The Tudors Quotes

Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk: I'm going to have to attend on the king and that bitch of his at her coronation! What didWolsey used to call her? "The Black Crow".
Catherine Brandon, Duchess of Suffolk: Can you not plead some indisposition?
Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk: I could, even though the king has made me high constable for the day, but if I did, His Majesty would remove my head. And then, I should be genuinely indisposed!
Catherine Brandon, Duchess of Suffolk: [flirtingly] Very well. So keep your head. It's a pretty head in any case, and I don't want to lose it either. [serious] But store up your knowledge and your anger. Don't act impulsively; it's always a mistake. But one day, with others so disposed, use them both...and if you can, bring her down, and destroy her.

TV Show: The Tudors
Henry VIII: [speaking to his courtiers while Anne Boleyn is in labour with a "son"] I've asked the French Ambassador to hold him at the font during his christening. If he drops him, it's war!

TV Show: The Tudors
Henry VIII: [speaking while holding his newborn daughter] Who knows, perhaps one day this little girl will preside over empires.

TV Show: The Tudors
Thomas Cromwell: Majesty, I have just heard that the Pope intends to make Reverend Fisher a cardinal. [Henry laughes coldly at this] Apparently, he has already dispatched a cardinal's hat.
Henry VIII: Then Fisher will have to wear it upon his shoulders, for by the time it gets here, he won't have a head to put it on!

TV Show: The Tudors
Pope Paul III: You and I, Campeggio, have done well to avoid the craft of women. Celibacy is an immense relief.

TV Show: The Tudors
[After Anne reveals her parnoia of Henry having an affair]
Henry VIII: That's enough!
Anne Boleyn: No, you told me that we would always be truthful with one another! You said it was the definition of love!
Henry VIII: Then here's the truth. You must shut your eyes and endure [contemptuous] like your betters have done before you!
Anne Boleyn: [angrily] How can you say that to me!? Don't you know I love you a thousand times more than Catherine ever did!?
Henry VIII: [stands up, furious] AND DON'T YOU KNOW THAT I CAN DRAG YOU DOWN AS QUICKLY AS I RAISED YOU!? T'is lucky you have your bed already, madam, for if you did not, I would not give it to you a second time! [moves to leave, but stops] Francis won't accept the betrothal.
Anne Boleyn: Why?
Henry VIII: [angrily] Why do you think!? Because he, and the Pope, and the Emperor ARE ALL AGREED she is a bastard, and you are not my wife!

TV Show: The Tudors
Sir Henry Norris: I was married before and, I must confess, I rather like the liberty of not being married again!
Henry VIII: [laughes] I can understand that!

TV Show: The Tudors
George Boleyn: [talking to his father after Henry VIII is left fighting for his life in a jousting accident] You know, I cannot think whether it would be a bad thing, or a good thing if he died. For as Lord Protector, you would ipso facto be King of England.

TV Show: The Tudors
[Thomas Cromwell is interrogating Lady Margaret Sheldon regarding Queen Anne's infidelity, and has extracted a list of her supposed lovers, save one]
Thomas Cromwell: And!? [he slams his fist on a table] AND!?
Margaret Sheldon: [sobbing] I saw her hugging and kissing her brother!
Thomas Cromwell: [horror-struck and disgusted] Her brother!?

TV Show: The Tudors
[At a later interrogation of Lady Rochford]
Thomas Cromwell: Do you believe this to be true?
Lady Rochford: I believe that is true, yes. [Cromwell walks over and looks her in the eye]
Thomas Cromwell: [skeptical] You believe that your husband committed incest with the queen!?
[Lady Rochford looks at Cromwell with a sly smile. Cromwell looks surprised, then returns the smile; the pair understand each other perfectly]

TV Show: The Tudors
Henry VIII: What of the others!?
Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk: Smeaton, Brereton, Norris and George Boleyn have been found guilty, and are to be executed tomorrow.
Henry VIII: You know what Cromwell told me? He told me she'd had to do with over a hundred men. A hundred fucking men, Charles! [angrily] You know what? My daughter, Mary, owes God a great deal for escaping the hands of that poisoning whore! Oh she planned to have her poisoned, Charles, it's true. Just like she poisoned Catherine. We have proof. And her baby. Her baby was deformed; did you know that, Charles!? [horrified, Brandon shakes his head] So how could it have been mine!? Perhaps Elizabeth isn't even mine! That fucking bitch! [Henry breaks down in tears as Brandon tries to comfort him]

TV Show: The Tudors
[In Thomas Wyatt's cell]
Thomas Cromwell: The Queen was tried yesterday at Westminster Hall. She pleaded not guilty to all charges against her, but the evidence being overwhelming...she was sentenced to death, either by burning or decapitation according to the King's pleasure.
Thomas Wyatt: [fighting back tears] And her accomplices? What of us?
Thomas Cromwell: Smeaton, Brereton, Norris and George Boleyn, all guilty as charged.
Thomas Wyatt: Thomas, what about me? Am I to be tried too?
Thomas Cromwell: No. We found no evidence against you. You're to be released...eventually. [Cromwell leaves the cell]
Thomas Wyatt: [tearfully] BUT I'M THE ONLY ONE WHO'S GUILTY!

TV Show: The Tudors
Henry VIII: When I was five, my mother and I were taken across London, into the Tower. There was a rebellion against my father; the Cornish rebels were actually at the city walls! And inside, everything was panic, fear. We had no news of the royal army, or of my father. My mother tried to remain calm, but she was terrified. So was I. I was sure we were both going to be killed.

