Henry VIII (15 page)

Hawks, notably gerfalcons, peregrines, tiercels, and merlins, were extremely valuable birds, and the sport was strictly an upper-class pursuit, with the ownership of certain birds being dependent upon one's rank. Henry imported hawks from Ireland, or received them as gifts from fellow rulers such as the King of France and Joachim I, Duke of Prussia. One of his hawk's hoods, fashioned of leather and what might have been embroidered crimson velvet or silk, is in the Ashmolean Museum, together with his doeskin hawking glove worked with red and gilt thread. His accounts record payments for jesses (red strings attached to the hawk's legs), hoods, and bells.
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The King's hawks were the responsibility of the department of the Toyles, which was housed in the Royal Mews at Charing Cross. There the hawks were trained and cared for by experts in falconry, who fed them on sugar comfits, horehound water, and rhubarb.
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One of the eleven falconers was Lambert Simnel, who had in childhood been set up by Yorkist sympathisers as a pretender to Henry VII's throne. The rebellion failed, and Henry sent Simnel to work in his kitchens, whence he worked his way up to the mews; he died in 1525. The Master of the King's Hawks headed the department; this was initially William Norris, who was succeeded by Robert Cheseman, whose portrait by Hans Holbein shows him holding a falcon.
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At Greenwich, Henry built a mews known as “the cage” right next to his privy lodgings; it had racks of perches, and wooden lattices over the unglazed windows.
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New mews were also built at lesser houses such as the More and Hunsdon.
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Other royal bloodsports included bearbaiting and even bullbaiting; the King had his own bear pit and bears, in the charge of the Master of the King's Bears. On Shrove Tuesday, Henry attended the traditional cockfights, for which, in 1533–1534, he built new cockpits at Greenwich and Whitehall, the latter being a curious octagonal structure with a lantern roof.
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Both had tiered rows of seating, with a special chair for the King and a viewing gallery for the Queen.
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The fighting birds were kept in nearby coops.
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Henry occasionally went fishing: at Hampton Court, in 1530 and 1532, he fished in the Thames with an “angle rod,”
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and that same year he rewarded some men who had caught a prize fish at Greenwich.
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He is also known to have fished in the moat at The More.
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Bloodsports were not the only sporting activities enjoyed by the King and his court. Henry was “extremely fond of tennis”
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and may have been taught the game by the professional players employed by his father;
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he himself certainly retained a coach.
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According to Giustinian, “it was the prettiest thing in the world to see him play, his fair skin glowing through a shirt of the finest texture”;
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while playing, he stripped to his “slops” (drawers) and wore soft shoes, and after the game, he would don a “tennis coat” of black or blue velvet to stop him catching a chill.
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By all accounts, even allowing for a degree of sycophantic flattery, he was a world-class player.

The game Henry played was not the sedate lawn tennis of today,
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but the earlier, more aggressive version known as royal, or real, tennis, or “palme,” which derived from the mediaeval French game of
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and had become a popular aristocratic sport in France and Italy. It could be played indoors or outdoors, and was a favourite winter diversion.
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The enclosed hard courts, or plays, had nets of fringed cord
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and galleries for spectators, and were marked out with penthouses and chases. The walls were usually painted black and the window frames red, the windows being covered with protective wire.
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Racquets were a recent invention; until around 1500, the ball had been caught in a gloved hand. Henry's balls were made for him by the Ironworkers' Company in London; one, of leather stuffed with dog's hair, was found embedded in the roof timbers of Westminster Hall in the 1920s,
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and another was found in the 1960s on the site of the King's tennis court at Whitehall.

There were two versions of the game—the quarre, or minor court, and the dedans, or major court
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—and the rules were sufficiently complicated to ensure that only educated men played. Castiglione recommended tennis as “a noble exercise” because it afforded courtiers the opportunity to display their physical dexterity and “nimbleness.”

