Whitehall Palace, London 1540. Thirty years into the reign of King Henry VIII (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) and it’s been a long, hot, summer: London is experiencing intense heat and there has been no rain for two months. But while his subjects wilt, the King’s vigor remains undiminished. The Reformation goes on and Henry has just married the beautiful Katherine Howard (Tamzin Merchant), his fifth Queen, who is a mere seventeen years old. Katherine is different from earlier wives in more ways than age: far from being nobility she was ‘discovered’ by some of the King’s friends in a boarding house for wayward young ladies. Joan Bulmer (Catherine Steadman), the new Queen’s best friend from her youth, is hired as a lady in waiting; aside from her friendship she knows too much scandalous detail about Katherine’s sexual past to be outside the court.
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On a drinking binge with his cronies in one of London’s nastiest neighborhoods, the arrogant Lord Surrey (David O’Hara) persecutes prostitutes, smashes wi …
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