Spots 
King Henry VIII terrorizes Archbishop Cranmer with sardonic gibes, forcing him to draft a recantation to Rome in Pontefract's damp dungeons. Upstairs, Queen Katharine Howard walks the sunny terrace, dreaming of restoring the old faith and uniting the realm. She mistakes Henry’s fickle affection for lasting triumph, ignoring the subtle threats of her bitter uncle, the Duke of Norfolk.
PART ONE
Lady Mary Tudor sits isolated in her chambers, nursing profound bitterness over her mother Katharine of Aragon’s ruin. When King Henry attempts to coax her into a fake diplomatic marriage to facilitate his papal reconciliation, Mary tears through his pious pretenses. She refuses to validate his reign with lies, leaving Henry and Queen Katharine unable to co-opt her fierce, unyielding integrity.
V → VII
Queen Katharine accepts Mary Lascelles into her household out of nostalgic kindness, recalling their shared childhood poverty under the old Duchess of Norfolk. Meanwhile, her unhinged former lover Thomas Culpepper escapes Edinburgh and rides frantically across the northern moors to find her. By opening her court to forgotten acquaintances, Katharine unknowingly invites the instruments of her upcoming destruction directly into her inner circle.
PART TWO
Thomas Culpepper arrives at Pontefract deranged and violent, manipulated by hostiles like Lascelles who steer him straight toward the royal apartments. When Culpepper bursts into the Queen's bedchamber with a drawn dagger, Katharine disarms him using swift composure and childhood fencing skill. Though she prevents immediate bloodshed, the breach exposes her vulnerable quarters and gives her conspiratorial enemies the pretext they require.
PART THREE
As Prince Edward falls ill and Henry collapses into paranoid fury, the court factions align to ruin Katharine. In a dark tennis court, Bishop Gardiner and Protestant agent Lascelles extract a pact from the Duke of Norfolk to falsify his niece's age and past. Norfolk ruthlessly sacrifices his own family to protect his position, ensuring Katharine's doom through fabricated scandal.
PART FOUR
Discover how Ford Madox Ford turns Henry VIII’s court into a tragic arena of political betrayal and fragile ideals.