The second, intrigue filled season of the Showtime series "The Tudors" is in full swing and I thought it was a perfect time to talk about the women of "The Tudors" and the man who loved and beheaded them.

Henry VIII was a ladykiller in the strictest sense of the word and the women in his sixteenth century orbit toyed with him at their peril.

Henry's first wife was his dead brother's widow, Katherine of Aragon. I'm sure many of you know the story. Katherine bore Henry only one child, Mary who survived into adulthood, yet he was desperate to have a son. Continuing the royal line and all that.

As portrayed in "The Tudors," Katherine was a devout Catholic and beloved by all her subjects. That's why when that hussy, Anne Boleyn, at the urging of her ambitious father, set her cap for the king, there were many who didn't take too kindly to her machinations.

Henry first had his way with Anne's younger sister, Mary. Later Anne caught his attention and he became enamored. Anne, a woman who was well aware of Henry's notorious bed hopping, boldly declared the king would have to crown her before he could bed her. Thus began Henry's epic and history altering battle with the Catholic Church to rid himself of Katherine so he could marry Anne.

Katherine, a strong, proud woman, refused to go into annulment easily. She proclaimed her love for the king to anyone who would listen and she used every back channel available to consolidate political support for her marriage. When all else failed, she simply refused to budge. Finally, all options gone she withdrew to a life out of the limelight, and though banned from seeing her daughter as punishment, never denying she was the true Queen of England.

Anne got her coronation, the king in her bed and all the trappings that came with them both. But after all that back and forth with the pope, before the coronation crown was barely off Anne's head, Henry was sleeping around with another young chippy at court. During Anne's second pregnancy, when she sensed Henry was about to stray again, Anne procured one of her ladies in waiting to take the king to her bed. As Anne's father had suggested, this was a mistress of Anne's choosing, not of Henry's, and therefore much safer.

However, the icy cold, calculating Anne was disheartened by Henry's eager willingness to accept his new paramour. Anne knew her position was not going to be solid until she bore a son, and for a woman who used sex as a bargaining chip, she knew how powerful that chip could be in some other woman's ambitious hands.

The women of "The Tudors," like all women at different points in history, had to be smart enough to wield their power carefully, but effectively. Though their tactics weren't always orthodox, who can blame them when you look at all they were up against.

The king had his realm and his assortedof regal powers and the women had theirs.

Of course the ultimate irony? After all that beheading and sleeping around in an effort to have a son, it was Henry's daughter by Anne Boleyn who became one of the greatest monarchs in history: Elizabeth I.

Photo courtesy of Showtime

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Megan Smith is a BlogHer Contributing Editor covering TV and YouTube and she'd love to be able to wear some of the costumes and jewelry from "The Tudors." Megan's other blogs are Megan's Minute and Video Runway.