Is ‘Mary & George’ Based on a True Story? What’s Real, What’s Fake In The Juicy Starz Period Drama

Starz‘s sensuous new drama Mary & George tells the story of Mary Villiers (Julianne Moore), a lowly-born mother who charts her own ascension to the top of Jacobean society through various marriage plots, subterfuge, and by pushing her handsome son George (Nicholas Galitzine) into the path of Britain’s queer king, James I (Tony Curran). This week’s all-new episode of the series, now streaming on the Starz app and due to premiere on Starz later tonight, will show us how exactly young George manages to catch James’s eye after a disastrous first encounter at the end of Episode 1. The beautiful George has his work cut out for him, however, as many other young men are trying to seduce the king away from his controlling lover, Somerset (Laurie Davidson).

So what happens next? More importantly, did any of the wild, scandalous stuff we see in Starz’s Mary & George even happen in real life? Is Mary & George based on a true story???

Mary & George was created by D.C. Moore, inspired by Benjamin Wooley’s book, The King’s Assassin. Wooley explained in an interview for Starz’s official companion, The Making of Mary & George, that he considers himself as a “biographer rather than a historian.” According to Wooley, his work is “closer to novels and prose fiction because it’s about trying to work people out, what their motives are, what’s driving them, what their needs are.”

“One would be surprised by how little useful evidence has survived,” Wooley said of the time period Mary & George covers. “One of the challenges is trying to join up the dots when they’re spaced very far apart from each other.”

Mary & George showrunner D.C. Moore revealed in the same interview that he told his writers’ room, “we’re always trying to respect the truth, but we’re not going to be a slave to it.”

So how much of Mary & George is based on a true story and how much of it is completely fictitious? Here’s what you need to know about the real story behind Starz’s Mary & George…

Is Mary & George Based on a True Story?

Wondering if it can possibly be true that King James I of England — the King James who published The King James Bible, of all tomes! — could possibly have been a wanton homosexual prone to childish outbursts, terrible mood swings, and full on boys’ only orgies, as we see in Mary & George? Well, historians are pretty sure that, yes, all of these things were true. The man contained multitudes! (And published that Bible as a PR stunt.)

More importantly, though, Mary & George nails the complex relationship between King James I and his last and greatest of lovers, George Villiers, the future Duke of Buckingham. George Villiers was born in 1592 to a modest household in Leicestershire, but found his fortunes changing rapidly when he caught James’s eye at the age of 21. George soon became James’s “favorite,” meaning that the king lavished the handsome young man with various appointments, culminating with him becoming a key power player in court.

George’s beauty, charm, and breeding were nurtured by his widowed mother, Mary Villiers, who many saw as a key strategist behind his swift climb to power. At the time of George’s — spoilers for history! — assassination in 1628, the 35-year-old was Master of the Horse, Lord High Admiral, and Lord Lieutenant of Buckinghamshire, Middlesex, and Kent. Those were titles he held onto after the death of James I.

So yes, a lot of what you’ll see unfold in Mary & George is based on a true story. However, even Moore admitted to Decider himself that he took some dramatic liberties. The character of Sandie (Niamh Algar), introduced in Episode 2, is a complete fabrication for a dramatic reason. “I did want some class analysis in this show, to see the different costs for people from different classes,” he said.

While the psychology of the characters might be fictitious — and the explosive finale is inspired by Wooley’s book, without concrete proof of how things ended between the lovers — Mary & George nonetheless weaves in a lot of facts about the early 1600s, a time often overlooked because it follows the popular Tudor era.