Henry VIII: Man and Monarch, British Library, London (review)
You may be dimly aware of Henry VIII's 500th anniversary. It's not of his birth mind you, nor his death, but of his accession to the throne.
It's a measure of how great an impact his reign would have on the course of history that 1509, the year it all began, is being marked with not one but three major exhibitions across London. According to David Starkey, who has guest curated the British Library's superb show, life in England has never changed quite so fundamentally under one monarch as it did under Henry.
The story is hardly unfamiliar – the six wives, the devastation of the monasteries, the break with Rome. What Starkey sets out to show is not only how England changed because of Henry, but also how drastically Henry changed in the course of his life. For Starkey, biography is the key to history.
In the first of three accompanying lectures last week – if there are tickets for the remaining two, seize them – Starkey, glass of claret in hand, described the 17-year-old Henry, who unexpectedly acceded the throne after his brother's death. He was a diligent student brought up, unusually, in the company of women. That's not who we think of when we think of Henry VIII – the bloodthirsty bruiser standing squarely in Holbein's canvas. Then again we know he composed music as a youth – think "Greensleeves" – and from early on was noted to have star quality. When paid a visit by Erasmus, the revered philosopher, Henry teased him for not remembering to bring a Latin prayer book, the traditional gift to bring a prince.
Henry was well-educated: we see how he was taught to write by his mother, devoured the classics and French romances, and was taught English military history by his tutor, the poet John Skelton. Here is his "bede", a portable prayer roll never before seen in public, which seems to settle the question of whether Henry was devoted as a young man. There are his school books, complete with annotations in the margins. Much later in the show – and there's a lot to get through – we see Henry's scrawls in the margin of a theological paper prepared for him by Hugh Latimer, in which he roundly puts down the bishop with a quote from the Distichs of Cato. Not just a scholar, he was also a keen jouster, later elevating many of the sparring partners from his youth to the court. A highlight of the show is an old jousting score sheet, as complicated as any cricket score book.
The exhibition is chronologically arranged, with dates usefully inlaid in the floor, and we get a strong sense of the evolution of the man as we take in the ephemera of his life...
Read entire article at Independent (UK)
It's a measure of how great an impact his reign would have on the course of history that 1509, the year it all began, is being marked with not one but three major exhibitions across London. According to David Starkey, who has guest curated the British Library's superb show, life in England has never changed quite so fundamentally under one monarch as it did under Henry.
The story is hardly unfamiliar – the six wives, the devastation of the monasteries, the break with Rome. What Starkey sets out to show is not only how England changed because of Henry, but also how drastically Henry changed in the course of his life. For Starkey, biography is the key to history.
In the first of three accompanying lectures last week – if there are tickets for the remaining two, seize them – Starkey, glass of claret in hand, described the 17-year-old Henry, who unexpectedly acceded the throne after his brother's death. He was a diligent student brought up, unusually, in the company of women. That's not who we think of when we think of Henry VIII – the bloodthirsty bruiser standing squarely in Holbein's canvas. Then again we know he composed music as a youth – think "Greensleeves" – and from early on was noted to have star quality. When paid a visit by Erasmus, the revered philosopher, Henry teased him for not remembering to bring a Latin prayer book, the traditional gift to bring a prince.
Henry was well-educated: we see how he was taught to write by his mother, devoured the classics and French romances, and was taught English military history by his tutor, the poet John Skelton. Here is his "bede", a portable prayer roll never before seen in public, which seems to settle the question of whether Henry was devoted as a young man. There are his school books, complete with annotations in the margins. Much later in the show – and there's a lot to get through – we see Henry's scrawls in the margin of a theological paper prepared for him by Hugh Latimer, in which he roundly puts down the bishop with a quote from the Distichs of Cato. Not just a scholar, he was also a keen jouster, later elevating many of the sparring partners from his youth to the court. A highlight of the show is an old jousting score sheet, as complicated as any cricket score book.
The exhibition is chronologically arranged, with dates usefully inlaid in the floor, and we get a strong sense of the evolution of the man as we take in the ephemera of his life...