He is the notorious Tudor monarch who married six times, divorcing and executing wives in his relentless quest for a male heir. But we may have got Henry VIII wrong all these years, according to a leading historian.
Tracy Borman has discovered a fragile underside to the most famous and feared king in English history – through some of the men in his life. She has focused on the “servants, barbers, physicians, fools and other lesser-known characters whose job it was to attend to Henry’s every need”, many of whom have been mere footnotes in the history books until now.
She told the Observer that while Henry VIII has gone down in history “as a fairly one-dimensional, gregarious king-turned-monster who sent two wives to the block and divorced two others”, evidence relating to lesser characters in his life reveals a “vulnerable, insecure and loyal” man that goes beyond the tyrant of legend. That insecurity may partly explain why he behaved so monstrously, she concludes.
“A study of Henry through the eyes of the men, rather than the wives, has never been done before and offers a genuinely new perspective,” she said.
Our obsession with his six wives has led us to neglect a whole other side, suggests Borman. While “not painting him as a saint in any way”, she argues that he “just doesn’t deserve the caricature we’ve come to know and despise”. She said: “Henry was described by one man who he let into his confidence as being the most timid man you could meet. It blew me away because I’ve studied the Tudors for years, Henry in particular. I thought I knew him, but it was like meeting him for the first time when I looked at him through the eyes of his men.”
Borman is joint chief curator for the Historic Royal Palaces, the charity that manages Hampton Court and the Tower of London, among other sites. Her acclaimed books include Thomas Cromwell: The Untold Story of Henry VIII’s Most Faithful Servant. Research for a forthcoming book on Henry took her beyond high-profile figures to reveal a “hidden history” behind the Tudor throne. “Some have been underplayed, some have not been looked at at all,” she said.“They might be footnotes. They might have a line in a biography of Henry … I went back to the original sources and there they were,” she said.
Using household accounts and correspondence from courtiers in the National Archives, British Library and private collections, she found insights into Henry through such men as Will Somer, his jester, William Butts, his physician, and Thomas Cawarden, his master of revels. Her research into Somer revealed the king’s kindness: “Like most other court jesters of the early Tudor period, Somer was almost certainly someone with learning difficulties. Household accounts show he was appointed a ‘keeper’ to look after him, and Henry lavished unstinting care and attention upon him for the rest of his life.” His gifts included expensive clothing.
Borman was taken aback to find that Butts gave the king almost daily examinations over nearly 20 years. Of Henry’s physician, she said: “It’s not the picture we usually get of a relatively obscure household servant spending a lot of time with Henry VIII … Butts would tell Henry exactly what he thought, not just about his health ... not many people have heard of Butts and yet he was a very radical man in terms of religion. He probably influenced Henry towards the Reformation, just as much as the likes of Cromwell … there are letters from fellow courtiers, particularly those of a Catholic bent, who whinge about the fact that the king is spending all this time with a religious radical.”’
She found evidence of Henry’s loyalty through Cawarden, a fairly humble servant who staged magnificent entertainments that helped an embattled monarch recapture the glories of his youth. “Cawarden’s a footnote, if that ... what he did is not really covered at all,” she said. But Henry bequeathed him a generous legacy “in token of special love”.
The latest research will be included in Borman’s book, Henry VIII and the Men Who Made Him, published on 1 November by Hodder & Stoughton.
