Henry VIII: Man and Monarch

Henry VIII 'most important monarch ever'...

...well, that's what David Starkey told the School Gate blog, who were very complimentary about our exhibition.

What do you think? Was Henry a Bad King but a Good Thing, as the spoof history book 1066 And All That might have said? Or did he start a Good King and become a Bad Thing? Let us know...

I'm 'Enery the Eighth I am... no, I'M 'Enery...

Move over Charles Laughton! Goodbye Ray Winstone! Better luck next time Sid James!

You, yes you, could win a free ticket to our Henry exhibition by turning up at our Henry VIII lookalikes event on Bank Holiday Monday 4 May.

Henry was 6'2" tall (1.88m) and in his last year of life his waist was 54" (137cm) and he weighed 18 stone (114kg).

But you don't have to come as the fat, ulcerated, axe-swinging tyrant of his later years. You might want to come as the young Henry, a slender and fair-skinned boy of almost feminine beauty. In 1514, aged 23, he had a 42" chest (107cm) and 35" inch (89cm) waist, and had killed hardly anyone. Only ministers Richard Empson and Edmund Dudley, and the Earl of Suffolk, people like that.

Anyway, we're trying to break the unofficial world record for the most Henry lookalikes gathered in the same place at one time. Whatever the current one is. Frankly we have no idea. But it'll be great fun, so bring your families!

More reviews: Guardian, Sky Arts

In his essay on Henry VIII in Saturday's Guardian, Jonathan Jones discusses many of the documents in the exhibition, and how they shed light on Henry's personality and state of mind.

And on the website of the TV channel Sky Arts, Carla Evans's review gives the thumbs-up to the exhibition ("engrossing... not to be missed"). The website also provides a slideshow of some of the images on display.

Henry VIII documents online

We've put over 20 key documents from the exhibition in our Online Gallery, where you can read about them and use Zoomify to examine the details.

Once you've absorbed all that, why not have a look at the National Archive's website? It's got some beautiful and fascinating documents, several with portraits of Henry, and a  'Great Seal' (detail below).

More podcasts on their way

There's now an RSS feed for 'Henry VIII: Man and Monarch' podcasts - subscribe to be sure you're not missing anything.

The next two will be:

• Henry's Psalter with Professor James Carley

• The Field of Cloth of Gold (1520) with Dr Brett Dolman (once of the British Library and now at Historic Royal Palaces)

 

Detail from La description et ordre du camp [et] festiem[en]t [et] ioustes des trescrestiens et tres puissa[n]s roys de France [et] Dangleterre (Paris,1520) 

In Henry's own words?

A shame that Henry, busy as he was, wasn't a great diarist. We'd have loved to do a 'Samuel-Pepys-type' blog.

We'll be tweeting in Henry's own words - not always in English. You'll be able to go the original documents. Follow us on http://twitter.com/kinghenryviii

And don't miss over 20 key documents and video clips now up on our Online Gallery.

Music and maps

British Library exhibition curator Dr Andrea Clarke introduces two new Henry VIII podcasts: Henry's Music and Henry's Maps.

Music was a vital part of the young king's life. Hear music written for him, including the Rose Canon in full, and some of Henry's own compositions. Experts discuss him, his musical world, and its significance.

Among Henry VIII's less-recognised achievements was to pioneer modern cartography. Tudor maps expert Peter Barber explains how Henry changed maps, and how maps changed England.

 

Extracts from Henry's Music (Obsidian CD705) by Alamire courtesy of Obsidian Records

Exhibition opens

Henry VIII: Man and Monarch opens today, and will run until 6 September.

Unlike previous exhibitions, the entrance to this one is on the right as you come in (the cloakroom area).

You can book your ticket now online.

Dr David Starkey (and a fool) forthright at Henry launch

The official launch of the Henry VIII: Man and Monarch exhibition - on the precise 500th anniversary of his proclamation as king of England on 22 April (then St George's Day) 1509 - was enlivened by a performance from a 16th-century-style fool (above), and a typically forthright speech from guest curator David Starkey (below).

He emphasised some of the themes he explored in the recent Channel 4 series 'Henry VIII: the Mind of a Tyrant', such as Henry's unusually female-centred upbringing.

Dr Starkey also took a few topical swipes at the government and today's budget.

Henry VIII, said Dr Starkey, was a proto-Churchill, whose influence on Britain and its self-image as an island apart from Europe was profound and enduring.

He finished his speech with a strong exhortation to visit the exhibition and examine the evidence, drawn from the Library's mightily rich collections of Henry's books and manuscripts, for ourselves. Which is what history is all about...

Launch tonight, opening tomorrow

The Henry VIII exhibition opens to the public tomorrow, and more press previews are going up online.

Time Out, the London listings magazine, has already picked out the exhibition as one of its must-sees of the summer.

Yesterday's Daily Telegraph runs a story on the exhibition's reuniting of one of Henry's letters to Anne Boleyn and the writing desk on which it was composed.

The fact that Henry corresponded with Anne at all was significant: he rarely wrote letters. However, he was a busy margin annotater, leaving a trail of observations and comments in his books that give us a fascinating insight into his thinking during the tumultuous second half of his reign. All that will be covered in detail in the exhibition too.

The official royal launch party is tonight. We'll be putting up pictures and reports on the British Library Twitter feed.