Why is Holbein’s image of Henry so important?

Holbein was central to the dissemination of the image of Henry VIII as supreme head of the Church and virtual emperor of his realm. He was commissioned by the government to produce these images of Henry that were to be widely disseminated as propaganda – and the chief image he preserved was that in the Whitehall family group, which was a mural painted in the presence chamber in Whitehall Palace, and which was destroyed in 1698. This was the image that portrayed the King as he wished to be – the language of Empire translated into this picture.

Holbein was very important – he became the King’s painter in the mid-1530s; his first portrayal of Henry VIII was probably that of Solomon Receiving The Queen Of Sheba, a half-finished painting which again emphasises the representation of Empire, showing Henry enthroned in majesty. In the Whitehall mural he’s shown feet planted firmly apart, staring – glaring – at the viewer, with hand on hip, the epitome of majesty. In Elizabeth’s reign it was said that people viewing the figure of the King in this mural were “abashed and annihilated” by his presence.

How did Holbein change how we see Henry today?

The way we see Henry now is as he was portrayed in this picture by Holbein – we don’t remember the images before that, which show a rather different Henry. This is the one we remember, because it was disseminated so widely at the time. Any nobleman or gentleman or knight who wished to proclaim his loyalty to the new regime – and the fact that the King was supreme head of the Church – would make sure he had one of these portraits of the King in his house, in a prominent place, where people could see that he had supported the revolution which had taken place. And most of them did very well, because of course a lot of them got the dissolved monasteries and built country houses from them…

How do you think people see Henry today?

Sadly, despite the efforts of myself and other historians, I think many people today still have in their heads the popular caricature of Henry VIII. Charles Laughton rules! One only has to watch the execrable portrayal of Henry by Ray Winstone [Granada TV, 2003] to see that. And he appears in school textbooks, particularly for the primary years, as the old chopper and changer. More influential still, I think, have been books such as the Horrible Histories series and The Diary Of Henry VIII’s Executioner (which I read myself and found very funny), which have been enormously popular and probably fix an image of Henry in children’s minds. I think that, thanks to the inevitable popular focus on the dramatic events of Henry’s reign and the exaggeration of his character, it’s not surprising that this rather two-dimensional view of him is so widespread.

How do you think the Henry you portray in Henry VIII: King And Court is different from that in the public’s perception, and perhaps even different to that in other biographies?

I like to think that my book is the most sympathetic study of Henry VIII to date. It’s not a whitewash, simply an attempt to portray him as a rounded human being. It’s hard to reconcile those cupboards full of tennis balls, dog leads and technical drawings he did himself with the popular image of the monster who cut off heads with alacrity. And it’s important to realise that, cruel as he could be, he operated within the law and was not, in the strictest sense, a tyrant.

The “excesses” of his court were typical of the magnificence expected of a Renaissance ruler, and his promiscuity is only hinted at through fragments of anecdotal evidence. He was not only discreet, but also quite prudish, and his record in this respect compares well to that of some contemporary monarchs. You also find that, in books about his wives, their stories are told from their point of view – few writers, for example, have taken a sympathetic view of Henry with regard to Anne Boleyn’s fall. Majestic he could be, but he was not a man to stand always on ceremony – his accounts show him losing at dice to his Master of the Cellar; we see him leaning out of a window, joking with some astonished ambassadors, or visiting the stables to give treats to his beloved horses. He was a man of many parts, a true Renaissance prince, and I feel that many aspects of his complex character remain widely unknown.