Eric Bana credited as playing...
Henry Tudor
- King Henry VIII: [Before the hunt] With no man to hold onto, how do you propose to stay on the horse?
- Anne Boleyn: As you do, Your Grace - with my thighs.
- Mary Boleyn: [in Henry's bedchamber] So, this is it? Where the king of England sleeps?
- King Henry VIII: And reads and writes. Finds a few moments each day to himself.
- Mary Boleyn: [nervously] And yet you invite me here?
- King Henry VIII: Because I like you, and trust you.
- Mary Boleyn: You hardly know me.
- King Henry VIII: I am lied to a hundred times a day; petitioned, lobbied. One learns how to decipher a face.
- [Runs a finger over Mary's cheek]
- King Henry VIII: Yours is as the sun; one shouldn't gaze too long.
- [Mary looks down, blushing]
- King Henry VIII: My flattery makes you uncomfortable?
- [Realizes]
- King Henry VIII: Because compliments in your family are usually for someone else; the elder sister.
- [Mary looks surprised]
- King Henry VIII: That's something I understand - what it is to be the second child, forever in the shadows. Am I making you uncomfortable again?
- [Mary shakes her head, and they kiss]
- Lady Elizabeth: [after the King marches in, angry] Your Grace.
- King Henry VIII: Your daughter, where is she?
- Lady Elizabeth: [Quietly to her servants] Leave us.
- King Henry VIII: Where is she?
- Lady Elizabeth: Which one?
- [Stares coldly as she walks forward]
- Lady Elizabeth: Your Grace, which one?
- King Henry VIII: I have torn this country apart for *you*!
- Anne Boleyn: For which you should thank me, not be angry!
- King Henry VIII: Broken with Rome...
- Anne Boleyn: Freed yourself, more like, from the decadence of a corrupt church.
- King Henry VIII: I got rid of a good woman in the queen...
- Anne Boleyn: A dried-out husk who failed you, and whose Spanish blood shackles you to Rome!
- King Henry VIII: For which I will be excommunicated!
- Anne Boleyn: And instead, become head of a new church! The Church of England! Closer to God...
- King Henry VIII: So forgiveness, you say, makes a man great. What else?
- Anne Boleyn: Generosity. Humility. The ability to recognize his match in others and not be threatened by it.
- King Henry VIII: His match in other men?
- Anne Boleyn: Women too.
- King Henry VIII: You believe that? That women can be the match of men?
- Anne Boleyn: It is a question women have asked themselves for some time. But we concede men do have some value, so, we regard them as equal.
- King Henry VIII: [during a supper in the banquet hall, to Anne] What's so amusing?
- Anne Boleyn: I was merely offering my thoughts on the new French king. With such great power, yet such meager authority as a man.
- King Henry VIII: [intrigued] Continue.
- Anne Boleyn: [slowly walking forward] His pettiness is astounding. He will bear a mortal grudge at the mildest of slights; spoiled cub with a spike in his paw, riven with resentment, unable to forgive or forget. A great king, a great man, rises above such things.
- King Henry VIII: And what would you know of great men?
- Anne Boleyn: [never taking her eyes from Henry's] I've read enough books and heard enough talk to believe I'd know one, if he were before me.
- King Henry VIII: Then look about you. I am curious. Do you see one here?
- Anne Boleyn: [approaches him, still not looking away] Looking my lord... still looking, my lord.
- [Stops in front of him]
- Anne Boleyn: Ah, there. Found one.
- [the king and the entire hall laugh]
- King Henry VIII: [talking in secret] Your sister is gone, as you wished. Will you give yourself to me now?
- Anne Boleyn: No - when you are loyal to me above all others.
- King Henry VIII: But I am.
- Anne Boleyn: No. You are loyal to the *queen* above all others.
- King Henry VIII: I barely see Katherine.
- Anne Boleyn: But she sits on a throne beside you; your right hand in matters of state.
- King Henry VIII: For appearances' sake only.
- Anne Boleyn: Still, she is your queen. And ever present.
- [Glances around]
- Anne Boleyn: I feel her eyes on me, and those of her spies. Look at us - forever reduced to meeting in secret like this, speaking in whispers... hardly conducive to passion.
- King Henry VIII: What would you have me do?
- King Henry VIII: [Banging on her bedroom door] Anne!
- Anne Boleyn: Your Grace?
- King Henry VIII: You received my gifts?
- Anne Boleyn: Yes.
- King Henry VIII: And? Do they not please you?
- Anne Boleyn: On the contrary, my lord, they please me greatly.
- King Henry VIII: Then why do you insult me by returning them?
- Anne Boleyn: Because you insult me by sending them at all! My sister lies abed with your child! If you wish to please me, sir, then send her the gifts you send me!
- King Henry VIII: I have already shown Mary enough kindness and generosity. Now it pleases me to show you some.
- Mary Boleyn: Your Majesty... I'm told I'm too late for my brother, George. I beg you - spare my sister.
- [Later, in a closed room]
- Mary Boleyn: I understand that she has offended you and you wish to replace her as queen, but must she die?
- King Henry VIII: She has been tried and found guilty.
- Mary Boleyn: You could send her away. No one would know.
- King Henry VIII: Why are you here for her? You have put yourself at great risk.
- Mary Boleyn: [pause] Because she's my sister, and therefore one half of me.
- King Henry VIII: And I would do nothing to hurt any part of you.
- [She kisses his hands in gratitude, and he dismisses her]
- King Henry VIII: [In a letter to Mary] Mary, you risked your life coming to court, and were only spared because of my respect and affection for you. You are advised not to do so again; you will not be shown the same clemency a second time. May God bless you, and my son. And may God have mercy on Anne's soul.
- King Henry VIII: [Refering to Anne] I need to be certain, can I trust her?
- Mary Boleyn: Why would you not?
- King Henry VIII: Usually my instincts are sharp, but with your sister, she has a power over me.
- King Henry VIII: [to Mary] I'm asking you because I trust you. And because I believe, perhaps mistakenly, that you care for me, and that you would put a matter of this importance before family ambition.
- King Henry VIII: If I gave your husband an assignment that took him away from court - would you object?
- Mary Boleyn: I would not presume to interfere in affairs of State.
- King Henry VIII: I find you much changed, Mistress Anne.
- Anne Boleyn: Then my prayers have been answered.
- King Henry VIII: I hope you kept your ears shut.
- Anne Boleyn: I did. And a cross, close to my heart, at all times.
- King Henry VIII: Another talent picked up in France?
- Anne Boleyn: The Queen offers her ladies a broad education.
- King Henry VIII: Will you give yourself to me now?
- Anne Boleyn: My Lord. I desire nothing more. But, as long as we remain unmarried, any child I gave you would be dubbed "bastard." And I a whore. Do you really wish that for me?
- King Henry VIII: You don't think he'll miss court? A young, ambitious man?
- Mary Boleyn: He says not, Your Majesty. But if he ever changed his mind, as his wife, of course, I would do his bidding.