Lesson 2: Loyal Heart: Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon.
Henry's court
This segment aims to further assist the student's understanding of Henry VIII's court.
His Majesty came into our arbor, and addressing me in French, said: 'Talk with me awhile! The King of France, is he as tall as I am?' I told him there was but little difference. He continued, 'Is he as stout?' I said he was not; and he then inquired, 'What sort of legs has he?' I replied 'Spare.' Whereupon he opened the front of his doublet, and placing his hand on his thigh, said 'Look here! and I have also a good calf to my leg.' He then told me that he was very fond of this King of France, and that for the sake of seeing him, he went over there in person, and that on more than three occasions he was very near him with his army, but that he never would allow himself to be seen, and always retreated, which his Majesty attributed to deference for King Louis, who did not choose an engagement to take place; and he here commenced discussing in detail all the events of that war, and then took his departure...
After dinner, his Majesty and many others armed themselves cap-a-pie, and he chose us to see him joust, running upwards of thirty courses, in one of which he capsized his opponent (who is the finest jouster in the whole kingdom), horse and all. He then took off his helmet, and came under the windows where we were, and talked and laughed with us to our very great honor, and to the surprise of all beholders.Venetian ambassador to Henry's court
The court was not just the palace where the King resided but also the people and the household that surrounded him. It was at the centre of affairs, and revolved around the man who was the fount of all power, honours and patronage.(1)
For descriptions of Henry’s court that almost take you back in time, one of the best books I have ever read is Alison Weir’s Henry VIII, The King and his Court. Packed with details about ‘Tudor’ courtly life and thoroughly researched, the book covers almost every conceivable subject, from the candle lit royal banquet, to the elaborate pageants, to the King’s six doctors – even describing the complexity of when Henry wished to make one of his frequent conjugal visits to Catherine of Aragon.
Weir’s work successfully sets Henry VIII in his own environment, showing the ritualistic court life of the period, where people possessed defined roles and duties, and all men desired access to the king’s privy chamber – even if it meant being gentleman of the stool and take care of the king’s toileting needs; the closer you were to the King the better. *
In the golden glow of the first years of Henry's reign – when his loving subjects gloried in their handsome, noble King, possessing thighs so royally proportioned – ambassadors and humanist scholars of high repute freely visited his court. England's young King also at this time– forgetful of his hunts for a time – laboured to write a book defending the papacy from the attacks of Martin Luther. The Defence of the Seven Sacraments against Martin Luther earned Henry VIII the pope's hard won gratitude and the award of a title: 'Defender of the faith,' a title still used by the British royal family today. But this title would only one day mock the future actions of this king.
Encouraged by their King, in a court environment described as ‘a temple of the muses,’ (2) England possessed too its share of respected intellectuals – men such as Sir Thomas More, who wrote Utopia during this first, more settled period of Henry’s reign. More assisted Henry VIII with his The Defence of the Seven Sacraments where he ‘served as ‘sorter out and placer of the principal matter.’ (3)
The queen and king possessed two separate households – the queen's people looking after her needs while she looked after her husband’s. Far more fastidious than the court of Henry VII, this court would have been influenced not only by the more ‘beauty-loving’ nature of the King but also his Queen.
At the beautiful Tudor palaces, on which Henry spent so much money making more and more magnificent, the 'pissing areas' allotted for members of the court of Henry VII were phased out by the use of more built-in garderobes.(4) Knowing in their first weeks at the court of Henry VII that it shocked Catherine Aragon's Spanish ladies, and no doubt sixteen year old Catherine herself, to witness courtiers attending to their bodily needs when and wherever necessary(5), I strongly suspect that Catherine of Aragon encouraged these ‘pissing areas’ to be far more discretely hidden away and used.
(1) Alison Weir, Henry VIII, the King and Court, page 236
(2) Alison Weir, Henry VIII, the King and Court, page 150
(3)Alison Weir, Henry VIII, the King and Court, page 24
(3)Alison Weir, Henry VIII, the King and Court, page 57
(5)The writer's guide to everyday life in Renaissance England, page 54.
* Although I suspect you need to be somewhat foolhardy to get too close. Friendship with this king did not guarantee your life. Henry Norris, a man executed as one of the five ‘alleged’ lovers of Anne Boleyn, had known the king from boyhood, but that did not save him when king wished for yet another new wife.
References:
In Henry VIII, the King and the
Court - a wonderfully researched book - Alison Weir brings alive Henry VIII in all his glory and his magnificent court, not fearing a bit of controversy along the way. This is a must read for people interested in the period.
The writer's guide to everyday life in Renaissance England; Kathy Lynn Emerson; 1996
