Epping Forest

Not only was Epping Forest one of the many hunting forests for the royal Tudors it also had a special and tragic connection to Henry VIII. When Henry VIII was chasing Anne Boleyn they visited this forest together and probably went riding there together. They stayed at the hunting lodge Poteles once.

Henry VIII was especially fond of Waltham Abbey where he would stay whenever he went hunting in Waltham Forest. We know that he set out from Greenwich to Waltham Abbey with both Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn in May 1528. The next time Henry visited Waltham Abbey was in July 1529 but this time he was accompanied by Anne Boleyn alone - he also took her there on progress in 1532 during which they stayed for five days at the Abbey.

However, there is another more tragic connection to this doomed couple. In 1536 Henry VIII went to Epping Forest on May 19th. While he was staying here the sound of a canon being fired informed him that Anne Boleyn had been executed - the King was having his breakfast under the shade of a large tree. According to Moray's History of Essex the King cried out: "Away! Unkennel the dogs!" when he heard the bang.

Henry VIII hunting on the Morning of Anne Boleyn's Execution

The Tudors & Baths

Well, we all know that the hygiene was lacking (to say the least) at the court of the Tudors. But it appears from recently discovered documents that the Tudors bathed and washed more than we have thought so far. So, let's take a look at some of the Tudors - who were the clean ones and who skipped their baths?

But strangely enough, Henry VIII defied the health advises from the doctors and bathed! At Hampton Court Palace (Bayne Tower) he had a large tub installed which was the height of what technology could do: it was heated by a stove in the room next door and the hot water was led from there to the King's tub. Henry's wound his leg was constantly aching and the King chose to bathe in a mixture of herbs and musk - attempting to ease the pain.
The King even went so far as to take herbal baths - except when the sweating sickness was out.

Mary, Queen of Scots was also fond of bathing. According to rumours the Scottish Queen liked to bathe in wine!

Also Elizabeth I bathed frequently compared to her courtiers. It is reported that the Queen bathed at least once every month - and to her contemporaries that was almost too much! The Queen's sharpened sense of smell might have contributed to the frequent baths but Elizabeth still joins the league of the "clean" Tudors!

But of course, not everyone followed these royal examples as you can see from the following examples:

Anne of Cleves followed German traditions and hardly ever bathed. When she was engaged to Henry VIII her advisers allegedly had to work hard on convincing Anne that she had to bathe before she met the King.

Besides Henry VIII's bath tub at Hampton Court, the royal family also had access to bath tubs at the Tower and Windsor Castle. Henry VIII actually built yet another bathroom at Whitehall at the end of the 1540's.
Other courtiers would buy soap and scented water to clean their hands and douche their bodies. The very wealthy could even afford perfume to sprinkle on the body in an attempt to get rid off the smell.

Was Jane Seymour Henry VIII's Most Beloved Wife?

For many years it has been suspected that Henry VIII himself considered Jane Seymour his "true wife and Queen". Supporters of this theory points to two facts:
Henry had himself buried next to her and when he ordered a portrait painted of the Tudor dynasty so far, it was not the figure of his present wife, Catherine Parr, that appeared on the portrait next to him but Jane Seymour.

But was Jane the much-married King's favourite Queen and wife?

No, she probably was not. Before such a (well, rather drastic) statement is made it is important to look at the facts. Jane was the only wife that died before Henry VIII, whom he had not in some way already parted with. It is more likely that if Jane Seymour had lived after the birth - considering Henry's personality and marital past - she would eventually bore the King and he would tire of her.
And then there is the most vital thing in Henry's world: she gave him a son. For a man like Henry VIII this alone was enough to place her in a special position - but the affection probably did not stretch beyond the gender of their child. If Jane had died given birth to - yet another - girl then it would unlikely that Henry would ever have considered her the "love of his life".

So, it is likely that it was these two elements that made Jane Seymour as close to a perfect wife as possible: She had given him a son and then she had died at the height of his affection - before he could tire of her. But when you consider the way Tudor marriages worked, then there is a big difference between being a "good wife" and a "beloved wife". So far Jane had fulfilled her purpose as a good wife - but there is no evidence to support Henry's emotions towards his wife.

