The Royal Archive
Your monthly historical royal newsletter
Hi Royal clubbers, welcome back to another edition of The Royal Archive – your monthly fix of royal history. It’s Millie here, and I’m very excited to bring you this newsletter as it is a rather different one.
To get us into the festive spirit, this month’s post is all about how the famed Tudor monarch King Henry VIII spent Christmas. In pursuit of the very best historical detail and up-to-date knowledge, I took a little trip to Hampton Court Palace, where Henry spent several Christmases with his court towards the end of his life.
If you’ve ever visited the palace, you’ll know that it’s a warren of rooms with ancient tapestries and rich history ready to be discovered around every corner. I walked along the Haunted Gallery where a doomed Catherine Howard is said to have run to the King, pleading for her life to be spared, and spent time admiring the gilded ceiling of the Great Watching Chamber.
With the kind permission of Historic Royal Palaces, I interviewed their head of research, and all-round Tudor expert Professor Anthony Musson, in the Great Hall of Hampton Court to hear everything we know about how King Henry’s celebrated Christmas Day.
I haven’t spent much time in front of a camera so was a bit nervous, but I hope you enjoy watching the interview as much as I enjoyed indulging my historical curiosity making it!
Watch the interview below…
Filmed by Celine Bagtas with kind permission of Historic Royal Palaces
My favourite moments from the interview
A scandalous gift swap
Henry and Anne are thought to have first met in March 1522 when Anne played the role of 'Perseverance' in a masque at Whitehall, but Henry did not begin to court her seriously until 1526, when records show Anne refused Henry’s request to become his mistress, insisting on marriage instead.
In 1532, Henry gifted Anne with some hangings and a bed "covered with gold and silver cloth, crimson satin, and embroidery richer than all the rest" (not hard to guess the implications here!). She gifted him boar spears in return.
The couple married in January 1533 but the flirtatious gifts didn't stop there, with Henry giving Anne an especially treasured gift in New Year 1534.
It was described by contemporary records as: "A goodly gilt bason, having a rail or board of gold in the midst of the brim, garnished with rubies and pearls, wherein standeth a fountain, also having a rail of gold about it garnished with diamonds, out whereof issueth water at the teats of three naked women standing about the foot of the same fountain."
The Tudors didn’t exchange presents on Christmas Day
It may have surprised you to learn that our tradition of Christmas Day gift giving was not replicated by the Tudors, who preferred to give their gifts on New Year’s Day.
Much significance was given to presents, especially those given or received by the King.
The gifts he decided to accept or reject were a barometer of how much he favoured the giver. For New Year's in 1532, while courting wife number two Anne Boleyn, Henry portentously rejected a gift sent to him by Catherine of Aragon, showing how firmly she had been displaced in his affections.
King Henry VIII’s Christmas gamble
While we know that Henry, in his younger days at least, enjoyed sports and hunting, it was interesting to discover that the Tudor King enjoyed another pastime – gambling.
He was often present at the card tables, although royal records suggest Henry wasn’t a skilled practitioner.
Games that were previously banned during Christmas such as dice, cards, tennis, tables and bowls were permitted during Henry’s reign, and royal records show he gave Anne Boleyn £100 for a flutter, and took the same amount for himself from the royal purse.
King Henry’s Mass ‘closet’
Henry’s Christmas morning saw him processing in crimson robes towards the Chapel Royal to attend Mass.
He would hear this Mass in the ‘Holy Day closet’ in the upper part of the chapel, affording him more privacy than other attendees. It was one of the rare occasions when Henry took communion.
On 12 July 1543, in the Queen's Closet at Hampton Court Palace, Henry married his sixth and final wife, Catherine Parr.
The Tudors observed ‘fish Fridays’
While we in the modern world might not think it unusual to have fish and chips on a Friday (maybe more of a UK tradition than for our friends across the pond), we would all likely baulk at the prospect of fish for Christmas dinner.
Not so in Henry’s England where if Christmas fell on a Friday, the enormous royal kitchen would be set to work preparing a vast array of fish to make up the Christmas banquet.
Let me know what you thought of these rather amazing Tudor traditions in the comments below! And have you ever visited Hampton Court? I know we have lots of US readers, so if you’ve taken a trip across the pond, let us know what you thought of our many palaces and castles in the comments below, Is there somewhere you would you like The Royal Archive to travel to next?
See you next year, Royal Archivers!
Get 40% off club membership with our Christmas special offer
Normally The Royal Archive can only be read by our paid members but, in the spirit of prodigious gift giver Henry VIII, we are making it available to all of our members as a festive one-off.
However to read it each month, and to gain unlimited access to our full suite of newsletters – including The Royal Dispatch, Editor, Romantic and Shopper – as well as behind-the-scenes videos, quizzes, puzzles, podcasts and much more besides, you need to upgrade your membership.
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This means that instead of paying either £5 a month or £50 a year, you’ll get everything the club has to offer for just £3 a month or £30 a year instead!
Quite the early Christmas present – Henry would be proud.
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Further reading
WATCH: Behind-the-scenes at Princess Catherine’s carol concert
The Royal Archive: The last kings to fight alongside their soldiers