Q.501. Hi Henry. Whilst walking in the Cotswolds near Eavesham I noticed that the old stone walls had sharp topped coping stones and each side had stones inclined towards the centre. Is that just a Cotswold design?

I wish I hadn’t mentioned dry stone walling now, I’ve had about 50 emails about the design of walls. Basically I have answered all the emails with the same starter:
“....Different areas of Britain have different types of stone, ranging from the mighty Granite to the soft Limestones. But all weather differently from each other and in the soft stone areas susceptibility to water and frost make for changes to wall design.”
Now the Cotswolds are well known for the mellow yellow stone which are always dusty, easy to break and crack with frost. So not very good then eh!
Always at the mercy of what lies nearby, the stone-waller tries to design a structure that will last the longest, so he would place the stones at an angle to allow water to run off easily, place the stones along the wall not across it to stop the shearing action of each leaf of stones moving independently of each other. Instead of fitting stones with small ones to fill gaps, the Cotswold builder will use his hammer more to shape the stone to a much better snug fit, this again reduced the risk of creating a stress point which will determine the lifespan of the finished wall.
The sharp coping stones were designed to stop animals jumping over as well as being the strengthening bridges across the two leafs of stones. In the Cotswold’s they were called the Combers after the Comb which one fashions the hair on one’s head.
Please can we move on from walls, Boring!

Q.502. Hi Henry. When did you start to learn to play the Lute? Did you learn it yourself or have a tutor?
My father gave me my first Lute when I was seven years of age, in 1498, I watched lute players in the small bands of players and tried my best to learn myself. I think I was a proficient musician but my father eventually obtained the services of a Frenchman called Giles Duwes from Normandy who from when I was 12 years old, taught me French and polished my Lute playing. Duwes previously taught my brother Arthur and so stayed in my household where I gave him the job of tutor to Mary my eldest daughter. I was very sad when I heard he had died in 1535, he was a great teacher who could transpose the technical into easy to understand stories and exercises. A really great teacher.

Q.503. Hi Henry. Is your Palace of Westminster the same one as the Houses of Parliament today?
No sorry, My palace was burnt down in 1698 from a fire started by a scullery maid who put washing over a fire to dry. Only Holbein’s gate survived above ground and the cellars below. The gate was finally dismantled to make the Westminster road wider. The Tudor cellars are still under the houses of Parliament.

Q.504. Hi Henry. Do any of your many hunting lodges still survive today, 2009? I have been trying to find one to visit but have failed so far.
I like a person who never gives up. Alas there is only one of my hunting lodges left, built of timber it was completed in 1543 in Epping Forest. Find a park called Fairmead and the house there called “Queen Elizabeth’s hunting lodge” is my old house which I called the Great Standing. By road it is two miles Northeast of Chingford. Hope you find it.

Q.505. Hi Henry. Did you own Hyde Park in London?
Manor of Hyde. In true Godfather style, I made him an offer he couldn’t refuse, the reformation and dissolution of monastery lands. I used the land as a Royal deer park and now it is Hyde Park.

Q.506. Hi Henry. Is it true that you actually had a house called Camelot?
You obviously know the answer and I smell a test from the pen of an historian.
Yes I did own a total of 87 hunting parks most with lodges. One of them was a deer park which was at Enfield Chase where I had built a hunting lodge called “Camelot” nearby was Enfield manor house in which I had apartments for my family.

Q.507. Hi Henry. Will Somers was your famous court jester. When did Royals stop having court jesters?
Will went on to be jester and court actor to all my children, in the courts of King Edward VI , Queen Mary I and finally in Queen Elizabeth I, then he retired. No more court jesters were ever used again, so he was in fact the last one.

Q.508. Hi Henry. I have studied the Mary Rose and other of your ships. No book mentions the heraldic emblems on the bow of each ship, they all seem to be the same. Who painted them?
Quite a difficult question this, but I had a painter who worked for my court for 20 years, he was an Italian called Vincenzo Vulpe from Naples. He painted all my heraldic images on my ships and barges. He was also famous for painting a three dimensional representation of the port of Dover to be given to me from the people of Dover as a gift.

Q.509. Hi Henry. How much wine did your court drink each year?
300 barrels per year. Most wine of the day was not for keeping long as it turned into vinegar easily. Stronger wines lasted longer if they had high alcohol contents of about 16%, Osney, Hippocras and Alsace were types of fortified wines.

