28th June 2018
Today I’d like to send birthday wishes to a man I’ve spent an inordinate amount of time with… Henry Tudor was born today in 1491.
The future Henry VIII was the second son of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York, and never expected to be king. It was only after the unexpected death of his brother Arthur that Henry became the heir.
Though I’ve written extensively on Henry’s later life and his descent into tyranny, when he was crowned at eighteen years old everyone held high hopes for the golden prince. He was handsome, charming, he loved sport and he was well educated.
In this extract from The Constant Princess, Henry is 10 years old when Katherine of Aragon meets him for the first time:
“Catalina marched out barefaced, feeling both fearful and reckless at her own daring, and saw the duke’s men drawn up in array on the road and before them, a young boy: helmet off, bright head shining in the sunshine.
Her first thought was that he was utterly unlike his brother. While Arthur was fair-haired and slight and serious-looking, with a pale complexion and warm brown eyes, this was a sunny boy who looked as if he had never had a serious thought in his head. He did not take after his lean-faced father, he had the look of a boy for whom life came easily. His hair was red-gold, his face round and still baby-plump, his smile when he first saw her was genuinely friendly and bright, and his blue eyes shone as if he was accustomed to seeing a very pleasing world.
‘Sister!’ he said warmly, jumped down from his horse with a clatter of armour, and swept her a low bow.
‘Brother Henry,’ she said, curtseying back to him to precisely the right height, considering that he was only a second son of England, and she was an Infanta of Spain.
‘I am so pleased to see you,’ he said quickly, his Latin rapid, his English accent strong. ‘I was so hoping that His Majesty would let me come to meet you before I had to take you into London on your wedding day. I thought it would be so awkward to go marching down the aisle with you, and hand you over to Arthur, if we hadn’t even spoken. And call me Harry. Everyone calls me Harry.’”
Images: Henry VIII, by unidentified painter, c.1513, Berger Collection, via Wikimedia Commons. King Henry VIII, by unknown Anglo-Netherlandish artist, c.1520, NPG 4690, © National Portrait Gallery, London.
