The fourth episode of The Tudors airs tonight on Showtime and will be replayed throughout the week. You can also view the episode On Demand.

Use the comments section of this post to discuss the episode. Any comments I may have will be posted in the comments section as well.

WARNING: Comments may contain further discussion of the show, including potential spoilers. Click through only after viewing the episode. Commenters may discuss this episode as freely as they like, but are asked not to spoil future episodes.

By the way, did you know that Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn were the parents of Queen Elizabeth I? That’s hot.

The third episode of The Tudors airs tonight on Showtime and will be replayed throughout the week. You can also view the episode On Demand.

Via Lara at TudorHistory.org, Variety reports that the show has been picked up for another season. They’ll be able to go through a lot of seasons before they run out of Tudor history, and all of it the stuff of good television.

Use the comments section of this post to discuss the episode. Any comments I may have will be posted in the comments section as well.

WARNING: Comments may contain further discussion of the show, including potential spoilers. Click through only after viewing the episode. Commenters may discuss this episode as freely as they like, but are asked not to spoil future episodes.

By the way, did you know that Henry VIII founded the Anglican Church and converted his whole country from Catholicism so that he could break with the Pope, grant himself a divorce, and marry Anne Boleyn? That’s hot.

Just a reminder that the second episode of The Tudors airs tonight on Showtime, and will be replayed throughout the week. You can also view the episode On Demand, or for free online.

Use the comments section of this post to discuss the episode. Any comments I may have will be posted in the comments section as well. Honestly, I haven’t seen the first episode yet, but I will post my comments in that thread once I have, and will post my comments here when I’ve seen this episode.

WARNING: Comments may contain further discussion of the show, including potential spoilers. Click through only after viewing the episode. Commenters may discuss this episode as freely as they like, but are asked not to spoil future episodes they may have seen online or elsewhere.

By the way, did you know that Catherine of Arragon, the first wife of Henry VIII, was the daughter of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain? That’s hot.

Just a reminder that The Tudors premiers tonight on Showtime. You can also view the episode On Demand, or for free online.

Use the comments section of this post to discuss the episode. Any comments I may have will be posted in the comments section as well.

This is the first of a ten-part series. If I like the show, and others want to talk about it as well, this may become a weekly feature here on the blog, like the Slings & Arrows thread that just came to an end along with the series. Let me know what you think.

WARNING: Comments may contain further discussion of the show, including potential spoilers. Click through only after viewing the episode. Commenters may discuss this episode as freely as they like, but are asked not to spoil future episodes they may have seen online or elsewhere.

By the way, did you know that the beginning of the Tudor dynasty is marked at the end of Shakespeare’s Richard III, when the Earl of Richmond (a Lancaster) marries the Princess Elizabeth (a York), uniting the two houses, ending the War of the Roses, and becoming King Henry VII? That’s hot.

While I was away, the Shakespeare Geek has been blogging up a storm. He always manages to find such great nuggets of Shakespearia in the digital forest. A few notable items that either I got from him, or he beat me to:

• There’s a new Showtime series on The Tudors with the first two episodes posted online. If this looks like it’s going to be any good, perhaps we will discuss it here, replacing the soon-to-be-retired Slings & Arrows thread each Sunday. What do you think?
• A map of almost all the places quoted in Shakespeare available in both Google Maps and Google Earth versions. This has some nice classroom applications, particularly in teaching history. Compare, for example, the relative locations of Pericles and Antony and Cleopatra around the eastern Mediterranean. Pericles takes place in the Hellenistic period, which came to an end with the events of Antony and Cleopatra, so comparing their relative locations can be useful. You know, for those times when you’re studying Pericles and Antony and Cleopatra. It was just an example.
• A somewhat new Shakespeare wiki. This looks like it’s going to be able to go much more in depth into Shakespeare than Wikipedia allows. I have to use the future tense, because right now it looks like the giant hole in the ground that is dug before a majestic building is erected. Can’t wait to see the view.
• Hamlet on trial for the murder of Polonius, presided over by a Supreme Court Justice, as part of the six month Shakespeare in Washington festival. I was in DC on Thursday, but missed the trial in favor of Richard III at the Shakespeare Theatre Company. But it caught my eye because my grad students have been talking about using the trial as a classroom activity. We’ve discussed the activity in connection with Hamlet, Julius Caesar, Macbeth, Othello, The Merchant of Venice, King Lear, and Measure for Measure.

There’s more stuff over there if you want to check it out. I like to link to him every now and then because I know there are some who come to this site looking for lots of cool Shakespeare stuff, and instead find postings about Venn diagrams, killer robots, and Charlie the Unicorn. His is the site you were looking for. But do come back tomorrow for the Thursday Morning Riddle.

Last week, I posted a response to a blogger named Cesario who listed her ten unpopular opinions about Shakespeare. I registered my opinions for nine of them, but had only a non-committal response for her suggestion that Shakespeare was “probably Catholic” by saying there’s no way to know for sure. Well, of course there’s no way to know for sure. That’s why she called it an opinion, Shakespeare Teacher.

First, let me provide some quick background. In the early 16th century, England, like most of Europe, was a Catholic nation. During the Protestant Reformation, Henry VIII had a break with the Pope, partially over the question of whether he could divorce Catherine of Arragon (hint), and created instead the Anglican Church. After his death, his young son Edward VI and his advisors moved the country more solidly Protestant. After his death, came Queen Mary I.

Mary was of Spanish descent, and Spain was still solidly a Catholic country. She was the daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Arragon, and was married to the King of Spain (hint). She converted the country back to being Catholic, polarizing the country even further. Elizabeth inherited this strife and brought back the Anglican Church, but tried to implement the via media, or “middle way,” a compromise that made nobody happy. But this was the world that Shakespeare was born into, so if his family was Catholic, they would have had good reason to hide it. But lack of evidence alone isn’t proof either way.

I just did a Google search for “Was Shakespeare Catholic?” and the more interesting results can be found here and here. Both articles conclude that there’s no way to know for sure. So let me ask your opinion.

In your opinion, was Shakespeare Catholic?