Q.510. Hi Henry. In December 1528 the Venetian ambassador was recalled, why was that so and how long did he stay away?
He never came back, in fact Venice had no ambassador in England for another 60 years. He had insulted me by voicing his opinion when I install Anne Boleyn in Greenwich Palace whilst I was still married to Katherine.

Q.511. Hi Henry. Knowing that Norfolk is quite flat, yet there is mention of a Mount Surrey there. Can you explain what it all means as I live in Norfolk, and it is very flat!
The son of the Duke of Norfolk had the title of Earl of Surrey, he built a large manor house for himself in 1545 and called it Mount Sussex. In 1549 it was burnt to the ground during the rebellion led by Robert Kett. Not sure just where it was situated but will try and find out. Just as a matter of interest now we are talking about the flatness of Norfolk, lots of people have asked why are the roads higher that the fields which they run through. This is because they were the same height when built but over-use of the land has reduced the topsoil thus leaving the road higher. Every time you take out a vegetable from the ground, soil goes with it, so reducing the level slightly, now multiply this erosion over the centuries and the filed sinks down.

Q.512. Hi Henry. What is a dry stamp?
When I am indisposed, say ill or away on business, I had a stamp with my signature engraved on it. It would be pressed onto paper to leave an impression without any ink. Approved forgers would then ink in the impressions to keep royal business going. Only very close and trusted council were allowed to use the dry stamp.

Q.513. Hi Henry. Where did your Mother, Elizabeth of York live before she married your father King Henry VII?
Sheriff Hutton Castle in Yorkshire a robust double moat structure. Ironically her grandson, my illegitimate son Henry Fitzroy was granted this castle for his own household and Thomas Wolsey paid for the chapel to be refined. This gave Fitzroy the approval of the church in the eyes of the court. It still exists in the middle of a private farm. I have some picture of it today.

Q.514. Hi Henry. I know you are tired of stone wall questions, but I do have a real passion for such walls and wondered why Wales seems to have the most.
Mmmmm. Dry stone walls are boring to everyone but wallers.
Wales however isn’t boring and the reason for so many walls is their historical method of dividing up inheritance between all sons equally whilst in England we have Primo-genital where only the eldest son receives all the land and inheritance. Now work the Welsh system into land division and three sons get one third of their father’s farms each thus making smaller fields and producing more walls. If one farm is owned by more than one person, maybe brothers, then common walls are divided by means of a small gap to show where one persons ends and the other persons begins. This makes sure one pays for maintenance and money is not needed from all parties in the ownership.
See this picture of one such dividing line.

Oh! And remember that old saying “splitting heirs” not hairs!

Q.515. Hi Henry. What breeds of hunting dog did you use?
I would hunt in the morning and after dinner and have packs of dogs waiting for me. Greyhounds, Buckhounds, Harthounds, Harriers. Most were bred for my palaces by the Royal Kennels on the Isle of Dogs in the Thames just a short way past Greenwich Palace.

Q.516. Hi Henry. How did the rich tapestries hanging on your Palace walls get cleaned?
It is a fact that the tapestries were the most valuable items to hang upon walls, but they attracted dust and soot from the fires. They must not be washed or some of the colour dyes could run out so we cleaned them with dry bread. By rubbing the surface the dry bread naturally scours, absorbs and starches the woven fabric, when finished the crumbs would be brushed off. Ever wondered how a wine ring is removed from polished furniture? There was a Tudor method of setting fire to the discoloured ring with lit wax drips from a candle and then lifting the solidified wax off with the wine stain absorbed.

Q.517. Hi Henry. Did your servants have any perks of the job?
All servants had an established right to share downwards the left-over’s, discarded objects from their masters. This right was called Perquisite which became the slang Perk.

Q.518. Hi Henry. What happened to Mary Howard after she was widowed at the death of her husband your illegitimate son Henry Fitzroy?
Mary remained a widow for 21 years and never remarried. She actually loved my son the Duke of Richmond and continued as Duchess in her own right from his mysterious death in 1536. Henry was at first buried in secrecy and then reburied at Thetford Priory until the reformation then he was reburied for the final time and laid to rest at the Church of St. Michael the Archangel in Framlingham where he still lies next to Mary his beloved wife. Nearby are the tombs of the Howards.

