Lives, loves and scandals - History series that takes an intimate look behind the closed doors of one of the most celebrated royal dynasties in British constitutional history - The Tudors.
Henry VIII - Rise of a Dynasty:
Armed with fresh research, historian Tracy Borman reveals the truth about everything from the Tudor bedding ceremony to Henry VIII's affairs.
Watch Complete Series: https://dailymotion.com/playlist/x8r9n4
Henry VIII - Rise of a Dynasty:
Armed with fresh research, historian Tracy Borman reveals the truth about everything from the Tudor bedding ceremony to Henry VIII's affairs.
Watch Complete Series: https://dailymotion.com/playlist/x8r9n4
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00:00The Tudors are the most famous royal family in English history.
00:10The five Tudor monarchs ruled in England for nearly 120 years, and they made the country
00:16one of the most powerful sovereign states of the age.
00:20Each of the Tudor kings and queens had their own individual public personas, the ones they
00:25wanted their subjects to see.
00:28But what went on behind these closed doors?
00:34We'll show you how they lived, loved, and died.
00:38We'll take a peek into the corridors of power, the grand courts, the royal bedchambers, and
00:44even the kitchens to see how they ate, had sex, dressed, and yes, even how they used
00:53the royal toilets.
00:55Welcome to the private lives of the Tudors.
01:26Hampton Court is a palace steeped in the history of England's kings and queens.
01:31But almost 50 years before this magnificent building became a royal residence, the foundations
01:37of the Tudor dynasty were being laid at the Battle of Bosworth Field.
01:55The Battle of Bosworth was the last significant battle of the Wars of the Roses, the civil
02:00war between the houses of Lancaster and York that raged across England in the latter half
02:06of the 15th century.
02:09Fought on the 22nd of August, 1485, the battle was won by the Lancastrians.
02:15Their leader, Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond, by his victory became the first Tudor monarch
02:22of England.
02:23Henry VII was something of a rank outsider.
02:26He'd been in exile for 14 years in France during the conclusion of the Wars of the Roses
02:31and the reign of Edward IV.
02:33No one really expected him to become king.
02:35And at the Battle of Bosworth, he surprisingly became the victor, on circumstances almost
02:40against the odds.
02:42Well, Henry VII, or Duke of Richmond as he then was, won the Battle of Bosworth against
02:49Richard III, the last of the Yorkist kings, and he then was elected, effectively, King
02:57of England, because he really wasn't the true king, according to bloodline.
03:03The dynasty is born at Bosworth Field, insofar as they bring the crown from the corpse of
03:10Richard III and hand it to the king.
03:14But that is taken as token of his coronation.
03:18He's won the crown, as it were, by feet of arms, which was one of the medieval ways of
03:25recognising kingship.
03:34One of Henry VII's first acts as king was to marry Elizabeth of York, the niece of his
03:40dead enemy, Richard III.
03:42It was a political marriage, designed to unite the houses of Lancaster and York and to put
03:48a stop to the civil wars that had plagued the country for so many years.
03:53But to guarantee peace and stability, Henry needed to father a male heir, a boy of both
03:59Yorkist and Lancastrian blood.
04:02DRUM BEATS
04:11Even though Henry VII has been seen as a dour and conservative king, it's probable that
04:18he got his wife pregnant before the marriage.
04:22Maybe he wanted to see if she was fertile, but it's also possible that he believed that
04:27if he bedded Elizabeth early, she was more likely to conceive than on the wedding day itself.
04:39The Catholic Church also played a major role in people's bedroom habits.
04:45Sex was to be strictly confined to marriage and for the sole purpose of reproduction.
04:51Among their many rules, the Church strictly forbade sex during Lent, Advent, feast days,
04:58fast days, Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays.
05:04But despite the many restrictions placed upon married couples, it was also considered imperative
05:10that the woman found the experience an enjoyable one.
