June 28: Henry VIII

This date in 1491 saw the birth of King Henry VIII of England. Here are ten fascinating facts about him.

1. Henry was the second son of Henry VII and so it wasn't expected he would ever be king at all. His older brother Arthur was all set to inherit the throne, but died at the age of 15. Henry also had two sisters - Margaret, who married King James IV of Scotland, and Mary, who married Louis XII of France.
2. Henry became King of England on 21st April 1509 at the age of 17. His coronation was on 24th June 1509. His reputation for having people beheaded began just two days later, when he arrested his father's two most unpopular ministers, Sir Richard Empson and Edmund Dudley. They were charged with high treason and were executed in 1510.
3. He was extremely paranoid about catching diseases, in particular the plague and sweating sickness, which is understandable given the latter is what his brother died from. He left London for nearly a year to avoid an epidemic of sweating sickness and refused to see any ambassadors, or even his mistress of the time, Anne Boleyn, when she went down with it. There are limits to precautions, however - he kept on all the servants.
4. Henry VIII was six feet two inches tall, and despite the image we have of him as obese and unhealthy, for much of his life he was fit and athletic. Armour made for him in 1512 showed his waist measurement then as 32 inches. He was a hunter and a sportsman who much preferred to be outdoors engaged in sporting activities than ruling the country.
5. A jousting accident in 1536 put an end to Henry's sporting days. After that, he started piling on the pounds. By the time he died, it is thought he weighed about 28 stones (392 pounds or 178 kilograms) and had a 54 inch waist. Perhaps he became obese simply because he couldn't exercise so much, but there are other theories. One is that his accident damaged his Brain as well as his leg, and caused an endocrine disorder that made him fat, or that he was diabetic. As Henry grew fatter, so did his courtiers - they added padding to their clothes to imitate and flatter him.
6. Not only was Henry a sportsman, but he was well accomplished intellectually, too. He read and wrote English, French and Latin, and had a well stocked library and is known to have made notes in his books. He even wrote a book. It was called Defence of the Seven Sacraments (Assertio septem sacramentorum), was 30,000 words long and was published in 1521, in response to Martin Luther’s Ninety-five Theses, which challenged papal authority. A surprising choice of subject, perhaps, for a man who would later famously break with Rome in order to marry his mistress and break up all those monasteries. He was the first English king to write and publish a book — the Pope named him “Defender of the Faith” as a thank you. Henry kept the title even after his break with the Catholic church.
7. He was musical, too. He could sight read Music and play the lute, organ, and virginals. He composed and wrote music, though not, as is commonly believed, Greensleeves. He wrote a piece called Pastimes with Good Company.
8. Henry had four children which survived infancy. Edward, Mary, Elizabeth, and a son by one of his early mistresses, Elizabeth Blount, who was named Henry Fitzroy. The name Fitzroy means son of the king, and, in the absence of another male heir before Henry came along, a process was started to legitimize Fitzroy. However, Fitzroy died without an heir and his father outlived him. Henry's wives were known to have had strings of miscarriages and stillbirths, which suggests the problem lay with Henry rather than with them. There is a theory that Henry had a rare Blood group positive for the Kell antigen. If the king impregnated a woman, and the baby inherited Kell-positive status, the mother would build up Kell antibodies. Though the first pregnancy would likely not be affected, future Kell-positive fetuses would be attacked by those antibodies.
9. Henry VIII is the only English monarch to have ruled any part of Belgium. He captured the town of Tournai in 1513 which at the time was part of France. He returned it to France in 1518. He is also the monarch responsible for unifying England and Wales.
10. He died on 28 January 1547 at the age of 55 (a grand old age given the life expectancy of the time) on what would have been his father's 90th birthday. Henry's last words were "Monks! Monks! Monks!"