TV Show: The Tudors
Henry VIII: [talking to Thomas Cromwell, trying to disguise the fact he is in agony from his leg wound] I've dispatched Suffolk with the royal army. If need be, I will dispatch a second army to destroy the rebels.
Thomas Cromwell: Yes, Majesty.
Henry VIII: Unless they disperse, and send 100 of their ringleaders to the Duke of Suffolk with halters around their necks, then he has our permission to burn and destroy all their goods, and make a fearful example of them to all our subjects.
Thomas Cromwell: Yes, Majesty.
Henry VIII: If still they do not submit, Mr. Cromwell, then I promise the utter destruction of them, their wives and their children. Do you understand me? I will destroy them all...[he looks up and glares at Cromwell] And then I'll destroy you, Cromwell!

TV Show: The Tudors
Lord Mayor of London: Your Grace.
Charles Brandon: My lord, I was promised artillery when I arrived here, but I don't see any guns!
Lord Mayor of London: Your Grace, we have guns, but we have not been able to find enough horses or drays to transport them.
Charles Brandon: [angered] Perhaps you don't understand. I'm about the King's most urgent business. And if you cannot commandeer enough horses for his Majesty's use, then how can you call yourself Mayor of London!?
Lord Mayor of London: Your Grace, I did not want to cause a panic by forcing people to part with their horses and drays!
Charles Brandon: [furious] IDIOT! I charge you, personally, to find enough horses within two days, and bring the guns on after our army, or God help me, I will hold you to account! With any luck, Mr. Mayor, I will afterwards have the chance to see you DISEMBOWELLED AT TYBURN!

TV Show: The Tudors
Francis Bryan: Your Majesty's life is far too precious to be put at risk against such a common rabble. Of course, if you choose to go, you'd be like a lion among wolves.
King Henry: Sir Francis, I don't require you to flatter me.

TV Show: The Tudors
Henry VIII: [talking angrily to Charles Brandon] That's what you want, isn't it Charles? An Imperial wedding, just like Wolsey always wanted a French one! Everyone has plans and what I want doesn't matter! Oh the Poles have plans; people are always talking about that little boy in the Tower and poor old Lady Salisbury, but let me tell you, they have Plantagenet blood in their veins! And my father, my father told me "If you leave so much as a sapling in the ground, one day it will grow into a tree!" And that little boy in the Tower will have forty thousand troops flocking to his banner, and YOU will be the sucker!

TV Show: The Tudors
Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk: I understant that Thomas Boleyn died recently.
King Henry VIII: Yes, and the only mourners at his funeral were the ghosts of his children.

TV Show: The Tudors
King Henry VIII: Does the Duchess love you any better, Charles?
Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk: She seems to but only for the sake of appearances.
King Henry VIII: [sighs] How can I help you, Charles?
Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk: Well, when she consents to make love with me again, strike a medal to commemorate it.

TV Show: The Tudors
King Henry VIII: [talking to his advisors] My Lords, I assure you I am not content. I have relied upon you to inform and consol me, and yet I am the most deceived. I have trusted and favoured all of you, and I have formed a sinister opinion that most of you are liars and flatterers who look only to your own profits. I know what you are planning, and if God gives me the strength, I will see to it that none of your projects ever succeed! [sadly] I mournCromwell's death. Yes, I mourn him! I mourn him, now that I perceive that my counsellors, by light pretext and by false accusations, made me put to death the most faithful servant I ever had.

TV Show: The Tudors
Lady Hertford: So, Thomas....What shall we call your child?

TV Show: The Tudors
King Henry VIII: (to his daughter, Elizabeth) Without knowledge, life is not possible.

TV Show: The Tudors
Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk: (hallucinating during illness as he see's Lord Darcy) You're dead!!
Lord Darcy: Yes, but not at rest.

TV Show: The Tudors
Jailer: Do you want a confessor?
Katherine Howard: No. I have spoken to God so rarely, I do not think he would know who I was.

TV Show: The Tudors
Katherine Howard: I have come here to die. I die a Queen, but I would rather die he wife of Culpeper. Life is very beautiful.

TV Show: The Tudors
Princess Mary: Tell me what is happening in Court. Is the King thinking of marrying again?
Ambassador Bishop Chapuys: There is a new law enacted. It requires that any lady the king may marry must, on pain of death, disclose any charge of sexual misconduct that might be brought against her. Frankly, my lady, this lowers the field. The ladies at court are how you say... not exactly known for their virtue.

TV Show: The Tudors
Catherine Parr: (about her first husband) It was not a happy marriage, Your Majesty.
King Henry VIII: Do you think such a thing exists?
Catherine Parr: Yes, I believe that with all my heart and soul.

TV Show: The Tudors
King Henry VIII: Your Grace, I will appoint you commander of the armies if you have the will and the stomach for the fight.
Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk: Majesty, I can only thank God for the chance to win honor and glory in the field. What man would not prefer to die with a sword in his hand and a cry in his throat rather than in a bed in England.

TV Show: The Tudors
Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk: The King does not just want France back but all his honor and his youth as well. In that, he is like me.

TV Show: The Tudors
King Henry VIII: (angry at his physicians) These men are not sick from the phlox but from cowardice, and I will not send cowards home. They will either fight or I'll hang them by the wayside! You get them from their sickbeds back into that trench or you'll find yourself a head shorter!

TV Show: The Tudors