05:16There were a good number of early medieval texts that survive, containing recipes and
05:20information about conception and childbirth, but there was a major one that was introduced
05:24during Tudor times and translated into English.
05:27This contains diagrams of foetuses in the womb and also information about pregnancy,
05:34including the idea that the seed mingled in the womb for the man and the woman and that
05:38there were different methods of conceiving boys and girls, such as lying on the left-hand
05:42side for a boy and on the right-hand side for a girl.
05:47The thing about sex in Tudor England was that you were supposed to enjoy it if you wanted
05:52to get the woman pregnant, so that's good news for women.
05:56The bad news was that when you got married, you had to promise to be bon air and buxom
06:02in bed, which basically meant you were supposed to be up for it every time your husband fancied it.
06:08If there was an issue that the woman was uncomfortable or unhappy during sex, then they did believe
06:13that it was less likely that she was able to conceive.
06:15Female enjoyment seemed to be the seat of conception to them, and so it does strike
06:23us as being a fairly modern concept that female pleasure was important, but actually at the
06:29time, Tudor men understood that if they wanted to make a woman pregnant, then they did need
06:34to attend to her needs, and a few books reference this, suggesting the way in which a man should
06:39arouse a woman, touching her in certain ways, so that she was receptive and would enjoy the process.
06:51Here at Hever Castle, in the English county of Kent, is a very special and unique piece
06:57of furniture. This beautifully ornate four-poster bed was recently discovered during the renovation
07:04of a hotel in the historic English city of Chester. Research and DNA analysis appears
07:12to confirm that this long-lost treasure was once Henry VII's bed. The carvings depict
07:19Henry and his wife Elizabeth as Adam and Eve, along with medieval fertility symbols such
07:25as acorns and grapes.
07:28Henry had this bed specially made and at great expense. That's because it wasn't just he
07:34and his wife who would see it, but the entire court. It was customary in Tudor times for
07:40a royal couple to go through what was known as a bedding ceremony. All of their courtiers
07:46would accompany them to the bedroom and put them to bed. They wanted to make sure that
07:52the marriage would be consummated.
07:58Almighty God, bless the union of this royal couple, Henry VII of England and Elizabeth
08:06of York. Bring them forth is you that will keep this nation safe from now until the ending
08:15of the earth. Praise be to God.
08:20Marriage, to be considered valid, had to be the exchange of oaths and the consummation
08:28of the marriage. And so it was vital that everyone realised that the consummation of
08:34the marriage had taken place. And one way of doing that was through the ritual of the
08:38bedding ceremony. After the banquets, which had taken place after the ceremony, the couple
08:46would be accompanied by witnesses, in the case of a king, by courtiers, and there would
08:52be a procession of singing, sometimes trumpet playing, that would accompany the young couple
08:57to the bedchamber.
09:03When they were in the bedchamber, the bed and themselves would be blessed by a priest
09:08and the curtains would be drawn and then the witnesses would wait outside hoping to hear
09:13sounds that meant that the consummation of the marriage had taken place.
09:25But just in case this still wasn't proof enough, they had an even more public and graphic way
09:32to show that the deal had been sealed.
09:37The phrase we have, airing the dirty linen, actually came from this idea of showing the
09:42bedsheets the morning after the wedding, and they might have been stained by the blood
09:46of the bride who had lost her virginity on the night of the wedding, and made public
09:50so that people knew that this act of consummation had taken place, and therefore the marriage
09:55was a valid one.
10:03Elizabeth of York went on to have seven children, which is a lot by modern standards, but average
10:10in Tudor times. But childbirth for any woman was fraught with dangers, and it's sobering
10:16to think that life expectancy for a woman at the time was just 35 years.
10:24Giving birth in Tudor times was an event fraught with danger. As many as one in three women
10:31would die in the process. But how would a woman even know that she was pregnant at all?
