Henry VII inherited a devastated economy and was therefore preoccupied with replenishing the coffers by careful budgeting and raising taxes, which earned him a reputation as austere and miserly. Henry VII was fiscally moderate and rarely indulgent, but he understood the power of display. He recognized the need to promote the magnificence of the monarchy, and he cultivated relationships with some of the finest European poets, philosophers and humanists of the age, some of whom were chosen as tutors for the king’s sons, Arthur and Henry, and helped shape the future king’s attitudes towards the arts. Musicians played in the dancing chambers and halls of Henry VII’s palaces while king and court feasted and played chess and cards. Henry VII, like his son, enjoyed the traditional courtly pursuits of hawking, hunting, bowls and archery, though his aim deteriorated along with his sight, once accidentally shooting a farmyard rooster – in the wrong place at the wrong time – with his crossbow.
To add a sense of mythology to his royal claim, he declared that he had traced his lineage back to the famous King Arthur, and the legend of Camelot permeated the court, with Henry and Elizabeth naming their first-born son after his illustrious forebear. Arthur would be followed by Henry, Duke of York, and two daughters, Margaret and Mary. The very future of the Tudor dynasty rested on Arthur’s shoulders. Henry VII was tremendously invested in Arthur’s education, ensuring he had the best tutors, and from the time he could walk he was kept separate from his siblings and received a royal education that would prepare him for kingship.
HEIRS AND SPARES
It was decided that young Prince Arthur, the heir to the English throne, would marry the young, auburn-haired princess Katherine of Aragon, daughter of the Spanish Empire’s ruling monarchs, Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon. Katherine represented the future: an England finally looking towards Europe. Katherine and Arthur were moved to Ludlow Castle, which stood near the English border with Wales, but the marriage was short-lived, as Arthur died six months into the marriage, possibly of tuberculosis. It is often stated that Arthur was sickly throughout his youth, but there is no contemporary evidence to support this theory, with several accounts noting his skill at archery, hunting and dancing.
Henry, now the heir, would go on to marry his brother’s wife, apparently certain that Katherine had never consummated her first marriage, and confident that a papal dispensation would be granted to allow it. Katherine and Henry VIII were married and crowned in 1509, both in love and destined to preside over a golden world. Their partnership lasted almost 20 years.
Yet for all his confidence, Mantel’s Arthur hovers, like a spectre at Henry’s feast, haunting the king. As we shall see, Katherine’s first wedding night will eventually be put under the microscope for the whole country to peer at, and the memory of Arthur conjured up before the court:
‘A ghost walks: Arthur, studious and pale. King Henry, he thinks, you raised him; now you put him down.’
Neither Wolsey nor Cromwell could have foreseen Henry’s complicated love life: he loved until he fell out of love, usually with alarming speed. He spent years trying to get his marriage to Katherine annulled as she could not produce a male heir; his second Queen, Anne Boleyn, might have been the love of his life, but she could not bear him a male heir either; his next great love was Jane Seymour, of whom we shall hear more later; she was followed by Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard and, finally, Catherine Parr – the latter two marriages occurring after Cromwell’s death.
Nor would anyone ever have imagined that of the three Tudor heirs – Mary, daughter of Katherine of Aragon; Elizabeth, daughter of Anne Boleyn; or Edward, son of Jane Seymour – only Elizabeth, who became monarch in 1558, would rule for more than a short time. This could only have happened with some tragedy and a few missteps in the family. When Henry died on 28 January 1547, the nine-year-old Edward VI was crowned King. Under Edward England experienced significant religious reforms, moving towards a modern Church of England, though there were signs that Edward might take after his father in terms of temperament. Sadly Edward died at the age of 15, but not before he rather arrogantly reversed his father’s order of succession and created his own in order to prevent the country’s return to Catholicism. Excluding his half-sisters, Elizabeth and Mary, Edward named Lady Jane Grey, the granddaughter of Mary Tudor and Charles Brandon, as heir to the throne. The country rebelled against this decision, having always loved Mary, and Jane was deposed by Mary nine days after becoming queen. Mary was the first Queen regnant of England and Ireland, though her reign was marred by civil and religious unrest, however, she does not deserve the title ‘Bloody Mary’. After only five years on the throne, Mary also died, and against all the odds it was Elizabeth, who had been declared illegitimate by her own father at the age of three, who held the sceptre. Elizabeth is only a baby in Bring Up the Bodies:
The child Elizabeth is wrapped tightly in layers. Ginger bristles poke from beneath her cap, and her eyes are vigilant; he has never seen an infant in the crib look so ready to take offence.