Q.519. Hi Henry. This is a hard question. I know that King Richard III was killed in battle at Bosworth Field by your Father’s army, but do you actually know the name of the man who actually killed Richard in the hand to hand fight?

Yes.
The man was a Welsh Knight who helped my Father from the minute he landed on the Welsh coast. His name was Sir Rhys ap Thomas.

Plain Rhys ap Thomas became Sir Rhys ap Thomas just three days after this battle and under the patronage of both Henry VII and myself, he became the most powerful man in South Wales. The modern Dynevor peerage can trace its ancestry directly back to this warrior knight, the most influential native Welshman in south Wales.
But the great estates, wealth and prestige that Rhys had built up in his lifetime weren't to last very long after his passing; just six years, in fact, was all it took for his grandson Rhys ap Gruffudd (1509-1531), to lose the lot.
In 1531 Rhys ap Gruffudd, was beheaded by my court for treason and with his head went all the family's lands and estates, confiscated by the crown.
My crown.

Below is a picture showing the tomb of Rhys ap Thomas and the view from his now near ruined Weobley castle over the salt flats of Southwest Wales, a few miles Northwest of Swansea.



By the way, ap means “son of” in old Welsh.

Q.520. Hi Henry: I hear the phrase “to be at a person’s beck and call” what does this mean? Also what’s a beeline?
Beck comes from to Beckon meaning to use a hand signal, Call it to speak or shout. So “Beck and call” means to be subservient and to do whatever they tell you or indicate with their hands.
When a Bee finds nectar it performs a dance back in the hive. It points to where the nectar is situated and buzzes a tune, the time it takes for the dance means how far away the nectar is. Now the foraging bees fly straight for the nectar, they make a beeline for it.

Q.521. Hi Henry: How were women treated who nagged their men folk?
Are you trying to tell me something?
In my time, women who were considered to be nags and scolds, users of abusive or strong language, especially against their husbands, were in danger of being punished in an apparatus called a 'branks' - also known as a 'scold's bridle' or 'gossip's bridle'. The device was an iron cage with a tongue that projected into the mouth of the victim to prevent speech. Their nose went through the slit and the metal tongue went into their mouth, this prevented them from speaking.



Q.522. Hi Henry: To 'cock a snook' at someone was to make a sniggering hand jesture. Where does the term come from?
When two cocks are about to fight for hen territory, they spread out their feathers at the back, stick out their necks and circle each other before diving in to fight. This gesture is to show how powerful they are and that no other Cock can beat them. The Cock is the fanned feathers and the snook is the sticking out of the neck. A snook was a stretch of land sticking out to sea.



Q.523. HI Henry. I’ve noticed whilst visiting old houses, that some basic carving is not in proportion. Is that normal?
Well you are thinking in modern terms where one side of your car is an exact mirror image of the other. In Tudor days we only worked to the line of sight, in other words “by eye” and some people had better sight than others. The Tudors were also notorious functional designers, they liked it if it worked, they accepted irregularities as a secondary specification.
Here are some “irregularities” I have found for you.



Q.524. Hi Henry. What is a Sea-girt tower?
Well it really is simple really, a girt is a girth which is a horizontal length of masonery, and a tower is at the end. So a Sea-girt tower is a stone pier sticking out to sea with a tower on the end of it. Possibly the forerunner of the lighthouse.

Q.525. Hi Henry. Why is it widely reported that you had gout whilst you say you didn’t?
Ah! Modern gout is blood vessel blockage due to lack of exercise and too rich a food. Gout in the 1500’s was any skeletal aches and pains, such as arthritis, rheumatism etc. So I did not have your 21st century gout, but more like old age aches and pains.

Q.526. Hi Henry. Was there really a family called Blackadder as in the comedy show by Rowan Atkinson?
Yes, up in Scotland near the border with England. They got their name from the peat-stained river, the black Awedur which is medieval for running water. The original family was Blackadder of that ilk in Berwickshire, who distinguished themselves in the Border feuds so early as the minority of James the Second, towards the middle of the fifteenth century.