10:37Well, as today, the key indicator was her urine, and doctors would take a sample of
10:46an expectant mother's urine, and they would examine it closely, because what they were
10:52looking out for was a change in its normal colour. If it was paler than normal, then
10:59that was a possible indication of pregnancy. But there was a rather more bizarre test for
11:06pregnancy.
11:11This involved taking a needle, and this needle would be cast into the sample of urine and
11:21left overnight. Then the following morning, the doctor would examine the state of the
11:27needle, and to quote from the contemporary manual,
11:31If it be coloured with red spots, she hath conceived. But if it be black or rusty, then
11:40she hath not. Well, unsurprisingly, with tests as unreliable as these, most women found it
11:47very difficult to tell if they were really pregnant, and they had to wait for the physical
11:52manifestations of pregnancy, such as putting on weight or feeling the child move, which
11:58was known as quickening. But there was no way for them then to monitor the health of
12:04their unborn child, so they had to rely on the knowledge of altogether more experienced
12:10women.
12:15Midwives were often there to supervise during a woman's labour. They were usually vastly
12:20knowledgeable and hugely experienced in helping mothers give birth, and in dealing with the
12:25complications that sometimes arose. But even they, on occasions, got it wrong.
12:31One of the things a midwife would do would be to try and manually dilate a woman. That, I
12:37suppose, looked like a good idea, in theory you were speeding things up, but really the
12:42early stages of childbirth need to be left alone, and so you could damage a woman doing
12:47that. Another thing a midwife might do would be actually pressing down on the woman's
12:53abdomen to try and help push the baby out. Again, that can do a lot more harm than good.
12:59If things really get bad, and you realise you're not going to be able to get the baby out
13:05just with the woman pushing, they didn't have forceps at this time, they hadn't been
13:09developed yet, so the only option was to put hooks into the baby and just pull.
13:17That obviously killed the baby, and often tore the woman inside as well, and even if
13:23that in itself didn't kill the woman, you were very, very likely to get infections as
13:28a result, so you would almost certainly die then.
13:33Despite the many risks, there was still huge pressure on women to keep bearing children.
13:42It was the responsibility of aristocratic and royal women to bear as many children as
13:46possible, and so we end up with families from anything between 8 up to 13 or 14 children.
13:53However, this did mean that there was still a lot of pressure on women to keep bearing
13:588 up to 13 or 14 children. However, this did mean that women were out of action for
14:05a while, so amongst aristocratic circles, babies were given out to wet nurses, and they
14:11were fed by these nurses, suckled, in order for the woman to get her fertility back more
14:17quickly. She'd therefore be able to conceive again more quickly, and also able to resume
14:22her duties.
14:29Henry and Elizabeth did produce a male heir in the form of their eldest son, the often
14:35forgotten Prince Arthur. In 1501, at the tender age of 15, Arthur was married to Catherine
14:42of Aragon, daughter of the mighty Spanish monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella. And it would
14:49be the controversy of what happened on their wedding night that would tear England apart
14:55during the reign of Arthur's brother, Henry VIII.
15:02But in 1502, with the royal nursery filled with heirs, and Henry at last beginning to
15:08feel more secure on his throne, disaster struck. Prince Arthur suddenly died just months
15:14after marrying Catherine of Aragon. Some said that the exertions of the marriage bed had
15:20taken their toll on this sickly young man, but it's more likely that he had fallen
15:25prey to the sweating sickness.
15:32The sweats, or the sweating sickness, used to be thought of as the 16th century form
15:37of influenza, but historians are now beginning to think that there were two possible pathogens
15:42that were rather different. The first is that it could have been anthrax, and the second,
15:47which I think is more interesting and more likely, is that it was part of the hanthavirus,
15:53which was transmitted through the inhalation of the excrement of rats.
16:01It very likely was a virulent form of flu, and it did go for people who were young and
16:07healthy. The symptoms of the sweating sickness are very similar to flu, so high temperature,
16:15sweaty, sore throat, all that kind of thing. It did kill very quickly. They said you could
16:21be merry at breakfast and dead at supper.
