0:00:03 > 0:00:07No king has painted himself into British history in such vivid colours.
0:00:09 > 0:00:12Henry VIII is remembered as much for his many wives
0:00:12 > 0:00:18and their bloody history as he is for the establishment of the Church of England.
0:00:18 > 0:00:21Henry understood the importance and power of art.
0:00:21 > 0:00:26He commissioned magnificent palaces, paintings and tapestries that enriched the Tudor age.
0:00:26 > 0:00:31But he was also responsible for the destruction of many of England's priceless religious treasures,
0:00:31 > 0:00:35changing the face of British culture forever.
0:00:35 > 0:00:36I'm Jonathan Foyle.
0:00:36 > 0:00:41I'm an architectural historian and I specialise in buildings of the reign of Henry the VIIth.
0:00:41 > 0:00:47I know from studying the king's own art and architecture that it can throw light on the life and thought
0:00:47 > 0:00:48of this long-dead monarch.
0:00:48 > 0:00:55How much can we discover about the things that Henry created as a cultured king
0:00:55 > 0:00:59and what can we find out about the places Henry destroyed?
0:00:59 > 0:01:02In the final analysis, was Henry more patron or plunderer?
0:01:23 > 0:01:25April 1509.
0:01:25 > 0:01:27Henry VII has died.
0:01:27 > 0:01:35His 24-year reign had been marked by profound unpopularity, soaring taxes and violent challenges to his rule.
0:01:35 > 0:01:38His son and successor needed protection.
0:01:38 > 0:01:40He took shelter in the mightiest fortress in the land...
0:01:40 > 0:01:43The Tower of London.
0:01:50 > 0:01:53This is King Henry VIII of England.
0:01:53 > 0:01:57Athletic, bright and handsome.
0:01:57 > 0:01:59He was only 17 years old.
0:02:01 > 0:02:06In the days immediately following his father's death, Henry sought to secure his public image.
0:02:06 > 0:02:09And so he had the two most hated men in the country -
0:02:09 > 0:02:13Richard Empson and Edmund Dudley, royal debt and tax collectors -
0:02:13 > 0:02:18brought here, to the Tower of London, where they were later executed on the grounds of treason.
0:02:18 > 0:02:23It shows that Henry had a strong sense of the power of perception.
0:02:23 > 0:02:27The message was that England was under new management.
0:02:27 > 0:02:29Seven weeks after his father's death,
0:02:29 > 0:02:34Henry married his elder brother's widow, Catherine of Aragon.
0:02:34 > 0:02:38Now she was set to become Queen Catherine of England.
0:02:38 > 0:02:42The 23rd of June was the eve of their coronation.
0:02:42 > 0:02:45They would set off from here, the ancient seat of the Tower of London,
0:02:45 > 0:02:49and make their way through the city streets to their palace at Westminster.
0:02:49 > 0:02:51It was an exercise in opulence,
0:02:51 > 0:02:57designed to impress the crowds with the majesty and magnificence of the new King of England.
0:03:07 > 0:03:12Henry was decked out with jewels - diamonds, emeralds and rubies.
0:03:12 > 0:03:15He absolutely sparkled. Set off, as well, with cloth of gold.
0:03:15 > 0:03:19Some way further back was Catherine, her long red hair flowing down her back.
0:03:19 > 0:03:23Hall, the chronicler, described this as being
0:03:23 > 0:03:28more rich, more strange and curious than any other coronation.
0:03:32 > 0:03:37We know he passed right here, the corner of Ironmonger Lane and Cheapside.
0:03:37 > 0:03:44So in the absence of 16th century newsreels or photography, I'm going to imagine that scene. On paper.
0:03:46 > 0:03:51It's a bit of a tall order to depict a street in which an event happened
0:03:51 > 0:03:55500 years ago, the street itself having been burned down in the Great Fire of London.
0:03:55 > 0:04:00All I know is that Cheapside then was about the same width as it is today.
0:04:02 > 0:04:09Through that broad street came Henry VIII on horseback followed by Catherine of Aragon in her litter.
0:04:11 > 0:04:14There's Henry on horseback leading the parade surrounded by his constables
0:04:14 > 0:04:18and guards, his bouncers, with Catherine some way back.
0:04:18 > 0:04:22We know that cloth of gold hung from buildings and those little booths that I've shown...
0:04:22 > 0:04:25I don't know that they existed... this is my guess - I mean, who knows -
0:04:25 > 0:04:29but they are filled with the Mayor, the aldermen, and the heads
0:04:29 > 0:04:33of the guilds, the significant characters in the City of London.
0:04:33 > 0:04:37Those people who should be given priority to watch this pageant go past them.
0:04:37 > 0:04:40And in between them a crowd, all the citizens of London coming in
0:04:40 > 0:04:45from the sidestreets just to get a glimpse of this historic moment.
0:04:45 > 0:04:49The men of the Mercers Company, the guild of London merchants,
0:04:49 > 0:04:55had sponsored a promising young lawyer to compose and deliver a poem celebrating the new King.
0:04:55 > 0:04:59He would become one of Henry's most trusted advisors.
0:04:59 > 0:05:02His name was Thomas More.
0:05:02 > 0:05:07There he is, looking at his best, probably got one of those Tudor berets on.
0:05:07 > 0:05:09Must have been filled with nerves.
0:05:09 > 0:05:15Takes a gulp on pretty much this spot and makes the speech of his young life.
0:05:15 > 0:05:20If ever there was a day, England, if ever there was a time for you
0:05:20 > 0:05:25to give thanks to those above, this is that happy day.
0:05:25 > 0:05:32For this day consecrates a young man who is the everlasting glory of our time and makes him your King -
0:05:32 > 0:05:38the only King who is worthy to rule not merely a single people but the whole world.
0:05:38 > 0:05:43Sire, the golden age has returned.
0:05:43 > 0:05:47In using the phrase "the golden age", More is self-consciously referring
0:05:47 > 0:05:51to the works of the ancient Roman poet Virgil.
0:05:51 > 0:05:55That's because More had been schooled in the humanist tradition,
0:05:55 > 0:06:00an emerging intellectual movement that looked back to ancient Rome and Greece.
0:06:00 > 0:06:01Henry would have understood the reference.
0:06:01 > 0:06:04Humanist thinking had been a major influence on his education,
0:06:04 > 0:06:06but not the only influence.
0:06:06 > 0:06:10His passion had been chivalry, a philosophy of knightly virtues,
0:06:10 > 0:06:15stressing courage and honour, essentially using violence to protect the weak.
0:06:15 > 0:06:21Those two ideas, the rationalism of ancient Greece and Rome and the medieval romance
0:06:21 > 0:06:26of the age of chivalry, would be absorbed by Henry, even as a child.
0:06:30 > 0:06:34His schooling had begun in what's now suburban South-East London.
0:06:34 > 0:06:39The young prince was kept at a safe distance from the capital's plague-ridden centre.
0:06:40 > 0:06:46He lived here, at Eltham Palace, with his sisters and mother.
0:06:46 > 0:06:50What we have to remember is that Henry was never meant to be king.
0:06:50 > 0:06:55That expectation fell squarely on the rather sickly shoulders of his elder brother Arthur.
0:06:57 > 0:07:00Arthur's safety was vital to the future of the Tudor dynasty.
0:07:00 > 0:07:05He was kept well away from the capital in a series of isolated castles.
0:07:05 > 0:07:08He hardly knew his younger brother Henry.
0:07:08 > 0:07:12This terracotta bust, attributed to the Italian Guido Mazzoni,
0:07:12 > 0:07:15has been in the Royal Collection for over 500 years.
0:07:15 > 0:07:18Some academics believe that this mischievous-looking child
0:07:18 > 0:07:23could be Prince Henry, probably about seven years old, from the time he was living here,
0:07:23 > 0:07:25at Eltham.
0:07:28 > 0:07:34Dr Glenn Richardson from St Mary's University College is one of England's leading Tudor academics.
0:07:34 > 0:07:40After his very early education with the ladies of his mother's household and perhaps the Queen,
0:07:40 > 0:07:46he comes under the supervision of John Skelton, who is court poet to Henry VII,
0:07:46 > 0:07:50and who's a sort of medieval Latinist and a rhetorician
0:07:50 > 0:07:55and whose influence on Henry is fairly general.
0:07:55 > 0:08:01With Skelton, Henry looks at the chivalric romances, at some poetry, they read poetry together,
0:08:01 > 0:08:03perhaps write some poetry together.
0:08:03 > 0:08:07And they look at chronicles of both ancient history and more recent history.
