Henry VIII might have been
known as a bad husband with a hot temper who straight
beheaded a couple of his wives, but he was also a
surprisingly talented musician and was an animal lover. Henry was a complicated man. Today, we're going to talk
about some strange facts that you didn't know
about Henry VIII. But before we dive,
uh, head first, be sure to subscribe
to Weird History. Now second verse,
same as the first. (SINGING) I'm Henry VIII, I am. [MUSIC PLAYING] Henry VIII kept a tight
circle of royal servants. But none were closer to
the man than his groom of the stool, whose duties
included taking care of all those royal doodies. Servants who wished to be the
physically closest to Henry coveted this highly
sought after position, granted to only four people
in Henry's entire reign. Not only did they help
dress and undress the king before and after his
royal toilet business, they also controlled
access to the monarch and even some of his finances. They even managed to
have power over a stamp with the king's signature--
a powerful financial tool. Though an athletic and svelte
man in his earlier crossfit days, once he hit 40,
our big, beefy boy really let himself go. He chunked out so much, weighing
an estimated 400 pounds, he could no longer
get on his horse without the aid of a crane. A crane was used to hoist
Henry up and drop him into his warhorse's saddle. Some scholars
believed he required the use of an early version of
the wheelchair to get around. It's reported his waist had
ballooned to over 50 inches, or the same number of
horses who were probably immediately crushed upon drawing
the short straw of Henry's warhorse. For longer than
comfortable for most kings, Henry didn't have a
legitimate male heir and, in his panic
for one, came up with a disturbing backup plan. Though he had no son with
his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, he had
an illegitimate son by his mistress,
Elizabeth Bessie Blount, or a real Jon Snow, Game
of Thrones situation. Henry FitzRoy, or old-timey
for son of the king, was named Duke of
Richmond and Somerset. Henry FitzRoy was
there to ensure the country didn't
descend into war again over Henry VIII's lack of
producing a son with his wife. But Henry VIII wanted to
resolve this whole thing by making the bastard FitzRoy
the next monarch with the boy's half-sister, Mary, as his wife. This gross
sister-brother marriage got the green light from
the pope, who I guess had a say in matters
like these and failed to come up with the
correct conclusion of nah, that's gross. Fortunately for
mankind, FitzRoy married a different, non-related woman,
possibly rushing into marriage to avoid marrying his sister. Classic FitzRoy. Henry FitzRoy died at
the young age of 17, leaving the door open for
Henry's legitimate kids to take the throne and
his sister free and clear to marry not her brother. Henry VIII had a famous
temper, which is a kind way to say he was a man who enjoyed
a good murder, including his wives and close friends,
leaving many to ponder, what was up with that? Well, what was up
with that was probably mental illness that resulted
in the bloody slaughter of a bunch of people. Some theory suggested it
was the pleasant combination of syphilis and brain
injuries that might have led to his being straight crazy. But with hindsight,
it could have been psychiatric conditions
inherited from his family. His paternal
great-grandmother, Catherine of Valois, princess
of France, was the daughter of famous
mentally ill King Charles VI. Her family's mental
health conditions were probably passed down
through the generations to multiple British monarchs,
from Henry VIII to George III and so forth. So don't blame Henry. He was born this way. Considering Henry VIII was
a famously tyrannical man, it might surprise you to
learn he was a huge animal lover, especially horses. Yes, Henry was a big horse boy. And our delicate,
fancy man proved to be surprisingly
nimble on the horse, galloping through the English
countryside with the best mounted knights in his kingdom. Kings-- they really
are just like us. His key contribution to the
equestrian scene at the time was bringing the Italian
sport of dressage to England. Dressage, for those unfamiliar,
is the ancient sport of horse training, for
the goal of the sport appears to be show complete
control and dominance over the horse's movement. Henry excelled at this
sport, specializing in capriole, or
giant leaps, making his poor horsies jump
super high in the air, as if it were flying. Of course the
horse wasn't flying with Henry's aforementioned
weight issues. We hate to keep dunking on the