16:30This mysterious and deadly illness struck fear into the hearts of Tudor society. Mere
16:36rumour that a case of the sweats had been discovered was enough to panic people into
16:41fleeing their homes for safety, but for Prince Arthur, there was no escape.
16:47The loss of Prince Arthur was a terrible blow to the royal family. He was given so much
16:55attention as the royal prince who would succeed his father. I don't think Henry VII thought
17:02a great deal of his second son, Henry VIII, to be, and once Arthur died, all the hopes
17:10of the Tudor succession was on this one child, so it was a dreadful thing for the royal family,
17:17both in personal terms and in political terms.
17:24The scale of the public mourning, the scale of the funeral, are indicative that this has
17:29been a serious trauma, but equally, they still have a male heir, and on that alone, the dynasty
17:39can feel secure.
17:50After Arthur's untimely death, his younger brother Henry became first in line to the
17:55crown, and when his father died in 1509, he duly succeeded to the throne of England.
18:03He was handsome, charismatic and athletic. When Henry VIII burst onto the scene, he presented
18:11a dramatic and very welcome contrast to his dour old father. Henry was instantly loved
18:18by the people. He was the king they had always wanted.
18:24Majesty, I am your humble servant.
18:28Majesty, I am your humble servant.
18:31Henry VIII, as Duke of York, was the spare tyre, as it were, so of course he had a very
18:39fine education, a princely education, but there was no expectation until the death of
18:44Arthur that he would be a king.
18:50Once his brother had died, he knew that he would one day become king, and that's when
18:55the serious business really started, the question of his marriage, and also looking
18:59to his education, expanding that so that he'd be prepared as a future king.
19:05Henry's the epitome of the Renaissance prince. He idolises Maximilian I, the Holy Roman Emperor,
19:11who's a bit older than him but is an accomplished rider, statesman, warrior, and that's what
19:17Henry wants to be. He wants to be seen to be a man of action. He's also phenomenally
19:21wealthy, he's by all accounts very, very handsome, so he's the true Renaissance prince
19:27and he really throws himself into the role.
19:30He seems to have bridled against some of the restrictions that Henry VII placed upon him,
19:35and we see some of that exuberance coming out following his father's death when he
19:39finally did become king at the age of 17.
19:43MUSIC
19:49Henry VII's frugal reign meant that English coffers were overflowing,
19:55but to the young Henry VIII, there was no point in having money unless you spent it.
20:01One of his many extravagances was the royal wardrobe.
20:06He spent lavishly on clothes made from the finest material from all around the world.
20:12But naturally, as king, Henry never dressed himself. There were others to do that for him.
20:19Mark Griffin is a historical consultant and specialist interpreter of Tudor period dress.
20:26Well, the king, of course, had a lot of servants, but his most trusted were the grooms of the body,
20:32the grooms of his wardrobe, those are the people that are dressing him.
20:35And if you're helping Henry dress, then you have his ear, you can influence your family's
20:41advancement, you can talk about policy, so it's actually an incredibly coveted position to be in.
20:51The grooms, or esquires of the body, were often the sons of prominent noblemen and the gentry,
20:57personally selected by the king himself. The role was highly sought after,
21:02because those who held it often rose to prominent and influential positions.
21:08Put simply, it was their job to make sure King Henry looked his very best every day.
21:15The king was known for changing his clothes very regularly.
21:19One ambassador calls him a king of a thousand slippers. He's always showing off.
21:25And, of course, king is wearing the most expensive clothing in Europe.
21:31He's wanting to show people that he can afford the best, he can afford lots of the best.
21:37So, take this jacket here. This is silk velvet that's come all the way from China.
21:44It's gold thread. There's taffeta on here, which has actually got metallic gold thread woven into it as well.
21:50And he's got loads and loads of different clothes of different colours, all sorts of different materials for different occasions.