Edward IV and Henry VII had built tennis plays, but Henry VIII was to build far more, notably at Hampton Court and Whitehall. The Keeper of Tennis Plays was responsible for maintenance, scoring, stringing racquets with sheep-gut, and coaching.
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When the King was not playing, his courtiers were allowed to hire the plays at a rate of 2s.6d (£37.50) a day.
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Gambling on the outcome of a game was common, and of course there were those who grumbled that tennis was “dangerous for the body and for the purse.”
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Since the fourteenth century, the longbow had been instrumental in England's most renowned military victories, and all able-bodied men were required by law to practise shooting regularly. Sir Thomas Elyot declared that “shooting in the long bow incomparably excelleth all other exercise.” The King, like his late brother Arthur, was a superb archer
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and could outshoot even the crack shots in the Yeomen of the Guard: in Calais in 1513, while competing with them, “he cleft the mark in the middle and surpassed them all.”
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Early in the reign, a new butts was set up in Tothill Fields, near Westminster, and he was often to be seen shooting there; there were also butts at most of his houses, some of them—rather alarmingly— indoors.
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Henry also enjoyed the sport as a spectator.
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Bowling was another sport favoured by the King in his later years, and again, he was very good at it. There were brick-built bowling alleys, some over two hundred feet long, at several houses including Richmond, Greenwich, Hampton Court, and Eltham,
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most of them erected after 1532; where there was no alley, a grass lawn could be used. The aim was to roll one's wheel-shaped “ball” as close to the jack as possible. The game was a very popular all-weather sport, and bets were always laid on the outcome; in 1532, Henry, who was a frequent player, lost £21 (£6,300) to the Duke of Norfolk.
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In his youth, the King was always game for a wrestling match, even though this was not, strictly speaking, a sport for gentlemen. He was also adept at “casting the bar,”
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which involved throwing a heavy metal beam. No feat of strength was beyond him: he once even tried his hand at labouring, sawing blocks of wood and fashioning cobblestones with steel hammers.
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In his palace at Richmond, Henry VII had copied the Burgundian precedent of building a recreational complex. In the lower end of the gardens there were to be found “pleasant galleries and houses of pleasure to disport in at chess, tables, dice, cards, bil[liard]s; bowling alleys, butts for archers and goodly tennis plays,” with space for spectators.
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Henry VIII followed his example at many of his residences; his first project was the building of a tennis play at Westminster. These complexes, which also included tiltyards, served as sophisticated leisure centres for the King and his courtiers.

13

“Merry Disports”

In the summer of 1509, Henry informed King Ferdinand that he was about to visit different parts of his kingdom.
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We know very little about this first progress, save that it was fairly extensive and included sojourns at Reading Abbey and the Old Hall at Gainsborough in Lincolnshire, seat of Edward de Burgh, Lord Borough, who later married Katherine Parr.

Henry went on progress almost every summer of his reign. His purpose was not only to see his realm and be seen by his subjects, but also to enjoy the hunting that was to be had in other parts. At that time of year, many courtiers had returned to their estates to oversee the harvest, so the King was usually accompanied by a smaller retinue and sometimes just by his riding household. The Queen usually, but not always, accompanied him.

As he travelled, Henry distributed alms and largesse to religious houses and individuals.
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He always took his Chapel Royal with him, to conduct religious services and provide musical entertainment, and his hunting dogs, which were transported by cart.

Unlike his daughter Elizabeth I, Henry did not routinely seek lavish hospitality from his subjects, and his visits were never as financially ruinous to his hosts as hers were. Many of his lesser houses were progress houses, and he used them whenever possible. In the first half of the reign he lodged also in the guest houses, or in apartments especially reserved for him, at monasteries. At other times he stayed as the guest of one of his courtiers or some local worthy, becoming lord of the house for the duration of his stay, with his apartments taking on, as far as possible, the functions of the Chamber at court, and his servants having priority over the residents in the allocation of accommodation and billets.
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Those closest to the King were assigned the rooms nearest his. If there was not sufficient space for his retinue in the house, barns and stables would be pressed into service, or tents set up in the grounds.

The Knight Harbinger was responsible for allocating accommodation to everyone; this was done strictly according to rank.
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When the King stayed at a private residence, one of his Gentlemen Ushers would go ahead to check that the house was structurally sound, that the roof did not leak, and that there were locks on all the doors.

Progresses could last for up to two months; they usually took place between July and October, and were carefully planned in advance, with the itinerary being set out in detailed tables called giests. The King's plans were altered only when plague broke out or the weather was bad. The Master of the Horse was responsible for organising the complicated travel arrangements required to transport the court on the move, and the Board of the Greencloth for the provision of food,
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although individual hosts would always lay on lavish hospitality for their monarch. Everything was done to make the King's transition from one house to another as smooth as possible.

Once the progress was over, the King would return to London or his palaces in the Thames Valley, where he normally spent the winter. Late in 1509, he and Queen Katherine, who was in her first pregnancy, removed to Richmond Palace by the Thames in Surrey for the festive season.