0:08:07 > 0:08:13So from the age of about six or seven onwards he, like a lot of schoolboys of that age, would
0:08:13 > 0:08:17spend some part of his day, perhaps the mornings, with Skelton giving his lessons,
0:08:17 > 0:08:22the afternoons might be given up over to his lessons in horse-riding.
0:08:22 > 0:08:27In all the kind of chivalric arts that a young boy growing up needs to master.
0:08:27 > 0:08:30So, PE is on the curriculum but what about the ologies?
0:08:30 > 0:08:35What about the emerging classical education that a Renaissance prince might absorb?
0:08:35 > 0:08:42He is given the grounding in his Latin, French and other languages by Skelton, but at about the age
0:08:42 > 0:08:49that he is eight, he begins to have a slightly wider orbit of people who are interested in his education.
0:08:49 > 0:08:51His parents, of course, continue to be.
0:08:51 > 0:08:56His grandmother, Lady Margaret Beaufort, is also a great patron of
0:08:56 > 0:09:00this emerging... what is sometimes called the new learning.
0:09:00 > 0:09:04The interest in classical languages, in particular, Latin and Greek.
0:09:04 > 0:09:09And it's really through her influence and the influence of another person,
0:09:09 > 0:09:15William Blount, Lord Mountjoy, who's a bit older than Henry but he is regarded
0:09:15 > 0:09:18as a sort of mentor, really.
0:09:18 > 0:09:20An educational mentor to the young prince.
0:09:20 > 0:09:25He's very interested in this new emerging curriculum called the studia humanitatis.
0:09:25 > 0:09:26You know,
0:09:26 > 0:09:29from where we broadly get the humanities.
0:09:29 > 0:09:34But it's a five-fold curriculum of grammar, rhetoric, poetry,
0:09:34 > 0:09:38ethics, or moral philosophy, and of course history.
0:09:38 > 0:09:42Looking back to my earliest exposure to literature, I can draw on Buster
0:09:42 > 0:09:45and Monster Fun annual 1974.
0:09:45 > 0:09:47What kind of literature would Henry have had as a boy?
0:09:47 > 0:09:52I guess he would have been exposed, initially, to the histories.
0:09:52 > 0:09:55Either histories of classical literature or more particularly
0:09:55 > 0:09:58the histories of his own monarchy, his own dynasty.
0:09:58 > 0:10:01I guess if we walked into Henry's bedroom and looked around the walls,
0:10:01 > 0:10:08the posters on the walls wouldn't of course Ronaldo or Beckham, but would be Henry V,
0:10:08 > 0:10:10the great hero of Agincourt,
0:10:10 > 0:10:14or Edward the Black Prince, the terroriser of the French in the 100 Years' War,
0:10:14 > 0:10:20the men who really brought the power of English monarchy against the ancient enemy, France.
0:10:20 > 0:10:23So if someone were to ask you what is a young prince supposed to
0:10:23 > 0:10:29be like in the early 16th century, it is it a great chivalric warrior,
0:10:29 > 0:10:35or is it a learned Renaissance prince who treats his deportment and learning before all else?
0:10:35 > 0:10:38- Or is it both?- I think for most authorities it's both.
0:10:38 > 0:10:40A young prince who models himself on a chivalric hero
0:10:40 > 0:10:45and a Roman emperor, let's say, a jousting Julius Caesar, is not
0:10:45 > 0:10:51a split personality. This is actually a well-rounded individual.
0:10:51 > 0:10:56The two don't necessarily sit at odds and ideally, they are combined together.
0:10:59 > 0:11:03On the fourth of April 1502, Henry would have been here in the quiet
0:11:03 > 0:11:07solitude of Eltham, when he heard the news of his elder brother's death,
0:11:07 > 0:11:09making Henry heir to the throne.
0:11:11 > 0:11:14The next year, the eleven-year-old Prince Henry was promised in marriage
0:11:14 > 0:11:18to Catherine of Aragon, his late brother's widow.
0:11:18 > 0:11:22On Henry's shoulders, or more precisely within his loins,
0:11:22 > 0:11:25lay the future of the still insecure Tudor dynasty.
0:11:25 > 0:11:28Jousting was out for now - it was too dangerous.
0:11:28 > 0:11:34Henry needed to refine his education, so in came the best tutors to teach a future king.
0:11:39 > 0:11:42Cambridge and Oxford were England's two major centres of learning.
0:11:42 > 0:11:45But Cambridge was royally favoured,
0:11:45 > 0:11:48funded and governed by Henry's grandmother, Lady Margaret Beaufort.
0:11:48 > 0:11:51A deeply pious woman, of immense learning and outstanding
0:11:51 > 0:11:55character, she turned Cambridge into an intellectual powerhouse.
0:11:55 > 0:11:59She brought this man, Erasmus of Rotterdam, to England.
0:11:59 > 0:12:04He was widely considered to be amongst the greatest thinkers of his day.
0:12:04 > 0:12:07We know he visited Henry at Eltham.
0:12:10 > 0:12:13The Tudor claim to the throne came directly from Margaret Beaufort
0:12:13 > 0:12:20and she would teach Henry all about promoting the history and strength of their family.
0:12:20 > 0:12:24So enamoured was Margaret of learning that just before she died
0:12:24 > 0:12:27in 1509, her will made provision for two Cambridge colleges.
0:12:27 > 0:12:30Christ's and St John's. That's St John's.
0:12:30 > 0:12:35She transformed it from a run-down hospital into something that looks more like a palace.
0:12:35 > 0:12:41And on the principle that first impressions count, it's what's over the gate arch that matters.
0:12:41 > 0:12:47It's a colossal Beaufort family crest. The display of Lady Margaret's symbol, the portcullis,
0:12:47 > 0:12:52left the people of Cambridge in no doubt about who was behind these illustrious institutions.
0:12:57 > 0:13:01The young Prince Henry applied Margaret's teachings in his earliest buildings.
0:13:01 > 0:13:04This is King's College Chapel and it tells a story.
0:13:04 > 0:13:12It's a journey from the stark piety of his ancestors to the lavish propaganda of a young Tudor king.
0:13:12 > 0:13:19King's College Chapel Cambridge was begun in the 1440s by the pious Lancastrian King Henry VI.
0:13:19 > 0:13:26He wanted a simple monument, bereft of costly and busy mouldings and details.
0:13:28 > 0:13:33Henry VII took responsibility for paying for the completion of King's College Chapel,
0:13:33 > 0:13:41and he turned what was a monument of piety into a great box full of the sculpture of Tudor propaganda.
0:13:41 > 0:13:44CHOIR SINGS
0:13:46 > 0:13:50The dragon spoke of their Welsh roots, the greyhound, a Beaufort best,
0:13:50 > 0:13:53was a symbol of the loyalty Henry VII demanded.
0:13:53 > 0:13:57The Tudor rose was a reminder of his victory in the Wars of the Roses.
0:13:57 > 0:14:02Yet Henry VII wouldn't live to see the chapel completed.
0:14:02 > 0:14:06It was under the watch of the young Henry VIII that this building,
0:14:06 > 0:14:11begun in simplicity as an act of piety, was transformed through sculpture and glass
0:14:11 > 0:14:14into one of the great architectural wonders of the world.
0:14:17 > 0:14:21This was truly the work of kings.
0:14:21 > 0:14:23Henry continued in the style of his father.
0:14:23 > 0:14:28What's remarkable is not so much the abundance of Tudor iconography,
0:14:28 > 0:14:31but the absence of Christian iconography.
0:14:31 > 0:14:36From his earliest days, this use of art suggests that Henry believed his family
0:14:36 > 0:14:39had a right of presence equal to God.
0:14:40 > 0:14:43Henry had been schooled in the culture of the Renaissance,
0:14:43 > 0:14:47but certainly retained his passion for the art of chivalry.
0:14:47 > 0:14:51That combination would be a feature of his reign.
0:14:57 > 0:15:02On the 23rd of June 1509, Henry and Catherine had headed a procession through the streets of London.
0:15:05 > 0:15:09The next day, they were crowned King and Queen of England.
0:15:12 > 0:15:18The coronation took place exactly here on this grand cosmological pavement where every one of Henry's
0:15:18 > 0:15:24divinely appointed predecessors as monarchs had been crowned for the last two and a half centuries.
0:15:28 > 0:15:33That same year, the Abbey's splendid Lady Chapel was approaching completion.
0:15:33 > 0:15:37Henry VII had commissioned it six years earlier as the family mausoleum.
0:15:42 > 0:15:47Henry VIII had retained his father's surveyor, the court architect William Bolton.
