“The Boleyns: A Scandalous Family” is a Tale of Hubris and Ambition

Witness the rise and fall of a family dynasty whose hunger for power was their undoing

• Christina Zeiders
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  Christina Zeiders is the Communications Specialist at WITF. She helps get the word out about all of WITF's programs, events and community conversations.

Beloved, betrayed, and beheaded – Anne Boleyn is England’s most infamous queen. As the second wife of King Henry VIII, she was tried on his orders for crimes of adultery and treason, led from her rooms at the Tower of London to her death by an executioner’s sword.

To fully understand her rise and fall, it’s important to know about her tight-knit, cunning, and power-hungry family.

Based on 16th-century sources, which include original letters and documents, this new three-part series uses insights from leading scholars and dramatic reenactments to bring Anne’s story to life from the Boleyn family’s perspective.

The Boleyns rose from obscurity to the apex of power by playing a dangerous game and paid the ultimate price, but they changed the course of British history. Their remarkable legacy came in the form of two magnificent monarchs – Queen Elizabeth I, Anne’s daughter, and Queen Elizabeth II, a direct descendant of Anne’s sister, Mary Boleyn.

Narrated by Shelley Conn, the series features Elizabeth McCafferty as Mary Boleyn, Max Dowler as Thomas Boleyn, Philip Brodie as Thomas Howard, Rafaelle Cohen as Anne Boleyn, Roger Evans as Thomas Wolsey, and Sam Retford as George Boleyn.

Watch The Boleyns: A Scandalous Family Sunday, August 28, September 4, and September 11 at 8pm on WITF TV, or stream it for free using the PBS Video app.

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Episode 1: “Ambition,” premieres Sunday, August 28
Streams for free through the PBS Video app through September 25

Patriarch Thomas Boleyn is determined to elevate the family name. But it’s his ambitions for his three children — Mary, George and Anne — that will take them to the heart of the Tudor court. Recognizing that Anne is extraordinary, he places her in the most influential courts in Europe from the age of 12.

Thomas jostles for position in a court rife with gossip, backstabbing rivalries, and intrigue. He realizes that the powerful Cardinal Wolsey is the gatekeeper to the king’s inner circle.

As Anne returns from France, having grown into a sophisticated beauty, she is admired as exotic, stylish, and fashionable. But it is Mary who attracts the king’s eye, and he demands that she become his mistress.

Although married, Mary is powerless to resist the will of the king. After their affair begins, King Henry promotes Thomas Boleyn to Viscount Rochford, accelerating his rise through the Tudor Court. But Anne’s ambition will soon outstrip even that of her father.

Episode 2: “Desire,” premieres Sunday, September 4
Streams for free through the PBS Video app through October 2

The King casts Mary Boleyn aside and turns his attention to her sister – and as a calculating courtier, Anne adeptly dazzles with her beauty, wit, and seductive charm. As Henry falls under her spell, Anne uses the opportunity by positioning herself as a woman of power, refusing to become his mistress and skillfully leveraging his desire for her to negotiate a marriage proposal.

In succeeding, she turns the role of Tudor women and royal mistresses upside down. But one obstacle stands in the couple’s way: Katherine of Aragon, Henry’s first wife, who did not deliver an heir to the throne.

Anne directs Henry to enlist Cardinal Wolsey to obtain an annulment from the Pope, but Wolsey drags his feet and the impatient Henry removes him from his position.

The Boleyns are now the most powerful family in Henry’s court. Above them all is Anne herself, pushing the king to get on with the divorce. But holding the reins of power makes the family acutely vulnerable —and with Wolsey gone, there’s no one standing between them and the unpredictable king.

Episode 3: “The Fall,” premieres Sunday, September 11
Streams for free through the PBS Video app through October 9

In a high-stakes gamble, Anne makes her play and wins the biggest prize in the kingdom. The Boleyns and their allies push Henry to break with the Catholic Church and claim his destiny as Supreme Head of the Church of England, overturning 1000 years of history.

With the power to grant his own divorce, Henry makes Anne his queen. She does her best to give him a male heir, but when she fails — first giving birth to a daughter, then miscarrying — the knives are out. Henry’s roving eye has already turned to her replacement, the young Jane Seymour.

Anne is arrested and tried on charges of treason, adultery, and incest with her brother George – and both are executed. But the Boleyn legacy lives on through Anne’s daughter Elizabeth, the greatest Tudor Queen, and through Elizabeth II, a descendant of Mary Boleyn.