Will there ever be a fat Henry VIII?
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KatharineFanatic — 10 years ago(November 01, 2015 08:21 PM)
Henry was already becoming a monster before his fall in the joust.
His brutal, ruthless, cruel, emotionally vindictive and merciless treatment of Katharine of Aragon predates his accident. He was showing nasty tendencies as early as 1525; even before that, he was displacing blame for anything that displeased him and using nearby victims (like Katharine) as a scapegoat for his displeasure. -
pstudier — 10 years ago(April 06, 2015 07:16 PM)
You should watch "The Six Wives of Henry VIII":
http://www.imdb.com/board/10066714/?ref_=nv_sr_5
He is fat in this one. -
greenegg — 10 years ago(April 12, 2015 01:38 PM)
Six Wives of Henry VIII is so much better than this drivel. I've had writing students who are scarcely literate write far better than Mantel. I fell asleep during the first episode, and I like Damian Lewis.
Put puppy mills out of business: never buy dogs from pet shops! -
peggygeordie — 10 years ago(April 14, 2015 11:14 AM)
It may not be to your taste but I doubt people who write "drivel" win the Man Booker Prize - twice. Just because you don't enjoy someone's style is no reason to say they don't have talent or to make ridiculous comparisons. I'm sure the books are boring to quite a few literate people and works of genius to others. But this doesn't make them inept. It just means people have different taste in literature.
Check back with us when your students are winning prestigious awards. -
austendw — 10 years ago(May 14, 2015 11:34 PM)
Precisely how fat is fat? The notion that Henry VIII was as thin as a whistle until his jousting accident of January 1536, after which he suddenly and quickly ballooned to prodigious girth, is not quite accurate. Here are the dimensions of some of his armour - which was worn quite snugly and therefore gives a good indication of his girth:
1515 - Silver engraved armour (aged 24) 34.7" waist; 41.7" chest
1520 - Armour for Field of Cloth of Gold (aged 29) 36" waist; 41.8" chest
1520 - Foot combat armour (aged 29) 37.9" waist; chest 44" chest;
1527 - Genouilhac Armour, NY (aged 36) 41.75" waist;
1540 - May Day armour, now in Leeds (aged 48) 51-52" wasit; 45.5 chest;
Note that in 1527, Henry already had a waist over 40 inches, so it is likely that, a full nine years later in 1536, he was bulkier still - even before he had his jousting accident. During the period that this series was set (1533-1536) he was no longer as svelte as people here suggest.
Call me Ishmael -
austendw — 10 years ago(May 18, 2015 01:05 PM)
Of course, having made the case, I should add one slight caveat, and that is that there seems to be a bit of doubt as to whether the so-called Genouilhac Armour in the Metropolitan really
was
made for Henry VIII. It now seems to be a toss up between Henry VIII himself and the French ambassador, Francois II de la Tour d'Auvergne, who visited England in 1527. In the tournament of that year, Henry wore "a newe harnes all gilte, of a strange fashion that had not bene sene", and in that same year, the king ordered "a suit of armor made for Turenne like his own." So the Metropolitan armour could be either of these two sets (
https://www.metmuseum.org/pubs/journals/1/pdf/1512628.pdf.bannered.pdf
). However, for our purposes it's probably academic: at the masque in May 1527 "the Kyng gaue to the viscont of Torayn, the maskying apparel that the kyng hym self ware" so Henry couldn't have been smaller than Tourenne otherwise his costume wouldn't have fit him. Whichever one of the two it was made for, the armour therefre indicates that Henry had put on a fair bit of weight by that year.
Call me Ishmael -
rideyourgreenbike — 10 years ago(May 18, 2015 03:39 PM)
I do believe I saw the Genouilhac Armour in the Metropolitan a couple of years ago. I have not been aware of the controversy around it. That is a fascinating article which I will read in more detail when I get the time.
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catbookss — 9 years ago(January 12, 2017 11:15 AM)
These measurements wouldn't have been the actual measurements of Henry. Aren't they of the various suits of armor themselves?
I may well be wrong, but even allowing for their being worn snugly, in clothes (made of cloth and innately having more give than metal), you have to have at least a 2" allowance in circumference. That's not counting for sitting on a horse, where one's waist is naturally somewhat larger in a sitting position versus standing, and it being important to be able to move well in order to be very physically active, whether jousting or in battle. -
sat-elite — 10 years ago(October 20, 2015 03:18 AM)
Only if his younger days are skipped. You can pad a slim actor to make him look fat, but there's no way to make a fat actor look slim.
Still more chance of that than Jonathan Rhys-Meyer being convincing as Henry.