Fun Bits of Tudor History

 

Henry's King-sized waistline was every bit as legendary as his legacy. While portraits of Henry from the time of his coronation show a slightly built young man, by the time he was middle-aged the 6'2" monarch boasted a 54-inch waistline — some four and a half feet around. Director of the Royal Armouries Peter Armstrong once called him "an absolute monster."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How can you remember what happened to all six of Henry's wives (which included three Catherines)? Schoolchildren in England are taught a mnemonic device to keep them straight. The old rhyme describes the fate of each — "Divorced, Beheaded, Died — Divorced, Beheaded, Survived." (For the record, their names were Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, Kathryn Howard and Katherine Parr.)

 

The Turkey Leg?

The 16th-century English navigator William Strickland is generally credited with introducing the turkey into England. His family coat of arms — showing a turkey as the family crest — is among the earliest known European depictions of a turkey. English farmer Thomas Tusser notes the turkey being among farmer's fare at Christmas in 1573

 

What's this you say?

The fork was introduced to Western Europe by Theophano Sklereina, the Byzantine wife of Holy Roman Emperor Otto II, who nonchalantly wielded one at an Imperial banquet in AD 972, astonishing her Western hosts. By the 11th century, the table fork had become increasingly prevalent in the Italian peninsula. It gained a following in Italy before any other Western European region because of historical ties with Byzantium, and it continued to gain popularity due to the increased presence of early pasta in the Italian diet. At first, pasta was consumed by using a long wooden spike, but this eventually evolved into three spikes because of how much easier it was to gather the noodles. In Italy, it became commonplace by the 14th century, almost universally used by merchant and upper classes by the year 1600. It was proper for a guest to arrive with his own fork andspoon enclosed in a box called a cadena; this usage was introduced to the French court with Catherine de' Medici's entourage. In Portugal, forks began being used with Infanta Beatrice, Duchess of Viseu, king Manuel I of Portugal's mother.  That happened around 1450. Still forks were not commonly used in Western Europe until the 16th century when they became part of the etiquette in Italy.   It had also gained some currency in Spain by this time, and its use gradually spread to France. Even at that, though, most of Europe did not adopt use of the fork until the 18th century.

 

A ROOF BY ANY OTHER NAME.

 

                          This portrait of Catherine of Aragon, Henry VIII's queen, was painted around 1518. She                             is wearing what will become the classic "gable hood"

 

For the next decade and well into the 1540s, the structure of the gable hood did not change significantly from the headdress worn by Queen Katharine. The jeweled billiments vary widely in design and color, as does the embroidery of the lappets and the stylish pinning , shaping and draping of the bulky hood fabric in the back, but the construction and shape of the English hood remains consistant throughout.

As the 1530s progressed, the sides of the English Hood became shorter. The billiments ended above the jaw, rather than at the chin line, and the side lappets and veil were pinned up. Several sketches of women wearing these hoods were drawn by Hans Holbein the Younger in the 1530s.  Portraits show women wearing hoods exceedingly similar in design; some have decorative, jeweled billiments along the front edge, while others do not. The gable hood was the fashionable headwear in the court of king Henry VIII until the 1540s. 

 

 

                             Anne Boleyn