guy, but a poet Henry was not. When courting his
eventual second wife, Anne Boleyn, Henry penned
her a bunch of love letters, playing it very uncool
and coming across as very thirsty at his
anguish over her coyness. This correspondence,
which still exists, is just a touch
on the sappy side. "My mistress and friend,"
Henry regrettably opens with. "I and my heart put
ourselves in your hands, begging you to have them
suitors for your good favor." Blech. Barf. In a separate, less
safe for work letter, Henry writes, "wishing
myself, specially in evening, in my sweetheart's arms,
whose dukkys I trust shortly to kiss." If you were thinking
that duckies was a reference to Anne's
boobs, you'd be correct. Henry basically drunk
texted Anne, asking, you up? Hard to believe it
would be him lopping off her head with correspondence
as romantic as this. Henry VIII wasn't
a complete monster. In a way, he was a real
Bernie Sanders of his time, ushering in a revolution in the
health care industry of England and bringing the country
into the Renaissance. As the founder of the Royal
College of Physicians, he passed seven different
laws to regulate the practice of
medicine and licensing of physicians, laws
that didn't have to be changed for 300 years. So Henry knew what he was doing. In 1540, Henry went further,
pushing for one of the earliest laws to regulate drug pricing
to keep apothecaries in check to assure they weren't
gouging their clientele. Under his reign, London
saw vast improvements of the sewer system due to an
increase of supervision thanks to his chancellor and, yes,
future murder victim Sir Thomas More, who was crowned
the commissioner of the sewer. As commissioner of sewer, More
aided in the overall health of the country by making
the water what it barely was before-- drinkable. Way to get ahead in
this world, Sir Thomas. If you should find yourself
on a walk around London's famous Hyde or St James Park,
be sure to whisper a thank you to Henry VIII as you
take in the lush greenery. During his reign,
the king bought thousands of acres of green
space for his personal use while chilling at
his country estates. With this land, Henry
went riding, hunting, and even enjoyed the
occasional outdoor picnic, like a contestant
on The Bachelor. Today, Henry's original
recreational land for gallops and giggles
still exists thanks to Henry, at St James, Hyde,
Regent's, and Green Parks, all former places
Henry owned as part of his empire of pastoral spots. He could be seen from
spring to early fall, trotting around the country
to check on his realm, but really just to hunt
and play on his estates. As mentioned earlier,
Henry's lineage could be described
as dicey at best. The only illegitimate
son he recognized was Henry FitzRoy, who died
at age 17 without issue or having to marry his sister. All three of his
legitimate children, Edward VI, Mary I, and Elizabeth
I, would go on to rule England. However, none of them
would produce an heir. Henry didn't have any
confirmed descendants survive past the year 1601, the
year Elizabeth would pass, and is 100% not the ancestor
of any royals today. Queen Elizabeth II is descended
from Mary Boleyn, sister of Anne and mistress
of Henry VIII. Mary's two children
from her first marriage were most likely not
fathered from Henry, despite what fictional
Natalie Portman starring movie, The Other Boleyn
Girl, would have you believe, assuming you're one
of the four people who remember that was a movie. Henry doesn't factor into
the modern day British royal pedigree at all. He only lives on in our
hearts, which is nice for him. But memories can't serve
as a British monarch. As the king who split from Rome
and brought the Anglican faith to England, Henry was famously
anti-pope, though it might come as a shock to learn,
when he was younger, Henry was a staunch
supporter of Catholicism. Pope Leo X was so enamored with
Henry's unflinching support of the papacy, he granted
the English monarch the title of defensor fidei,
or defender of the faith, a title that hilariously
the rulers of England still have to this day, despite
King Henry's later uncoupling of England and the
Catholic Church. He sent tin from Cornwall
to adorn the roof of Pope Julius II's new crib. He was even allegedly intended
for the church himself before his brother died. Henry wasn't just a supportive
participant in the Renaissance era music scene. He was a little something
of a musician himself. In fact, our dude was the total
singer-songwriter package. He could write music,
sing a lovely tenor, and could even sight read. He didn't box himself into