0:15:47 > 0:15:51And it was Bolton who sent for the sculptor Pietro Torrigiano...
0:15:51 > 0:15:53a Florentine genius.
0:15:55 > 0:15:59This is the greatest artistic commission in England of its date.
0:15:59 > 0:16:03And the fact that William Bolton had not only management of a great Italian artist
0:16:03 > 0:16:05like Pietro Torrigiano,
0:16:05 > 0:16:10but also a contact book where he could draw artists from abroad to ornament the Tudor court,
0:16:10 > 0:16:13meant that this was a man of unusual reach and artistic prowess.
0:16:13 > 0:16:17To my mind, he was the great genius of Tudor art and architecture.
0:16:17 > 0:16:20The form of the tomb is traditional.
0:16:20 > 0:16:25Henry ignored his father's request to be depicted kneeling in prayer above the monument.
0:16:25 > 0:16:32His parents are set in a recumbent pose like every English monarch before them.
0:16:32 > 0:16:35Its styling reflected the new thinking of the Renaissance.
0:16:35 > 0:16:40Contemporaries would have been amazed by the vigorous, expressive cherubs or "putti"
0:16:40 > 0:16:45and the Roman lettering, classical pilasters and the use of Italian marble.
0:16:47 > 0:16:50It's a hugely successful, and significant, marriage
0:16:50 > 0:16:54of the Italian Renaissance with the native Tudor rose.
0:16:56 > 0:17:02Henry left Westminster Abbey on Midsummer's Day 1509 as the crowned king of all England.
0:17:02 > 0:17:06But for the most part, his world was London and the Home Counties.
0:17:06 > 0:17:09He was a man of the metropolis.
0:17:09 > 0:17:15In 1509, Henry inherited six major palaces within the London Transport map.
0:17:15 > 0:17:20But even as he took to the throne, the definition of what constituted a royal residence was changing.
0:17:25 > 0:17:32The palaces of the medieval English kings were often mighty castles, defended by a moat and portcullis.
0:17:32 > 0:17:34Or perhaps a hunting lodge in the forest.
0:17:34 > 0:17:37But by the time of Henry's coronation, European monarchs
0:17:37 > 0:17:43were building palaces designed to convey harmony, the new learning and their conspicuous wealth.
0:17:46 > 0:17:51Henry built and extended many palaces, but none survive exactly as he would have known them.
0:17:51 > 0:17:55He would, however, recognise this, Hampton Court.
0:17:56 > 0:18:01Later in his life Henry would own it, but Hampton Court was built by Cardinal Wolsey,
0:18:01 > 0:18:05the most powerful churchman in England.
0:18:05 > 0:18:07At this point I'd better declare an interest.
0:18:07 > 0:18:11I was the buildings curator at Hampton Court for the best part of eight years.
0:18:11 > 0:18:14In that time, during archaeological digs,
0:18:14 > 0:18:17I'd watch the remains of the early palace emerge from the ground,
0:18:17 > 0:18:20go to the archives and see recorded the names of the people who built it
0:18:20 > 0:18:24and painted it and adorned it 500 years ago.
0:18:24 > 0:18:26It's a place that remains very special to me.
0:18:28 > 0:18:33Thomas Wolsey commenced the building in January 1515.
0:18:33 > 0:18:39His administrative ability had made him indispensable at Henry's court and he rocketed through the ranks.
0:18:39 > 0:18:42He became Henry's Lord Chancellor, his chief advisor
0:18:42 > 0:18:47and then, as Cardinal Wolsey, the Head of the Roman Church in England.
0:18:50 > 0:18:56Taking charge of construction was Henry's man, the surveyor Prior William Bolton.
0:18:56 > 0:19:02This building, with its grand, symmetrical, balanced facade, would be his masterpiece.
0:19:02 > 0:19:06Hampton Court would be the most important building of Henry's reign.
0:19:06 > 0:19:10But Bolton's Renaissance-infused genius is only part of the equation.
0:19:10 > 0:19:17Wolsey evidently had a guidebook, a template explaining how to build the perfect home for a Cardinal.
0:19:17 > 0:19:22It was written by the Papal secretary Paolo Cortese and published in 1510.
0:19:22 > 0:19:25And its pages give a fascinating insight into
0:19:25 > 0:19:28the processes that helped to shape Hampton Court.
0:19:28 > 0:19:35From the vestibule, an entrance leads into the courtyard, which should be arranged like a forum.
0:19:35 > 0:19:37It should be square in plan.
0:19:37 > 0:19:45In the courtyard, where all can see it, should be the deeds performed by emperors in a Christian manner.
0:19:46 > 0:19:48The palace is a fusion of native style,
0:19:48 > 0:19:53Cortese's Catholic iconography and the Renaissance ornamentation
0:19:53 > 0:19:54imported by William Bolton
0:19:54 > 0:19:57and incorporated into Wolsey's coat of arms.
0:19:57 > 0:19:59Cardinal Wolsey's Hampton Court
0:19:59 > 0:20:02had to speak to a variety of different audiences.
0:20:02 > 0:20:05Within one year of him starting building work here,
0:20:05 > 0:20:08he invited Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon
0:20:08 > 0:20:12to come and see work in progress. He must have been very excited.
0:20:12 > 0:20:15But Hampton Court was a place which would see foreign ambassadors
0:20:15 > 0:20:18and papal emissaries arriving. He had to talk to them, too.
0:20:18 > 0:20:21And so Cortese's work on how a Cardinal
0:20:21 > 0:20:24is expected to build a palace also played its part.
0:20:24 > 0:20:27Hampton Court had to say a lot of different things
0:20:27 > 0:20:28to many different people.
0:20:31 > 0:20:35Locked away within the palace is a real treasure trove -
0:20:35 > 0:20:38the terracotta decoration from Wolsey's pioneering Long Gallery.
0:20:39 > 0:20:42It's a very important building for England
0:20:42 > 0:20:44because it's the first Long Gallery in England,
0:20:44 > 0:20:47which set the pattern for the later Tudor age.
0:20:47 > 0:20:50A place to promenade indoors and show off your artworks.
0:20:50 > 0:20:52But Wolsey's gallery was distinctive,
0:20:52 > 0:20:55because it used terracotta and some of that terracotta
0:20:55 > 0:21:00was very precise evocations of ancient Roman work,
0:21:00 > 0:21:03like this so-called egg-and-dart molding,
0:21:03 > 0:21:06which must have fitted as a cornice under a roof somewhere.
0:21:06 > 0:21:11And then this beauty is a piece of very precisely molded
0:21:11 > 0:21:13classical column base.
0:21:13 > 0:21:17Obviously architecture integral to the structure of that building.
0:21:17 > 0:21:20And this piece, I remember this coming out of the ground.
0:21:20 > 0:21:25It's a laurel wreath in the centre of a double arch,
0:21:25 > 0:21:27a thing called a spandrel.
0:21:27 > 0:21:29Now, all of this is purely architectural.
0:21:29 > 0:21:33Along with these fine decorative moldings, called grotesque work,
0:21:33 > 0:21:36which had been learned from the Golden House of Nero,
0:21:36 > 0:21:39which seemed to be cavernous, like Italian grotti or caves.
0:21:39 > 0:21:42When people saw it at the end of the 15th century
0:21:42 > 0:21:44and then spread its decorative language
0:21:44 > 0:21:47through pattern books across Europe.
0:21:47 > 0:21:50As Wolsey was the person who picked all of this up in England,
0:21:50 > 0:21:54it really makes its mark as a place of European ambition.
0:21:54 > 0:21:56Wolsey was out to impress.
0:21:59 > 0:22:03And not just in terracotta, but also in tapestries.
0:22:03 > 0:22:04For Wolsey and Henry,
0:22:04 > 0:22:09these represented the principal form of Tudor visual culture in palaces.
0:22:09 > 0:22:13They told stories and dispensed moral guidance.
0:22:16 > 0:22:19'Thomas Campbell, Director of New York's Metropolitan Museum,
0:22:19 > 0:22:23'is the world's foremost authority on Renaissance tapestries.'
0:22:23 > 0:22:26Tom, why were tapestries so important to the Tudor court?
0:22:26 > 0:22:29Tapestry had been
0:22:29 > 0:22:34one of the main components of decoration and magnificence
0:22:34 > 0:22:38at the European courts really for a couple of hundred years.
0:22:38 > 0:22:42It dates back to the time when many of the courts were peripatetic,
0:22:42 > 0:22:44tapestries were highly portable -
0:22:44 > 0:22:47they could be rolled up, chucked on the back of a wagon
0:22:47 > 0:22:50and carted off to wherever the Court was going.
