In all these new incarnations of Henry VIII he is fit and studly. I would like to see an obese and disgusting Henry VIII, with his 54 inch waist or whatever, and a servant wiping his butt because Henry can't reach it!
He was slim and athletic in youth and corpulent in later years. This is still comparatively early days. A lot of the weight came on when he could no longer exercise or even walk much due to the leg ulcer.
shareHe'll look heavier towards the end of the series probably.
shareThank you, peggygeordie. I don't think some posters realize that Henry injured himself in a joust and almost died when he was 44. Not only did he become obese from inactivity, his personality changed and he became a monster.
shareI know what caused him to get fat and when. Just these shows seem to avoid fat Henry. Wasn't he obese for the latter 4 of his 6 wives? These shows seem to always end before he gets large. Is it too much to ask for a fat Henry? Just like his most famous portrait?
shareThe novel ends in 1535, the year before Henry's infamous accident. The second novel does show the later Henry. As another poster noted, if you want to see a fat Henry VIII, there is always Charles Laughton.
shareAs another poster noted, if you want to see a fat Henry VIII, there is always Charles Laughton.I happen to be a great Charles Laughton fan, but OMG, when I saw his "Henry VIII" and him stuffing his face with the greasy chicken legs, I just couldn't take it seriously. I've seen many versions and that one is on my list as the worst one.
Seth Rogen (or Jonah Hill) for Fat Henry VIII.
shareThey showed the jousting accident- and the way his personality started to change after it as well. Maybe they didn't feel it was yet necessary to address the following weight gain.
shareI know what caused him to get fat and when. Just these shows seem to avoid fat Henry. Wasn't he obese for the latter 4 of his 6 wives?
The same with Elvis ;p
shareAnd how much history might have been
altered if he'd had the sense not to joust that day!
Henry was already becoming a monster before his fall in the joust.
His brutal, ruthless, cruel, emotionally vindictive and merciless treatment of Katharine of Aragon predates his accident. He was showing nasty tendencies as early as 1525; even before that, he was displacing blame for anything that displeased him and using nearby victims (like Katharine) as a scapegoat for his displeasure.
Hi KatharineFanatic,
I agree that Henry was horrible to Katharine of Aragon, not one can deny it, but apparently he became a monster after his accident.
He was already getting fat when he courted Anne Boleyn
Cogito ergo sum
You should watch "The Six Wives of Henry VIII":
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066714/?ref_=nv_sr_5
He is fat in this one.
I will. Thanks to the other people who suggested it as well.
Six Wives of Henry VIII is so much better than this drivel. I've had writing students who are scarcely literate write far better than Mantel. I fell asleep during the first episode, and I like Damian Lewis.
Put puppy mills out of business: never buy dogs from pet shops!
It may not be to your taste but I doubt people who write "drivel" win the Man Booker Prize - twice. Just because you don't enjoy someone's style is no reason to say they don't have talent or to make ridiculous comparisons. I'm sure the books are boring to quite a few literate people and works of genius to others. But this doesn't make them inept. It just means people have different taste in literature.
Check back with us when your students are winning prestigious awards.
I fell asleep during the first episode, and I like Damian Lewis.
He was fat much later on. His fat phase is not covered in Wolf Hall.
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According to some history I read, the king put on substantial amounts of weight after Jane Seymour died, after childbirth. Perhaps he really did love her. She was supposed to be a nice woman.
sharePrecisely how fat is fat? The notion that Henry VIII was as thin as a whistle until his jousting accident of January 1536, after which he suddenly and quickly ballooned to prodigious girth, is not quite accurate. Here are the dimensions of some of his armour - which was worn quite snugly and therefore gives a good indication of his girth:
1515 - Silver engraved armour (aged 24) 34.7" waist; 41.7" chest
1520 - Armour for Field of Cloth of Gold (aged 29) 36" waist; 41.8" chest
1520 - Foot combat armour (aged 29) 37.9" waist; chest 44" chest;
1527 - Genouilhac Armour, NY (aged 36) 41.75" waist;
1540 - May Day armour, now in Leeds (aged 48) 51-52" wasit; 45.5 chest;
Note that in 1527, Henry already had a waist over 40 inches, so it is likely that, a full nine years later in 1536, he was bulkier still - even before he had his jousting accident. During the period that this series was set (1533-1536) he was no longer as svelte as people here suggest.