Elizabeth would rule England for 45 years, ushering in a glorious Golden Age and surpassing that of her father, but she had no Tudor heir to whom she was able to bequeath the throne – of Henry’s three children, none would further the family line.
Mantel’s Wolsey reviews the history laid out before him, Henry’s first marriage, meant to consolidate the Tudor’s glorious legacy:
‘And now? Gone. Or as good as gone: half a lifetime waiting to be expunged, eased from the record.’
(Wolf Hall)
After just over a century in power, Henry VIII’s direct line ended, but the Tudor line survived through the offspring of his sister, Margaret Tudor, who married King James IV of Scotland, of the Scottish house of Stuart. The throne of England passed to their son, James V of Scotland, continuing the Stuart dynasty, which was uninterrupted through to the 18th century, ironically enjoying greater longevity than the Tudors. Nevertheless, the Tudors remain one of the most extraordinary threads in the fabric of English history.
THE TUDOR COURT
We all know that there was a Court, and we all use the term with frequent ease, but we seem to have taken it so much for granted that we have done almost nothing to investigate it seriously.
(Geoffrey Elton)
There are countless fictional portrayals of the Tudor court, but what did it look like and how was it was structured? The Tudor court was essentially wherever the monarch, his household and retinue of high-ranking officials resided. It was the focal point of power, patronage and pleasure. But it was not a fixed location, as Henry VIII had numerous royal residences, and wherever he chose to reside became the court. Being constantly on the move allowed each palace to be cleaned, and eased pressure on the land and the various royal parks, allowing the game to be replenished. Henry VIII had over 60 estates; each palace and castle served as the seat of government while the king resided there. It might house thousands of individuals, from nobles and courtiers to servants. Wealthy and powerful families had their own apartments within the palaces, having furnished these rooms with their own tapestries and furniture. Crucially, these rooms also had their own closed stool, or privy, so individuals would not have to use communal facilities. Other courtiers had small rooms and would dine in public in the great hall.
Royal palaces were a maze of rooms, designed to restrict access to the king. Traditionally, the court was based on the centuries-old concept of a Great Hall – a single hall where the monarch heard petitions, consulted his advisors, feasted and danced. A slightly less public Presence Chamber was added, in effect a throne room, where business was conducted, foreign ambassadors would be admitted for an audience, and councillors would have state papers signed. The medieval system had these two chambers but Henry VII preferred the Italian model, which included private rooms for the monarch to conduct affairs of state in peace, uninterrupted by the court. Henry VII created the Guard Chamber, which was guarded by yeomen, as well as the innermost room within the Court, the Privy Chamber �
�� private royal apartments where only the select few where allowed to attend the king. These chambers were run by the Gentlemen of the Privy Chamber, who attended to the king’s every need, rising at dawn to help him dress, attending him throughout the day, and who would sleep just outside on pallets or folding beds. The Privy Chamber marked the private and public life of the monarch, and at the centre of this was the Groom of the Stool – he alone was permitted to enter the small room just off the bedchamber to attend the monarch’s ablutions, even wiping the royal bottom. We come to know Henry’s Grooms of the Stool, Henry Norris and Thomas Culpepper, very well through Cromwell’s eyes. Both men would have slept at the foot of the King’s bed, and in the morning would confer with the king to decide where he would hear Mass, when he wished to dine, and what activities he would like to pursue during the day. These decisions, made in the privacy of the inner sanctum, would ripple out towards the rest of the court, and set the palace in a flurry of activity.