0:22:50 > 0:22:53And in the time it took to hang them up you would transform
0:22:53 > 0:22:58a cold, damp interior into a richly, brightly-coloured setting.
0:22:58 > 0:22:59So they were practical,
0:22:59 > 0:23:03but beyond that, tapestries provided an enormous canvas
0:23:03 > 0:23:05on which the rulers of the day
0:23:05 > 0:23:11could depict the ideas that they wanted to be associated with.
0:23:11 > 0:23:14What about cost? Where did these come
0:23:14 > 0:23:17in terms of the expense of works of art?
0:23:17 > 0:23:19Cost is crucial.
0:23:19 > 0:23:23You have a cost of the raw materials, you have the cost of the labour,
0:23:23 > 0:23:28of making the tapestries and of course of the design.
0:23:28 > 0:23:32Although, of those, the cost of the design is really the smallest.
0:23:32 > 0:23:37Even a fairly simple tapestry set say six or seven tapestries,
0:23:37 > 0:23:41each measuring five yards long by four yards high,
0:23:41 > 0:23:44we find tapestry sets like that trading for sums
0:23:44 > 0:23:48between one or two or a couple of hundred pounds,
0:23:48 > 0:23:53at a time when a Holbein painting might have cost five pounds.
0:23:53 > 0:23:57By the time you start adding in silk and gold thread
0:23:57 > 0:24:00in the more complex and rich are tapestries,
0:24:00 > 0:24:05you find the cost of materials increasing by a factor of up to 20.
0:24:05 > 0:24:10Where tapestry purchases are documented,
0:24:10 > 0:24:13we find the sums really quite staggering.
0:24:13 > 0:24:17The David Tapestries of Echelon can be identified
0:24:17 > 0:24:20with a set of tapestries that Henry acquired,
0:24:20 > 0:24:25for which he paid, in October 1528, a sum of £1,500.
0:24:25 > 0:24:30You know, that is comparable to the cost of a fully rigged battleship.
0:24:30 > 0:24:35And of course, you know, not every tapestry set is costing that amount
0:24:35 > 0:24:39but the really rich, really impressive sets,
0:24:39 > 0:24:40we are in that kind of sphere.
0:24:40 > 0:24:44Would there have been many sets made from one design
0:24:44 > 0:24:48for many patrons to own a similar set to each other?
0:24:48 > 0:24:54Tapestries were copied from full-scale designs called cartoons.
0:24:54 > 0:24:57Once the cartoon had been created,
0:24:57 > 0:25:03it generally remained in the possession of the tapestry merchant.
0:25:03 > 0:25:06So he could then have it woven again.
0:25:06 > 0:25:09In the case of this particular set of designs
0:25:09 > 0:25:10of The Triumphs Of Petrarch,
0:25:10 > 0:25:16we know of at least five other weavings of this design.
0:25:16 > 0:25:21But what you find over the years is that sometimes designs get adapted.
0:25:21 > 0:25:25This set of tapestries dates from about 1515.
0:25:25 > 0:25:30There is a slightly later weaving of this design series,
0:25:30 > 0:25:34of which part survives at the Victoria And Albert Museum,
0:25:34 > 0:25:40and the central tapestry in the series depicts the Triumph Of Fame.
0:25:40 > 0:25:41In this case,
0:25:41 > 0:25:46the chariot of Fame is surrounded by famous figures from history.
0:25:46 > 0:25:49So here we have Julius Caesar right in the foreground.
0:25:49 > 0:25:54In the weaving of this design at the Victoria And Albert Museum,
0:25:54 > 0:25:59in the sea of faces behind, there are two faces that don't appear here.
0:25:59 > 0:26:02One, right in the centre of the tapestry,
0:26:02 > 0:26:07is a bearded face looking straight out at you with piercing blue eyes.
0:26:07 > 0:26:08It's Henry.
0:26:08 > 0:26:11Immediately above him, you have a jowly figure
0:26:11 > 0:26:15with a Cardinal's biretta, it's Wolsey.
0:26:15 > 0:26:20So, that design has clearly been customised for, I suspect, Wolsey.
0:26:20 > 0:26:23It is a tongue-in-cheek celebration
0:26:23 > 0:26:28of Wolsey and Henry in this grand Renaissance scheme.
0:26:28 > 0:26:31They join the greats of history, between them.
0:26:32 > 0:26:37Inside and out, Wolsey had built a palace fit for a King.
0:26:37 > 0:26:40Henry's existing palaces had been eclipsed
0:26:40 > 0:26:42by the ambition of his Cardinal.
0:26:42 > 0:26:47A man who might even have surpassed Henry by becoming Pope.
0:26:47 > 0:26:50By building Hampton Court, Wolsey set the standard
0:26:50 > 0:26:54for Tudor palace architecture for the rest of the 16th century.
0:26:54 > 0:26:56Contemporary witnesses said that Wolsey behaved
0:26:56 > 0:26:58as if he were the King himself,
0:26:58 > 0:27:02but should Henry take exception to Wolsey's vast level of patronage,
0:27:02 > 0:27:06Wolsey's response was that he was building it on behalf of the King.
0:27:06 > 0:27:08This was an ornament to his realm.
0:27:08 > 0:27:10Still, Henry had lost Westminster,
0:27:10 > 0:27:13the ancient seat of the English Medieval Kings,
0:27:13 > 0:27:16in a fire in 1512. Where did that leave him?
0:27:16 > 0:27:19Within a year of Hampton Court beginning,
0:27:19 > 0:27:21Henry would assemble the dream team,
0:27:21 > 0:27:23headed by the surveyor William Bolton,
0:27:23 > 0:27:26to build his own version of Hampton Court Palace in Essex.
0:27:26 > 0:27:28BELLS TOLL
0:27:31 > 0:27:34This is New Hall school, built on the site of that palace.
0:27:34 > 0:27:37Nothing you see above ground today is of Henry's date.
0:27:37 > 0:27:41That long range is an Elizabethan replacement of his state apartments.
0:27:41 > 0:27:45What he knew was something altogether more spectacular.
0:27:46 > 0:27:49This is New Hall as Henry would have known it.
0:27:49 > 0:27:53William Bolton designed it for the King while Catherine was pregnant.
0:27:53 > 0:27:56As construction began, the Queen gave birth to Princess Mary.
0:27:56 > 0:27:59She would be their only child to survive infancy.
0:27:59 > 0:28:03There's no doubt that this was intended for a family.
0:28:03 > 0:28:05New Hall and Hampton Court
0:28:05 > 0:28:07were designed for two very different masters.
0:28:07 > 0:28:11Hampton Court was laid out for Cardinal Wolsey as a single man
0:28:11 > 0:28:14who had to show off his European political credentials,
0:28:14 > 0:28:16hence terracotta and other novelties.
0:28:16 > 0:28:20Henry VIII was the patron of New Hall and he was a family man.
0:28:20 > 0:28:24A King who had to show you the strength of his ancestry
0:28:24 > 0:28:25and his hope in dynasty.
0:28:25 > 0:28:28And that concern was printed over the front door.
0:28:30 > 0:28:33This sculpted panel was once set above the arch
0:28:33 > 0:28:35in the main gatehouse at New Hall.
0:28:35 > 0:28:39It's a beautiful example of Medieval heraldry
0:28:39 > 0:28:42and proof that Henry wasn't abandoning his chivalric past.
0:28:43 > 0:28:46This is a world away from the classical pilasters
0:28:46 > 0:28:50and the Italianate cherubs that Wolsey had used at Hampton Court.
0:28:50 > 0:28:53Instead, Henry is looking back to his experience at Cambridge
0:28:53 > 0:28:56what his grandmother had shown him about how to reinforce
0:28:56 > 0:28:58the status of the dynasty
0:28:58 > 0:29:01by advertising them in a language that everyone would understand.
0:29:01 > 0:29:04What it shows is on the left the Tudor rose of Henry,
0:29:04 > 0:29:06now an established symbol.
0:29:06 > 0:29:11Flanking it is the pomegranate of Catherine of Aragon.
0:29:11 > 0:29:14Her family symbol, the pomegranate,
0:29:14 > 0:29:17was packed full of seeds, symbols in themselves of fecundity,
0:29:17 > 0:29:21the promise of issue, and that, as far as Henry was concerned,
0:29:21 > 0:29:22was Catherine's job.
0:29:22 > 0:29:25There is a clear message, though, in this panel
0:29:25 > 0:29:28that this palace was all about children,
0:29:28 > 0:29:30all about a safe haven for Henry's offspring.
