Wolf Hall star Damian Lewis: 'Henry VIII believed in love'

Despite his many divorces and murderous tendencies, Lewis has said that Henry "believed in love", and plays moments in the series with this awareness.

Lewis said: "Henry was under great pressure politically from the Roman Catholic church who tried to excommunicate him because, as every school child knows, he divorced Katherine of Aragon in order to marry Anne Boleyn – I think just because he really fancied her!"

He continued: "I think he loved Katherine of Aragon, he fancied Anne Boleyn – who was tricky, smart and a reformist who caused him a lot of headaches – but he really loved Jane Seymour. Every marriage was political as well as personal.

"Henry was an interesting character and – in spite of his murderous tendencies! – he believed in love. He wanted to feel love and be loved, and I think he felt he could have this with Jane Seymour."

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Lewis also added that there was probably a "a deep insecurity in him underneath the magnificence", about his inability to provide male heirs to the throne.

"In Tudor times, they believed very strongly that if you had many extra marital affairs, you were less likely to have healthy children within marriage," he explained. "It was a new dynasty. The Tudors, Henry VIII, had a thin claim to the throne.

"There were great families around – the Poles, the Courtenays – and they stoke Henry’s paranoia all through his reign. In fact, it’s one of the central reasons that Thomas Cromwell loses his head in the end."

Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light comes to BBC One and iPlayer on Sunday 10th November.

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