Each palace consisted of two main divisions: the household proper, which was the domus providencie, presided over by the Lord Steward; and the domus regie magnificencie or ‘above stairs’, which was under the control of the Lord Chamberlain, and further sub-divided into the King’s household and the Queen’s household.
DOMUS REGIE MAGNIFICENCIE
This lay at the very heart of the Tudor court. Orbited by courtiers and members of the nobility and gentry, the Great Hall and chambers of court came under the jurisdiction of the domus regie magnificencie, where most fictional portrayals take place, and all the Tudor players can be located. Both chambers were bristling with individuals from either end of the spectrum, from gentlemen ushers, grooms, pages and chaplains to cupbearers. There was a strict and organized hierarchy as, for the most part, the whole court was always on show.
DOMUS PROVIDENCIE
The domus providencie was another world. Below stairs, this section was responsible for all practical elements of court life. The domus providencie was not one unit but rather several departments, all of which had their own hierarchy and head of operations, and these men would report to the Lord Steward. Departments included the almonry, bakehouse, cellar and kitchen, the acatry (which provided meat, fish and salt), the poultry (which provided fowl, lamb and eggs), the scullery (which took care of all the dishes and pots), the woodyard (which provided all wood for fires as well as wood for tables in the Great Hall), the spicery, the chaundry, and the confectionary (which was in charge of all the desserts and sweetmeats for the court).
COURT LIFE
It was essential that differences in rank were observed, and that everyone abided by the sumptuary laws, which dictated one’s life, from what one could wear and eat to what one could own. At court you were usually served two meals a day, dinner, served mid-morning after Mass, and supper, late in the afternoon. Your rank dictated how many dishes you could be served, and where you could be seated. In the Great Hall there were strict rules of dining etiquette. Each courtier provided his own utensils – a knife and spoon – with courtiers of higher rank also having a linen napkin, which they draped over their left shoulder. Courtiers could not blow their noses at the table, scratch themselves, break wind, spit or put bones back on a plate.
The Tudor diet was almost 80 per cent protein, but they also ate salads, cooked and raw vegetables, custards and fruit. Meals were divided into two courses, with the first offering a selection of boiled meats, and the second offering roasted or baked meats. During formal feasts or celebrations, each course was preceded by the entrance of a ‘subtlety’: artworks made from sugar or marzipan, depicting anything from castles, ships and cathedrals to entire battles or hunting scenes.
There were many religious feast days at court. On these occasions, the outer rooms were set up and feasting would carry on well into the night. But during Lent, the 40 days which preceded Easter, it was a different story. Meat was forbidden, with only fish allowed. We follow Cromwell in Wolf Hall as he enjoys, or perhaps endures, a Lenten supper at the house of his old friend, Antonio Bonvisi:
It will be the usual tense gathering, everyone cross and hungry: for even a rich Italian with an ingenious kitchen cannot find a hundred ways with smoked eel or salt cod.
After the first meal, Henry often liked to ride out into the royal parklands in search of game, and there are many instances in the series of Cromwell waiting for the king to return from a day in the royal parks or accompanying him on a hunt.
Summer: the king is hunting. If he wants him, he has to chase him, and if he is sent for, he goes.
(Wolf Hall)
Despite the luxuries and proximity to the king, and thus to favour, life at court was expensive. An air of success was crucial to maintain, from a courtier’s attire, how much they were willing to lose at the gambling tables, to their retinue and the breed of their horses. The higher you climbed, the more embellished your life became, and for many courtiers, the more debt you accrued. It was also important for young courtiers to be able to demonstrate their prowess: on the tennis court, at the tiltyard and on the hunt. It was Henry VII who revived the cult of chivalry, borrowing from the Burgundian tradition, and was determined to be seen by the rest of Europe as ruling over an opulent, flourishing court. Such themes were at odds with Henry’s thrifty nature, but a reputation for magnificence and wealth was equally important to project throughout the new Tudor reign, and he drew from old English myths and legends for inspiration. The royal residences boasted dancing chambers and halls where musicians played while king and court played chess, dice and cards. Archery, tennis and lawn bowls in the expansive gardens were also popular, and both Tudor kings invested in the royal parks, maintaining them and ensuring they were filled with game. Henry VIII was a keen hawker and jouster, holding elaborate tournaments, which were expensive thematic spectacles.