Q.527. Hi Henry: What was “the great spoil”?
Rather delicate this question. First of all the appalling death rate of babies born was about 1:2 births, but also 1:5 women died giving birth ,now let us not forget the surviving women who were badly hurt and disfigured in the process, they were left sterile and not capable of further children. This was called “The Great Spoil”, my Grandmother the Lady Margaret Beaufort was one of these as she only aver had one child, my father King Henry VII.

Q.528. Hi. Henry: How long had the Parr’s been in the royal circles before you married Katherine?
Many years before the 6th marriage, Thomas Parr her father was Katherine of Aragon’s Equerry.

Q.529. Hi Henry: How did Scotland Yard get its name?
It is said the location had been the site of a Palace owned by the Kings of Scotland and used by visiting Scottish monarchs as their embassy before the union, the land was “foreign” to England and known as '"Scotland". The courtyard was later used by Sir Christopher Wren and known as "Scotland Yard".

Q.530. Hi Henry: When and what was “Evil May day”?
1st May 1517, many apprentices were starving because the fashion for foreign designed and built houses hit the English skilled working population. They rioted in the streets and attacked Italian, Dutch, Spanish and Portugese houses. One of the foreign workers was that highly skilled stained glass window builder, Galyon Hone who was shunned by English craftsmen.

Q.531. Hi Henry: Did Tudor times have tourists?
We have always had tourists, people to go to see a spectacle as part of a holiday. When Francis and I held the Field of the cloth of gold at Balinghem near Calais it attracted many rich tourists from as far as West Flanders, mainly because we gave away free wine and food to all onlookers.
Tourists can be morbid too, when Thomas Wolsey was under house arrest in London, a rumour got out that he was on his way to the Tower of London for trial. A great many, 1,000’s lined the river Thames all the way from Westminster to the Tower to no avail as he had left for Yorkshire.

Q.532. Hi Henry: Where did “having two strings to your bow” come from?
A back up string in case of an emergency, simple.

Q.534. Hi Henry: It is quite strange that you called your magnificent Palace on the fields of Ewell, Nonsuch Palace. So were was Nonshere?

Hehehe. Well done to notice that one, not many have in the literary world. The naming of Nonsuch was with stylish French influence, no such palace is as fine as this one. But when the Duke of Worcester was in the French court they could not pronounce it. Many cannot today! Some tourists nowadays call it Worchester but we say “wuster”. The French actually gavce up trying to say it correctly by giving it a nickname “Nons Here” or Not here.

Q.535. Hi Henry: I read in many books different amounts for the fine you imposed on the Brandons for marrying without your permission, what was the actual amount?
Alison Weir gets it right to the nearest half a million pounds, but Maria Perry gets it right exactly. The amount was £25,234 6 shillings and 9 pence which at the historical exchange rate of 300:1 equals £7,570,299. Now you should ask how the figure was calculated.
Thank Thomas Wolsey for his mathematical brain, he reckoned that the (dowry lost + the interest gained over a nominal lifetime) – ( the money saved in providing the wedding and loss of interest from this amount) would equal this £7.5M. Beats me, personally I think it was the amount to save the head of Charles Brandon which brought calm to the rage of the sovereign. The debt was paid in annual installments which impoverished the Brandon’s until Mary Brandon received again her pension as Dowager Queen of France from Francis I trying to get friends again.
Oh! and the related issue of why did the Brandon’s daughter marry into the lower class Greys? Well they were rejected by the Howards because of their debt to me. And so poor Young Lady Jane was born a Grey.

Q.536. I read with interest your account of the sinking of the ship Mary Rose, the term clinker as an old design of timbering of ships confuses me. Where did the system originate and can you explain it deeper.

The system of making a hull out of wood without a main frame came to us from the Vikings. The overlapping was strong and flexible so the ship could twist with the rough seas. This also made them incredibly lightweight though the steps around the sides caused by the overlapping also increased the resistance surface area and slowed the ships down from their potential top speed. These steps however added a resistance to sideways rocking as the water hit the horizontal element of each step.
They were assembled one as a time using wrought-iron nails with barbs on them, a slightly domed washer was placed over the end as it came through the two pieces and then riveted over to form a strong joint. I find it most intriguing when a Viking ship remains are found under the ground, only rotten wood is found but the nails and washers are intact and in the correct places around the ships perimeter. Most interesting.
Here is a picture I have made to show the construction.

The Mary Rose still had a frame though her stability relied upon the rolling resistance and when her timbers were changed for Carvel with smooth sides she became unstable.