Richmond was Henry VII's masterpiece, a large, battlemented Perpendicular fantasy modelled on the ducal residences of Bruges and built—at a cost of £20,000 (over £6 million)—on the ruins of the mediaeval palace of Sheen, which had been destroyed by fire at Christmas in 1497. The new palace, built of red brick and stone between 1499 and 1503 and renamed by royal decree Richmond after the earldom held by Henry VII before his accession, was designed on a courtyard plan, and was distinguished by vast expanses of big bay windows, fairy-tale pinnacles, and turrets surmounted by bell-shaped domes and gilded weather-vanes. The palace was surrounded by an extensive deer park.
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A contemporary described Richmond as “an earthly paradise, most glorious to behold.”
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There were fountains in the courtyards, orchards, and “most fair and pleasant gardens” set with knots and intersected by wide paths and statues of the King's beasts. Around the gardens were novel timber-framed, two-storey galleried walks, and nearby was the recreation complex. In the stone donjon housing the royal lodgings, the beamed ceilings were painted azure and studded with gold Tudor roses and portcullises; there were rich tapestries, panel portraits, and murals by Henry VII's painter, Maynard the Fleming, of “the noble kings of this realm in harness and robes of gold, as Brutus, Hengist, King William Rufus, King Arthur [and] King Henry . . . with swords in their hands, appearing like bold and valiant knights.”
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There was a richly appointed chapel and a library established by Henry VII. A “mighty brick wall” surrounded the palace; it had a tower at each corner, and in the centre was the main gate “of double timber and heart of oak, studded full of nails and crossed with bars of iron.”
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Above it were the arms of Henry VII, supported by the red dragon of Wales and the greyhound of Richmond.

Henry VIII celebrated his first Christmas as king at Richmond. The occasion was marked by a joust before the palace gates, on what is now Richmond Green, where “many notable feats of arms were proved.”
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The festivities were directed by one Will Wynesbury, acting as Lord of Misrule, who impudently asked the King to lend him £5 on account. “If it shall like Your Grace to give me too much,” he added mischievously, “I will give you none again, and if Your Grace give me too little, I will ask more!” Henry thought this was hilarious.
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Christmas in Tudor times was a twelve-day festival, with the celebrations reaching their climax on 6 January, or Twelfth Night, which was the Feast of the Epiphany. The Advent fast ended on Christmas Eve; then there were twelve days of feasting, banqueting, pageantry, disguising, and convivial merrymaking, all presided over by the Lord of Misrule, or Master of Merry Disports,
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with his train of heralds, magicians, and fools in fancy dress; at court, this was a time when rank took second place to revelry. Henry VIII also observed the mediaeval custom of appointing a boy bishop to take the place of his senior chaplain: at Windsor, he once rewarded a lad called Nicholas with 10 marks for taking this role.

The court was always full at Christmas. The royal palaces, like many humbler homes, were decorated with “holly, ivy and bays, and whatsoever the season afforded to be green,”
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and the public were often allowed in to watch the “goodly and gorgeous mummeries.”
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In the great hall or presence chamber, the mighty Yule log crackled on the hearth, and carols were sung and danced, “to the great rejoicing of the Queen and the nobles.”
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Great feasts were served at court over Yuletide. On Christmas Day, there was always the seasonal favourite, seethed brawn made from spiced boar or pork, and perhaps roast swans; the first course, however, was invariably a boar's head, which was served “bedecked with bay and rosemary,” according to the old carol printed in 1521 by the King's printer, Wynkyn de Worde. For the sumptuous banquet that marked Twelfth Night, a special cake containing dried fruit, flour, honey, and spices was baked. The cake contained a pea or a bean; whoever found it would be King or Queen of the Pea or Bean for the evening. From payments made beforehand, however, it appears that at court the lucky recipients were often selected in advance, just to be on the safe side. At the void on Twelfth Night, the choir of the Chapel Royal sang as the wassail cup, which contained spiced ale, was brought in by the Lord Steward and presented to the King and Queen and then passed around the table.
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Christmas was also a time for solemn religious observances. Each Christmas Day, the King would hear mass in his closet before going in procession to the Chapel Royal for matins, where he actually participated in the service. This was, observed a papal nuncio, a “very unusual proceeding,” since Henry usually attended to business during public services.
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The choir usually sang “Gloria in excelsis” on these occasions, for which the King once rewarded them with £2 (£600). On the Feast of the Epiphany, gold, frankincense, and myrrh were offered on behalf of the Queen.

