's rival.

Mary was born in 1542 and when she was six days old,

she became reigning queen of Scotland.

Mary is undoubtedly the biggest threat to Elizabeth,

and this is because of her place in the English succession.

So Mary is effectively her heir.

She is the next hereditary heir to the throne.

- Mary Queen of Scots was Elizabeth's first cousin

and she had something of a tempestuous rule in Scotland.

Indeed, she was forced to abdicate her throne

because of her actions.

- [Dr. Norton] After she realized

she couldn't stay in Scotland any longer,

Mary fled to England

and it was the absolute worst decision she could have taken

because Elizabeth was the one person

who could never allow Mary to have her freedom.

Because Mary is such a threat to her rule.

- [Dr. Emmerson] Elizabeth knew that Mary as a Catholic

would become a figurehead

for those who opposed Elizabeth's rule.

Indeed, people already thought that

Mary had a more legitimate claim to the English throne.

- And this really matters to Elizabeth

because Elizabeth is still legally illegitimate.

So legally she has no title to her throne

other than by act of parliament and by her father's will.

When Elizabeth hears that

Mary has landed in the north of England,

she orders that she be placed under house arrest

and Mary remains imprisoned by Elizabeth, for 20 years.

(suspenseful music playing)

The two women never meet.

Mary's desperate come to court

to plead her case with Elizabeth

and Elizabeth will not see her.

Instead, Mary slowly begins to lose hope

and she starts plotting against Elizabeth

and there are several plots, at least,

that her name is mentioned in

or that she seems to have had direct involvement in.

- Mary did conspire to overthrow Elizabeth

and to place herself on the English throne.

- [Dr. Norton] Lastly, of course,

she's involved in the Babington plot

where she gives her consent to murder Elizabeth.

In many respects, this is a really sensible policy for Mary,

because actually were Elizabeth to die

at any point during Mary's imprisonment,

it's really likely that

Mary would be declared Queen of England.

- [Narrator] She knows that there's just one heartbeat

between her and the English throne.

As her endless imprisonment continues,

Mary's support for the murder of Elizabeth is evident,

if that would lead to her own liberty

and Catholic domination of England.

Then correspondence is intercepted by Elizabeth's men

that will lead to Mary's demise.

The letter reads,

"Let the great plot commence", signed Mary.

- It had been proved without doubt

that Mary had consented to murder Elizabeth.

Elizabeth knew that Mary wanted her dead.

- [Narrator] In 1586, after being convicted of treason,

having been implicated in the Babington plot,

Elizabeth could not let the Scottish Queen live.

Knowing that Mary's execution

could spark a war with Catholic Europe,

she reluctantly signs the death warrant.

- [Dr. Emmerson] Mary was executed at Fotheringhay Castle

and her execution sent shock waves throughout Europe,

not least in Spain.

(dramatic slamming)

- [Narrator] The execution of Mary Queen of Scots

broke international tensions and the Spanish made a move.

Spain invades the English occupied Netherlands,

then turns their enormous fleet of ships

upon the island of Britain.

The Armada anchored off Calais, readying for attack.

- [Dr. Norton] The English were expecting

invasion from Spain, and Philip built a great fleet,

the Spanish Armada.

So Elizabeth goes to her troops at Tilbury

to try and ready her forces.

- [Dr. Emmerson] Elizabeth really showed her mettle

at a speech that she gave at Tilbury.

- [Dr. Norton] She talks about

having the body of a weak and feeble woman,

but having the heart and stomach of a King

and a King of England.

@ She really rallies the troops.

She portrays herself as a war leader.

- The Spanish had a much larger fleet

and the odds were stacked against the Queen.

But then the weather breaks, storms form and winds blow,

scattering the Spanish fleet.

- [Dr. Norton] Her commanders,

Lord Howard of Effingham and Francis Drake,

are able to scatter the Spanish fleet,

partly by aid of a Protestant wind

that blows in the English favor.

The Armada is entirely scattered, and in fact,

the ships that remain have to sail

all the way around Scotland and Ireland

to get home to Spain,

because they just cannot go back down the English channel.

- [Narrator] England sends burning fire ships,

which scorch and sink the Armada's galleons.

(triumphant music playing) (fire crackling)

- [Dr. Norton] It is a triumph of Elizabeth's reign.

(peaceful music playing)

- [Narrator] The English

sailed back to Plymouth, victorious.

- [Dr. Emmerson] This is where the mythology

of Elizabeth really starts.

The truth of the matter is,

that it was more the weather

than anything that Elizabeth had done,

that was the downfall of the Armada.

@ But this is where Elizabeth, ú the powerful virgin Queen,

@ really comes into prominence.

It is at this point that the mythology of Elizabeth begins.

- [Narrator] From this point onwards,

she becomes Gloriana, the Virgin Queen,

the semi divine monarch of myth and of magic.

Under her steady and guiding hand,

England grows more and more prosperous.

- [Dr. Norton] If you'd asked Henry VIII

back at his death to rank his children,

Elizabeth would definitely be the least of his children.

And yet, actually, she is the one that we really remember.

She reigns for 44 years.

It's remembered as a time of general prosperity.

- [Dr. Emmerson] Elizabeth's court was really

the center of power in the kingdom.

This is where all of the decisions about policy are made,

but it's also a place of great exuberance.

Elizabeth loved lavish celebrations.

She enjoyed hearty banquets, and above all,

she loved dancing.

- It's the age of Shakespeare, it's the age of exploration.

And Elizabeth's right at the center, reining alone.

- [Narrator] Elizabeth dies in 1603,

and with her dies the Tudor dynasty.

- Elizabeth was destined to be the last of her dynasty,

and of course she knew this.

She had no children, she had no nephews and nieces.

There was no one else to carry on the Tudor line.

So in part, of course, her legacy is dynastic change

and the fact that the King of Scots

became the King of England and united the two kingdoms.

But her legacy is so much more than this.

- Elizabeth died childless and at the end of her reign

came the end of the Tudor dynasty.

Actually, I think one of Elizabeth's greatest legacies

was demonstrating that a queen could rule

in her own right without a man.

She was a queen who did not need a king.

- [Dr. Norton] She was undoubtedly the woman

that proved that women could reign in England.

She reigned for over 40 years and she reigned independently.

She didn't have a king

and she was very much in control of her kingdom.

- [Narrator] James VI of Scotland

becomes James I of England,

and a new era dawns in the battle for the English crown.

(epic music playing)