True crime, royal style

  For someone who sat on the English throne for almost 40 years, Henry VIII is far less famous for being a king than for being a serial husband, serial cheater, and, shall we say, serial killer by proxy. Pop culture is less interested in how he reigned than how he ran through six wives in the process, and this has been true since film's silent era. In other words, when the cameras started rolling, so did the heads. [...]
  The character of Henry VIII predictably modernises with time, evolving from a comic figure who eats with his hands and leers at every passing maiden to a dramatic role that ranges from well intentioned but deeply tormented to borderline sociopathic. [...]
  And yet, ever since Anne Boleyn made her feature debut in 1920, film history has repeatedly subjected Henry to a very specific fate – to be never more than the second-most-interesting person in the ornately paneled room. She's refusing to divorce him. She's making him break with Rome. She's dying in childbirth. She's living out her days on a generous settlement after getting an annulment. She's getting beheaded for committing adultery with a distant cousin. She outlives him. He's just king.