Presents were exchanged, not on Christmas Day, but on New Year's Day. Not only the Queen and the royal family, but also every courtier and servant gave the King a gift. Each gift was presented to him by the donor or his representative in a glittering ceremony in the presence chamber, where the gifts—which might be gold or silver plate, jewellery or money—were afterwards displayed on sideboards or trestle tables for all to see. Each was then listed by the royal secretaries before being stored away. Great lords vied with one another to give the most valuable or novel items: Cardinal Wolsey regularly gave his master a gold cup worth £100 (£30,000). In return, Henry distributed gifts of plate, such as cups and bowls chased with the royal cipher, each weighted according to rank, to every person at court, even the most menial members of the Household.

In January 1510, Henry staged the first of many disguisings. Early one morning, he and eleven companions dressed themselves as Robin Hood and his outlaws, donning short coats of green Kentish Kendal with hoods that concealed their faces. Then, armed with bows and arrows, swords and bucklers, they burst into the Queen's chamber—at which Katherine and her ladies were much “abashed.” Nevertheless, they agreed to dance with their visitors, and only after the dancing was finished did the King and his fellows throw back their hoods and reveal who they were, to the astonishment of the ladies and the amusement of the men.
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Henry VIII's reign witnessed the Indian summer of the age of chivalry. Tournaments in the Burgundian style were hugely popular, and were staged at almost every court festival or diplomatic visit, and as regular events during May and June to provide “honourable and healthy exercise”
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before the hunting season began. They were essentially an aristocratic preserve, intended to keep fighting men in peak condition in peacetime, since the King was “not minded to see young gentlemen inexpert in martial feats.”
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Tournaments had also become glittering social events that afforded Henry and his courtiers the chance to show off their wealth and prowess before foreign ambassadors. Success in the lists was a sure route to royal favour.

There were different forms of combat: “barriers,” with opponents fighting on foot with swords across a waist-high wooden fence; hand-to-hand combats on foot with a variety of weapons, “in imitation of Amadis and Lancelot and other knights of olden times”;
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the tourney, fought out on horseback with swords; and the dramatic tilt or joust between mounted knights with lances thundering towards each other at either side of a wooden palisade. In the tilt, competitors fought in pairs; in the joust, alone. Contestants had to be courageous and strong, with a good eye and a fine sense of timing because a high degree of risk was involved, and men sometimes did get killed or injured. Achieving honour in the joust was nearly as prestigious as attaining glory in battle.

The tournament was the ultimate theatre of chivalry. Lavish pageantry and allegory attended these events, which were watched by spectators in covered stands. The participants would enter their names on a “Tree of Chivalry,”
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and they might arrive in the lists in fancy costume—Henry once appeared as Hercules—riding on pageant cars. Usually there was a grand procession to the tiltyard, headed by the Marshals of the Joust on horseback, followed by footmen; drummers; trumpeters; then lords and knights, two by two, all splendidly dressed and mounted; pages; the jousters, fully armed; and finally “His Majesty, armed cap-a-pie, surrounded by 30 gentlemen on foot, dressed in velvet and satin.”
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Tournaments were often held over several days.

Surviving score sheets, kept by heralds, show that marks were awarded on a bar-gate system according to which parts of an opponent's armour were hit: the helmet scoring highest, closely followed by the breast-plate.
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In the tilt, the ultimate aim was to unhorse an opponent or split his lance. Courtly love also had a role in these affairs. The winning knight would be proclaimed the champion of the day, and receive his accolade from the Queen or the highest ranking lady present. Jousts were usually held in honour of the ladies, who gave favours, such as scarves or handkerchiefs, to their chosen knights to wear in the lists.

“The King, being lusty, young and courageous, greatly delighted in feats of chivalry.”
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When he was sixteen, he was reported to have exercised in the lists every day.
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On 12 January 1510, Henry tilted in public for the very first time. He and William Compton appeared in disguise in the lists at Richmond, but it was a furious contest and when Compton, in combat with Edward Neville, was “sore hurt and like to die,” Henry deemed it politic to leave the field. As he rode away, someone in on the secret cried, “God save the King!” whereupon he had no choice but to “discover himself ”—at which there was general amazement, for within living memory English kings had been mere spectators at such events.
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Compton fortunately recovered, and Henry went on to enjoy an illustrious career in the lists, much to the dismay of the “ancient fathers” on the Council, who worried that he might injure or even kill himself. To placate them, the King began using specially made hollow lances to reduce impact. But he still took fearful risks, “having no respect or fear of anyone in the world,”
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and was nearly killed on two occasions, as we shall hear.