Being a married man's mistress is like being in the midst of flames.
Do you know what it means to be loved by the King of England?
Why should I trust you?
You would make a great Queen,
but he already has one, and the people love Katherine.
Whatever this is, it's over.
You're making a big mistake.
You've just thrown away your future, your family's future!
-I love you, Anne!
Come in.
Married? Really?
-Mm-hmm! -Yeah, in your dreams!
Well, there's whispers in court that Henry is angling for an annulment.
The pope will never go for that. Surely that's a bit of a problem.
It's obvious Katherine's too old to conceive,
and the King still needs a son.
Did he actually say he was going to marry you, Anne?
'Course.
More or less.
Some of Henry's letters to Anne were very sexually explicit.
It's clear that he was absolutely obsessed with the idea
of having sex with her.
He writes to her.
He wants "of an evening to kiss her duckies,"
which is the Tudor slang for breasts.
During the course of those letters, something shifts,
and there is a moment
when Henry seems to be more firmly committed to Anne.
There were plenty of things he couldn't say out loud,
like, "Will you marry me?"
But that's what he wanted.
And inviting me back to court,
promising to acknowledge me as the one he loved,
only confirmed that.
Anne is back at court,
but this time, things are different,
because Henry has promised to try and make her his wife and queen.
The idea that the King of England might set aside his first wife
and marry someone else
was deeply shocking.
Henry is still married to Katherine of Aragon.
You're back.
Again.
It's exquisite, isn't it?
A gift from Henry. It was his mother's.
Oh.
That's… so sweet.
By now, Katherine is used to her husband's infidelities,
so Katherine probably thinks that this is just another one of those,
he'll lose interest in Anne as quickly as he has all of the others.
Oh, I can't believe we're back!
And this time with some actual leverage.
Katherine thinks I'm a joke.
What did you expect? A high five?
-You're trying to steal her husband.
But he doesn't love her.
Does it matter?
It's weird to think she was married to Henry's brother first.
I remember that. Yeah, he dies, and then she turns up on Henry's arm.
Well, they didn't exactly have a choice about that.
I could be just as good a queen as Katherine, you know?
In that dress, you could.
What are you worrying about?
Beautiful.
Virtuous.
Driven.
Greatest queen ever.
You'll need to take the rest later. Henry wanted you to have my old rooms.
Never been that keen on this place anyway.
We'll be out of here by midday.
Oh, I didn't realize.
I wouldn't renovate too much,
seeing as your stay here will most likely be temporary.
Anne and Wolsey are old rivals.
They have history.
Wolsey sees Anne as a passing fancy for the King,
not as the real threat that she actually is.
Bon voyage!
Absolutely stunning.
Yes. Yes, it is.
I was talking about you.
I'll go check on the rest of your stuff.
Your Majesty.
-I brought you a whip. -Oh?
For riding.
I'm taking you out.
Well, I've nothing to wear.
I've already picked something out for you.
You do ride, don't you?
I'm not sure you've the stamina to keep up with me, Your Majesty.
You stay here with the horses.
My rules, remember?
It's been a long time since I've had such good company riding.
Where are you with, um, le annulment?
I'm working on it.
I promise you.
I haven't gone near her in years.
She's more interested in the Bible than carnal pleasure.
Surely not a Bible written in English.
Of course not. The Bible should be read in Latin, as it's always been.
-I hear you want them burned.
Books or the heretics?
Both.
Well, they know the consequences for getting caught.
Does the punishment fit the crime?
Henry!
-What happened?
Gotcha!
-Ooh! -Anne, I'm…
Anne, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
-Get off me! -I'm sorry.
Please, forgive me.
Gotcha!
I want the baby I'll carry to be the next King of England.
That's everything that I've longed for.
By the time Henry VIII was King,
the Tudors were still quite a new dynasty,
and a fragile one as well,
so he was very painfully aware
that he had to produce a son to strengthen the throne.
Anne cannot get pregnant before they're married,
because that means any heir is illegitimate.
They have to do this properly.
He needs a legitimate heir for the Tudor throne.
Well, if you want me, you'll have to marry me first.
I will.
I want it all.
I want you
to be mine.
From that very first date together,
I loved him.
But there were things…
that he didn't know,
things that I couldn't show him.
