Forget The Crown… a steamy new royal drama about the Tudors makes the Windsors look like the Waltons.
Blood, Sex & Royalty is the latest three-part Netflix offering to delve into the murky depths of the British royals.
And with storylines about everything from teenage sex to incest and murder, the drama – available from Wednesday – promises to be sexier, deadlier and far more shocking than anything featured on The Crown.
Blood, Sex & Royalty is being billed as a modern take on the lives of King Henry VIII and the woman who changed the course of British history for ever – his second wife, Anne Boleyn.
Dr Owen Emmerson, curator of Hever Castle – Anne’s childhood home in Kent – and a consultant on the show, said: “Anne was like Diana, Meghan and Wallis Simpson all rolled into one.
“She was an outsider and she shook things up. She was probably the first woman ever to say ‘No’ to Henry, which drove him wild.
“Unwilling to just be a mistress to the King, she wanted to be Queen.”
The Netflix series documents Henry and Anne’s seven-year courtship – and their doomed marriage.
Former Emmerdale actor Max Parker plays King Henry – famously married six times – while former Coronation star Amy James-Kelly (she played troubled teen Maddie Heath) portrays Anne.
Netflix said: “In the 16th century, Anne Boleyn navigates treacherous sexual politics and rises to become Queen of England. She forges history as she reshapes King Henry VIII’s worldview.”
The story of Henry’s marriages was also given a racy treatment in hit series The Tudors back in 2007, but Netflix has taken a new approach, with historian Dr Emmerson appearing on screen to offer a commentary on the action.
He said: “The series is pitched at a younger audience using modern accessible language, a bit like Bridgerton, and more drama than documentary. Anne speaks directly to camera, like in Fleabag.
“For once, she is accurately portrayed as the highly educated, modern feminist she was and Henry was fascinated. When she refused to sleep with him, fascination became obsession.
"He would send long steamy letters describing exactly what he wanted to do to her.”
Those letters, which were stolen at the time, are now kept at the Vatican Museum in Italy.
They were used to prove he had another woman and that was why he wanted a divorce and to break from the Catholic Church – not the highfalutin’ religious reasons he gave the Pope.
“Court was a hotbed of contradictions,” Dr Emmerson said. “Sex was strictly prohibited outside marriage and yet we know that key players at Henry’s court had mistresses and extra-marital sex, as did Henry.
“Men could have mistresses, but women at court were actively encouraged to be chaste and virtuous while being simultaneously compelled to partake in the art of ‘courtly love’.
"This was a highly performative form of flattery and flirtation. It was this tightrope walk between being coy and flirtatious that left women vulnerable.
“Queen Anne would overstep the mark in 1536 by acknowledging that one of Henry’s courtiers was in love with her and would marry her if she were single.”
Henry started having affairs when it became clear his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, could not provide him with a male heir.
One mistress, Bessie Blount, bore Henry a son named Henry Fitzroy – the only one of several illegitimate children he acknowledged. Anne’s own sister Mary also had an affair with Henry, which resulted in the birth of a daughter.
“Anne saw how Henry had treated her sister and realised it wasn’t much fun being his mistress,” Dr Emmerson said.
“Contraception was illegal so if Anne had engaged in intercourse with Henry, there was a risk she would have become pregnant.
“But there is plenty of evidence they did engage in some sort of sexual relationship during their courtship from the letters he wrote to her. They definitely got to first base – and probably way beyond!” While it is widely accepted that Henry broke away from the Catholic Church of his own volition, Anne actually introduced him to the idea of kings being next to God in the Bible.
She pointed out that at no point did the book mention the Pope.
“Anne changed the course of English history,” said Dr Emmerson. “She was more than just a beautiful, fashionable woman with a French accent – she introduced Henry to new ideas and new ways of thinking.”
Anne was Queen for only three years and in that time she had three pregnancies. While she gave birth to daughter Elizabeth I in 1533, she also suffered two miscarriages. And when Anne failed to provide the King with his much-needed male heir, his love for her turned to hatred.
Dr Emmerson explained: “Henry is cruel and ruthless in his disposal of her.
“She is arrested and held in the Tower for just two weeks before she is executed, while most people would be there for six months or a year. There is no evidence that any of the adultery charges are true, only evidence that he cheated on her.
“Neither is it true that she had an incestuous relationship with her brother George – another ‘crime’ she is accused of. She faced her beheading, sat up and done with a sword, with incredible bravery.”
Dr Emmerson continued: “Elizabeth is Anne’s legacy. She wasn’t even three when her mother was killed, which was brutal.
“Henry’s son Edward only rules for six years and dies at 16 – yet Anne’s daughter has a whole age named after her.”
Blood, Sex & Royalty is available on Netflix from Wednesday.
The Boleyns of Hever Castle by Owen Emmerson and Claire Ridgway is out now in paperback and on Kindle.