You just have to look to her predecessors to see the difference between Henry's (and the entire Tudor society) definition of a "good wife" and a "beloved" wife:
Catherine of Aragon was for almost 20 years a beloved wife of Henry VIII. Despite his adultery, he is said to have been genuinely loving her - until she "failed" in her job as a "good wife".

To be a "good wife" a woman had to be faithful, ever smiling and by his side and - most importantly - she had to give him a son. But after Catherine had had several stillborn sons and live sons who would quickly die, then she had not fulfilled the most important part of the Tudor period's version of a "good wife." And Henry's love began to fade.

When it comes to Anne Boleyn it is extremely unlikely that Henry was willing to get rid of a good and faithful wife, break with a church he believed in and turn half of Europe against him, for a woman he did not love. There is no reason to name all the proves of Henry VIII's love for Anne Boleyn but in the end she "failed" in the same task as her predecessor: she could not give him a son.

Sir Loyal Heart

Henry VIII had chosen the nickname "Sir Loyal Heart" for himself and when he participated in tournaments and jousts, he would go under this name. He invented this name for himself during his marriage to Catherine of Aragon - how ironic it must have been for the people at court to see "Sir Loyal Heart" first abandon one innocent wife and then behead another!

Coins of the Realms

The monarch was - and still is - the face of a monarchy's currency. That was the same in Tudor England and some of the coins have survived as a testimony to an age long gone by.

1. Coin from Henry VIII's reign
2. Early groat from Henry VII's reign
3. Elizabethan coin depicting the Queen and the Tudor rose
4. A golden coin from Mary I's reign. It depicts Mary on a ship carrying a sword and shield
5. Coin made during Henry VIII's marriage to Catherine of Aragon
6. A silver groat from the time of Mary I

Did the King have syphilis?

One of the longest-lasting rumours that has surrounded Henry VIII for centuries is related to his physique. Because did the infamous womanising King have syphilis?
Since the King was notorious - even at his own day - for his many casual liaisons with many different ladies it is possible that he had caught a disease. The rumour even states that Henry's syphilis may have caused the miscarriages of Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn and that the ulcer that plagued Henry throughout his life was a sign of the STD.

However, today the theory is no longer considered to be likely mainly because of the lack of evidences to support the statement. Also, syphilis was a well-known disease in the Tudor age and even if the King had had it, there would have been a cure.

So this is a rumour that we can quite safely say is untrue.

Henry VIII - Quotes

Despite the notorious life of Henry VIII, not many of his quotes have survived but those that have tells us a thing or two about the King's personality:

The Ugly Truth?

This is an engraving of Henry VIII not longer before he died. When this was made the King was married to Catherine Parr. Does the picture show the truth? If that is the case then Holbein obviously beautified the ageing King in his last portraits of him

Henry's Medical Paranoia

Henry VIII was extremely paranoid on many different areas and one of them was medicine. He distrusted his doctors and during his reign, he began mixing his own treatments which included a cure for ulcers - probably inspired by the nasty ulcer he had on his leg. The King even used the prescriptions he came up with for himself.

Henry was very afraid of illnesses and every time there was an outbreak of plague, sweating sickness or the like, the King would run away till one of his more secluded castles where he felt safe from the horrible diseases.

Henry had a fear of germs which led to another point that separated the king from the rest of his court: he enjoyed regular bathing and was - unlike his fellow Tudors - convinced that bathing was an effective way of keeping away the germs he feared so much. His fear of diseases where transferred to his son, Edward. When Henry finally had the son he had wished for, the King ordered that the child's apartments should be scrubbed down regularly and the boy himself was to be washed on a daily basis. Perhaps this overly attention to cleanliness combined with a world that did not share his point of view on this point and was notoriously filthy, a part of the reason for why Edward would be so sensitive to influenza later on in life. 

Book Theme: Henry VIII

Henry VIII is a symbol of tyranny and as the man who beheaded two of his six wives. But how was the man that would become a paranoid and suspicious King - and what was he like before? Hopefully, these books will give you a better insight into the best-known Tudor-king.

1) Henry VIII: The King and His Court by Alison Weir

2) The Autobiography of Henry VIII: with notes by his fool Will Somers by Margaret George

3) Henry VIII: Man and Monarch by Susan Doran

4) Henry VIII by David Loades

5) Young Henry: The Rise of Henry VIII by Robert Hutchingson 

6) Henry VIII: the Mask of Royalty by Lacey Baldwin Smith