I knew that Henry was prone to burning heretics at the stake,
and in a way, I was a bit of a heretic…
…what with my controversial reading materials.
I was playing a dangerous game.
Another gift from Henry, by any chance?
-Certainly is.
Well, I'm guessing that your first proper date went well, hmm?
Because your new boyfriend's just made me
Esquire of the Body and Master of the Buckhounds.
That is an absolutely ridiculous title,
but if you tell me you're important, then, woof, I'm impressed.
Well, when you're not looking into lover boy's eyes,
I thought that you might like to look at this.
The Obedience of a Christian Man by William Tyndale.
It says that the King should answer to no one,
not even the pope.
I thought it might be the answer to your little Katherine problem.
Controversial.
Seriously heretical.
Don't get caught with this, Anne.
Anne and her brother George have clearly embraced
some of these radical religious ideas
that are starting to spread across England,
and this is dangerous for them.
It's against the official religion,
and the punishment for that is death.
What are you two up to?
Uh…
I was just telling Anne about my promotion.
I thought we could celebrate your new job.
That sounds lovely,
but those hounds, they won't look after themselves.
Anne has in her possession
one of the most controversial books on the face of the earth,
William Tyndale's Obedience of a Christian Man.
This is dynamite.
This book sets out that the King should be above the pope.
It challenges the very foundations of the Roman Catholic faith.
William Tyndale is on the run from the King of England
for translating the Bible into English.
This is considered illegal in Henry's England.
This is heresy, and this is something that can lead you to the stake.
Are you still reading that?
Oh God, what time is it? I'm going to be late!
Book down, bling on!
Lock it away for me, would you?
Yep.
Certainly don't want this little piece of dynamite lying around.
If King Henry found it, everything could go up in flames.
Enjoy the ménage à trois!
So now Henry is living with both the women under the same roof.
They're constantly coming across each other.
That is grating on Anne like anything.
Incredibly, this game of cards actually happened.
Katherine and Anne and Henry sat down to play cards.
Now the atmosphere must have been toxic.
Katherine shooting looks of pure hatred at Anne,
Henry probably enjoying the whole thing,
and as for Anne herself, well, she certainly enjoyed a challenge.
I'm tired of games.
Good night.
Underestimating Anne
will come to be Katherine's greatest mistake.
I wish Katherine had accepted it was over when everyone else knew that it was.
It wasn't just that she hadn't given Henry a male heir.
It's that they didn't love each other. What did she expect him to do?
One thing that wasn't in any doubt was that Henry loved me
more than he'd ever loved Katherine.
And we were going to be together.
Anne.
I've told you so many times, I will not be your mistress.
-You're not. -That's not what she thinks!
Look, Wolsey's still working out the finer details,
but the crux of it is we need to convince the pope
that my marriage to Katherine wasn't valid in the first place.
And how exactly do you plan on doing that?
Well, the Church only agreed to the marriage
because Katherine said she didn't sleep with my brother.
-Do you think she lied? -She could have.
God's punished me as a consequence.
Leviticus 20 verse 21.
"If a man marries his brother's wife, they would be without a son."
Exactly.
Are you thinking what I'm thinking?
We need to prove it.
We convinced Wolsey to swing a divorce hearing,
but Katherine had absolutely no intention of giving up without a fight.
The marriage is tried
at a court at Blackfriars in July 1529,
and presiding over it are Wolsey
and the pope's man, Cardinal Lorenzo Campeggio.
Securing a divorce for the King is no easy matter.
It needs the authority, the approval, of the pope.
Henry stands up.
He says he has been troubled by the scruples of his conscience,
that his mind and heart can't deal with living this lie,
being married to his brother's widow.
Stop pacing. You're making me queasy!
I can't help it!
So much hangs on this!
Out!
Katherine had a meltdown. Threw herself at my feet.
What?
She swore she was a virgin when we were first married.
Said God should be the judge in her case.
The pope's man refused to pass judgment. Wolsey said it's a pointless exercise.
No one's going to buy it.
He says it's all over.
Like hell it is.
The failure of the trial
means that everything that Henry and Anne have been hoping for
has just crashed into the dust.
They've been waiting for more than two years
to be together formally,
and Katherine has scuppered it all.
Henry was used to Wolsey doing whatever he asked him.
He'd served him faithfully for about 20 years,
but now Wolsey is failing.
