Analysis of Henry’s symptoms and the changes in his appearance as shown in portraits, suggests that from the late 1530s Henry probably suffered from Cushing’s syndrome, a rare endocrine abnormality that causes gross obesity in the body’s trunk and increased fat around the neck, as well as weakening of the bones and diabetes. In some cases – and Henry was possibly one – the condition turns the victim into a paranoid psychotic. In his last years he could barely walk and was carried around his palaces in a kind of sedan chair, called ‘the king’s tram’.
The king had three more wives – Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard and the matronly Katherine Parr – but by then was probably incapable of procreating.
Henry died speechless, alone and friendless in the great carved walnut bed within his secret apartments in Westminster Palace at around two o’clock in the morning of Friday 28 January 1547.
As with his father, his death was kept a close secret for three days with road blocks set up around London and England was sealed off from Europe by closure of the ports.
The king’s legitimate male heir, nine-year-old Edward, was proclaimed king on 31 January, as the cannon boomed out their salutes from the ramparts of the Tower and from ships moored on the Thames.
The Tudor dynasty had been secured – for the moment anyway.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
Henry VIII is England’s most famous monarch. The king’s turbulent life, the traumas of his six marriages and his ruthless, despotic actions combine to provide the most compelling drama that any fiction author could hope, in their wildest dreams, to write.
His victims, Wolsey, Fisher, More and the Boleyns, weave their way through the narrative, entering and exiting like actors on the stage of Henry’s court before the denouement of their disgrace or violent end in this most vivid of tragedies. In this king’s story, historical fact is stranger than fiction.
Henry VIII has always aroused the strongest emotions. In the eighteenth century, for example, Jonathan Swift, the Irish satirist – and author of Gulliver’s Travels – noted in the margin of one of his books his own vitriolic verdict on ‘Bluff King Hal’:
I wish he had been flayed, his skin stuffed and hanged upon a gibbet. His bulky guts and flesh left to be devoured by birds and beasts for a warning to his successors for ever. Amen.
This book analyses the motives and needs that drove Henry both in his private life and in his policies directed towards his own people and his brother kings abroad.
Much of his personality traits and likes and dislikes were inherited from his father Henry VII – the love of magnificence, ostentation, the rituals of ceremony, the excitement of hunting and gambling, and the design and construction of a range of grand new palaces. A brazen rapaciousness in seizing the cash and property of some of their subjects is immediately recognisable in both.
It is truly a case of like father, like son, down to their unusual height – both were tall, the son over six feet and this, together with their striking red gold hair, marked them out among lesser men.
But where the father was cautious, the son was impulsive. Where the father was often magnanimous in victory, the son was merciless. These dubious qualities were passed on, via the Tudor gene pool, to Henry VIII’s siblings, Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I.
Two important drivers combined to dictate their course of action in almost everything the two king Henrys did. The first was an overweening dynastic pride and the second a chronic lack of assurance in their ability to achieve their ambitions of a long line of Tudor kings.
The nagging fear of losing the crown of England that gripped both father and son was born out of the uncomfortable knowledge that the Tudors’ claim on the throne was fragile in its legality, secured only by right of conquest on the field of battle in 1485. Hence Henry VIII’s immediate, angry reaction to any show of opposition, however insignificant, to his will.
His father’s defeat and destruction of Richard III at Bosworth terminated the Plantagenet dynasty’s hold on England, which had spanned fifteen monarchs and dated back to 1154. The Tudors planned to substitute their own line of succession, doubtless aiming to rule for just as long as their predecessors.
They needed a plentiful supply of male heirs to achieve this with any degree of certainty. Henry VII came close to losing everything when three of the four sons provided by Elizabeth of York died – most decisively Arthur, his sickly heir. When the Prince expired on Saturday 2 April 1502, she sought to comfort a stunned king by pointing out that ‘God has lent them yet a fair and goodly … young prince’.
Henry, as the ‘spare heir’, was never intended for the trials of kingship and the subsequent stifling protection of the teenager provoked his adolescent kicking of the traces after he succeeded to the throne in April 1509.
