Love this post, Helene! “The Tudors” was my history gateway drug too! Being American, we don’t get Tudor history in school and I knew very little going into the show. There was a point in the show where a character (maybe the Duke of Buckingham? Or Henry himself?- it’s been awhile since I’ve watched the series and I cant 100% recall!) says something like “I have Plantagenet blood”. I had no clue what that meant so I bought Dan Jones’ book “The Plantagenets” and haven’t come out of the rabbit hole of medieval to Tudor era history since! And I found this beautiful social media world of fellow medieval and Tudor history lovers as well!
I think it’s Buckingham who says he has Plantagenet blood. The show really is a gateway for so many people into the Tudors. It is a lovely community as well 🥰
My gateway drug was The Six Wives of Henry VIII in the 70's With The Tudors I couldn't get through more than one episode because of how ridiculous the invented plotlines were, the mishmash of Mary and Margaret (allegedly because they thought calling her Mary would confuse the general audience) and my Rennaissance Festival cast member friends had a great drinking game ...take a drink every time you think "dear god what is that on her head." I did watch series 3 and 4 and I give them credit for certain things they do well..4 episodes on the Pilgrimage of Grace.. the scale of the northern progress of 1541. I ended up watching those seasons because...I won on Jeopardy! thanks to The Tudors being a category to promote series 3. Later on I played Lady Rochford at the Maryland Renaissance Festival and did the Katherine Howard storyline. I said to my Artistic Director "why don't I get to sleep with Thomas Culpepper? If she did on The Tudors it must be accurate."
Sadly lots of things are done for dramatic effect. But the mish mash of Mary/Margaret I never understood and if that’s their reasoning, that’s a really poor excuse. It’s still a guilty pleasure of mine to this day because at times it is ridiculous but it’s fun and some of the acting is brilliant.
Love this post, Helene! “The Tudors” was my history gateway drug too! Being American, we don’t get Tudor history in school and I knew very little going into the show. There was a point in the show where a character (maybe the Duke of Buckingham? Or Henry himself?- it’s been awhile since I’ve watched the series and I cant 100% recall!) says something like “I have Plantagenet blood”. I had no clue what that meant so I bought Dan Jones’ book “The Plantagenets” and haven’t come out of the rabbit hole of medieval to Tudor era history since! And I found this beautiful social media world of fellow medieval and Tudor history lovers as well!
I think it’s Buckingham who says he has Plantagenet blood. The show really is a gateway for so many people into the Tudors. It is a lovely community as well 🥰
My gateway drug was The Six Wives of Henry VIII in the 70's With The Tudors I couldn't get through more than one episode because of how ridiculous the invented plotlines were, the mishmash of Mary and Margaret (allegedly because they thought calling her Mary would confuse the general audience) and my Rennaissance Festival cast member friends had a great drinking game ...take a drink every time you think "dear god what is that on her head." I did watch series 3 and 4 and I give them credit for certain things they do well..4 episodes on the Pilgrimage of Grace.. the scale of the northern progress of 1541. I ended up watching those seasons because...I won on Jeopardy! thanks to The Tudors being a category to promote series 3. Later on I played Lady Rochford at the Maryland Renaissance Festival and did the Katherine Howard storyline. I said to my Artistic Director "why don't I get to sleep with Thomas Culpepper? If she did on The Tudors it must be accurate."
Sadly lots of things are done for dramatic effect. But the mish mash of Mary/Margaret I never understood and if that’s their reasoning, that’s a really poor excuse. It’s still a guilty pleasure of mine to this day because at times it is ridiculous but it’s fun and some of the acting is brilliant.