0:29:30 > 0:29:34In the top right corner just under the crown is a pomegranate.
0:29:34 > 0:29:37It's not normal, though. It's not packed full of seeds
0:29:37 > 0:29:40as was the Aragonese model.
0:29:40 > 0:29:42This one has a little Tudor rose
0:29:42 > 0:29:45slipping out of the split in the fruit.
0:29:45 > 0:29:47There could be no clearer demonstration
0:29:47 > 0:29:50of the function of the Queen in Henry's eyes.
0:29:51 > 0:29:54Henry's building reinforced the importance of family
0:29:54 > 0:29:56and of his regal dynasty.
0:29:56 > 0:30:01Wolsey's building projected his personal magnificence and learning.
0:30:02 > 0:30:07The two men shared a love of art, display and opulence and in 1520,
0:30:07 > 0:30:09they united for the most outrageous,
0:30:09 > 0:30:13the most ambitious commission of Henry's monarchy.
0:30:13 > 0:30:16England and France, committed ancient enemies,
0:30:16 > 0:30:19had signed an uneasy peace treaty.
0:30:19 > 0:30:22To celebrate this, the entire English Court travelled to France.
0:30:22 > 0:30:25The Royal family and Cardinal Wolsey
0:30:25 > 0:30:28would be housed in a vast temporary palace.
0:30:28 > 0:30:32It was meant to be something of a parade of mutual appreciation
0:30:32 > 0:30:36but perhaps inevitably it turned into something different -
0:30:36 > 0:30:39A battle of ostentation and magnificence.
0:30:39 > 0:30:42It was known ever after as The Field Of Cloth Of Gold.
0:30:44 > 0:30:47It had precious little to do with peace.
0:30:47 > 0:30:51It was an invasion force. Cultural warfare on a monumental scale.
0:30:54 > 0:30:56Wolsey had been planning this for a year and a half.
0:30:56 > 0:31:0052 cartloads of the King's wardrobe were on their way across the channel
0:31:00 > 0:31:03to the giant English flat-pack palace
0:31:03 > 0:31:05now being completed by hundreds of workmen.
0:31:05 > 0:31:07Should you ever make the journey,
0:31:07 > 0:31:10don't expect a visitor centre or even a signpost.
0:31:10 > 0:31:15This unremarkable cafe, The Drap D'or, or Cloth Of Gold,
0:31:15 > 0:31:18is a rare clue that you are on the right track.
0:31:23 > 0:31:28Just up the road, the events of 1520 are commemorated.
0:31:28 > 0:31:30In a lay-by.
0:31:35 > 0:31:37Well, you could miss that.
0:31:37 > 0:31:40So here's the Field Of Cloth Of Gold, lots of field
0:31:40 > 0:31:44but not much gold, just what clings to those little letters
0:31:44 > 0:31:45you hardly notice from the road.
0:31:45 > 0:31:48But for that slab of granite, you might never know
0:31:48 > 0:31:50that 6,000 of England's nobility
0:31:50 > 0:31:52would have met the French Court here at all.
0:31:55 > 0:31:59There's only one Tudor depiction of the Field Of Cloth Of Gold
0:31:59 > 0:32:00and it hangs at Hampton Court.
0:32:00 > 0:32:03its quite a large and wonderfully detailed painting.
0:32:03 > 0:32:04It shows the English palace,
0:32:04 > 0:32:07but there's something seriously wrong with it.
0:32:07 > 0:32:11Contemporaries describe the size of the English palace
0:32:11 > 0:32:14as being 328 feet on each side and about 30 feet high.
0:32:14 > 0:32:16But as it's shown,
0:32:16 > 0:32:21it looks about 60 feet long, about a fifth of its original size.
0:32:22 > 0:32:24I want to show it's actual scale,
0:32:24 > 0:32:27to get an understanding of just how this temporary palace
0:32:27 > 0:32:30would have dominated the skyline for miles around.
0:32:34 > 0:32:38I'm mapping it out with the kind of perspective and eye level
0:32:38 > 0:32:42that a visitor would have, just approaching it slightly at the angle
0:32:42 > 0:32:44to get a sense of its depth and size.
0:32:44 > 0:32:47It's an amazing scale, it really brings it home to you
0:32:47 > 0:32:50how much money was invested in temporary things.
0:32:50 > 0:32:52And what is out of sight is out of mind to us
0:32:52 > 0:32:54when we appreciate the Tudor age.
0:32:54 > 0:32:57As I build it up, I should get a sense of the ornamentation
0:32:57 > 0:33:02that Henry's ministers chose to invest in this building
0:33:02 > 0:33:05to convey messages about his standing in the world
0:33:05 > 0:33:07and how England might square up to France.
0:33:09 > 0:33:13The pre-fabricated structure was made of imported timber
0:33:13 > 0:33:15set on an eight foot brick plinth.
0:33:15 > 0:33:18The walls were of canvas and so was the roof, painted as tiles.
0:33:18 > 0:33:21The surveyor, once again, was that man William Bolton.
0:33:21 > 0:33:26His building housed Henry's state rooms, his fine tapestries
0:33:26 > 0:33:28and a mighty chapel for the Cardinal.
0:33:28 > 0:33:32It is an immense and impressive piece of work.
0:33:32 > 0:33:38And such a thing to be built as a temporary palace is astonishing.
0:33:38 > 0:33:42It seems to me this building uses a very sophisticated repertoire
0:33:42 > 0:33:44of Italian Renaissance ornament
0:33:44 > 0:33:47to show Henry VIII's allegiance to the Pope.
0:33:47 > 0:33:50It doesn't surprise me that one Venetian witness
0:33:50 > 0:33:53recalled the greatest of the Italian artists when he said
0:33:53 > 0:33:56that Leonardo couldn't have done it as well.
0:33:58 > 0:34:01The peace treaty with France didn't last two years,
0:34:01 > 0:34:04but the ambition and scale of the temporary English palace
0:34:04 > 0:34:07left an indelible reputation
0:34:07 > 0:34:10and an architectural legacy that survives even today.
0:34:13 > 0:34:14Returning to England,
0:34:14 > 0:34:18Henry's noblemen were keen to emulate their King.
0:34:20 > 0:34:24Lord Henry Marney came back from the Field Of Cloth Of Gold
0:34:24 > 0:34:27and began building this place in North East Essex -
0:34:27 > 0:34:29Layer Marney, his family house.
0:34:32 > 0:34:33And what a house.
0:34:33 > 0:34:37It's an eight storey Tudor skyscraper of a gatehouse,
0:34:37 > 0:34:40one range only of a courtyard which was never built.
0:34:40 > 0:34:43But Sir Henry Marney managed to build enough
0:34:43 > 0:34:45to leave not only a legacy to his son, John,
0:34:45 > 0:34:48but a permanent marker of the ambition
0:34:48 > 0:34:50and the fantastical architecture
0:34:50 > 0:34:53of the early years of Henry VIII's reign.
0:34:57 > 0:35:00The gatehouse looks backward in time
0:35:00 > 0:35:02to the mighty castles of the feudal era.
0:35:02 > 0:35:05An indicator of strength.
0:35:05 > 0:35:08But Marney also employed fashionable Renaissance styling,
0:35:08 > 0:35:12notably the terracotta egg-and-dart patterns used at Hampton Court.
0:35:12 > 0:35:16That looked forward and indicated vitality and learning.
0:35:16 > 0:35:19The styles of William Bolton, the Royal surveyor,
0:35:19 > 0:35:21were spreading across England
0:35:21 > 0:35:23as noblemen adopted a Court architecture.
0:35:23 > 0:35:25And just as in Henry's court,
0:35:25 > 0:35:30houses like Layer Marney would have played host to Tudor revels -
0:35:30 > 0:35:31elaborate parties,
0:35:31 > 0:35:36a fusion of highly significant visual imagery and music.
0:35:36 > 0:35:39King Henry was an enthusiast reveller -
0:35:39 > 0:35:42music was central to the pageantry of his Royal Court
0:35:42 > 0:35:46and we know that Henry composed and played some of his own songs.
0:35:46 > 0:35:50Harry Christophers is founder and conductor of The Sixteen,
0:35:50 > 0:35:53a choir specialising in early music.
0:35:56 > 0:36:00Harry, I've long heard that Henry VIII was a great composer
0:36:00 > 0:36:03who wrote Greensleeves and much else, but what do we really know?
0:36:03 > 0:36:08I personally think, you know, I think at best he was a competent musician.
0:36:08 > 0:36:12It's quite clear, you know, he had a phenomenal collection of instruments,
0:36:12 > 0:36:18so he was probably more of a practising musician.