21:56And he's got to be seen to look as fantastic as possible.
22:02Men were also expected to portray their masculinity through their physical appearance.
22:08And this would mean that they wore beards. Beards were seen as being very manly in the 16th century.
22:14Had broad shoulders, so if they didn't naturally have broad shoulders, they would pad them out.
22:20And also they would have enlarged cod pieces that expressed their virility,
22:27was a marker that they were fertile and productive and manly.
22:41Each change of clothing is going to take the king 20 to 30 minutes at least, depending on what he's doing, where he is.
22:50So, servants would constantly be on hand to make sure he was looking as good as possible.
22:58The Tudors realised how important propaganda was and creating this image,
23:03this fantastic look that we see in all the Tudor portraits, did take some time.
23:08Not only is it all the cloth and the fine embroidery, this jacket in fact has got jewels hanging off of it as well.
23:15And that all adds to the time, but eventually the prestige and the look of the monarch.
23:22MUSIC
23:44The rise in the number of wealthy merchants and an increasingly affluent middle class
23:50made it more and more difficult for Henry to tell them and the aristocracy apart.
23:56To remedy this, he decided to introduce laws whereby class and privilege dictated what people could wear.
24:04These were known as statutes of apparel or sumptuary laws.
24:10MUSIC
24:13One of the main reasons for the sumptuary laws was to reinforce the strict pecking order in Tudor society.
24:20It simply wouldn't do for a member of the lower orders to be dressed better than their superiors.
24:26So Henry passed an act against the wearing of costly apparel.
24:33Now, this act set out a number of different rules according to your class.
24:38If you were a member of the royal family, then you could wear purple.
24:42Dukes were allowed to have cloth of gold woven into their coats.
24:46You had to be an earl to wear sable fur.
24:49And if you were a knight or a lord, you could wear imported wool.
24:54But the punishment for dressing above your social rank could be severe.
25:00On the one hand, you could be fined or have your property confiscated.
25:04But on the other, you might even face death.
25:17It's surprising, perhaps, that few items of clothing belonging to Henry survive today.
25:23Luxury cloth and imported fabric were so expensive that they were often reused and recycled over the years
25:31to keep up with changing fashions.
25:34But here at Hampton Court Palace, I've come to meet collections curator Ellery Lynn,
25:40who's agreed to show me a very rare and special item that's held in their stores.
25:49So these stores contain 10,000 items.
25:5210,000 items. I had no idea it was that many.
25:55Absolutely. Well, they vary from accessories all the way up to whole ensembles and gowns.
26:00But each of them tells the story of our palaces and the people who lived in them.
26:05I can't wait to see it. I have a feeling it's going to be something quite special.
26:08It's one of Historic World Palace's treasures, but we're going to need gloves.
26:13Absolutely. Now, I'm getting very excited for the big reveal,
26:19because, of course, we're talking about the Tudors.
26:22Now, Tudor items of clothing are exceptionally rare.
26:26They are.
26:27So do you have something Tudor for me?
26:29Not only is it a Tudor object, but it may very well have been worn by Henry VIII himself.
26:34That makes it incredibly rare, doesn't it?
26:36One of only one or two objects in the world that has got an association with Henry VIII himself.
26:43That is astonishing. What a thing of beauty.
26:48It is a beautiful hat, and the survival is incredible.
26:52We have had it scientifically dated, and it dates correctly to that period.
26:57The wool stuffs and the dye stuffs all date to the late medieval and early modern period, which is fantastic.
27:07Can I hold it?
27:08Yes, of course.
27:09Obviously very carefully.
27:11I am holding in my hands what may well have been worn by our most famous king, Henry VIII.
27:18What a survivor, because, am I right in thinking, we don't actually have many of Henry's clothes.
27:24He had thousands of clothes.
27:26And yet, this is one of the only examples to survive.
27:33It sort of exploded a myth for me, because the typical portraits of Henry, he is wearing a black beret, it looks like.
