Summary:

           Jonathan Rhys Meyers .... King Henry VIII
　　　Henry Cavill .... Charles Brandon
　　　Natalie Dormer .... Anne Boleyn
　　　Maria Doyle Kennedy .... Queen Catherine of Aragon
　　　Nick Dunning .... Thomas Boleyn
　　　Jeremy Northam .... Sir Thomas More
　　　Padraic Delaney .... George Boleyn
　　　James Frain .... Thomas Cromwell
　　　John Kavanagh .... Cardinal Campeggio
　　　Jamie Thomas King .... Thomas Wyatt

                

This costume drama features England's splendid Renaissance dynasty, starting in season 1 with the part of king Henry VIII's reign when cardinal Wolsey rose to become the power behind his throne, ruled ruthlessly and almost absolutely but highly efficiently while Henry generally follows his advice and that of Thomas Morus in diplomatic and religious matters but soon gets obsessed with the desire for a male heir which his loving Habsburg queen Catharine of Aragon cannot give him, hence comes under the spell of femme fatale Anne Boleyn who plays harder to get then any other mistress; when both want a marriage, Henry first needs a divorce, but Wolsey's promises to help him to one with Rome's blessing prove a terrible Calvary, complicating the diplomatic power game, trying to play France against the Habsburg dynasty's Holy Roman Empire annex Spain and its overseas empire. Against this background gyrate the private lives and political intrigues of several members of the royal court and chancery, such as Henry's friend and his sister Margareth's true love Charles Brandon, the Habsburg ambassadors, greedy and power-hungry schemers, their incidental victims and composer Thomas Tallis.