Q.537. Hi Henry. Your magnificent Navy saved us many times from invasion, but what was your Army like?

Never had one. A military force of land based men would have been called a “Standing Army” which means just what it says, it stands a long time waiting for work and the coffers of the English Monarchy are only so deep. I could not afford to keep an army. What we did however went against our own philosophy of reducing the power of the Nobles to encourage them to reduce their retainers (small army of thugs), what we did was to use a system of “Indenture”. Indenture is a contractual promise that I will pay towards their men but they must become my army when I need them. The problem of the conflict between reduction and supply was to employ rough, tough and usually mercenary thugs are their retainers. They were not to be trusted, working solely for money cause many to be treacherous, lacking in loyalty and vicious when overrunning the enemy, which they saw as a way of supplementing their income.

Q.538. Hi Henry. From England as a Nation, who benefitted and who were badly affected by the Reformation?

This is a huge question worthy of a book for the answer. But I will try with just a couple of paragraphs. Take these answers forward to research more deeply.
The Roman Catholic Church was in trouble before I came on the scene caused by loss of good men in the great plague, replaced by many scoundrels of high birth with no income. They bled their congregations of their hard to come by income, only to deliver religious doctrine in a language nobody understood, not even the new priest. All across Europe this happened not just England and the effect was to promote questioning of the faith by such men as Martin Luther. The poor followed him to a new Church Protesting about the old ways. He poor however lost their only source of good medicine and help in times of real need, the Monasteries were seen as a place for help, when they disappeared in England the poor lost their help. The middle class with their slow promotional life saw the newly freed up monastery land and buildings as a way to accelerate their position. They quickly signed up in belief to the new Church of England and soon benefitted from the gain in ownership. However to stop land devaluing the law was relaxed about rent increases and we became a notation of a dual system. Old ownerships had their rents fixed, new ownerships had their rents reviewed every year. This promoted the older nobles to be richer because the land and the food grown on it became cheaper whilst their wealth was not devalued, whereas the new rich had to increased their costs and buy at inflated prices. He land also became a tug of war between arable land and animal husbandry usually sheep. We lost many a forest to the larger field for sheep, neighbours fought each other for land control and what they used it for.
The main people whom benefitted from the reformation were the shopkeepers, traders, yeomen, tradesmen and farmers. The filed worker saw only religion at a lower cost and the freedom of go to any church, Godding about. They also understood the services and even had a book of common prayer lying next to the English Bible, produced by Thomas Cranmer.

Q.539. Hi Henry. What is a “franklin”

Before the reformation the Monks had to a large extent handed over the running of the monastery estates to a manager who collected rents and kept the peace, they reported back to the monastery much like a manager today. After the reformation the Franklins joined the ranks of the nobles, the gentlemen who came into possession of the lands. So a Franklin is a land owning manager of large lands divided into smaller sublet plots. The small plot holder saw sheep as a larger profit margin and so they tilled the land from vegetable growth into pasture.
Here is a verse of the day, author unknown.
“How have the abbeys their payment?
A new way they do invent
Letting a dozen farms under one,
Which one or two rich frankins
Occupying a dozen men’s livings
Take all in their own hands alone.........”

Q.540. Hi Henry. Did the reformation change the style of houses in any way?

Wow! Where are these difficult questions coming from? I suspect a project brief to some eager history student. But alas I will always answer a question if I know the solution.
The previous question brought up the deforestation of England caused by reallocation of land from the Monasteries, so there was a shortage of timber for the usual timber framed house design. Loss of wood also created a need for coal to burn which in turn created a dirtier smoke in a house without a chimney. Not all districts are bountiful with stone so the development of near-mass production of bricks came about. Houses changed gradually from central fires of timber burning with no chimney where the smoke filtered through a thatched roof, to a timber framed building clad with bricks and a latched on brick chimney for a fireplace on the side of a room fed by coal. The filtering thatch had to change to dry it out without having the escaping hot smoke, they either fitted a wooden liner or tiled the roof. The brick makers became a very profitable business as they made both the bricks and the roofing tiles. Soon the old timber frame disappeared as the movement of the timber damaged the rigid brickwork. The changes did indeed have a national progress, as the deforestation was on the flatter lands the house design changes followed in slow progression. The Eastern counties of Norfolk, Lincolnshire East Yorkshire leading the way meeting in the middle where the Western flatlands were approaching with their designs. This natural splitting thanks to the Pennine hills and Derbyshire hills caused a “difference” in the construction. Go and see what the houses look like today it is a wonderful sight to see. Not much deforestation in the South as this was the land of the Royal courts, they loved their hunting in and around the trees, so the houses stayed much the same except for end walls with chimneys.
I can see why your tutor asked this question, such a major change in social history caused by what seems an unlikely influence.
Now go and do that project!

