News culture Blood and sex: The British royal family as you’ve never seen them before in this Netflix series
Published on 01/23/2023 at 09:02
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If you were looking for a series based on the British royal family, you have surely set your sights on The Crown, which retraces the reign of Elizabeth II, who died in September 2022. Already endowed with 5 seasons, the series is crowned with success, but a new series has arrived.
Warning: if you do not yet know the story of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, the following article spoils the fate of this historical figure.
Henry VIII: an intense reign and a historic turning point
The history of the British royal family is rich, very rich, and has infused all of European and world history for centuries. From legends to myths and historical facts, it’s a gold mine for anyone wishing to create a series, a documentary or a film. They were very numerous, like the Tudors, The White Queen, Mary Stuart or even The King. Netflix, which is benefiting from the success of The Crown, also released the first season of Blood, Sex & Royalty last November, which abandons the 20th and 21st centuries to focus on the 16th.
During the first half of this century reigned Henry VIII, also nicknamed Bluebeardknown for his many relationships but also for having broke with the papacy to found Anglicanism. It’s a major turning point in English and British history, but the three-part series focuses on the love life of the king, who married six wives during his reign and had two executed.
Anne Boleyn: From Throne to Grave
Blood, Sex & Royalty takes the form of a documentary series supported by a college of historians, which recounts the tragic love story between Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, from her point of view. Because if the story started rather well, it ended badly. After having courted for several years to the one he is very in love with, Henry VIII asks the Pope to annul his marriage with Catherine of Aragon so that he can officially live his story with Anne Boleyn. The Pope refuses but, determined, Henry VIII decides to dispense with the advice of the sovereign pontiffbroke with the Roman Church, and married Anne Boleyn, in 1533. She quickly gave birth to a child but, problem, it’s a girl. She will not succeed in giving a male heir to the crown, and, disappointed, Henry VIII will make it accuse of adultery and execute in 1536 at the Tower of London.
A docu-fiction series managed not to show the youngest
Telling a romance against a background of historical fact is always very risky, but according to The Guardian, the challenge is met with flying colors by James Bryce, Franscesca Forristal, Jillian Mannion and Yero Timi-Biu. Carried by a solid cast made up of Amy James-Kelly (Anne Boleyn), Max Parker (Henry Tudor), Adan Astill (Thomas Boleyn), Lois Brabin-Platt (Mary Boleyn) or even Aron von Adrian (Thomas Wyatt). To counterbalance some staging effects and the fictional aspect of the mini-series, viewers are entitled to clarificationcontributed by Suzannah Lipscmb, Tracy Borman, Owen Emmerson, Lauren Mackay, historiansand Nandini Das, literature teacher.
This does not prevent Blood, Sex & Royalty from widely highlight the carnal nature of the relationship between the king and Anne Boleyn, which is why, despite its “docu-fiction” aspect, the series is not recommended for children under 16. The explicit nature of the images in the series is not hidden by Netflix, which describes its series as follows: “this series takes a fresh look at the dramas that have punctuated British royalty by focusing on the monarchs whose the reign was marked by death and sex.”
