King Henry VIII - Fat or Fiction?

Henry with Jane Seymour, his third wife.

I thought it would be fun to compare Henry VIII, as created in TV series, The Tudors, with accounts of the real king.

 In his later life King Henry VIII was famed for being obese:

“ …[King Henry VIII] laboured under the burden of extreme fat and [an] unwieldy body.”

Edward, 1^st Baron Herbert of Cherbury.

However chief executive producer of The Tudors, Morgan O’Sullivan was refreshingly honest about his attitude to Johnathan Rhys Myers portrayal of the ageing king:

“We still want him to be appealing. We don’t want to destroy his good looks. An exact portrayal of Henry is not a factor that we think is important.”

Henry VIII reigned from 1509 to 1547 and in his youth was evidently a very handsome man:

“His majesty is the handsomest potentate I ever set eyes on.” Venetian visitor.

At 6 ft 2 inches he was tall, even compared the average height of a UK man today, at 5ft 9 inches. He was an active man who loved to hunt, joust, wrestle and play tennis but food played a prominent part at his court. In one year alone Henry’s court consumed 1240 oxen, 8200 sheep, 2330 deer, 760 calves, 1870 pigs, 53 wild boar and innumberable birds from swans to peacocks, fish and even whale, accompanied by 600,000 gallons of ale.

Food was used as a demonstration of England’s cultural superiority, a demonstration to visiting princes and foreign diplomats of her levels of wealth and luxury. But it was perhaps two factors that doomed Henry to his eventual morbid obesity: ill health which meant he could no longer exercise, and the death of his beloved third wife, Jane Seymour. Accounts suggest that after Jane’s death in 1536, twelve days after giving birth to their son, Edward, King Henry turned to food for comfort.

Studies of Henry’s suits of armour also speak of a steady increase in his girth:

1512    32 inch waist

1520    35 inches        

1545    54 inches

Jowly portrait by Matsys.

By 1544, a portrait by Cornelys Matsys showed Henry’s cheeks sagging with fat and eyes mouth mere slits in the blubber and by 1546 he could hardly walk and had to be carried around in special chairs called “Trams.” It was around this time that Henry, famously, had to be winched on and off his horse.

Henry died 28 January 1547, aged 55. His cadaver was placed in a lead coffin within a 6ft 10 inch elm chest and it took 16 yeoman of exceptional strength to manoeuvre the coffin.

Modern medical assessment suggest that at his death Henry had a BMI of 35 (normal 20-25) and weighed around 30 stones (normal for a 6ft 2 inch man is 13 stone) and was morbidly obese.

“Fat Henry sat upon the throne

And cast his eye on harm sir.

No, no Sir cook, I do propone

I think I’ll have the lamb sir.”

19^th century nursery rhyme.

A romanticised version of Henry with the wife who outlived him.

But let’s leave the final word to The Tudor’s star, J. Rhys Myers himself. The actor made it clear he never intended to pig out to get into character.

“ …[actors] are not famous because they’re pug ugly.”

And he argued it there was no point selling historical drama featuring “… a big, fat 250 lb red-haired guy with a beard.”

Got to admire his honesty!

 So do you think JRM was right to go for glamour, or should he have bulked up?

A younger Henry with Anne Boleyn.