Q.541. Hi Henry. Did you go Fox hunting?

No. Anybody could go hunting foxes as they were seen as the “red thief” robbing the poor of their chickens and ducks. They were hunted by whole villages on foot with maybe the lord of the manor or his foreman on horseback. The Gentlemen of England hunted for pleasure the Red Deer on the northern Pennines and the Fallow deer in the south. Enclosures of trees were kept to give the deer a sanctuary, the open fields now being fenced off for pasture. The poor old hare was the sport of the hunter from the poor to the rich, using packs of greyhounds because of their great speed to increase the challenge. Hunting with birds of prey was the pastime of the higher nobles as the running costs were very high. The hunting of birds “fowling” with the aid of the hawk was the focus of the bow and crossbow and a device called the “birding piece” a trap-like system with a net.
The shortage of prey for the sporting hunter caused the poor old fox to gradually become the sport of the middle class and rich, about the middle of Elizabeth’s reign this transition was complete.

Q.541. Hi Henry. What was tennis like in your palaces?

Tennis originally came here from France, the game being in a courtyard with walls all around. No rackets were used and a glove from the Knights armour was used to propel the leather ball. It was not called Tennis! It was called “Palme-play” and was seen as a fast knight vs knight conflict play. The use of the glove hampered the development of skill and relied upon luck of the straight return. The use of a strung sieve from the bread flour kitchen became the major change in the game. I had courts built for “Tennis” at most of my larger palaces, still with walls around the court but with spectator levels.

Q.542. Hi Henry. What kind of deep sea fish did the people of England eat?

Salted, dried or smoked. No freezers in my day so any fish caught some distance from the middle of England would be opened and hung to dry or salted for the long tedious journey to their customers. The villagers eat local river fish much the same as we have today but more in abundance due to lack of pollution and lower population. There was a mini ice-age during my reign and the cold air matched the coldest seas we have ever seen, this had a strange effect on Mother nature, it brought Herring down from the ice of the Baltic and northern Norway, into our own sea territory. This gave out fishermen a fantastic living and produced that well known smoked fish the Kipper. I had a liking for pure white fish, Haddock and Cod.

Q.543. Hi Henry. Did you help to start the slave trade in Africa?
How dare you!
No I did not. You obviously are blinded by the reputation I have gathered by the route of poor history writers. In 1528 William Hawkins actually opened up trading with the natives of west Africa and was very friendly with them, cloth, nuts, spices and ivory from Guinea coastal natural ports. However in the Reign of my daughter Queen Elizabeth I, William’s son John Hawkins made the inhabitants of this coast the article to export to the America’s in the newly founded Triangle of slaves for cotton, tobacco etc then back to Liverpool to start off again. Elizabeth turned a blind eye to the trade as she was receiving lots of taxes from the traders.

Q.544, Hi Henry. Wool, how much did we use?

With the increase in arable land for sheep we were the largest/capita for the rearing of sheep for wool. Thus our industrial output was huge, most being in the cottage industry system of collecting preparing and weaving in the same household, new ideas of larger manufacturing were beginning to take place where there was fast flowing water. Water mills became the power of the new mini-factories on the Western side of the Pennine chain of hills. The most famous factory owner was called John Winchcombe whom died in 1520 a very rich man indeed. I actually dined with him at his house in Newbury. John Winchcombe had hundreds of workers and backed me against the Pilgrim of Grace, he acquired Abbey lands and sat in the House of Parliament.

Q.545. Hi Henry. How many mistresses did you have?
“Mmmm donuts!”

