ABSTRACT

The papal nuncio, Francesco Chieregato, wrote to Isabella d'Este, describing the jousts held by King Henry VIII at Greenwich in July 1515: In short, the wealth and civilization of the world are here; and those who call the English barbarians appear to the author to render themselves such. The French ambassador Castillion described Henry VIII as 'a wonderful man and has wonderful people about him, but he is an old fox'. The emphasis that male dress placed on the shoulders, and the bulky image created by wearing layered clothing, turned Henry's increasing size into a virtue, ensuring that he presented an even more impressive and imposing figure at court. Henry's physical decline was charted in Goodwin's Annales of England and the Life of Herbert of Cherbury. A sense of Henry VIII's appearance can be derived from the descriptions of his physique, most of which date to the first 25 years of his 37-year reign.