Fit for a king?

‘Item one pece of Arras wrought with roses and Sonnes made in king Edwardes tyme lined with canvas conteyning in lengthe x yerdes and in depthe iiij yards three quarters’(9006). ¹ This entry highlights the fact that when Henry VIII (1509 – 47) came to the throne, he inherited a tapestry collection which included pieces that had been acquired primarily by Henry V (1413–22), his brother John, Duke of Bedford, Edward IV (1461 – 83) and Henry VII (1485–1509). By the time of his death in 1547, Henry VIII had developed the collection substantially by purchase of new and second-hand sets and by confiscation from individuals such as Cardinal Wolsey. This collection can be studied via the 1547 inventory of Henry’s possessions, which was taken after his death in January of that year (Starkey, 1998). Such a collection required and had a programme of maintenance and so this chapter seeks to demonstrate that many of the approaches current in tapestry conservation today were well established within the English royal household by the first half of the sixteenth century.