He hasn't managed to get the King the divorce that he so desperately needs.
Katherine can't get away with this! There must be another way!
We've tried everything.
Well, what about the pope? I thought you had some sway with him.
The pope will never go against Katherine.
She has friends in high places.
We must accept the things we cannot change.
I'm not giving up.
Just because you think rules don't apply to you
doesn't mean you won't fall foul of them.
So a man of the Church with a mistress and two kids
wants to talk about rules?
Living here as the King's bit on the side is already above your station.
I wouldn't aim any higher if I were you.
Yours, I believe?
Where did you get that?
I'd hate for it to find its way to the King.
The fact that Anne has this book in her keeping
spells mortal danger.
If she's found with it,
she could be arrested and burnt at the stake as a heretic.
She has to get to the King before anyone else does,
because only the King can save her now.
-Where did you get this? -It's… It's mine.
Henry, you have to read this.
It could change our lives. It…
It could change everything.
It says a king is born not just to be king,
but to be head of a new world order subject only to God,
and the pope cannot tell him what to do.
This is a way to throw off the pope's tyranny
and restore your God-given right to rule.
You would answer to no one but God.
Not even me.
You don't need permission from anyone.
I see Anne has confessed all.
We need to talk, Wolsey.
Anne has marked passages
that talk about the King's authority in his own realm being above the pope's.
They speak to her.
The pope is the head of the Church.
He is in charge of everyone in Christendom,
but across Europe,
people have converted to this new way of thinking about belief.
There is a divide happening.
That what has been one Church is being painfully cleaved into two.
When Anne placed that book in Henry's hand,
she handed him all of the justification he needed
to break with Rome and to set up his own church in England.
This really sent shockwaves across the world.
This is one of the most important moments, not just in Henry's reign,
but in the entire history of England,
and it's all because of Anne!
And this really marks the end of Wolsey's career.
He's failed to deliver an annulment.
He's sent away in disgrace from court and then is arrested,
but he dies on his way to the Tower of London.
Didn't realize you were joining us.
I heard that Henry's finally sent Katherine to live at Windsor.
Thomas Cromwell, Henry's new right-hand man.
A much nicer version of Wolsey. Gentle eyes, strong principles.
Thomas Cromwell is a commoner.
He's the son of a blacksmith,
but he's also one of the most brilliant minds of the Tudor age.
He's a very skilled lawyer,
and he's a religious reformer,
so he has an awful lot in common with Anne.
Well, I guess Henry can do whatever he wants
now he's made himself Supreme Head of the Church!
Do I sense a coronation coming on?
Hold your horses, Georgie boy.
What is it?
I didn't realize Katherine was such a skilled artist.
How do we know it's from Katherine? Could be anyone. Maybe it's an omen.
Don't be dramatic.
Look, forget it.
When a woman as glorious as Anne is on her way to the top,
haters are gonna hate.
It's nothing more than a silly joke.
Anne is already making enemies left, right, and center.
People love Katherine, the true Queen,
and now Anne is steering the King down this radical religious course.
There are threats to her life.
It was just a note.
The court of public opinion had very mixed views about what went on.
Some were Team Katherine, others were Team Anne.
It was a nest of vipers.
Henry's "doing" romance.
It's not another dead animal, is it?
Do you like it?
It's perfect for our wedding night.
Go on.
Give me a preview.
Anne. You know how I feel about you.
I know,
but, Henry, we can't have this conversation again.
We can be pretty sure that Anne and Henry
didn't have full-on penetrative sex in these years,
because there was just no reliable contraception,
but I'm pretty sure that… they're doing everything but.
-We will be married.
It's only a matter of time.
I just need to tidy up a few loose ends, that's all.
We still need to get our European friends on side.
Why don't we take a trip to France?
That's a great idea.
Henry has really isolated himself from Catholic Europe,
and if he's going to make Anne his Queen,
he really needs the support of at least one European king.
They think, given that Francis, the King of France, knows Anne,
maybe he'll put his kind of stamp of authority
on the marriage.
For Anne, there's so much riding on this trip to France.
This is going to be her first public outing with Henry.
They are an item, and this is the point where it becomes public.
What if I can't pick Francis out?
Come now. No mask is big enough to hide that nose.
You're so competitive.
We're here to make the King of France our new best friend
on the strict understanding that I'm the better man.
I would never assume otherwise.