27:41It is a bit dowdy.
27:43This is something else, isn't it?
27:45It is bright, kind of pink colour, lovely green ostrich feather.
27:49You would have seen him coming in this.
27:51It is really unexpected, because the portraiture is full of these black velvet berets.
27:56As embellished as they are, they all look fairly similar.
28:00But we know from written records that they were wearing many more colours than just the black velvet.
28:05They were wearing scarlet and green and yellow.
28:08And they were all highly embellished with gold and jewels and feathers of all different colours.
28:14So this is a typical sort of survival of that period.
28:19So would this have had jewels on it as well?
28:22It would, it would absolutely.
28:24So you can see on the ostrich feather there is a sort of small silver braid button here, which would have really shone and sparkled.
28:31But also around the edge here are evenly positioned holes, which have been punched through,
28:38which were probably for attaching gems and jewels and hat patches and pins and that sort of thing.
28:44So it would have looked even more colourful and extravagant.
28:51Well, what a treasure and actually what a privilege to literally be getting my hands on Henry VIII in this way.
29:00But for Henry, there was a more pressing need than simply looking good.
29:05He had to produce a legitimate male heir.
29:09But to do that, he first needed to take a wife.
29:14It was decided that he would marry his brother's widow, Catherine of Aragon.
29:19Henry was very fond of Catherine, and he wrote to his future father-in-law
29:24assuring him that he thought so highly of her that even if he was to marry her,
29:29he would not marry her.
29:31He would not marry her.
29:33He would not marry her.
29:35He would not marry her.
29:37And he wrote to his future father-in-law assuring him that he thought so highly of her
29:42that even if he was still free, he would choose her above all others.
29:51They were suited on so many levels, intellectually, culturally.
29:55They were both raised to be king and queen and they were very affectionate towards each other
29:59and they lived in this world of chivalry in which Henry was so loyal heart
30:04that he was just in carrying her favours in the lists.
30:11The early marriage seems to have been a great success.
30:14She was crowned alongside him.
30:17They obviously slept regularly together because she became pregnant.
30:21He treated her with great respect.
30:24He treated her in chivalric terms as the lady who inspired him
30:28at tournaments and in court spectacles.
30:31There is no evidence at all that they had a strained relationship.
30:42Over the next 10 to 15 years, their marriage seemed to be a happy one.
30:47But a tragic series of miscarriages and stillbirths had left Henry without a male heir.
30:56He is used to having what he wants
30:58and the fact that everybody gives him what he wants
31:00and he can't have this thing, he therefore looks around,
31:04like a child does, an angry child, to blame somebody
31:08because it can't be anything to do with him.
31:10It couldn't possibly be anything to do with him.
31:12He is constantly being told and believes that he is the perfect king.
31:17So I think not having a son is a disappointment.
31:25If anyone was seen as responsible it would have been the mother
31:29but then all sorts of things were thought to affect things like miscarriages or birth defects.
31:36So, for example, the sight of something frightening
31:40could be seen as bringing about a birth defect in your child.
31:47If we had a stillbirth then the woman must have done something wrong,
31:50eaten something wrong.
31:52There were lots of superstitions whereby miscarriages could be attributed
31:57such as a woman tiptoeing through the May dew
32:00or looking up at the moon or eating the wrong kind of food.
32:06When it came to the royal family, when a child was stillborn,
32:10we know in the case of Henry VIII that he blamed God.
32:14God was responsible and the reason why he was responsible
32:17was because Henry and Catherine had carried out this terrible sin
32:21of going against scriptures in marrying when Catherine had previously been married to Prince Arthur.
32:39From a total of six pregnancies only one of Henry and Catherine's children survived,
32:44the Princess Mary.
32:46Although she was not the son he had hoped for,
32:49Henry doted on his daughter
32:51and invested a great deal in her education and upbringing.
32:55By the standards of the day, he was a good father,
32:59but as a husband, Henry was less than faithful.
