King Henry VIII is an infamous figure in English history, famous for his six wives and the extreme lengths he went to in order to divorce the first – changing religion in England forever.
His reputation looms large in history – and so do his portraits. Today, we’ll dive into Henry’s appearance and reveal some lifelike re-creations, so let’s get started.
For the full video with living re-creations, visit us here.
Prince Henry of England was never intended to be the King. He was born in 1491, the second son of King Henry VII and Elizabeth of York.
However, at just the age of 10, Henry’s older brother Arthur died, thrusting all of his duties and unfulfilled potential on the young prince.
We may have one early glimpse at the face of a young Henry. This kind of creepy terracotta bust of a smiling seven year old child is reportedly an image of Henry, and it lives today in the Royal Collection.
The coloring certainly matches – Henry was known to be a lovely child, with his gold red hair and fair complexion the gift of his mother, Elizabeth of York. We can also see similarities in the small eyes, plump cheeks and button nose that appear on later portraits of the King.
While the identification of his bust is tenuous, it was only a few years after this image was made that Henry learned he would someday be king.
Ascent to Power & Early Portraits
In April 1509, Henry VII died, and the throne passed to his seventeen-year-old son. Just seven weeks later, June 11th, Henry married Catherine of Aragon in a quiet ceremony at Greenwich – and on June 24th the two were crowned together at Westminster Abbey in a joint coronation. He turned eighteen four days later.
From the start, Henry was cast as England’s new Renaissance ruler: virtuous, handsome, and brimming with ideas for education and religious reform. His court was bright and loud, filled with dancing, jousts, and pageants.
The next portrait in the timeline of Henry’s life is this one (below), by Mynnart Wewyck, painted the same year as his wedding. It looks distinctly different from images of Henry later in life.
Notably, he has a weaker chin, larger eyes, and darker, curlier hair than versions painted later. Whether this is due to the absence of propaganda – Henry was a young King and may not have had as much control over his image – or just early Tudor artists not being very skilled, is up for debate.
Descriptions from his Early Reign
In April 1515, a new Venetian ambassador named Sebastian Giustinian arrived in England with his retinue, and these men left us the most vivid eyewitness accounts of the young Henry that survive. Venetian diplomats were not easy flatterers, so when they praised Henry, they meant it.
The fullest description comes from Giustinian’s colleague Piero Pasqualigo:
“His majesty is the handsomest potentate I ever set eyes on; above the usual height, with an extremely fine calf to his leg, his complexion very fair and bright, with auburn hair combed straight and short in the French fashion, and a round face so very beautiful that it would become a pretty woman, his throat being rather long and thick.”
My favorite detail from these dispatches isn’t a description at all. Giustinian records Henry cornering him to ask whether the King of France was as tall as he was, and as stout, and what sort of legs he had. Told that the French king’s legs were spare, Henry opened the front of his doublet, put his hand on his thigh, and said:
“Look here! And I have also a good calf to my leg.”
Henry could speak multiple languages, play numerous instruments, even writing his own music. The Henry of his youth was a much, much different man from the tyrannical King that came later.
At 23 years old, he was around 6’2″ and 200 pounds, with a muscular frame with a broad chest. Keeping him in good shape was his love of sport – everything from hunting, jousting, tennis, and archery.
It was remarked that he had “a round face so very beautiful that it would become a pretty woman.” and that “He is much handsomer than any other sovereign in Christendom”
For much of his life, Henry wore his bright auburn hair “combed straight and short, in the French fashion”, and wore a short beard that one observer described as “looking like gold.”
The “Best Dressed Sovereign in the World”
His wardrobe was sumptuous, adding to his overall splendor. Henry loved clothes and hardly ever wore the same garment twice. The fabrics, dyes and jewels used to make them were internationally sourced and imported just for him. A venetian ambassador called him the “Best dressed sovereign in the world”
Unfortunately, we don’t have any life portraits of Henry from the prime of his life, with the exception of this version by an unknown artist, painted as a pair with his wife, Catherine. Just like the version of Henry at 18, this portrait lacks realism and looks cartoonish. One reason for this is that it may be what’s known as a pattern portrait.
