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| 8 | <title>Primary Sources: A contemporary description of Henry VIII, 1515</title>
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| 20 | <p align="center"> <br>
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| 22 | <img border="0" src="1515.gif" alt="Primary Sources: 1515: A contemporary description of King Henry VIII" width="397" height="109"><p align="center"> </td>
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| 29 | <tr>
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| 30 | <td valign="top" width="48%" bgcolor="#FFFFE8"><font size="2">The accounts
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| 31 | at right were written by the Venetian ambassador to Henry's court.
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| 32 | They are among the most famous descriptions of Henry VIII and capture his
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| 33 | exuberance, vanity and wit.</font><p><font size="2">Henry VIII was born on
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| 34 | 28 June 1491, the second son of King Henry VII and Elizabeth of York.
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| 35 | He was originally destined to be archbishop of Canterbury, but his older
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| 36 | brother, Prince Arthur, died in 1502, shortly after marrying the Spanish
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| 37 | princess Katharine of Aragon. And so Henry became king of England at
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| 38 | the age of 18.</font></p>
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| 39 | <p><font size="2">He was strong, handsome, athletic and very intelligent.
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| 40 | The English people at first idolized him. His thirty-eight year
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| 41 | reign, however, disabused them of their early worship. Henry married
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| 42 | six times, executed two of his wives, was rumored to have poisoned one and
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| 43 | secretly ordered the death of another. He was increasingly mercurial
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| 44 | and tyrannical. He imprisoned or executed, or both, many of the
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| 45 | great nobles; he also executed several religious and intellectual leaders,
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| 46 | most famously Sir Thomas More.</font></p>
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| 47 | <p><font size="2">Much of the drama and confusion of Henry's reign was
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| 48 | caused by his pressing need for a male heir. His first marriage, to
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| 49 | his brother's widow, Katharine of Aragon, lasted over twenty years but
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| 50 | produced only a surviving daughter. In order to marry again, Henry
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| 51 | eventually rejected papal authority in England and named himself supreme
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| 52 | head of a new English church. This decision forever altered English
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| 53 | history; it also threw the English people into a social and religious
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| 54 | upheaval which superficially ended during Queen Elizabeth I's reign.</font></p>
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| 55 | <p><font size="2">As king, Henry was as efficient as his father, though
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| 56 | far more of a spendthrift. He effectively controlled Parliament and
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| 57 | chose brilliant advisers (first Wolsey, then Cromwell.) His foreign
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| 58 | policy was largely inconsequential, driven by his desire to interfere in
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| 59 | continental affairs. He remains one of the most famous and
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| 60 | influential kings in English history.</font></p>
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| 61 | <p> </p>
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| 62 | <p> </p>
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| 63 | <p> </td>
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| 64 | <td width="4%"></td>
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| 65 | <td valign="top" width="48%">
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| 66 | <p>After dinner, we were taken to the King [Henry VIII], who embraced
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| 67 | us, without ceremony, and conversed for a very long while very familiarly,
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| 68 | on various topics, in good Latin and in French, which he speaks very well
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| 69 | indeed, and he then dismissed us, and we were brought back here to London....
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| 70 | <br>His Majesty is the handsomest potentate I ever set eyes on; above the
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| 71 | usual height, with an extremely fine calf to his leg, his complexion very
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| 72 | fair and bright, with auburn hair combed straight and short, in the French
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| 73 | fashion, his throat being rather long and thick. He was born on the
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| 74 | 28th of June, 1491, so he will enter his twenty-fifth year the month after
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| 75 | next. He speaks French, English, and Latin, and a little Italian,
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| 76 | plays well on the lute and harpsichord, sings from book at sight, draws
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| 77 | the bow with greater strength than any man in England, and jousts
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| 78 | marvelously. Believe me, he is in every respect a most accomplished
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| 79 | Prince; and I, who have now seen all the sovereigns in Christendom, and
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| 80 | last of all these two of France and England in such great state, might
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| 81 | well rest content. </p>
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| 82 | <p>[And later that year....] His Majesty came into our arbor, and addressing
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| 83 | me in French, said: 'Talk with me awhile! The King of France, is
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| 84 | he as tall as I am?' I told him there was but little difference.
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| 85 | He continued, 'Is he as stout?' I said he was not; and he then inquired,
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| 86 | 'What sort of legs has he?' I replied 'Spare.' Whereupon he
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| 87 | opened the front of his doublet, and placing his hand on his thigh, said
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| 88 | 'Look here! and I have also a good calf to my leg.' He then told
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| 89 | me that he was very fond of this King of France, and that for the sake
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| 90 | of seeing him, he went over there in person, and that on more than three
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| 91 | occasions he was very near him with his army, but that he never would allow
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| 92 | himself to be seen, and always retreated, which his Majesty attributed
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| 93 | to deference for King Louis, who did not choose an engagement to take place;
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| 94 | and he here commenced discussing in detail all the events of that war,
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| 95 | and then took his departure....
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| 96 | <br>After dinner, his Majesty and many others armed themselves <i>cap-a-pie</i>,
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| 97 | and he chose us to see him joust, running upwards of thirty courses, in
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| 98 | one of which he capsized his opponent (who is the finest jouster in the
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| 99 | whole kingdom), horse and all. He then took off his helmet, and came
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| 100 | under the windows where we were, and talked and laughed with us to our
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| 101 | very great honor, and to the surprise of all beholders.
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| 102 | <br> <p align="center">
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| 103 | <font size=-1><a href="primary.html">to
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| 104 | Primary Sources</a></font></td>
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