33:11Henry did resort to other women,
33:13particularly when Catherine of Aragon was pregnant.
33:16It was a common belief at the time that men did need to have regular sex
33:20in order to purge the build-up of fluids, to keep them healthy.
33:24And so while Catherine was out of action,
33:27literally in confinement or during her pregnancy,
33:30it was not thought a good idea for her to indulge in sex with her husband
33:34because this could damage the foetus.
33:37Therefore, it was a logical deduction for the Tudor mind
33:40that a man could seek some sort of comfort elsewhere.
33:47One affair we certainly do know about was with a woman named Elizabeth Blount.
33:52Known as Bessie, she was one of the Queen's Maids of Honour,
33:56personally selected by Catherine herself,
33:59which must have made it all the more painful
34:02when Catherine discovered that Bessie was pregnant with Henry's child,
34:06a boy who would be named Fitzroy.
34:10Blount is not disgraced, she's not pushed out of the Queen's household.
34:14She sort of retires gracefully, but she's received by the Queen
34:18and continues to be received by the Queen.
34:20The suggestions that do pop up from time to time
34:24that maybe Henry Fitzroy will be married to the Princess Mary
34:28and therefore create a sort of Tudor descent
34:32isn't completely ludicrous.
34:40Far from denying the existence of his illegitimate child,
34:44Henry gave him the name Fitzroy, which literally means son of the king.
34:50He ensured the boy was well cared for, given the best education
34:54and groomed for a life of privilege.
34:57It's even thought that Henry considered passing the crown to Fitzroy
35:02in the event of him not producing a legitimate son.
35:07If we look at royal marriages,
35:09everyone knew that the kings had mistresses,
35:13so there was an acceptance of that.
35:16On the other hand, there was a deep unease about extramarital affairs.
35:21First of all, it was a sign that a king did not have self-control.
35:26Another problem about it was that bastards had no rights in law,
35:30and so there could always be problems associated with bastard children,
35:35or any other children.
35:44Over time, the royal marriage began to crumble
35:47as it became increasingly apparent to Henry
35:50that Catherine couldn't give him the son he so longed for.
35:53But there were other reasons that the marriage was in trouble.
35:58Catherine was some six years older than Henry,
36:02and by the time she reached the age of 40, it was beginning to show.
36:07Henry wanted someone younger, more vivacious and less pious.
36:12But above all, he wanted a wife who would give him a son.
36:19Henry probably met Anne Boleyn
36:21a few years after his affair with her sister Mary.
36:24She'd been away from court and returned, and she was very fashionable.
36:28She was the epitome of French style and culture,
36:31particularly in contrast with the very Spanish Catherine.
36:35The relationship with Anne Boleyn began around the time of 1526.
36:40We do know that their relationship was tempestuous.
36:43We do know that they were deeply in love,
36:46judging by his love letters to Anne at the beginning of the relationship,
36:50and he found her exciting and fascinating.
36:53Of that, I think there is no doubt.
36:57We know that he sent her presents, and she sent him some in return.
37:00One in particular was a silver image of a damsel in a ship
37:04tossed upon stormy seas.
37:06This might be a metaphor for her confusion,
37:09whether she was going to accept his advances or not.
37:23Henry lavished a whole host of expensive gifts on his new mistress,
37:29including, in 1532, some three dozen pieces of jewellery
37:35at a cost of ÂŁ100, which was worth a small fortune in today's money.
37:40The artist Hans Holbein also designed some pieces for the king's new love,
37:46and Henry himself was forever raiding the royal jewel house
37:51for the best items to present to her.
37:54He even went so far as to demand that his wife, Catherine of Aragon,
37:58hand over her own jewels to Anne.
38:01Well, sadly, none of Anne's jewels has survived today,
38:05not even her most famous piece, the necklace made from pearls
38:09with her initials set in gold.
