Fateful Century

• Documentary

Episode overview

Mary Queen of Scots has come down to us as a tragic heroine - but what kind of respect does she command as a 16th-century ruler? Anne Boleyn is usually seen either as a scheming predator or as a pathetic figure executed because she failed to produce a male heir for Henry VIII. Historians Jenny Wormald and Eric Ives set out to show that the popular images of Mary and Anne have to be radically reassessed, and Peter France sets their tragic stories into the context of the religious turmoil of the 16th century.

50 minutes