Tudors 4x09

I’d say it’s about time that Showtime series The Tudors comes to an end. I admit that Jonathan Rhys Meyers’ husky whispers and pouting lips were starting to annoy me. But I find it really ridiculous that suddenly he looks fifty years older than the previous episode, what with thin grey hair and a frizzy beard, not to mention the even more ridiculous broken voice – also notice that no one else seems to have aged so fast... So, King Henry VIII is aging rapidly, the French campaign has taken its toll, and his festering leg wound gives him constant pain. The Pandora’s Box of the King’s Anglican Reformation continues to divide court and country. Catholic Bishop Gardiner joins forces with recently appointed Chancellor Wriothesley persecuting Protestants. Queen Catherine becomes more vocal in encouraging her husband to finish his religious reforms by purging the Church. Bloody Mary causes another rift in the royal house by befriending Wriothesley and supporting Gardiner to rid the realm of heretics. Around Christmas time, the King addresses the House of Commons urging them to reconcile the religious divisions that are tearing the country apart. Despite such talk of love and charity, in his folly, the King allows the British Inquisition to interrogate and torture supposed heretics, burning a female preacher at the stake. He even grants Gardiner to investigate the Queen.

Meanwhile, news from France isn’t good. Lord Surrey, that most noble Henry Howard, has risked the King’s possession of Boulogne with an unprovoked battle against overwhelming odds, and lost 600 men. The taciturn Spanish Emperor is threatening to ally with France against England, making overtures of war. Stripped of his command and forced to return to court, Lord Surrey, however, remains defiant. Upon learning that the King is seriously ill, he conspires to set himself up as Protector of young Prince Edward in hopes of taking possession of the throne himself after the King’s death. He is arrested on charges of treason and imprisoned in the Tower of London, but attempts to escape. A trial quickly follows, in which the jury is threatened by Lord Hartford (he of the rivaling Seymours) not to acquit him, and Lord Surrey is sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered. Proud to the last, he replies to the guilty verdict that there is no law that justifies them, but that the King wants to rid the court of noble blood.