Sportsman, Scholar, King

On the 9th of May 1509 King Henry the Seventh was laid to rest in his magnificent memorial In Westminster Abbey To the late medieval mind
A king should be first and foremost a war leader Henry duly had the funeral of a warrior At the climax of the ceremony a knight rode into the abbey clad in the late king's armor Monks unbuckle the armor piece by piece and placed each in turn on the altar symbolically divested of his knightly attributes The king was laid to rest He still lives surrounded by the symbols of the medieval warrior aristocracy

But Henry the Seventh in the eyes of contemporaries had failed to live up to the knightly idea he had They said he had forgotten chivalry and had been corrupted by avarice His reign had become tyranny But now a new better reign had begun and the new young king Henry the Eighth would be above all to be what his father could never be: the perfect gentle Knight who would win everlasting glory by feats of war.l We think we know what Henry yes, the tyrant with the bloodstained attitude to marriage

But the archives hold many documents which reveal a very different Henry. A devoted husband Day by day do her Inestimable virtues more and more shine forth flourish and increase A brilliant sportsman and scholar King Henry is a fine jouster speaks good French Latin and Spanish and a holy warrior It is to be feared that God should take high indignation against them exercising his terrible sword of correction and dreadful punishment upon the French This is the story of the King Henry we've forgotten: the chivalrous warrior prince who had to fail and failed before the tyrant of legend could emerge