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The Tudors series begins a second season on
Showtime.
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Columbia
Pictures intro'd The Other Boleyn Girl last month.
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Mary Queen of Scots is due later this year.
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Last year
came Elizabeth: The Golden Age -- sequel to Elizabeth from
1998.
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One of the
most active history oriented forums on the web is Yahoo's Tudor Talk.
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Henry VIII
and his wives have been the subjects of over 50 major film & TV
productions since 1908,
and dozens of novels and nonfiction books have appeared just in the last
decade .
What is it about
these people and events from over 400 years ago that continue to claim our
attention?
If you Google
Tudor forums you'll find folks discussing whether Anne Boleyn really had an
extra fingertip on one hand. Why Catherine Howard succumbed to her lust for
Thomas Culpepper, knowing it might cost her her head. Whether
Anne Boleyn was vamp or
feminist. What actor would be well cast as Henry VIII? Did Elizabeth die a
virgin?
So maybe the
continuing fascination with the Tudor century is that unlike much of
history, it's less about battles, weapons and objects, and more about
people, passions and relationships.