Is TheTudors Historically Accurate?

The new Showtime series The Tudors has stayed pretty close to historical accuracy, while, of course, bending a few events and identities to help the story line move to their liking. You have to expect a dramatic series to take artistic license, but there is always a viewer's expectation to be told something very close to the truth when it comes to historical, lets go ahead and call it historical fiction.

First, the ages of the characters are not historically accurate. Henry VIII at the time of the setting was in his forties, while Anne Boleyn was in her twenties. The casting is obviously inaccurate. However, they are covering several years of history in each episode, so I do not see how the same actor could portray the same Henry VII from the first few episodes as in the current and future episodes. The same goes for the character of Catherine of Aragon; in The Tudors, she seems much older than Henry VII does when in actuality she was only a few years older than him.

Henry VIII did have an illegitimate son with Lady Blount, however, he did not die as a child as portrayed in the show, he died at the age of seventeen.

Princess Margaret in The Tudors is actually the combination of two of Henry VIII's sisters, Margaret and Mary. Princess Mary was the sister that married Charles Brandon after her marriage to the King of France, not the King of Portugal.

They have the popes all wrong. Pope Alexander, who is the pope at the beginning of the show, was pope before the reign of Henry VIII. After the fictional death of Pope Alexander, they have Cardinal Orsini as the next pope, who was in fact not the pope at that time in history.

The Tudors compared to most historical drama/fiction, has stayed close enough to fact to attract ardent history buffs. Thanks to entertaining casting and choices in plots that exploit both the most poignant and scandalous moments and relationships, the show has the right components to attract even those whose last exposure to English history was in the tenth grade.

Overall, despite the blending of identities and bending of facts, The Tudors has me hooked. Without realizing it at first, I have found that the show has actually inspired me to research the accuracy of the show. Since it is only in its first season, I can only imagine that many more historical inaccuracies will appear. There is nothing wrong with sculpting the truth in the case of historical drama/fiction, as long as it is not presented as the true story, which unfortunately it is in the Showtime advertisements. Viewers should be made aware that they should not rely on the series as an accurate lesson in English history.