In William Shakespeare's play, Henry VIII, the Duke of Buckingham is falsely arrested for treason by Cardinal Wolsey, one of King Henry's closest advisors. To Wolsey's dismay, Queen Katherine, Henry's wife, begs for his life to be spared but Buckingham is executed anyway and Katherine speaks out against Wolsey.
Soon after this, Wolsey introduces King Henry to one of Queen Katherine's ladies-in-waiting, Anne Bullen at one of Wolsey's dinner parties.
King Henry goes back to Wolsey afterward and asks Wolsey for his advice concerning how to get rid of his wife of 20 years, Katherine.
Cardinal Wolsey tells Henry that he will get the Pope to send a representative to find a solution to King Henry's problem and many of Henry's nobles and courtiers hate Wolsey further now, because of Buckingham's death and now Henry's divorce.
When Queen Katherine hears what is happening she falls to pieces claiming that her marriage is sacred and that a divorce is out of the question.
In the meantime, Wolsey slips up a few times which paints him in a new light to the King including Wolsey's prying into the King's divorce proceedings and Wolsey telling the Pope to hold off any decisions made on the Kings divorce.
King Henry publicly disgraces Cardinal Wolsey and Henry divorces Katherine and marries Anne contrary to the Pope's decision.
In very poor health and spirits, Katherine dies as well as Wolsey.
Meanwhile, the new Archbishop of Canterbury, Cranmer, is the subject of a plot by Gardiner who is the late Cardinal Wolsey's secretary but Gardiner is protected by King Henry and saved unlike Buckingham.
Henry exonerates the Archbishop, and has him christen his new daughter by Anne Bullen, Elizabeth. At the christening, Cranmer foretells a noble reign for Elizabeth and glory for England in her time.
