[1][2] The series was produced by Peace Arch Entertainment for Showtime in association with Reveille Eire, Working Title Television, and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and was filmed in Ireland.

The first two episodes debuted on DirecTV, Time Warner Cable OnDemand, Netflix, Verizon FiOS On Demand, Internet Movie Database and on the website of the series before the official premiere on Showtime.

The final season was shown in Canada on CBC between 22 September and 23 November 2010. International distribution rights are owned by Sony Pictures Television.

Season 1 chronicles the period of Henry VIII's reign in which his effectiveness as king is tested by international conflicts and political intrigue in his own court.

In episode 7, the mysterious sweating sickness arrives in England, killing both the high-born and low-born, and Henry is terrified of catching it; he secludes himself in the countryside away from court with his herbal medicines.

In episode 5, Fisher and More's refusal to sign an oath of allegiance recognising Henry's supreme authority as head of the English church eventually leads to their execution.

Also, England's relationship with France is complicated by King Francis's refusal to unite their kingdoms in marriage, thus causing Henry to question his decision to have married Anne.

In episode 8, Henry has Cromwell initiate overtures to the Emperor to make peace with Rome as a bulwark against a hostile France, and the king starts to pay court to Jane Seymour after Anne's two miscarriages, which follow the birth of Princess Elizabeth.

On the morning of his queen's execution, Henry enjoys a lavish breakfast, symbolically consisting of the mate of a swan he has seen outside his window, as he looks forward to a new start and heirs with Jane Seymour.

The growing band of rebels disperses in Lincolnshire but gathers strength in Yorkshire, primarily because of its able leaders such as Robert Aske and Lord Darcy.

He deceitfully persuades the rebel leaders to lay down their arms and disperse their followers, promising to hold a Parliament in York to answer all their grievances; this is never held.

In episode 5, Henry retires from public view, bereft at the loss of his queen, but finally emerges; his first act is to get the church leaders to agree on a new protestant doctrine.

He and Catherine embark on the royal Passage to the North to forgive the former rebels, accompanied by Princess Mary, who is popular with the King's northern subjects.

He plans to pardon her but is then informed by his Council of her affair with Culpepper — revealed by Dereham under torture — and he has all three executed, along with Lady Rochford, who has gone mad in the Tower.

Military preparations are made, and English troops lay siege to Boulogne, bombarding it with cannon as an Italian engineer digs a tunnel to blow up the castle.

At home, Catherine Parr is acting as regent in Henry's absence and uses her power to further the protestant cause but is checked by Bishop Gardiner and his Catholic faction, supported by Princess Mary.

Bishop Gardiner continues his campaign against protestants and gathers enough evidence to persuade the king to issue an arrest warrant against the queen for heresy.

In the meantime, Henry Howard, now Lieutenant General Surrey, loses a disastrous battle at Boulogne, and whilst making an attempt to usurp power from the 'new men' like the Seymours and Richard Rich, he is arrested, tried for treason, and executed, despite the paucity of evidence against him.

Catherine, knowing the mortal danger she is in, orders her ladies-in-waiting to destroy all their heretical books and no longer to discuss religious matters; she also submits herself to her husband, and he pardons her.

Henry orders his family to spend Christmas at Greenwich, bidding them his final farewell and instructing the princesses Mary and Elizabeth to care for their brother.

[3] On 23 March 2008, The New York Times called The Tudors a "primitively sensual period drama ... [that] critics could take or leave, but many viewers are eating up".

[2] A 28 March 2008 review, also by the New York Times, reported that "despite the scorching authenticity of some performances", in particular the "star-making, breakout performance of Natalie Dormer as the defiant, courageous proto-feminist martyr Anne Boleyn" it "fails to live up to the great long-form dramas cable television has produced", largely because "it radically reduces the era's thematic conflicts to simplistic struggles over personal and erotic power".