King Henry VIII (Jonathan Rhys Meyers), the young and ambitious monarch of England, prepares for war with France but is dissuaded by the diplomatic manipulation of his powerful Lord Chancellor, Cardinal Wolsey (Sam Neill), who proposes that the king sponsor a "Treaty of Universal and Perpetual Peace." Henry discovers that Elizabeth Blount, the young and beautiful lady-in-waiting to his Queen, Katherine of Aragon, is pregnant with his child, even as the Duke of Buckingham asserts his claim to the throne.