Thursday, November 20, 2014

Question from Joanna - Henry and Anne in the woods

At the end of first season of The Tudors, there's this scene where Anne and Henry have sex in the woods. Is there any historical basis (not necessarily sex, but something, like Henry chasing Anne, which I think Hilary Mantel used in her TC-books) for that, or was it just made up?

4 comments:

kb said...

This question is pretty vague. Most of the Showtime production The Tudors bears only a passing resemblance to historical accuracy. There is plenty of evidence that Henry VIII pursued Anne Boleyn over the course of many years. The most concrete and personal is perhaps the series of letters he wrote to her that survive in the archives.

Here is a link to them on Project Gutenberg:

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/32155/32155-h/32155-h.htm

If your question is whether there is historical evidence that Henry and Anne hooked up in a forest somewhere, then the answer is no. Is there evidence that they traveled together? Yes. What they did in the privacy of their own room or along the way is not clear.

The great thing about The Tudors is that the screen writers made up a ton of stuff. This would be one of those fictional moments.

Anonymous said...

Yes, I meant to ask whether there was any historical evidence for a hook up in the woods between Anne and Henry.

But thank you, very much for answering me!

- Joanna

kb said...

As far as I know, there is no evidence of such a hookup.

Laura said...

The scene in question likely never happened, mostly because it came far too early in their relationship. Anne held out against Henry's advances for quite some time, and most historians agree that she became pregnant with Elizabeth quite quickly upon giving in.