0:36:18 > 0:36:21Having said that, think of the works that have come down to us.
0:36:21 > 0:36:25It is clear that the better ones are instrumental pieces
0:36:25 > 0:36:26and he was less good with voices.
0:36:27 > 0:36:31Of the compositions he did write, actually,
0:36:31 > 0:36:33most of them really are based on French chansons.
0:36:33 > 0:36:36There is one particular one, Gentil Prince De Renom,
0:36:36 > 0:36:40which has come down to us as this is by Henry VIII,
0:36:40 > 0:36:45but actually the three-part chanson survives in a manuscript of 1501,
0:36:45 > 0:36:48printed in Venice and Henry was only ten years old
0:36:48 > 0:36:50so there is no way it was by Henry.
0:36:50 > 0:36:54The Gentle Prince Of Renown might have sounded appropriate for him.
0:36:54 > 0:36:57Yes. In his library, there would have been lots of these
0:36:57 > 0:36:59well-known ballads and short chansons sung.
0:36:59 > 0:37:03We are going to sing the first six bars of the three-part chanson
0:37:03 > 0:37:05before Henry tampered with it.
0:37:05 > 0:37:09And then we are going to show you the fourth part that Henry added.
0:37:10 > 0:37:13THEY SING THE ORIGINAL
0:37:27 > 0:37:29THEY SING HENRY'S ADDITION
0:37:39 > 0:37:40It is not brilliant.
0:37:40 > 0:37:45And as you heard there is no text to Simon singing that fourth part,
0:37:45 > 0:37:48which makes me think it was probably conceived
0:37:48 > 0:37:53as an instrumental piece. He gets an idea and he tries to work it
0:37:53 > 0:37:55one too many times and it doesn't quite work.
0:37:55 > 0:37:58So how come then, we are left with Henry's reputation
0:37:58 > 0:37:59as King and composer?
0:37:59 > 0:38:02Quite frankly there is a simple answer really,
0:38:02 > 0:38:05who is going to criticise him?
0:38:05 > 0:38:08Henry didn't have an impact on the music countrywide,
0:38:08 > 0:38:10but he did have an impact on what was happening at Court.
0:38:10 > 0:38:12As a manuscript that has come down to us,
0:38:12 > 0:38:16it's called Music From The Court Of King Henry VIII
0:38:16 > 0:38:18and it contains lots of fantastic works.
0:38:18 > 0:38:22I think that is the treasure he has given as his heritage.
0:38:22 > 0:38:24So he is a great patron rather than a creator?
0:38:24 > 0:38:26I think that's a better description.
0:38:26 > 0:38:30MUSIC: "Green Groweth The Holly" by Henry VIII
0:38:45 > 0:38:47Henry Marney had begun to build a great house
0:38:47 > 0:38:50that would have outstripped the ambitions of the King,
0:38:50 > 0:38:53who's palace at New Hall was just 17 miles away.
0:38:53 > 0:38:57The patronage of art was a delicate matter amongst Henry's noblemen.
0:38:57 > 0:39:00Emulating the King's architecture,
0:39:00 > 0:39:04copying his sense of spectacle, were actions designed to curry favour.
0:39:05 > 0:39:08But there was a risk of overstepping the mark.
0:39:08 > 0:39:13Of being considered an upstart, a rival, or even a threat.
0:39:16 > 0:39:20That's exactly what the owner of this stately pile in Gloucestershire
0:39:20 > 0:39:22was regarded as. A threat.
0:39:22 > 0:39:26Thornbury Castle was the seat of the Third Duke of Buckingham.
0:39:26 > 0:39:28Like Marney, he was building.
0:39:28 > 0:39:31He was transforming his family pile into something of a fortress,
0:39:31 > 0:39:34capable of housing a private army of retainers,
0:39:34 > 0:39:38a right still enjoyed by the old, feudal aristocracy.
0:39:40 > 0:39:43Buckingham would never finish his fortress.
0:39:43 > 0:39:47Today his magnificent apartments have become a hotel.
0:39:50 > 0:39:53In 1521, Buckingham was the richest nobleman in England,
0:39:53 > 0:39:56with a claim to the throne at least as strong as Henry's.
0:39:56 > 0:39:59Some thought he wanted to be King.
0:40:01 > 0:40:08Beyond his military might, his royal blood and building his new seat on a lavish palatial scale,
0:40:08 > 0:40:11Buckingham was ultimately found guilty of a fashion faux pas.
0:40:11 > 0:40:17Wolsey and the King's agents found that he'd bought hundreds of pounds worth of cloth of gold and silver
0:40:17 > 0:40:20and silks with which to bribe the King's guard.
0:40:20 > 0:40:22This was the stuff you could buy people with.
0:40:22 > 0:40:26It was also the stuff of treason.
0:40:26 > 0:40:30Henry had Buckingham beheaded on Tower Hill.
0:40:30 > 0:40:35When the Duke of Buckingham was executed in 1521, his building work simply froze.
0:40:35 > 0:40:40Henry took over his property including Penshurst in Kent and Thornbury, here in Gloucestershire.
0:40:40 > 0:40:43He wasn't interested in finishing Thornbury.
0:40:43 > 0:40:46What you see here is the shell of the outer courtyard, with those
0:40:46 > 0:40:50square putlog holes where the scaffolding was just left in place.
0:40:50 > 0:40:54For Henry, getting rid of a threat was the most important thing, and then liquidating
0:40:54 > 0:40:59Buckingham's assets, which he did, but he did take a very fine set of tapestries from Thornbury.
0:40:59 > 0:41:05Later in life when he fell out with his daughter, Princess Mary, he gave her one of the tapestries,
0:41:05 > 0:41:10with the implicit message that "Here's a gift via a murdered man, from your father.
0:41:10 > 0:41:13"Maybe you'd better watch yourself."
0:41:23 > 0:41:2812 years earlier, Thomas More had welcomed Henry's accession as a golden age.
0:41:28 > 0:41:33More had become Henry's trusted counsellor, and together they would write a theological treatise
0:41:33 > 0:41:39defending the established Church of Rome against Martin Luther's Protestant reformation.
0:41:40 > 0:41:44For most of his early reign Henry had been witnessing courtiers,
0:41:44 > 0:41:48in particular churchmen, importing renaissance art into England.
0:41:48 > 0:41:49They set the artistic standards.
0:41:49 > 0:41:53But there was one form of art that Henry himself could export to Rome.
0:41:53 > 0:41:55It was the art of debate.
0:41:56 > 0:41:59Henry's intention wasn't entirely selfless.
0:41:59 > 0:42:04Through the ages, popes had granted impressive-sounding titles to monarchs across Europe.
0:42:04 > 0:42:11Henry wanted to be seen as a man of letters, but he also wanted a title from the current pope, Leo X.
0:42:11 > 0:42:16The King's book, The Defence Of The Seven Sacraments, tackled Martin Luther head on.
0:42:16 > 0:42:20Although banned, Luther's writings were circulating widely.
0:42:20 > 0:42:26Henry's book aimed to crush what he described as Luther's "serious and spreading heresy".
0:42:26 > 0:42:31Pope Leo granted the English King a new title - Defender of the Faith.
0:42:31 > 0:42:35Reading the book now, it's an extraordinary and ironic display of loyalty
0:42:35 > 0:42:39to the Church of Rome by a Catholic English monarch.
0:42:39 > 0:42:44'Ever since the world was at peace, all the different Christians
0:42:44 > 0:42:47'in the world have been obedient to the Roman Church.
0:42:47 > 0:42:51'It is agreed by all nations that it is forbidden to move things
0:42:51 > 0:42:54'which have been immovable for a long time.'
0:42:56 > 0:43:02Around five years after the publication of this book, Henry fell in love with Anne Boleyn.
0:43:02 > 0:43:07Her age is disputed, but she was at least 15 years younger than Catherine.
0:43:07 > 0:43:13Henry's Queen had given birth six times but only once did the child survive.
0:43:13 > 0:43:18Her last pregnancy had been eight years earlier in 1518.
0:43:18 > 0:43:21Henry knew that Catherine was not going to give him a male heir.
0:43:21 > 0:43:25He would need the Pope's permission to divorce her.
0:43:25 > 0:43:28This would become known as Henry's "Great Matter".
0:43:28 > 0:43:33It would dominate the next ten years of his life and change England forever.
0:43:35 > 0:43:39Those techniques of rhetoric and debate that he used in defence of the Vatican,
0:43:39 > 0:43:46he now put to use to prove that his marriage to Katherine, his elder brother's widow, was illegal.