After those early glory days of feasting, jousting and fun, the continuing lack of a legitimate male heir runs like a thin line of poison through almost three decades of his reign and goes some way to explain his callous treatment of his first wife Katherine of Aragon (spelt with a ‘K’ incidentally throughout, as this is how she signed herself).
Henry VIII was the first English king to have insisted on the title of ‘majesty’ as a form of address. He may later have seen himself as God’s deputy on earth with direct communication to the Almighty at local rates rather than via Rome. But behind all that bluff and bluster, tantrum and tyranny, he felt just as vulnerable as the most miserable of his disease-ridden subjects.
Betrayed by his allies and unable to fulfil his military ambitions, much of what Henry attempted left him with the bitter aftertaste of failure.
This book strives to provide insights into what turned this happy, playful Renaissance prince into the tyrant of his later years when the golden age heralded so optimistically by his accession was slowly transformed into a bleak human tragedy.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
1. Henry VII, c.1501, Society of Antiquaries of London.
2. Elizabeth of York, c.1502. Royal Collection © 2010. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
3. Lady Margaret Beaufort at prayer c.1500. St John’s College, Cambridge.
4. Arthur, Prince of Wales, painted c.1520. Royal Collection © 2010. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
5. Portrait of a boy, inscribed ‘le Roy henry d’angleterre’. (MS 442 Res MS 20) Bibliothèque de Méjanes, Aix-en-Provence.
6. Bust of a laughing child, possibly the young Henry VIII, c.1498. Royal Collection © 2010. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
7. Prince Henry’s Bede Roll. British Library.
8. Henry VII on his deathbed (BL Add. MS 45,131, f.54) British Library.
9. Katherine of Aragon, c.1502 by Michael Sittow. Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna.
10. Young King Henry VIII. Denver Art Museum, Berger Collection.
11. Henry VIII, c.1520. National Portrait Gallery.
12. Henry VIII, c.1525 – 7 by Lucas Horenbout. Royal Collection © 2010. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
13. Great Tournament Roll of London, showing Henry VIII jousting. College of Heralds, London.
14. Battle of Spurs, 1513. Royal Collection © 2010. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
15. Katherine of Aragon c.1525 by Lucas Horenbout. National Portrait Gallery.
16. Anne Boleyn c.1533 – 6. National Portrait Gallery.
17. Love messages between Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. King’s MS, 9ff. 66v, 231v. British Library.
Also by Robert Hutchinson
Last Days of Henry VIII
Elizabeth’s Spy Master
Thomas Cromwell
House of Treason
CHRONOLOGY
1457 28 January Henry Tudor (later Henry VII) born in Pembroke Castle to fourteen-year-old Margaret, widow of Edmund Tudor, First Earl of Richmond, who had died from the plague three months before whilst imprisoned by the Yorkists in Carmarthen Castle, south Wales.
1471 2 June Henry flees to Brittany and fourteen years of exile after the defeat of the Lancastrian cause at th
e Battles of Barnet and Tewkesbury.
1483 June Edward V and Richard Duke of York, young sons of Edward IV, disappear after entering Tower of London. They are believed to have been murdered on the orders of Richard, Duke of Gloucester, ‘Lord Protector of the realm’, later Richard III.
1485 7 August Henry Tudor lands at Milford Haven in South Wales with 3,000 French mercenaries and English and Welsh supporters to claim the crown of England.
1485 22 August Henry defeats and kills Richard III at Bosworth Field, Leicestershire, becoming Henry VII, the first monarch of the Tudor dynasty.
1485 30 October Henry crowned king at Westminster. He imprisons ten-year-old Edward Plantagenet, Earl of Warwick, in the Tower, because of his potential claims to the crown. First outbreak of sweating sickness in London.
1485 9 November First Parliament of Henry VII’s reign opens at Westminster.
1485 16 December Katherine of Aragon born at Alcala de Henares, Spain.