38:12It's said that she passed this to her daughter Elizabeth,
38:16and that the pearls have even survived to this day
38:19and are set in the crown of our present queen.
38:29The sheer number of letters and gifts showered on Anne by Henry
38:34clearly show how infatuated he was
38:37with the seductive and cosmopolitan young beauty.
38:41He pursued her vigorously, but despite his passion
38:45and the fact that he was king,
38:47Anne refused to allow him to fully have his way with her.
38:53Traditionally, it's been believed that Anne did refuse to have sex with Henry
38:57until they were married.
38:59We're looking at a period of seven years.
39:01Do we really believe that Henry would have waited that long?
39:04It's likely that Anne gave him some sort of encouragement.
39:07I really don't believe that she held him off all that time.
39:10Obviously, she didn't fall pregnant,
39:12so they were possibly practising some sort of contraception,
39:15or that they were being intimate but stopping short of the full act
39:19to prevent a pregnancy outside marriage.
39:22But I think they must have been intimate,
39:24there must have been something going on to keep his interest,
39:27to keep him sustained for seven years.
39:35Henry may have been head over heels in love with Anne,
39:38but not everybody shared his enthusiasm.
39:43In many quarters, Anne's relationship with Henry was deeply unpopular.
39:48Catherine had a lot of supporters,
39:50and one of the arguments against the marriage
39:53was that Henry had already had a relationship,
39:56not just with Mary Boleyn, but with Anne's mother, Elizabeth.
40:00And over time, this accusation continued,
40:04and it was produced in print that Henry was this terrible lecher
40:09who had slept with mother and two daughters.
40:14MUSIC
40:20Over the years, there were many rumours
40:22concerning who Henry had been intimate with,
40:25but there was one person at court above all others
40:28who would consistently share the King's most private and personal moments.
40:35The groom of the stall was the most important member
40:39of Henry VIII's privy chamber.
40:41His job was to attend the King when he visited the clothes stall, or toilet.
40:47He would have to stand by until the King had finished,
40:50waiting patiently, and then ensure that his royal master was clean afterwards.
40:56But it wasn't always straightforward.
40:59Thomas Heniage, one groom of the stall,
41:01reported that on one occasion his royal master had had to have an enema,
41:06which was made from a pig's bladder filled with salt water
41:10that was inserted with a metal rod and left there for two hours.
41:16After which, Heniage reported, the King had enjoyed a fair siege.
41:25It might not sound very exciting,
41:29it might not sound very appealing, being groom of the stall,
41:33but it was actually one of the most prestigious jobs at court.
41:36That's because they got to spend more hours alone with the King than anyone else.
41:42They therefore became like informal advisers or confidants to Henry.
41:48And it's for that reason that the groom of the stall
41:51was the most sought-after position at Henry's court.
41:58The first gentleman of the privy chamber is an officer called the groom of the stool,
42:03which is basically the keeper of the King's toilet.
42:05It doesn't sound a very high function.
42:08But, of course, he's the one person who can go with the King absolutely everywhere.
42:13And wherever the King goes, he needs a clothed stool, he needs his groom.
42:17And that gentleman then becomes the first gentleman of the privy chamber.
42:21And so he's dignified with a title that hides the function.
42:26The function is then delegated.
42:28But the important thing is that that officer is the one who withdraws with the King
42:33when he sits on the toilet.
42:35And a lot of business can be transacted in that private world.
42:38To his registry! Many happy years!
42:47Henry's formative years had shaped him into the person that he'd become.
42:52As a young man, he was bold, outgoing and energetic.
42:57He could also be charming, generous and kind.
43:01But all of that was about to change.
43:04In the next episode of The Private Lives of the Tudors,
43:08we'll look at how a near-fatal accident seemed to change the King forever,
43:12from a lovable rogue into a cruel and paranoid tyrant
43:16whose kingdom was at the mercy of his failing health and turbulent love life.
43:46The Private Lives of the Tudors