Downton Abbey is undoubtedly glamorous, but if you're looking for something downright decadent, The Tudors might be just your style. The series starts long before Henry VIII (he of the six wives) had become the huge, wife-beheading, religion-rejecting figure of historical legend. Instead, when we first meet him, he's a young, vibrant king trying to assert his country's place on the world stage. Frustrated with his lack of a male heir, Henry begins looking for a way out of his marriage to his queen Catherine, and there is no shortage of ambitious courtiers looking to curry favour with the king by getting him what he wants.