1486 18 January Henry VII marries Elizabeth of York, daughter of Edward IV and sister of the ‘Princes in the Tower’.
1486 20 September Arthur, first child of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York, born at Winchester.
1487 24 May Lambert Simnel, ten-year-old pretender to the throne of England, crowned king in Dublin Cathedral.
1487 16 June Rebel Yorkist forces supporting Simnel’s claim and John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln, defeated at Stoke Field, Nottinghamshire. Lincoln is killed but Simnel spared and employed in royal kitchens.
1487 25 November Elizabeth of York crowned queen consort at Westminster Abbey.
1489 29 November Margaret, second child of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York, born.
1489 30 November Arthur created Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester at Westminster.
1491 28 June Prince Henry (later Henry VIII) born at Greenwich Palace.
1491 November Perkin Warbeck, pretender to the throne, arrives in Cork in south-west Ireland.
1493 5 April Prince Henry made Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports and Constable of Dover Castle.
1493 August Warbeck attends funeral in Vienna of Holy Roman Emperor Frederick III and is recognised as ‘King Richard IV of England’ by Maximilian I, King of the Romans.
1494 12 September Prince Henry appointed Lord Deputy of Ireland.
1494 31 October Prince Henry dubbed a Knight of the Bath.
1494 1 November Prince Henry created Duke of York.
1495 16 February Sir William Stanley, step-uncle of Henry VII and his supporter at Bosworth, executed for treason.
1495 17 May Henry Duke of York made a Knight of the Garter.
1495 3 July Troops from Warbeck’s invasion fleet land at Deal and one hundred and fifty are killed and a further one hundred and sixty taken prisoner.
1496 18 March Mary born to Henry VII and Elizabeth of York at Sheen Palace, Surrey.
1496 September Warbeck, with Scottish assistance, leads 1,400 men in a small scale invasion across the border into Northumberland.
1496 21 September Prince Henry’s first public duty – witnessing a royal grant of a charter to the abbot and convent at Glastonbury, Somerset.
1497 17 June Battle of Blackheath in present-day south-east London: Cornish rebels defeated by royalist forces. Prince Henry and his mother are in the Tower of London for safety.
1497 18 July Treaty of marriage between Katherine of Aragon and Prince Arthur stipulating that she would come to England when Arthur was aged fourteen and that her dowry of 200,000 crowns would be paid in instalments.
1497 7 September Perkin Warbeck lands in Cornwall and collects an army of Cornish discontents; attacks Exeter and marches on Taunton.
1497 5 October Perkin Warbeck surrenders at Beaulieu Abbey, Hampshire.
1497 21 December Fire destroys royal apartments at Sheen Palace, Surrey.
1499 July Edmund de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk, potential Yorkist claimant to the throne, flees England but later returns voluntarily.
1499 summer Dutch humanist scholar Desiderius Erasmus visits Prince Henry and his sisters at Eltham Palace.
1499 23 November Perkin Warbeck executed at Tyburn.
1499 28 November Edward Plantagenet, Earl of Warwick, beheaded for treason at Tower Hill.
1501 August Edmund de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk, again flees England with his younger brother Richard.
1501 12 November Katherine of Aragon makes her formal entry into London, escorted by Henry Duke of York – his first sight of her.
1501 14 November Prince Arthur, aged fifteen, and Katherine of Aragon, aged sixteen, married at St Paul’s Cathedral, London. Prince Henry gives away the bride.
1502 2 April Arthur dies at Ludlow Castle, Shropshire.
1503 11 February Death of Queen Elizabeth following the birth of a daughter on 2 February. The baby subsequently dies on or around 14 February .
1503 18 February Henry Duke of York created Prince of Wales.
1503 25 June Prince Henry and Katherine of Aragon formally betrothed by Bishop of Salisbury.
1504 autumn Sir Richard Empson and Edmund Dudley empowered to act as bond agents for Henry VII.
