HOLLYWOOD —On last Sunday night’s episode of “The Tudors” a melancholy Henry the VIII brooded over the betrayal by his teenage wife Queen Katherine Howard, whom he had beheaded along with all of her lovers and her ladies that had contributed to her adulteress behavior. The late queen’s uncle, the Earl of Surry, also found himself at Henry’s Court in a predicament when his family’s honor was called into question because of the queen’s illicit behavior. He was arrested by the Sergeant of Arms for disorderly conduct, but soon found a pardon by the King, who ordered him to invade Scotland and get King James under Henry’s and England’s submission. Henry soon had a visitor to Court, a lady named Catherine Parr who caught his attention. The problem was that Parr was waiting for her dying husband to pass on so she could be with the love of her life, Henry’s brother-in-law Thomas Seymour, but it was only a little problem for the monarch. He soon sent Seymour to France to prepare for the invasion. Then began sending a reluctant Catherine Parr beautiful gowns and jewelry.

Invasion plans were on Henry’s mind, and not just of Scotland. King Francis of France has made two terrible mistakes recently. The first is not paying England the stipend he’d promised Henry two years ago when England and France agreed to sign a peace treaty, and his second mistake was befriending the Sultan of Turkey. The Turkish monarch who rules the Ottoman Empire is a threat not only to Europe but to the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, His Majesty the King of Spain. Charles V has one desire at this point—he wants to crush the Francs and on Sunday he made a secret alliance with England so that Henry would invade France on the western front as Spain invades France from the north, south and east. King Francis’s toying with the Sultan is a huge mistake. In preparation for the invasion Henry decided the low countries would help him in his invasion plans. Being the king of Ireland in addition to England, sending the Earl of Surry and his brother-in-law Edward Seymour to Scotland, Henry’s military campaign against the Scots soon put him in a prime position to become the ruler he dreamed of being his entire life. “I will even be compared to Henry V,” said Henry VIII. Henry V successfully fought a war with France and took many of the French lands within three days of battle.

Soon after the successful British military invasion of Scotland, it’s monarch King James mysteriously died just before his daughter Mary was born. Henry heartily sent his Ambassadors to Scotland to force the King’s widow, the Regent Queen to agree to betroth her new infant Mary to Henry’s 9-year-old son Prince Edward. The betrothal ensures the dual monarch of Scotland and England to be forever tied together. The young infant, Mary Queen of Scots, will become the nemesis of Henry’s daughter Elizabeth I in several decades. As history tells us, Queen Elizabeth I of England had her cousin Mary Queen of Scotland beheaded unjustly for treason. The preteen Elizabeth was very emotionally shaken on Sunday night’s episode by her father’s beheading of his fifth wife, as it brought back memories that her father did the same a decade earlier to Elizabeth’s own mother, Queen Ann Boleyn. Henry’s other female offspring Mary, celebrated the fact that she has been placed back in the line of succession by the British parliament. Henry’s Bishop of Essex has begun his persecution of Protestants in the British realm, much like Cromwell’s persecution several years earlier of the Catholics of England.

By the end of the most exciting episode of “The Tudors” in the past three seasons, the widow Catherine Parr was being offered by the Earl of Hartford, Edward Seymour that she is requested to return to Henry’s Court after a brief time of bereavement of her late husband and, “You will become his Majesty’s new wife. You will make him the happiest man in England and he will make you the happiest woman here,” Said the Earl of Hartford. Actress Joely Richardson is absolutely breathtaking in the role of Catherine Parr and viewers of the hit show are excited about the new found energy she brings to the series. History tells us she’ll have a battle against Henry’s Bishop of Westminster, but she will prevail. Catherine Parr’s head remained intact and she soon became a widow for the third time when Henry VIII passed on.

“The Tudors” is a series that brings history to a new generation of historians and Sunday night’s episode was absolutely astonishing to this viewer.