According to the National Portrait Gallery, who analyzed the underdrawing layer, an original image of the king was traced and then painted over. To produce large quantities of portraits of the sovereign, artists studios would share patterns between them. Each one certainly lost something of the original, like playing a game of telephone with Henry’s face. Therefore, we can’t rely too heavily on this as a true image of Henry.
It’s around the 1530s that we get the most lifelike portraits of Henry, showing his small blue eyes, long, slightly hooked nose, small mouth, and round face. This portrait (below) by Joos van Cleve is one of my favorites. Henry would be about 40 years old here.
And then, the master of portraits, Hans Holbein stepped into the picture. He had returned to England in 1532, and was appointed King’s Painter by September of 1536. His work elevated English portraiture beyond anything that came before it.
One of the most accurate, and renowned, portraits of King Henry by Holbein has been lost to history. We only know of its existence through preparatory sketches and copies made by other artists.
The massive, life size portrait, which was a family image depicting Henry, his parents, and his wife at the time, Jane Seymour, burned down with Whitehall Palace in 1698.
It’s thought that this image was the genesis of the classic, propaganda portrait of Henry VIII, where he stands tall and imposing, facing the viewer square on, in his huge cloak and obvious codpiece. In fact, Henry was never quite this tall – measurements from his suits of armor indicate that his legs were lengthened quite a bit in the portrait.
The one painting of Henry accepted by all scholars as being from Holbein’s own hand is a half-length portrait now in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid, painted around 1537. It may have been a preparatory study for the mural – Henry wears much the same clothing, but is still turned in three-quarter view rather than facing us head on. For centuries it hung at Althorp, owned by the Spencer family, before financial trouble forced its sale.
This Henry, in his mid-forties, is our last real glimpse of England’s Renaissance prince.
In January 1536, around the time this portrait was made, Henry was badly injured in a jousting accident, trapped in full armour beneath his horse and reportedly unconscious for hours. Some historians, like Lucy Worsley, have suggested a traumatic brain injury, and it’s a genuinely debated idea rather than a settled one. What isn’t debated is the physical aftermath. His leg wound ulcerated and never fully healed, his mobility collapsed, and his appetite didn’t.
The armour tells this story better than any portrait, because armour has to fit. Field armour made for Henry at twenty-three gives him a 34.7-inch waist and a 41.7-inch chest. By the 1540 tournaments, the same king needed a 51-inch waist and a 54.5-inch chest. The evidence also points to the fact that he outgrew his armour while it was still in use, with visible 2-inch extensions on each side. Estimates from his final suits put him somewhere around 300 to 320 pounds. You can see his 1544 field armour at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
After 1536, we have no more portraits of Henry taken from life. Only copies of lost originals, produced for the people of England as propaganda reminders of a king they had once adored.
So, let’s take a look at some re-creations of Henry, from his handsome youth, to his later years, now. For the young version, I’m using the features of the lifelike 1530s images and aging them down slightly, so we can get an image of Henry in his prime.
So, let’s take a look at some re-creations of Henry VIII, now:
Now, let’s look at a modern re-creation of Henry, just for fun:
Sources
Primary sources
- Piero Pasqualigo and Sebastian Giustinian, Venetian dispatches, 1515 — full text, Project Gutenberg Australia
- Sebastian Giustinian, Four Years at the Court of Henry VIII (published dispatches, 1515–1519)
Institutional collections
- Bust of a Boy, Royal Collection Trust
- King Henry VIII, National Portrait Gallery
- Holbein’s Whitehall cartoon, National Portrait Gallery
- Portrait of Henry VIII, Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza
- Henry VIII’s field and tournament armour, 1540, Royal Armouries
- Armour garniture for the field and tilt, Royal Collection Trust
- Field armour of Henry VIII, 1544, Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Henry VII and Elizabeth of York, Westminster Abbey
Research
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