Fans of Henry Cavill probably know the actor best for his role as Superman in Zack Snyder’s DC films or Geralt of Rivia in Netflix’s video game adaptation “The Witcher” (or, potentially, as a mustachioed villain in “Mission: Impossible – Fallout”). Unless you’re a history buff, you might not know that Cavill played a pivotal supporting role in the historical drama “The Tudors,” which aired on Showtime from 2007 to 2010. Specifically, he played Charles Brandon, the first-ever Duke of Suffolk and a major player in the Tudor court.
For the uninitiated, “The Tudors” centers around the rise, reign, and fall of King Henry VIII (played in this series by Jonathan Rhys-Meyers), one of England’s most notorious kings — and one of my “favorite” historical figures. Personally, I find Henry himself odious; he was a pampered, corpulent, and vengeful orange-haired man with petty grievances and even pettier reactions who was never supposed to be king, but was forced into the position after his older brother Arthur Tudor died (leaving his wife, Catherine of Aragon from Spain, available to wed the new boy king Henry). That said, I love Henry’s wives equally.
Henry very famously had six wives, and there’s even a rhyme to keep track of them and their fates — “divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived.” Though this is a diminutive and dismissive way to refer to the many wives that Henry belittled, brutalized, and even killed in some instances — specifically, Catherine, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard, and Catherine Parr, played on “The Tudors” by Maria Doyle Kennedy, Natalie Dormer, Anita Briem & Annabelle Wallis, Joss Stone, Tamzin Merchant, and Joely Richardson, respectively — it does get the point across.
That’s a lot of context, so how does Charles Brandon fit into Henry’s life and various marriages? He happens to be the king’s very best friend, even though he does enrage Henry by marrying a woman he loves (who just so happens to be Henry’s sister). Allow me to explain further.
