Charles Brandon quotes from The Tudors

The King does not just want France back but all his honor and his youth as well. In that, he is like me.

Charles Brandon

Your highness must be looking forward with great anticipation to your wedding? I hear the king was a great horseman... in his time. And famous for his beautiful mistresses.

Princess Margaret

Don't tease me. I don't like it.

Charles Brandon

Will you like it when an old man tries to make love to you?

Princess Margaret

Your grace goes too far. Already.

Charles Brandon

Gospel says the truth will make you free.

Princess Margaret

Now you are blasphemous!

Someone told me taking infusions was the worst thing.

King Henry

Trust me. It will make you feel sick, but it's better than the sickness it prevents.

Margaret, you and I must stay in the king's good graces or we are nothing. Let him marry who he wishes.

Princess Margaret

That was always your philosophy, wasn't it Charles? So very cynical. Is that why you keep company with that devil Boleyn?

Charles Brandon

You liked him enough once, when he helped us back to court... Or were you just being cynical?

Princess Margaret

I didn't see all of his game. Now I do. I despise him.

Charles Brandon

So do I. But I hate Wolsey more. It's a marriage of expedience.

Princess Margaret

Rather like ours.

Charles Brandon

No, I loved you.

Princess Margaret

You don't know the meaning of the word, Charles. You can love, perhaps for a year, a month, a day, even for an hour. And in that hour I do believe you love as well and deeply... as any man. But after that hour, you love not! You love another, and then another. Your love is most generous where it is most hurtful.

Charles Brandon

Your Majesty must forgive me...

Henry VIII

[angrily] Yes I must forgive you, I must always forgive you, BUT I GROW TIRED OF FORGIVING YOU! I HAVE GIVEN YOU EVERYTHING, INCLUDING THE RIGHT TO CALL YOURSELF "PRINCE"!

Aren't you supposed to be running the country?

I leave that to Norfolk. He's had more practice. And in any case, meetings with ambassadors - infinitely tedious. They're all liars, hypocrites and middle-aged men.

Would you prefer them to be women?

Charles Brandon

My friend, if all ambassadors were beautiful women I'd be serving my country day and night.

I'm going to have to attend on the king and that bitch of his at her coronation! What didWolsey used to call her? "The Black Crow".

Can you not plead some indisposition?

I could, even though the king has made me high constable for the day, but if I did, His Majesty would remove my head. And then, I should be genuinely indisposed!

[flirtingly] Very well. So keep your head. It's a pretty head in any case, and I don't want to lose it either. [serious] But store up your knowledge and your anger. Don't act impulsively; it's always a mistake. But one day, with others so disposed, use them both...and if you can, bring her down, and destroy her.

Thomas Cromwell

It is rumored that, perhaps, you have a great sympathy for the Dowager Princess Catherine of Aragon.

Charles Brandon

Don't you?

Thomas Cromwell

(pause) Actually, I do. I'm not heartless, whatever some people think- quite the contrary. (pause) But...I serve the King. (pause) The King intends to emplace the succession in the children he will have with Queen Anne Boleyn. A bill is to be put before Parliament- he wants to know if it will have your support. (pause, as Charles considers his position)

Henry VIII

What of the others!?

Smeaton, Brereton, Norris and George Boleyn have been found guilty, and are to be executed tomorrow.

Henry VIII

You know what Cromwell told me? He told me she'd had to do with over a hundred men. A hundred fucking men, Charles! [angrily] You know what? My daughter, Mary, owes God a great deal for escaping the hands of that poisoning whore! Oh she planned to have her poisoned, Charles, it's true. Just like she poisoned Catherine. We have proof. And her baby. Her baby was deformed; did you know that, Charles!? [horrified, Brandon shakes his head] So how could it have been mine!? Perhaps Elizabeth isn't even mine! That fucking bitch! [Henry breaks down in tears as Brandon tries to comfort him]

Thomas Boleyn

Am I...Am I to be tried?

Charles Brandon

No, you are to be released.

Charles Brandon

But...Your Majesty commands that since you no longer have his trust and affection; that you are to be stripped forthwith of all your official purses and titles. You will no longer serve under the Privy Council, you will relinquish the role of Lord Privy Seal and all its privileges. His Majesty also desires that you leave court and that you never show yourself in his presence again on pain of death.

Thomas Boleyn

So I am to keep my Earldom?

Charles Brandon

Did you watch your son die?! What about your daughter, will you watch her suffer? Will you watch her die?! Tell me, Boleyn, was it all worth it?!

Your Grace.

Charles Brandon

My lord, I was promised artillery when I arrived here, but I don't see any guns!

Your Grace, we have guns, but we have not been able to find enough horses or drays to transport them.

Charles Brandon

[angered] Perhaps you don't understand. I'm about the King's most urgent business. And if you cannot commandeer enough horses for his Majesty's use, then how can you call yourself Mayor of London!?

Your Grace, I did not want to cause a panic by forcing people to part with their horses and drays!

Charles Brandon

[furious] IDIOT! I charge you, personally, to find enough horses within two days, and bring the guns on after our army, or God help me, I will hold you to account! With any luck, Mr. Mayor, I will afterwards have the chance to see you DISEMBOWELLED AT TYBURN!

Henry VIII

[talking angrily to Charles Brandon] That's what you want, isn't it Charles? An Imperial wedding like my father arranged for me, just like Wolsey always wanted a French one! Everyone has plans and what I want doesn't matter! Oh the Poles have plans; people are always talking about that little boy in the Tower and poor old Lady Salisbury, but let me tell you, they have Plantagenet blood in their veins! And my father, my father told me "If you leave so much as a sapling in the ground, one day it will grow into a tree!" And that little boy in the Tower will have forty thousand troops flocking to his banner, and YOU will be the sucker!

Charles Brandon

Tell Sir Francis to double the guards around the Princess Mary and defend her with their life- for if the King dies, some will be for the boy, others for her.

I have a moment of nostalgia now and then... even for my enemies. I understand that Thomas Boleyn died recently.

(dryly) Yes, and the only mourners at that funeral were the ghosts of his children.

Charles Brandon

And, now that you are back at Court, what are you intentions?

To surpass the achievements of my father and grandfather.

Charles Brandon

... That is very ambitious.

(shrugs) I am a Howard, Your Grace- it is expected of me, and always has been. And I will not fail.

King Henry VIII

Does the Duchess love you any better, Charles?

She seems to but only for the sake of appearances.

King Henry VIII

[sighs] How can I help you, Charles?

Well, when she consents to make love with me again, strike a medal to commemorate it.