Call me Ishmael...
Thanks for that. I was, erroneously, under the impression that he put on masses of weight after his accident. But this clearly wasn't the case! Very interesting.
shareOf course, having made the case, I should add one slight caveat, and that is that there seems to be a bit of doubt as to whether the so-called Genouilhac Armour in the Metropolitan really was made for Henry VIII. It now seems to be a toss up between Henry VIII himself and the French ambassador, Francois II de la Tour d'Auvergne, who visited England in 1527. In the tournament of that year, Henry wore "a newe harnes all gilte, of a strange fashion that had not bene sene", and in that same year, the king ordered "a suit of armor made for Turenne like his own." So the Metropolitan armour could be either of these two sets (https://www.metmuseum.org/pubs/journals/1/pdf/1512628.pdf.bannered.pdf). However, for our purposes it's probably academic: at the masque in May 1527 "the Kyng gaue to the viscont of Torayn, the maskying apparel that the kyng hym self ware" so Henry couldn't have been smaller than Tourenne otherwise his costume wouldn't have fit him. Whichever one of the two it was made for, the armour therefre indicates that Henry had put on a fair bit of weight by that year.
Call me Ishmael...
I do believe I saw the Genouilhac Armour in the Metropolitan a couple of years ago. I have not been aware of the controversy around it. That is a fascinating article which I will read in more detail when I get the time.
These measurements wouldn't have been the actual measurements of Henry. Aren't they of the various suits of armor themselves?
I may well be wrong, but even allowing for their being worn snugly, in clothes (made of cloth and innately having more give than metal), you have to have at least a 2" allowance in circumference. That's not counting for sitting on a horse, where one's waist is naturally somewhat larger in a sitting position versus standing, and it being important to be able to move well in order to be very physically active, whether jousting or in battle.
Only if his younger days are skipped. You can pad a slim actor to make him look fat, but there's no way to make a fat actor look slim.
Still more chance of that than Jonathan Rhys-Meyer being convincing as Henry.
Invite him to America and he will fatten up.
share"Henry VIII" (2003) has Ray Winstone in the the title role. I don't know if you could say he is fat, but he is certainly husky, and resembles Henry VIII in his later years better than any other actor I've seen, and yes, even more than Keith Mitchell of 'Six Wives' fame.
I could be a morning person if morning happened at noon.
Ray was pretty great as Henry VIII. AND HBC as Anne Boleyn! Loved it!
There's little point in rehashing another actor's performance. I enjoy seeing historic figures played a bit differently now and then.
"You weren't born pretty and it isn't fair"
Joanna Eatwell, the costumer, did a brilliant job of designing corpulent clothes for Damian Lewis so you wouldn't notice how trim he really is. Also, Damian's body language was great ... expansive with lots of man spread. He really conveyed the spirit of a large King without having to wear a fat suit, even after the jousting accident which caused him to pile on the pounds.
shareJoanna Eatwell, the costumer, did a brilliant job of designing corpulent clothes for Damian Lewis so you wouldn't notice how trim he really is.I wish I could agree.
Goodness me...hope we aren't getting too pedantic here!
sharehope we aren't getting too pedanticI think that should be "overly pedantic". 😐
Hahaha.
You are too much!
On a more serious note, however, I wonder if, given that the internet is awash with websites that derive their information from a vague recollection of out of print books, which were based earlier books, which were based on general knowledge, which was an elaboration of rumour, which derived from nothing at all, it may be that there can't be such a thing as" too pedantic".
Call me Ishmael...
Ray Winstone resembled Henry VIII physically, but I didn't like that Cockney accent. I found it extremely irritating and was unable to watch more than 15 minutes of the series because of it.
Joanna Eatwell, the costumer, did a brilliant job of designing corpulent clothes for Damian Lewis so you wouldn't notice how trim he really is.
I'm glad someone else raised the issue of Henry's accent; the King as a cockney geezer just didn't work. Otherwise, his physicality and manner were fine.
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Charles Laughton in The Private Life of Henry VIII" (1933). Long while since I've seen it, but it starts with the execution of Anne Boleyn, so it's after Henry suffered his injury. And let's be honest: Charles Laughton, even at his peak, was never fit and studly.
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