While not everyone finds the lives of royalty fascinating, many others do, as evidenced by the many successful TV shows made in the subgenre. Television shows about royalty and royal families have become very popular in recent years, and there are many ways to tell the story.
Some writers attempt to stay true to reality, like The Crown, while others create fictional royal families loosely inspired by their real-life counterparts. There are shows about royals in past lives, and even Disney shows that present royalty in a kid-friendly way. One thing is for sure; the genre isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
10The Last Kingdom – BBC Two/Netflix (2015 – present)
The historical drama The Last Kingdom is based on The Saxon Stories novels by Bernard Cornwell. It takes us back to 866, right before Alfred the Great’s reign as King of the West Saxons.
We follow the story of Uhtred, a Saxon raised by Danish warlord Earl Ragnar after Ragnar’s army killed his family.
Through each conflict, Uhtred is constantly at a crossroads between loyalty to the Danish family that raised him and the Saxon kingdom of his ancestors.
The relationship between Uhtred and Alfred, well-recorded in history books, is central to the first three seasons until Alfred’s death.
9 Catherine The Great (2019) – HBO Max
The third series to be created around the real-life royal, this HBO miniseries explores the rise and all of Catherine the Great and her reign over Russia. The series begins two years after she comes into power and follows her life until she dies in 1976.
The four-episode miniseries doesn’t leave any details out, exploring Catherine’s tumultuous final years in great detail, including her affair with Grigory Potemkin. The series was nominated for several awards, and Helen Miran was nominated for Golden Globe for her portrayal of Catherine.
8 The Spanish Princess (2019 – 2020) – Hulu
The Spanish Princess is one of Starz’s most popular original period drama limited series that premiered in May 2019 and wrapped its final season in 2020.
The series is inspired by two Philippa Gregory novels and the real life of “The Spanish Princess.” It serves as a sequel to two other Starz original miniseries.
The series centers on Princess Catherine of Aragon, Princess of Spain, who was set to marry an English Prince before his untimely death. With the passing of the English Prince, Princess Catherine is in a rare position where she gets to seek out her prince.
7The Royals (2015-2018) – Amazon Prime Video
While the E! Network might be best known for its various reality series, the cable network did venture into the world of scripted television back in 2015 with the premiere of The Royals. The series centered on the fictional English royal family, the Henstridge family, as they navigated their rollercoaster life after a series of tragedies hit the family.
Despite its mediocre ratings, The Royals was beloved by fans who cultivated a cult fandom for the show. The Royals ran for four seasons before E canceled it!
While the production company that produced the show attempted to save it from cancelation, their efforts were short-lived and officially canceled in September 2018.
6Wolf Hall (2015) – Amazon Prime Video
Claire Foy isn’t in The Crown Season 3, but you can watch our beloved former Queen Elizabeth II in Wolf Hall as the ill-fated Anne Boleyn. Yes, this six-part series also focuses on the Tudor dynasty from another angle.
I never tire of exploring this era, so I hope you feel the same. Wolf Hall was based on two of Hilary Mantel’s novels, following Mark Rylance as Thomas Cromwell, with Damian Lewis as Henry VIII.
A Season 2 is coming, per RadioTimes, with the BBC adapting Hilary Mantel’s upcoming novel The Mirror and the Light. That will be published in March 2020, so get caught up on Wolf Hall Season 1 before the sequel arrives.
5The Hollow Crown – BBC Two/PBS (2012 – 2016)
The Hollow Crown is a different format, as each of its seven episodes is a feature-length TV film adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Henriad plays and spanned over the history of several of England’s kings.
It starts with Richard II, the son of Edward III.
Season 1 covers until the reign of Henry V, where France weighs heavily into the picture with his success in the Hundred Years’ War.
Subsequently, Season 2, titled The Hollow Crown: The Wars of the Roses after the civil wars concerning control over the Throne, covers the reigns of Henry VI (in two parts) and Richard III.
4Bridgerton (2020-) – Netflix
Bridgerton is one of the more recent shows on the list and shot up in popularity very quickly after it premiered on Netflix.
More romance drama than historical, it’s based on Julia Quinn’s series of novels of the same name and is set in the competitive world of Britain’s upper class during the Regency era.
Think of it as Gossip Girl in the 19th century. With narration from the anonymous newsletter columnist Lady Whistledown, we follow the Bridgerton siblings navigating high society in their search for love.
While Bridgeton doesn’t deal with Kings and Queens, it does deal with the other sides of royalty that are rarely explored, like viscounts and viscountesses and ladies and lords. It’s also full of romance and drama, sure to entertain anyone mildly interested in royalty.
3The Tudors (2007-2010) – Paramount+
The Tudors was produced for Showtime and aired in 2007. The Tudors is set in 16th-century England and depicts the life and reign of King Henry VIII. Throughout the series, viewers watch how each of his six marriages unfolds.
The fourth and final season of The Tudors offers viewers an inside look into the last two marriages of King Henry VIII. His marriages to Catherine Howard and Catherine Parr are full of problems, so much so that the King orders the beheading of Howard. King Henry VIII later succumbs to illness and leaves the Throne to Parr.
Notable cast members include Jonathan Rhys Meyers as King Henry VIII, Henry Cavill as Charles Brandon, and Natalie Dormer in her breakthrough role as King Henry’s second wife, Anne Boleyn. In Game of Thrones, Dormer would later play another royal, Margaery Tyrell.
2The Crown (2016-) – Netflix
Finally, after centuries of history and monarchs, we’ve reached the present with Netflix’s The Crown. The show is a highly praised and well-loved historical drama about the current monarch, Queen Elizabeth II.
Having risen to the Throne at just 25 years old in 1952, she is celebrating her 70th year as queen! The Crown came up with its fifth season, where the first four seasons covered specific periods in Queen Elizabeth’s reign.
While The Crown is not the only show to center on the Royal English family, it is undoubtedly one of the more popular series. The Netflix original chronicles the life of Elizabeth II as she becomes queen after her father’s untimely passing, and it also features several prominent figures in her life.
The Crown is not only beloved by audiences but has also received high critical acclaim, earning 39 Emmy nominations in three seasons.
1Game Of Thrones (2011-2019) – HBO Max
Game of Thrones might not be centered on real-life royals, but it does center its drama in the world of royalty. The HBO original series is adapted from George R.R. Martin’s best-selling book series A Song of Ice and Fire and centers around a group of families hoping to control the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros.
The hatred for Cersei, Joffrey, Jaime, and even Tywin cement House Lannister as one of the main villains of Game of Thrones. However, no one can deny the show wouldn’t be the same without them.
The Lannister house gives the series the dysfunctional family dynamic, with some of the show’s most iconic characters and actors going head-to-head in intense drama scenes.
The battles of the Lannister family are what the show was all about and part of what made it so great. The Lannister power dynamic is one of the most consistent plotlines throughout all eight seasons, which is part of why Tyrion had one of the best Game of Thrones character arcs.
Game of Thrones has had a historic run, spanning eight seasons on the premium cable network. During its run, it was nominated for 59 Primetime Emmy Awards, the most ever received by any drama series.