1504 November Pope Julius II sends his dispensation allowing Henry to marry his brother’s widow.
1505 27 June Prince Henry, on his father’s instructions, makes a secret protest against his marriage with Katherine of Aragon at Richmond Palace, Surrey.
1506 January Archduke Philip of Burgundy arrives in England after his fleet is dispersed by storms in the English Channel.
1506 24 April Edmund de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk, is imprisoned in Tower of London.
1509 21 April Henry VII dies in Richmond Palace, aged fifty-two, from tuberculosis. His death remains secret for two days.
1509 24 April Public proclamation of the accession of Henry VIII, under the regency of his grandmother, Lady Margaret Beaufort, until his eighteenth birthday. Arrests of Empson and Dudley.
1509 11 June Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon married by Archbishop William Warham at the church of Friars Observant adjoining Greenwich Palace.
1509 24 June Coronation of Henry VIII and his queen consort at Westminster Abbey.
1509 29 June Death of Henry VIII’s grandmother, Lady Margaret Beaufort, at Westminster.
1509 November ‘Retinue of Spears’ set up as personal bodyguard for Henry VIII.
1510 21 January First Parliament of Henry VIII’s reign.
1510 17 August Executions of Empson and Dudley.
1511 1 January Birth of a son, christened Henry, to Henry and Katherine of Aragon at Richmond. The child lives only fifty-three days, dying on 22 February.
1511 May Abortive English expedition to assist Ferdinand of Spain’s campaign against the Moors in North Africa.
1511 June 1,500 English troops depart Sandwich for Low Countries expedition under Sir Edward Poynings.
1511 17 November Treaty of Westminster provides framework for military assistance between countries of the ‘Holy League’.
1512 Wolsey becomes Henry’s de facto chief Minister.
1512 June – November Disastrous English expedition to Fuentarrabia in Spain.
1512 10 August Loss of the English warship Regent , commanded by Sir Thomas Knyvet, off Brest.
1513 25 April Lord High Admiral Sir Edward Howard killed in reckless naval action off Conquet.
1513 4 May Edmund de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk, beheaded inside Tower of London.
1513 July Henry invades northern France, leaving Katherine as regent of England.
1513 16 August ‘Battle of Spurs’ at Guinegatte when French supply force is routed.
1513 23 August French town of Thérouanne surrenders.
1513 9 September English army, under Thomas Howard, Earl of Surrey, defeats Scots at Flodden Field, Northumberland. James IV of Scotland and 12,000 of his army killed.
1513 23 September French city of Tournai falls to Henry.
1513 December Henry VIII contracts smallpox.
1514 9 October Henry’s younger
sister Mary marries Louis XII of France in Abbeville.
1515 1 January Louis XII of France dies. Accession of Francis I.
1515 February Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, secretly marries Mary in Paris.
1515 24 December Wolsey appointed Lord Chancellor in succession to Archbishop William Warham.
1516 23 January Ferdinand of Spain dies in Spain and is succeeded, as joint rulers, by his grandson Charles and his mother, the mad Juana, who is locked up in a Spanish castle.
1516 18 February Birth of Mary at Greenwich, sole surviving offspring of Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon.
1518 Thomas More enters royal service as Master of the Court of Requests.
1518 May Wolsey made Papal Legate.
1519 12 January Maximilian I dies and Charles V of Spain is elected Holy Roman Emperor.
1519 May Royal household purged.
1519 15 June Birth of Henry Fitzroy, illegitimate son of Henry VIII and his mistress, Elizabeth Blount.
1520 May Visit of Emperor Charles V to England.
1520 7 – 24 June Field of Cloth of Gold meeting between Henry VIII and Francis I of France.
1521 17 May Execution on Tower Hill of Edward Stafford, Duke of Buckingham.
1521 24 November Title of ‘Defender of the Faith’ granted to Henry VIII by Pope Leo X.
1522 Mary Boleyn becomes Henry VIII’s mistress.
1522 1 March Anne Boleyn makes first appearance at court.
Young Henry: The Rise of Henry VIII Page 30
