King Henry VIII, the young and ambitious monarch of England, prepares for war with France but is dissuaded by the diplomatic manipulation of his powerful Lord Chancellor, Cardinal Wolsey, who proposes that the King sponsor a "Treaty of Universal Peace." The harmony of the King's domestic affairs is threatened, however, when he discovers that Elizabeth Blount, the young and beautiful lady-in-waiting to his Queen, Katherine of Aragon, is pregnant with his child.

As a reward for his denunciation of Martin Luther, the Pope christens Henry "Defender of the Faith," but a brush with death causes the king to seek a solution to his lack of an heir. Princess Margaret marries the decrepit King of Portugal reluctantly, but the union is short-lived; Henry's desire for Anne Boleyn intensifies.

Henry is displeased to learn that the Emperor Charles V, Queen Katherine's nephew, has released King Francis of France from prison and is forced to look for a foreign ally elsewhere. Meanwhile Katherine's alliance with Charles intensifies as does her hatred of Wolsey. Anne Boleyn turns down the king's proposal that she be the royal mistress, demanding nothing less than being declared queen.

Henry is still besotted with Anne Boleyn, queen Catherine asks a diplomat to appeal to her Habsburg relatives. Now the emperor has captured the pope in Italy, cardinal Woolsey promises the king to get a mandate from the cardinals to handle Henry's divorce demand and personally goes to Paris in triumph, to sign a treaty with the French king Francis I. Ann's father Thomas Boleyn tells the incredulous king about the cardinal's stealing confiscated monastical goods. After utterly abject humiliation at Henry's feet, Charles Brandon is allowed to win his return to court by arm-wrestling. When the pope escapes to Orvieto, Thomas Cromwell pleases the king by proposing Ann's former tutor as messenger to present his divorce requests; Woolsey has him intercepted, reads the draft documents and lets him go, sneering the mission is hopeless; the king is furious when it fails indeed.

Sir William Compton is diagnosed on his Warwickshire estate with highly contagious 'sweating sickness', the physician bleeds his back- death comes swift, his body is burned before burial, Thomas Tallis breaks his lute on the fresh grave, then courts Joan Larke. The Cardinal flatters Ann and announces the alliance with France against the emperor is a fact, while he sends lawyers Stephen Gardiner and Foxe to pope Clement VII in Orvieto, requesting an annulment of the royal marriage to Catherine, if necessary by threats, while the emperor demands confirmation. The duke of Norfolk is removed from court. Just after the arrival of the new French ambassador, who promises French troops will drive the emperor out of Italy soon, the epidemic and utter panic reach London, even the royal court, where Henry tries every remedy, including working up a natural sweat, ultimately flees like most before him. The pope appoints cardinal Campeggio as legate to constitute a divorce court with Wolsey after the plague. Moore tells his daughter Lutheranism is a far worse danger then the plague, in all Europe. Unlike tens of thousands, Anne Boleyn and Wolsey survive, the plague recedes, the papal legate arrives as court reassembles, Tallis conducts a mass of thanks.

The legatine court's divorce trial continues in the Queen's absence, hearing testimony suggesting prince Arthur carnally consummated his marriage to Catherine: embarrassing for the court, amusing for the populace. Catherine's council, bishop Fisher, dares claim even heaven can't dissolve the royal marriage, comparing to Herod Antipas' adultery shamed by Saint John the Baptist who was executed for that truth. Woolsey sends Thomas More to Cambria (Cambray) to check if France and the pope remain irreconcilable with the emperor. After Anne walks off, disbelieving Wolsey's promises to the king of a divorce by summer, Henry implies to cardinal Campeggio a negative verdict could turn him and England Lutheran, like half of Germany, yet after a papal message the legate prorogues the court till the end of the Roman Curia's recess, in October; imperial ambassador Mendoza, who is ceding his post to bishop Chapuys, tells Catherine it's the emperor's doing. Henry's sister Margaret dies from the consumption she contracted from Brandon, who recovered. When Thomas More reports the negotiations reconciled the emperor with France and pope Clement, Woolsey fears facing the royal wrath and ends up banned from court, ordered to relinquish all lucrative offices and accused of usurping royal authority. More is persuaded to succeed him as chancellor, under Henry's promise his conscience won't be abused by matters such as the divorce.

Now cardinal Wolsey lives in misery as penniless archbishop of and in York, barred from court, hoping in vain Anne Boleyn who broke his hold on the king will reward his efforts as she once wrote, honors and offices are mainly distributed to the Boleyn clan, with Norfolk in charge -Charles Brandon neglects his joint presidency- of the royal council. While the devout, rather ascetic new chancellor Thomas More is determined to crush heresy, personally attending the stake, Thomas Cromwell convinces Henry that under Luther's vision the king is above all earthly laws, even his annulment should merely be treated as a theological matter, so he is commissioned to put the case before European theology faculties, while ambassador Boleyn must approach pope and emperor. Once he tastes the burden of government, Henry reproaches the council less virtue and worse results then the cardinal, especially now the treasury is empty and troubles spread, but when Cromwell learns trough a physician about Wolsey's plot for his own reinstatement with pope and queen, the former master of the game is thrown in the Tower, where he slits his own throat, while More and the Catholic church are doomed now Henry has decided to make his own, almost Lutheran break-up with Rome after most universities and princes sided with Catherine.

As he seeks the annulment of his marriage to Katherine of Aragon, King Henry VIII appoints himself the head of the Church of England. And Anne Boleyn insists that Henry remove Queen Katherine from the picture -- and Court.

The Archbishop's capitulation to Henry results in Thomas More's resignation and a triumphal trip by Henry to France to show off his new queen to Francis.

After Henry breaks all ties with the church and marries Anne, the Pope threatens him with excommunication and authorizes Anne's assassination.

After princess Elisabeth's baptism, Henry orders Thomas Cromwell to draw up a bill of succession favoring his and Ann's offspring, to be accepted by an oath from all subjects. The affront to the imperialist party is maximized by making princess Mary a lowly lady in waiting to her half-sister, yet the French King still refuses openly to recognize the new Queen. Ann orders her rival lady Eleanor Luke eliminated, by false charges of jewel theft. Tired of Henry's schismatic obstinacy, Pope Paul III makes the loyal, hence jailed bishop Fisher a cardinal, Henry orders his beheading. Thomas More can no longer support his entire family, yet answers Cromwell's questions with Henry's own pamphlet arguing for papal supremacy by divine right. At her father Thomas Boleyn's suggestion only an ambitious mistress is a problematic rival, Ann urges Margaret 'Madge' Sheldon to 'succeed' Eleanor. Thomas More refuses to take the oath as phrased, while accepting he succession, landing him in the Tower.

Fisher and More continue to resist the coercion to take the oath and pay with their lives as Henry's ardor toward Anne subsides after her miscarriage.

When King Francis refuses to approve an engagement involving the baby but proposes one between Mary and the Dauphin, Henry begins to turn against Anne.

Henry warns Anne to stay out of state affairs, but her paranoiac fear of Catherine is only alleviated with her death and Anne's new pregnancy.

The Pope excommunicates Henry, who recovers after a near-fatal jousting accident and begins a relationship with Jane Seymour.

As Jane Seymour's fortunes rise, Anne's fall. Several of those close to her including her brother are tortured into confessing treason and beheaded.