King Henry VIII

As a young man he was admired throughout Europe as the ideal of the comely Renaissance prince, devoted to sports and the arts. The Venetian Ambassador, Magnifico Piero Pasqualigo, wrote in 1515: 'He speaks French, English and Latin, and a little Italian, plays well on the lute and harpsichord, sings from books at sight, draws the bow with greater strength than any man in England, and jousts marvellously.' One account of 1515 noted that 'the King himself practised the organ day and night.'

Philip van Wilder bought instruments for the Crown. Included in the inventories are organs, regals, virginals, clavichords; plucked instruments as lutes, gitterns, harps; bowed instruments such as viols, violins, fiddles, rebecs; loud wind instruments as sackbutts, shawms, dulcians, crumhorns, horns, bagpipes; soft wind, recorders, flutes, and pipes and tabors. It is said that Henry VIII owned 10 trombones, 14 trumpets, 5 bagpipes, 76 recorders and 78 flutes.

He is known to have been an avid gambler and dice player. In his youth he excelled at sports, especially jousting, hunting, and real tennis. Henry was also involved in the original construction and improvement of several significant buildings, including Nonsuch Palace, King's College Chapel, Cambridge, etc.

Later in life, Henry was grossly overweight, with a waist measurement of 54 inches (137 cm), and possibly suffered from gout. Henry's increased size dates from a jousting accident in 1536. He suffered a thigh wound which not only prevented him from exercising, but also gradually became ulcerated and may have indirectly led to his death, which occurred on 28 January 1547 at the Palace of Whitehall.