0:43:46 > 0:43:52Andrea Clarke is the British Library's resident expert on the papers of Henry VIII.
0:43:52 > 0:43:56Andrea, Henry VIII's divorce is one of the most famous episodes in history.
0:43:56 > 0:44:00What evidence is there in the British Library's books for what happened?
0:44:00 > 0:44:05One of the earliest pieces of evidence we have can be found in a 16th-century Book of Hours
0:44:05 > 0:44:08and this gives an insight into the very early stages
0:44:08 > 0:44:10of Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII's romance.
0:44:10 > 0:44:17We think that it was possibly passed clandestinely between the two of them as they sat in mass
0:44:17 > 0:44:24and we have a note entered on this page by Anne Boleyn, perhaps quite enticingly beneath
0:44:24 > 0:44:28an image of the Annunciation, and Anne writes to Henry,
0:44:28 > 0:44:33"Be daily proved you shall me find to be to you both loving and kind,"
0:44:33 > 0:44:37and Henry in return has replied to Anne,
0:44:37 > 0:44:41presents himself as the lovesick King, writing his message beneath
0:44:41 > 0:44:46an image of the man of sorrows and he writes in medieval French,
0:44:46 > 0:44:50"If you remember me according to my love in your prayers,
0:44:50 > 0:44:54"I shall scarcely be far away, for I am your Henry forever."
0:44:54 > 0:44:58- Lovely imagery, pulling out his quill during mass!- Yes!
0:44:58 > 0:45:04- What are the next stages, then? Here is a couple in love, but Henry still married to Catherine of Aragon.- Yes.
0:45:04 > 0:45:06How does he reconcile his...
0:45:06 > 0:45:09Well, call it what you will, mid-life crisis?
0:45:09 > 0:45:15In 1527 he announces his scruple of conscience,
0:45:15 > 0:45:22his doubts about the validity of his marriage, which are based on a verse in Leviticus in the Old Testament.
0:45:22 > 0:45:28It's Leviticus, chapter 18, verse 16, and it says that "No man shall marry his brother's widow,"
0:45:28 > 0:45:31and the penalty for which is childlessness,
0:45:31 > 0:45:36and Henry has highlighted it here with a pointing hand, a very characteristic way
0:45:36 > 0:45:41of highlighting passages that were of interest to him in his books and manuscripts.
0:45:41 > 0:45:44- Pointy hand, quite cute really, isn't it?- Yes!
0:45:44 > 0:45:46- Despite the gravity of the subject. - Yes.
0:45:46 > 0:45:51- So that would be a pretty direct piece of evidence to present to the Pope.- Yes.
0:45:51 > 0:45:59But it's at this point that Henry turns and says that he believes that his marriage to Catherine
0:45:59 > 0:46:02is contrary to the divine law and that the pope, Julius II,
0:46:02 > 0:46:06exceeded his authority in condoning the marriage.
0:46:06 > 0:46:12So Henry must be marshalling as much evidence as he can to give full weight to his argument.
0:46:12 > 0:46:14What other sources does he look at?
0:46:14 > 0:46:18Well, this is an inventory.
0:46:18 > 0:46:21You can see at the top here, "Tabula Librorum".
0:46:21 > 0:46:24It would have been drawn up by one of Henry's research team,
0:46:24 > 0:46:28who were charged with scouring monastic libraries
0:46:28 > 0:46:33all across the country in search of evidence to support Henry's case for a divorce
0:46:33 > 0:46:40and we can see that at some stage it was returned to Henry, who has marked up with crosses
0:46:40 > 0:46:47the books that he wanted to be sent to the Royal Library, and it provides us with evidence in fact
0:46:47 > 0:46:50that Henry was very much involved in the search for evidence
0:46:50 > 0:46:54and overseeing the whole research process, and I think it really demonstrates
0:46:54 > 0:46:59his intellectual capabilities, his intellectual prowess
0:46:59 > 0:47:03and how he drew upon the excellent education that he received.
0:47:03 > 0:47:08Henry was one of the most widely read and best educated Renaissance monarchs.
0:47:08 > 0:47:10- Now, another manuscript.- Yes.
0:47:10 > 0:47:13- A bit more informal, this one? - Yes, yes.
0:47:13 > 0:47:19- This is the Collectanea Satis Copiosa. - I thought it might be(!)
0:47:19 > 0:47:22- What does that mean? - It translates as something like
0:47:22 > 0:47:28"the sufficiently...satisfying collection", or "the collection that says it all",
0:47:28 > 0:47:31and it really represents the end result of the research process.
0:47:31 > 0:47:37It's an arsenal or a compilation of research material, which has been
0:47:37 > 0:47:43collected from a wide range of sources, and we can see again that Henry's hand is all over it.
0:47:43 > 0:47:51We've got his writing, his pointing hand highlighting passages of interest and once again
0:47:51 > 0:47:56demonstrating just how involved Henry was with the whole compiling of evidence.
0:47:56 > 0:48:01- So it's fair to say this is the best bits of the evidence all in one volume.- Yes.
0:48:01 > 0:48:04So a really charged manuscript.
0:48:04 > 0:48:08This is just before the divorce happens. What's this, 1530?
0:48:08 > 0:48:13It was presented to Henry in the summer of 1530, and again it demonstrates
0:48:13 > 0:48:17the intellectual foundations of the English Reformation, the break with Rome.
0:48:17 > 0:48:21So actually the future, the early modern age,
0:48:21 > 0:48:25the shift from Catholicism toward Protestantism,
0:48:25 > 0:48:30his break with Catherine of Aragon to the second in a string of Queens...
0:48:30 > 0:48:36- this book is absolutely crucial.- It's the intellectual foundation stone.
0:48:36 > 0:48:38A remarkable document.
0:48:42 > 0:48:48I've come here to Ecouen, north of Paris, because it houses another very significant insight
0:48:48 > 0:48:51to Henry's state of mind during his Great Matter.
0:48:53 > 0:48:56He bought these tapestries in 1528.
0:48:56 > 0:49:01They tell the Old Testament story of King David, a poet-cum-warrior
0:49:01 > 0:49:03who had long fascinated and inspired Henry.
0:49:05 > 0:49:09God had punished the sins of David by killing his only son.
0:49:13 > 0:49:16Henry and Katherine had failed to produce a healthy son.
0:49:16 > 0:49:22Henry felt that he too was being punished by God, for the sin of his marriage to his brother's widow.
0:49:22 > 0:49:26David had long been used as a model of Biblical kingship.
0:49:26 > 0:49:31There was nothing new in that. But it's perhaps surprising that when he bought these tapestries in 1528,
0:49:31 > 0:49:32just after he'd met Anne Boleyn,
0:49:32 > 0:49:37these weren't specially commissioned. They were bought ready made.
0:49:37 > 0:49:42Henry didn't buy them so much for the Bible story, but for their reinforcement of his position,
0:49:42 > 0:49:46that the Pope should agree to his divorce from Catherine.
0:49:46 > 0:49:49The King was weaving in his own personal significance.
0:49:49 > 0:49:53And the tapestries here at Ecouen are important for another reason.
0:49:53 > 0:49:56This is David. He looks real.
0:49:56 > 0:50:01The artist has a modern sense of perspective and light.
0:50:01 > 0:50:06Compare that depiction with this David, from 40 years earlier.
0:50:06 > 0:50:08It's a different world.
0:50:08 > 0:50:15The tapestries Henry bought in 1528 show the influence of realism in the visual arts.
0:50:15 > 0:50:19And this man, who would paint the most enduring and convincing
0:50:19 > 0:50:23image of England's king, was on his way to London.
0:50:27 > 0:50:31Hans Holbein arrived here in Chelsea in 1526.
0:50:31 > 0:50:36He had already made a name for himself with this magnificent portrait of Erasmus,
0:50:36 > 0:50:38the Flemish intellectual and humanist.
0:50:38 > 0:50:43Erasmus arranged for Holbein to stay with Thomas More, just a few hundred yards from here,
0:50:43 > 0:50:45off Chelsea's King's Road.
0:50:45 > 0:50:51Immediately, Holbein was hot property, his skill in demand by London's nobility.
0:50:51 > 0:50:53He painted Thomas More's family,
0:50:53 > 0:50:56a piece that was considered revolutionary in its day.
0:50:56 > 0:50:59He also gained a modest position at Henry's court -
0:50:59 > 0:51:02a court with a borrowed grand palace.
0:51:02 > 0:51:06Wolsey had failed to secure Henry's divorce.