You go work your magic.
Henry's brought along his bit on the side!
Anne Boleyn!
Quelle surprise!
I hope your sister is well?
Your Majesty, King Henry and I have a matter we'd like to discuss.
Mm-hmm.
And it shan't involve wrestling this time.
Find me, uh… later.
We'll, uh… talk.
The buffet's calling! I'm starving!
Anne is very excited to go back to France.
France has been such a part of her formation.
Anne wants to see her friend Marguerite,
who she writes to so affectionately.
Are you looking for someone?
Marguerite? King Francis's sister. We're old friends.
Didn't you know she's not coming?
That's right. She's… …sick.
Perhaps
she's allergic to whores.
Never let them see you cry.
Is this is supposed to be a pep talk?
I'm the son of a blacksmith.
There's not a single person in this room who thinks I belong here.
Look, Anne, when they beat you down…
You remember who you are.
Hey, come on.
Thanks to your charm and my wit,
we now have Francis's blessing.
Those brats wouldn't have dared speak to you like that if I'd been there.
It's fine.
I can stand up for myself.
It's okay.
I've got you.
When my father died,
his advisors didn't think I had it in me to rule England.
But I've always believed I was chosen by God to be King
and that it is my duty to live up to that if I can.
But you believe in me.
I believe in you.
We can do this, Anne.
Are you sure?
You are one of a kind, Anne Boleyn.
What's wrong?
Do you think I could have got pregnant last night?
There's a lovely thought.
Henry, I'm serious!
I am being serious.
Screw Rome.
France is on our side.
No more waiting.
Let's get married now.
I want you, Anne.
I want you every day by my side
as my wife.
I love you.
I love you too.
Henry and Anne marry privately in 1532 at Dover.
It's not only private, but secret.
Anne was a relatively unknown woman,
but she was plucked from obscurity to marry the King of England,
who fell head over heels in love with her.
This is what she has fought for for seven long years,
and she's determined to enjoy her moment.
Henry does it for Anne,
because he loves her,
but also because he desperately wants a male heir.
Henry and Anne believe that their marriage is legitimate,
but he's married to Katherine of Aragon.
He's married to two queens, and that makes him a bigamist.
Everything all right?
Just not hungry this morning.
I feel a bit nauseous actually.
Could you pass me one of those apples, please?
Thank you.
You've hardly touched your food all week. Are you sure you're okay?
You want me to call a doctor?
No need for that. I've never felt better.
You're pregnant?
At last!
A son! A son!
My astrologist said it would be a boy.
I've waited so long, Anne!
In 1532, Thomas Cranmer is appointed Archbishop of Canterbury.
He opens a very brief investigation
into Henry's marriage to Katherine of Aragon,
declares it null and void,
and declares Anne's marriage to Henry is legitimate.
Anne is about to experience the most extraordinary moment of her life.
Her coronation.
Everyone in London is required to put up pageants and banners
and to glorify Anne, essentially to worship her.
It's a four-day-long celebration,
and at its heart, the center of attention, is Anne.
When the crown touches her head,
she has done it. She is Queen.
I'm desperate to pee again. Is that normal?
Pressure's on your bladder, and if this little boy has daddy's calves,
you must really be holding it in! Smile through the pain.
There she is!
You're looking regal, sis!
That was amazing!
I can't believe my sister-in-law is the Queen of England!
Who would have thought? A Boleyn on the English throne!
Aw.
Mmm.
Okay. Somebody take Daddy Boleyn away
before he gets proud dad tears all over my coronation dress.
My Queen!
And the future King of England.
This is the stuff of which fairy tales are made.
All Anne has to do now is give birth to a healthy boy,
and her fairy tale will have a happy ending.
Dahh!
You're okay! You've got this, okay?
Now, come on, breathe with me.
Okay.
I can't… I can't do it. I'm too tired! I can't!
Anne, look at me. Yeah?
The next King of England
is making his entrance into this world right now, okay?
Everything you've ever dreamed of, it's finally happening.
But I need you to focus.
For Anne, it now all hangs in the balance.
She knew that a daughter was not enough.
In this day and age, it seems incredible
that Anne's entire fate rests upon producing a boy, not a girl.
The only way that Anne could be absolutely secure…
…is to deliver the boy that Henry needed to be his next King.
Is there something wrong with him?