strictly solo performances, though. Our man was known
to not turn down a duet or two with friends. Just like the worst
guy at a house party, Henry had a wide collection
of musical instruments that boasted an
impressive collection that included 154 recorders
and 19 viols, each adorned with
precious metals. 154 recorders? Feels like one too many. Was he providing the
musical instruments for an entire elementary
school's music classes? A big lute guy
himself, Henry was also known to play the
virginals, which is some kind of harpsichord. It is rumored that he even
wrote the banger "Greensleeves" as a young boy, a song that
didn't hit the Billboard charts or its equivalency
until after his passing. So probably just a
story he told people, like having a girlfriend that
goes to a different school. Henry famously had
an older brother, and the first husband of Henry's
first wife, who died young. But he also had two
royal sisters, who were royal pains in his ass. His older sister, Margaret,
was a real firecracker, just like her
temperamental brother. So much so, she was
shipped away to Scotland at the normally
problematic age of 13. She managed to produce an
heir-- the future James V. But her playboy husband
didn't live very long after. Having now become accustomed
to a certain type of lifestyle, she looked to her
loving brother, Henry, to bankroll her luxe tendencies,
which he didn't love. Maggie battled it out
with the Scottish nobles over the right to serve
as her sons regent. But eventually, she fell in love
and married the Earl of Angus, another Scottish noble. Henry's other sister, Mary,
was no stranger to boy problems as well, having equally
problematic marriage issues as her older sister, Maggie. Henry married her off to old
man King Louis XII of France. But he, kind of predictably,
passed away fairly quickly into the marriage. Before she was
betrothed to Louis, she made a deal with Henry. If her first husband
should pass away, she could marry the
man of her choosing. Big mistake, Henry. Huge. She married his friend,
Charles Brandon-- a commoner nobody. Bros before hoes, Charlie. Bros before hoes. Henry was furious she
would marry somebody without his permission
or approval, since he had no intention of
keeping his end of the deal and now couldn't use marriage
to his younger sister as leverage for himself. But in the end, love won,
as Mary and Charlie stayed married until her passing-- no thanks to her
unsupportive brother. Maybe we don't let that guy
arrange anymore marriages. He's 0 for 2, and
not very good at it. Never confused for a
humble man, King Henry VIII was the first English king
to adopt the title majesty. Henry figured the traditional
titles of grace or highness, fairly egomaniacal titles
in their own right, weren't good enough for
him, as the king who reigned by the grace of God. He considered
himself a royal cult with the king as the divine
leader of the country and adopted the
title of majesty, because Divine Cult Leader
Henry VIII was quite a mouthful. By 1520, foreign ambassadors
were addressing the king of England as Your Majesty. Majesty carried additional
regal connotations, deriving from the
Latin word majestas, evocative of magnificence
and near divine glory hearkening back
to ancient ages-- a beautiful, uncomplicated
word that today is used mainly by people
in sarcastic tones at cars who cut
them off in traffic. Sure, we've learned a lot
of deeply unsettling things about Henry VIII today on top
of the many horrible things we already kind
of knew about him. But now we come to the most
likable and relatable quality Henry possessed. Henry was a dog person. That's right. Like many kings of this
era, and current single men, he had a plethora of pets. But the dogs were the
real stars of the show. Henry adored his dogs, including
greyhounds and beagles, who he would dress up in velvet
collars and little, tiny silk coats. To discourage them
from biting humans, he kept the dogs
strictly on keto, feeding them a vegetarian
diet of bread and not meat. He was even known to
shell out a pretty penny to anyone who brought back his
beloved Meatball and Beatrice if ever lost. Those are names we've
chosen to give his dogs and not historically accurate. To show his friendship
during a time of war, Henry gifted Holy
Roman Emperor-- and nephew of his
first wife, Catherine-- Charles V 400 dogs
trained to attack enemies. Yeah. There were dog armies
in 16th century Europe. But that's for
another weird history. So what do you think
about Henry VIII? Let us know in the
comments below. And while you're at it, check
out some of these other videos from our Weird History.
