Season 3, Episode 8: The Undoing of Cromwell
Mary is attracted to Anne’s cousin Philip of Bavaria but he is a Protestant and so marriage is impossible. Henry tires of Anne and Bryan procures 17-year old Katherine Howard to ‘amuse’ him. He gives her jewels and Nonsuch Palace. She gives him her cherry. Henry seeks to prove the marriage to Anne is void but Cromwell will not support him. A group of conspirators jealous of Cromwell – including Gardner and Brandon – have him arrested for treason on the grounds that he permitted heretic preachings. He is beheaded in a grotesque execution by a drunken headsman who botches the killing, appalling even his foes.Simultaneously Anne is told that her marriage is illegal but she is to be known as “the king’s sister” and will be given property and an annuity. Henry Tudor is now free to marry Katherine.