Click the image to see the article at The Daily Telegraph

A recent article in The Times made some interesting observations about Dr. David Starkey and the object of his affections, King Henry VIII. The historian and the king share several characteristics, some of which Dr. Starkey addressed.

A few weeks ago I wrote a blog entry about Starkey’s analysis of the king’s handwriting and that of his mother and a sister. While doing research Starkey observed that Henry VIII had grown up, rather unusually, in a household dominated by women when he was the less important “spare to the throne.” “It’s the most important thing I learned,” he explains. “He wasn’t like a typical royal prince at all, not masculinised, not sent away. He was close to his mother, physically brought up with his sisters in a household dominated by women until he’s well into his teens.”
Not unlike the king, Starkey’s upbringing was dominated by his mother. Born in 1945 to a poor family, Starkey had an awful childhood. He was born with two club feet, which had to be operated upon before he was age four, and then contracted polio. The relationship between mother and son, as with the Tudors, was intense, and the death of the mother was a traumatic event for both king and historian. Starkey is reluctant to discuss personal pain and says “The idea of the death à la [Jade] Goody is not one I’m sympathetic to, I’m afraid.” You get the feeling that this is man who is more comfortable cultivating the famed British stiff upper lip.

Both men were also precocious. Toddler Henry rode a horse and observed the rituals of knighthood. Toddler David was able to tell a neighbor a complicated recipe. “Yes, it’s the precocious observing child. That’s something we share. I think certainly, like Henry, I had this. Obviously, Henry didn’t go gay – I’m not carrying the vision that far – but that sense of what a feminised upbringing does to you is very important. It’s not necessarily love of women; it’s a particular approach to human relations. Henry’s a big strong boy and a natural athlete. I was neither of those things. That obviously takes him off in a different direction, but there’s a certain neediness to our human relations. It’s an openness which of course if it is repudiated or injured can turn to something much nastier.” Read more…

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A couple living in Richmond-upon-Thames for 40 years have incurred the wrath of Dr. David Starkey, Tudor historian. Planners at Richmond Council have approved the couple’s plans to build a solar powered, triple-glazed, two-story house near the former site of Richmond Palace, which was built by Henry VII.

Starkey finds it a slap in the face to the founding Tudor’s son: “To give it planning permission almost to the day of the 500th anniversary of the coronation of Richmond’s most famous inhabitant, Henry VIII, would add insult to a grievous injury to the surviving historic fabric and setting of Tudor England.”

Starkey says that “The proposed new building is like a snotty-nosed punk in an elegant drawing room: wilfully and self-indulgently out of keeping with its surroundings – in form, colour and materials.” Further, “This sort of ’statement architecture’ can make sense as part of the regeneration of a run-down port or industrial slum, but in the precincts of Richmond Palace, it is simply bad manners.” Read more…

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Dr. David Starkey has been making, in my opinion, some rather strange comments about the biases of female historians. He criticizes some for zeroing in on the ’soap opera’ of key figures’ love lives rather than their achievements or failures. The TV show “The Tudors” seems to have inspired these comments.

Although Starkey is correct to criticize the TV show for its inaccuracies and its prurient emphasis (what Starkey describes as a “bonkorama”), he blames female historians for this interpretation of the court of Henry VIII. ‘But it’s what you expect from feminised history, the fact that so many of the writers who write about this are women and so much of their audience is a female audience. Unhappy marriages are big box-office.’

It is unfair to blame women historians for a television production which satisfies its viewers in much the same way that Ugly Betty or Desperate Housewives satisfy their audiences. The problem is, however, according to Starkey, that Henry has been de-emphasized in the re-telling of this tale. Read more…

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Dr. David Starkey says that we can learn much about the life of Henry VIII by visiting his residences, the most well-known of which is Hampton Court.

Click the image to see the gallery at The Daily Telegraph

Dr. Starkey is amazed by the Tudor royal’s “prodigious accumulation.” He is describing a neglected aspect of Henry’s reign: the number of houses and palaces he owned. When Henry became king in 1509, he had a mere 12 or 13 palaces and castles . In the end he had 55, and Starkey describes him as “the most ‘overhoused’ monarch.”

For all that Henry may have been the William Randolph Hearst of his age, most of his residences are located in the southeastern section of England. Henry only travelled to other parts of England twice.

Starkey advises travellers to begin at Greenwich, Henry’s birthplace, and preferably they should arrive by water. The River Thames was “the great highway of Tudor London”, and a water voyage would imitate those taken by the Tudor greats. The actual palace Henry knew (it was then called Placentia or Pleasure) was torn down in the 1600s, but the park and tree line would be recognizable to the king.

Much of Henry’s childhood was spent nearby at Eltham. This palace is also torn down but its Great Hall remains. This is the spot, Starkey says, “where Henry was introduced by Thomas More to Erasmus. It was like a David Frost Show of 1499.”

Henry was not quite eighteen years old when he was proclaimed king on April 24 1509. That was the day on which he moved into the Tower of London, then palace, prison and armory. The Tower is currently showing the exhibition “Henry VIII: Dressed to Kill,” with Tudor weapons and Henry’s ever-increasing suits of armor. Read more…

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According to Dr. David Starkey in the Sunday Times, Henry VIII was a real mama’s boy. Looking at handwriting comparisons (that of Henry, his mother, Elizabeth of York, and his younger sister Mary), Starkey draws the conclusion that he was emotionally dependent on women because of the close similarity of the samples. An exhibition opening in April at the British Museum will display the samples.

The Times quoted Starkey as saying “Henry was brought up very, very unusually, in a female household.” As we all know, Henry was merely the second son and during his formative years he was of little interest to the dynastically-minded father, Henry VII, who was consumed with establishing the questionable legitimacy of Tudor rule. Prince Arthur died at age 15, when Henry was only 11. Elizabeth died the following year, after attempting to give her husband another son.

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A new exhibit at the British Library beginning in April will feature a love letter from Henry VIII to his inamorata, Anne Boleyn. Never before exhibited, this letter has been hidden in the Vatican for centuries. Historians believe that the letter was stolen from Anne.

The exhibit about Henry VIII is curated by Dr. David Starkey. Most Tudor fans will remember that Dr. Starkey wrote The Six Wives of Henry VIII and was the narrator of the series by the same name. In his interview Dr. Starkey made, in my opinion, the controversial statement that “Henry is not only England’s best-known king – with his wives, his girth and his bloodthirstiness – he is also our most important single ruler.” Not William the Conqueror, Alfred the Great, or some other worthies?

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