0:51:06 > 0:51:11Fallen from favour, he presented Hampton Court to his King in 1528.
0:51:11 > 0:51:13By 1530, Wolsey would be dead,
0:51:13 > 0:51:17probably killed by a heart attack on the way to a certain execution.
0:51:19 > 0:51:23Henry rebuilt Wolsey's Great Hall at Hampton Court.
0:51:23 > 0:51:27The finest room in all his palaces, this would have been the kind of
0:51:27 > 0:51:31courtly setting where Holbein secured his first royal commissions.
0:51:31 > 0:51:37Susan Foister is the world's leading authority on Holbein and his work.
0:51:37 > 0:51:39Once he'd ingratiated himself in More's household, how did
0:51:39 > 0:51:42Holbein's work find its way into Henry's court?
0:51:42 > 0:51:47Well, Holbein had a great opportunity in 1527 because
0:51:47 > 0:51:53Henry VIII was going to welcome a French Embassy to Greenwich Palace.
0:51:53 > 0:51:59There were going to be revels, and somehow or other Holbein got a foot into the court,
0:51:59 > 0:52:05perhaps through Thomas More, perhaps through one of the other contacts that Erasmus had provided him with.
0:52:05 > 0:52:12And in January 1527, he started work at Greenwich and he was going to provide some great pieces of work
0:52:12 > 0:52:15and the king was really going to set up and take notice.
0:52:15 > 0:52:20- So what were these pieces? - Well, there were two pieces of work.
0:52:20 > 0:52:28One was on the triumphal arch that was the main feature of the Banqueting House.
0:52:28 > 0:52:35And when the French arrived in May 1527, they were welcomed into the Banqueting House at Greenwich.
0:52:35 > 0:52:37Obviously had a great feast there.
0:52:37 > 0:52:43And then after they'd eaten, Henry took them out through the arch.
0:52:43 > 0:52:45But as he passed through the arch with them,
0:52:45 > 0:52:52he made them turn around and look up at the back of the arch, which they hadn't seen while they were dining.
0:52:52 > 0:52:58And there was a very, very large painting of the French being defeated
0:52:58 > 0:53:01at the Battle of Therouanne, the Battle of the Spurs,
0:53:01 > 0:53:03in 1513.
0:53:03 > 0:53:06It was clearly Henry's idea of a joke.
0:53:06 > 0:53:09It must have been very discomfiting for the French
0:53:09 > 0:53:14to see themselves being defeated by the English but one can imagine Henry roaring with laughter at this.
0:53:14 > 0:53:21And being very very pleased with what this new painter, Holbein, had provided - this spectacular painting.
0:53:21 > 0:53:28So it sounds like Holbein is everything from a panel painter to a stage designer and painter.
0:53:28 > 0:53:33- Is that the kind of range that would have been expected of an artist of that period?- Absolutely.
0:53:33 > 0:53:36Court painters had to turn their hands to all kinds of things.
0:53:36 > 0:53:44They might be called upon simply to decorate or redecorate something very simple like a window frame in a room.
0:53:44 > 0:53:48Or they might be called upon to provide designs for...
0:53:48 > 0:53:52paintings that covered yards and yards of wall in a palace.
0:53:52 > 0:53:56From those humble origins, Holbein would go on to define the way
0:53:56 > 0:53:59history remembers Henry in the most famous royal portrait of them all.
0:53:59 > 0:54:01The Whitehall mural.
0:54:01 > 0:54:05The original was destroyed by fire in 1698.
0:54:05 > 0:54:07This is a copy, by a Dutch artist.
0:54:07 > 0:54:09Holbein himself also made copies,
0:54:09 > 0:54:13placing his depiction of Henry into striking individual portraits.
0:54:13 > 0:54:18Here, Henry stands on an expensive Turkey-work carpet with a backdrop of rich damask
0:54:18 > 0:54:20of the sort imported from Italy.
0:54:20 > 0:54:23The oversize codpiece catches the attention,
0:54:23 > 0:54:26perhaps a symbol of his renewed paternal optimism.
0:54:26 > 0:54:28The stance is assertive.
0:54:28 > 0:54:30But it all focuses on the eyes,
0:54:30 > 0:54:33with which Henry fixes the viewer.
0:54:33 > 0:54:35It's a masterpiece of confidence.
0:54:35 > 0:54:39Holbein was one of the greatest portrait painters ever.
0:54:39 > 0:54:46And Henry must have considered himself very fortunate indeed to have secured his services.
0:54:46 > 0:54:52And I think what he does with Henry's image is to produce something that is
0:54:52 > 0:54:58entirely credible as a portrait of a man.
0:54:58 > 0:55:03A stern face but you can see somebody thinking.
0:55:03 > 0:55:11He turns that into an icon by the way that he places that figure in a very elaborate background.
0:55:11 > 0:55:15And he is a huge, huge man.
0:55:15 > 0:55:24And Holbein, I think, does allow himself to exaggerate, to distort, for the purpose of impressing people,
0:55:24 > 0:55:32in this case. And so Henry does appear as a magnificent, powerful man in these images.
0:55:32 > 0:55:38And I think it is that that really defines our image of Henry even today.
0:55:47 > 0:55:50Holbein's new realistic, illusionistic style seems to have
0:55:50 > 0:55:53mirrored a new reality in Henry's kingdom.
0:55:55 > 0:55:59In 1533, England's Parliament allowed Henry's divorce.
0:55:59 > 0:56:04Fully seven years after first falling in love, he married Anne Boleyn. His subjects despised her,
0:56:04 > 0:56:08the harlot who had usurped their beloved Catherine.
0:56:08 > 0:56:12On the first day of June 1533, Henry and his new wife
0:56:12 > 0:56:16began the traditional parade from the Tower of London.
0:56:20 > 0:56:23Anne Boleyn's coronation procession was a very different creature to
0:56:23 > 0:56:26Catherine of Aragon's almost two and a half decades earlier.
0:56:26 > 0:56:29Anne was deeply unpopular, resented especially by women,
0:56:29 > 0:56:32and she was known by some as a goggle-eyed whore.
0:56:35 > 0:56:40At the last coronation, Thomas More had dedicated a poem to the teenage King Henry.
0:56:40 > 0:56:44He'd called him, "The everlasting glory of our time".
0:56:46 > 0:56:48But the glory hadn't lasted.
0:56:48 > 0:56:53The deeply pious More rebelled against Henry's split from Rome.
0:56:53 > 0:56:56This was the end of the golden age that he'd heralded in 1509.
0:56:56 > 0:56:59In fact, he never even turned up.
0:57:01 > 0:57:05In 1554, Parliament passed the Act of Succession.
0:57:05 > 0:57:09Henry, not the Pope, now controlled the English Church.
0:57:09 > 0:57:13More was asked to swear his allegiance to the Act. He refused.
0:57:13 > 0:57:17In 1535 he was found guilty of treason and executed.
0:57:17 > 0:57:21His head was left to rot on London Bridge.
0:57:21 > 0:57:26Henry had made a habit of rejecting - sometimes even murdering -
0:57:26 > 0:57:29his closest advisors.
0:57:29 > 0:57:32That belligerence carried a heavy price.
0:57:32 > 0:57:37As he began the second era of his reign, the king was left more isolated than ever.
0:57:40 > 0:57:45Henry VIII's early reign had promised the vigour of youth, but he was rooted in tradition.
0:57:45 > 0:57:50A religious boy, his first loves were jousting and the tournament, and music,
0:57:50 > 0:57:56whilst it was his advisers, in particular those surrounding Wolsey, who pushed the artistic agenda.
0:57:56 > 0:58:01His new palace at New Hall spoke of dynasty, and his defence of the seven sacraments
0:58:01 > 0:58:04defended a thousand-year-long tradition of Catholicism.
0:58:04 > 0:58:07But maybe his conservatism was his trump card.
0:58:07 > 0:58:11People knew what to expect from a king, and from his boyhood,
0:58:11 > 0:58:15he knew how a hero was supposed to look and behave.
0:58:19 > 0:58:21But Henry could also be ruthless,
0:58:21 > 0:58:26capable of using any intellectual, political, even military force he chose,
0:58:26 > 0:58:28to defend his crown,
0:58:28 > 0:58:32and also secure his freedom from Catherine of Aragon,
0:58:32 > 0:58:35who herself had failed to secure the dynasty.
0:58:35 > 0:58:42Now with an unpopular new Queen, Henry had to showcase his identity as the patron of a brave new age.
0:58:42 > 0:58:44His future depended on it.
0:58:52 > 0:58:56Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:58:56 > 0:59:00E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk