FAQ

Mary's initial husband, William Carey, dies of a sweating disease and Mary falls in love with William Stafford. This is quite a major event in the book, as Stafford is one of Howard's men and is, essentially, a "nobody".

In real life, there is no evidence that George or any of the men he ran around with were gay. George Cavendish, Cardinal Wolsey's biographer, who knew George Boleyn, indicated he was a notorious seducer of women ("Metrical Visions"). In the novel, he was indeed gay; he had a relationship with Francis Weston. This was not carried over into the movie.

No, that never happened. In reality Henry VIII had Thomas Cromwell cook up charges to discredit Anne and have her arrested. The charges were that she had slept with five other men including George in an attempt to pass off another child as the king's. Anne was also charged with plotting the death of the king to ensure that she would executed for treason.