Did y'all know that King Henry the VIII died at 55 years of age.

I always thought he was much older.

I had no idea he was that young.

Like you, I thought he was much older...

I think he had syphilis.

:hi:

The series is called Monarchy, very good.

I like history.

Old King Henry and his daughter Elizabeth changed the world.

(not my usual fare) - called LONDON by Ed Rutherford. It's an historical fiction covering the entire "history" of London from before it existed up to after WWII. Learned a lot of things I didn't know about history!

that covers the whole history of Britain from the time of the caveman when it became an island all the way up to WWII by following about 5 families from the very beginning. Mostly it focuses on the area of Salisbury (originally called Sarum) but covers loosely the whole of the country. The ancient history was fascinating especially his depiction of the building of Stonehenge and the time of the Druids, Roman rule, Saxon invasion and especially those strange ancient burial mounds that are all over the place even still standing today. I'd never even heard of them before until reading this book.

I'll have to read "London" now since it sounds like much the same type of novel but focusing on a different area of Britain.

I think old Henry had alot of health problem, syphilis was one of them.

http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-03-puzzle-henry-viii.html

the first anti-gay law. He was also married 6 times and suffered a lot of stress, given the whole outlawing the Catholic Church and stealing all of their stuff.

The Catholic Church was the power in the world at that time.

His extreme obesity was largely responsible for his death along with his ulcerating leg wound, and more recently it is believed both he and his sister, Mary Tudor, likely had Type II diabetes that contributed much to their demise. His diet was terrible consisting of binge eating in his later years, and he subsisted mostly on fatty meats and rich desserts with very few vegetables.

Syphilis was a well known disease at the time, and there is nothing in the extensive notes of his physicians that indicate he had such symptoms. The rumors of his having syphilis likely were fed because of not only his abundance of wives and mistresses, he had sex with many women of "the lower orders" so to speak which monarchs simply didn't do. He not only did (and frequently), he practically flaunted these encounters and affairs with peasant women and low end prostitutes.

Given his lifelong terror of any illness, it's highly unlikely that he would go anywhere near anyone that exhibited the slightest hint of any disease or illness. He would never have touched anyone not scrupulously clean, and anyone he did have sex with was mostly likely examined by his physicians from tip to stern for any sign of anything out of the ordinary. People thought Henry was a kook for having every inch of whatever castle he was staying in liberally swabbed in every nook and cranny with soaps and various cleaning agents whenever any illness had swept through the community to kill any lingering "bad vapors". It was believed at the time that illness and disease was the result of bad "stuff" in the air (essentially, they weren't so far off the mark) but such "bad vapors" could be detected by a bad odor. Therefore, Henry's insistence that where ever he was staying had to be scrubbed clean after an illness had swept through when there were no bad odors indicating "bad vapors" of disease was looked upon as eccentric craziness one would be wise to keep their mouth shut about.

Most people of the time didn't live to 50.

Fifty-five was a pretty good age at that time particularly considering they didn't know much of anything about medicines and didn't understand the connection between sanitation and disease.

Fifty-five was a pretty darn good age for him, too, considering his gargantuan weight and that disgusting pus weeping stinking leg wound he had for many years that no one could heal.

He was also what today we would call germaphobic. Illness and disease terrified and disgusted him. Whenever the slightest hint of any illness was going through the community he pulled up stakes where ever he was and relocated the court to some remote locale until all signs of it were gone (sans anyone with a hint of having the current illness regardless of who they were). He'd virtually hide from everyone while in the remote locale, and he was a man who positively thrived on perpetual entertainment.

;)

OK, forget the historical accuracy and enjoy the ride.

I just finished watching the series.

But yeah, he was pretty hot!

1509-1533.

He crammed 5 wives into the last 14 years of his life.



dg

Period as queen consort

Anne Boleyn: 1533-36

Jane Seymour: 1536-37

Anne of Cleves: 1539

Catherine Howard: 1540-42

Catherine Parr: 1543-47 (outlived him)

55 was "much older" when life expectancy even up to 1900 for a man was around age 45

we have extremely unrealistic ideas of how long a person can be expected to live, absent modern medical technology, 55 is not young, it's well into late middle age since a person is officially old even today at 60 -- plenty of places around here start offering the senior discounts at age 55 to be honest

i have several friends who died in their mid 50s, and i mean in THIS century, if they find your arterial blockage in time to do a bypass you'll live 20 or 30 more years, but if you pass away suddenly in your sleep at age 52 (happened to TWO of my friends in a short period of time) you got no chance because the docs never got a chance to do their magic

as others have pointed out.
And remember, in those days, it was not unusual to die of any little old bacterial infection that today would be easily cured by antibiotics.
Even tooth decay could and would kill people in those days. (From bacterial infections that resulted.)
dc

In those days, even the rich tended to die young - even those who didn't get their heads chopped off; and poor people died even younger.

Thank goodness for modern medicine, sanitation and knowledge about diet, etc.

Henry's son Edward VI, who inherited the throne, died before his 16th birthday. His sister 'Bloody Mary' then became Queen. She died at 42. Her sister and successor Elizabeth 1 died at 69, which was considered as a great age in those days.

But she gets the bad reputation.

where are their nicknames? :shrug:

...many of the executions she ordered could easily be regarded as self defense.

When I read of her life, I am amazed she survived long enough to come to the throne. I can perfectly understand, even though I am an atheist, how she could remark on surviving long enough to be queen, "This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes."

I say that around here whenever something remarkably good happens, and my boys kind of like it.

She was, overall, given her times, a great monarch, almost certainly the greatest of her age.

One of her legacies is our language itself. A monarch who can create a world in which Shakespeare could come of age can't be all bad.

The state of Virginia was nameed after her, the Virgin Queen because she never married.

Henry the 8th may have executed more people, but that was spread out over many years. Plus, the people he executed for political purposes were members of the nobility and upper class. The only time he executed a lot of commoners was after they rebelled during the Pilgrimage of Grace.

Elizabeth only executed people who had actually committed crimes, not for secretly being heretics, whereas Mary would have people investigated and executed merely for holding Protestant beliefs. It was also about -who- was executed during Mary's reign, not just how many. The noble or wealthy Protestants fled the country away from Mary's reach and so many of the people she went after were just common people with no real power or influence. So ultimately, Mary was seen as attacking her own people, the commoners.

Initially, Mary was not hated. She came to the throne on a tide of popularity. The people rose up en masse, to ensure that her right to the throne was recognized. Her policies lost her that popularity, and her marriage to Phillip of Spain is generally regarded as being a major blow to her popular support.

Mary's persecution of Protestants and her single minded desire to root out "heresy" continued to erode her public image. Then she drew England in to Spain's wars to please her husband even though the people were against it. The war was costly, both in terms of money and territory. The loss of Calais was a major blow to England as it was their last stronghold in France and had been English territory for over three hundred years.

So Mary was hated by the people, the commoners, and Henry and Elizabeth weren't - the people loved them in spite of the crap they did. And those are some of the reasons why Mary got the nickname and her father and sister did not.

(much of this explanation is by Lynsey on Yahoo)

I think Henry outlived his welcome. He became a vile, murderous tyrant. Cruel for the sake of being cruel.

Elizabeth only murdered people who committed crimes? Well....

And his father should have died at birth. Long live the Plantagenets!

:evilgrin:

Really and truly, he was a despicable character. :(

:hi:

Bake

and it's said that people could smell him approaching. He must have really suffered.

He believed in the Divine Right of Kings, right? Who was the last English monarch who did?

55 huh!

multi wives will do that to ya, just joking.