THE ROYAL PALACES
The Tudors were prolific builders, and their numerous estates, from the Tower of London to Nonsuch Palace, served as Tudor fortresses, royal nurseries, royal menageries and symbols of England’s wealth. They dominated the Tudor landscape, and even today as we walk the halls of what remains we can catch a glimpse of their lives.
THE TOWER OF LONDON
The Tower of London casts a long shadow over Mantel’s series. The huge stone White Tower or castle in the centre of the precinct was built by William of Normandy as a fortress after his invasion in 1066. It was already over 400 years old by the Tudor reign. It was not designed to be a beautiful ornament for the capital, but rather a symbol of Norman might and power. It became a grand royal palace to which various monarchs added surrounding apartments and a defensive wall with watchtowers, and it was used as a royal armoury, treasury, menagerie, and the home of the Royal Mint and the Crown Jewels of England. From the 15th century onwards its chief role was that of a royal prison although, traditionally, monarchs spent the night in royal lodgings at the Tower prior to their coronation. The Tower would witness countless deaths throughout the centuries, right up until 1941.
NONSUCH PALACE
Nonsuch Palace, so called as it was believed no such place could ever exist, was by far the largest of Henry VIII’s building projects. It was commissioned in 1538 to mark the birth of his only son and heir, Edward VI, though he also secretly wanted a palace to rival Francis I’s much admired Château de Chambord in the Loire Valley. The reputedly magnificent Nonsuch Palace was unique in that it was an entirely new project, and was built from the ground up to showcase Henry’s love of lavish Renaissance architecture. While it remained unfinished even at the time of Henry’s death, it was one of the finest buildings of the century, but would unfortunately be dismantled during the reign of Charles II.
HAMPTON COURT
It was Cardinal Wolsey who in 1515 purchased Hampton Court, transforming it from a country estate to a magnificent palace where he could entertain the king and his court. It was the very symbol of Wolsey’s artistic tastes and of his wealth, from the majestic state apartments that he built for the king, i
ts lavishly furnished rooms and the hundreds of European tapestries that adorned its many, many walls (and were changed every week) to its beautifully manicured gardens. Ambassadors who were housed there wrote of Hampton Court in the most glowing terms, and his palace was the envy of Europe. Likely inspired by the Bishop of Urbino, Paolo Cortesi, who wrote De Cardinalatu, which was more or a less a manual on how to be a cardinal, Wolsey envisioned a palace built in the Renaissance style and spent a decade designing and building an estate unlike any other in England, desired by the king himself who stayed there on several occasions. Wolsey would only enjoy his palace for a few years, gifting it to the king, fully furnished, in 1528, in the hope of saving himself from Henry’s wrath.
WINDSOR CASTLE
Built by the Normans in the 11th century, Windsor Castle was one of Henry’s most important residences and one the court frequently visited. Originally a fortress, in the 13th century it was transformed into a sumptuous royal palace, and according to Hall’s Chronicle (1548), Henry VIII spent a great deal of his youth there ‘exercising himself daily in shooting, singing, dancing, wrestling, casting of the bar, playing at the recorders, flute, virginals, in setting of songs and making of ballads’. Windsor was also the spiritual home of the Most Noble Order of the Garter, founded by Edward III in 1348, and regarded as the oldest and most prestigious order of chivalry. Henry VIII’s grandfather, the Yorkist king Edward IV, had been spurred into competition by the – not quite as ancient, but certainly more glorious – Order of the Golden Fleece, founded by Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, in 1430. Under Edward, St George’s Chapel at Windsor was redeveloped and the Tudors continued what Edward had begun. It was there that Henry chose to be buried, with his favourite wife Jane Seymour. Although the magnificent tomb he envisaged was never completed, a ledger stone in the Quire marks the site of his burial.
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