Don’t think I am swerving away from your deep question, but remember I married two of them! Here they are in chronological order.
1. Elizabeth Denton
2. Anne Hastings
3. Etionette de la Baume
4. Jane Poppincourt
5. Elizabeth Blount
6. Mary Boleyn
7. Jane Pollard
8. Anne Boleyn
9. Joanna Dingley
10. Margaret Shelton
11. Jane Seymour
12. Anne Bassett
13. Elizabeth Cobham
14. Katherine d’Eresby
Now the rumours:
15. Elizabeth Bryan
16. Elizabeth Brook
17. Lady Wyatt
18. Lady Eleanor Luke
19. Mistress Parker
20. Elizabeth Amadas
So you see, I had enjoyed my mistresses much like Homer Simpson like his donuts.

Q.546. Hi Henry
What did the houses of the poor look like inside? Why are there no examples left?
Here’s a picture of the inside of a Tudor house.
Tudor houses were originally made of wooden frames with wattle and daub panels between. However, the wood cost the most so the panels of poor houses were larger and so weaker, The wood also warped so it had to be built opposite the same tree or copse source and this was very expensive. Therefore the poor houses were built with weak walls and unstable frames so they were not long lasting. The rich had halved timber, small panels or even bricks, thick thatches or even tiled roofs, chimneys and windows. They still exist in many English towns.



Q.547. Hi Henry. How old a family were the Seymour’s, were they high ranking?
Noble people but until Jane married me, they were in the lower orders of the nobility. Must say though that they came from a long line of lower order nobles, they landed with William the Conqueror in 1066 and originally came from France, St. Maurus which became the town of Saumur, eventually the name became Seymour. Land on the Isle of Wight was their original home, still called St. Maur today, eventually moving onto the mainland to Wiltshire for the marriage of Roger Seymour to the heiress Maud Esturmy of Wolfhall, Wiltshire which became their home for many generations. They were related by marriage to the Howards of Norfolk and so Jane was actually second cousin to Anne Boleyn and Katherine Howard.



Q. 548. Hi Henry Indie here.
Several Hackney streets are named after Tudors, how many are there and what are their names?
Ah Hackney! I enjoyed hunting over Hackney Green with dearest Anne.
The Hackney area was only minute in my day compared to today and because it was an up and coming place to live we named many streets after family and friends.
King Henry's Walk
King Henry St
Boleyn rd
Queen Margaret grove
Howard rd
Woodville rd
Wolsey rd
Beresford rd
Kingsbury rd/terrace
Buckingham rd
"Old Henry's"
Montague rd
Balfour rd
Richmond rd
Darnley rd

There you go.

Hi Henry, one of the biggest roads in hackney where in the Tudor times, but had a different name . What is its name now, and what was its name then?

HOLYWELL ST. BECAME SHOREDITCH ST.

Reformation changed more than the churches!
H

Q.549 Hi Henry,
When Wolsey fell from favour, why did you change the name of his “Cardinal’s College” Oxford?
I'm not having a University College with a Papist name!

Actually I changed the name twice!
The first time was to “King Henry VIII College” Oxford because I appropriated all the wealth and trappings from Wolsey whom I believed was plotting with the Pope. When the Pope excommunicated me and my new wife Anne Boleyn, I took the College in my name. Then in 1546 in my latter years, I allowed the University to reorganise the Colleges and change the name to “Christ Church College”, Oxford. I realised that I took the college name as I was the King and head of the new reformed church, others who follow me could do the same. So I changed it to a name to be without a monarch’s title and thought that nobody would dare change the Son of God’s name.
Q.550 Hi Henry,
What was a Hanaper? I believe it to be a legal item.
Quite right sir, a Hanaper is a wickerwork box with lid in which all legal documents are kept by the Clerk of the Hanaper. It also became the box in which a picnic was carried, Hanaper became Hamper!

Talking about strange names. I was watching a man re-thatching an old cottage, on his van his name was Thomas Thatcher which I thought a clever advertising ruse. Not so, for after asking the man about his name he also told me his wife was called Ruth and they had a son called Tyler.
Now that's a clever answer from the comedian/thatcher.

Q.551 Hi Henry,
Were you actually related to Thomas Cromwell?

I sense you already are aware of the answer, as I suspect a trick question.
Well, my third wife Jane Seymour has a sister called Elizabeth Seymour. She married Sir Anthony Ughtred who later died and she became a rich widow. Thomas Cromwell, sick of paying out money to get his easily led son Gregory out of trouble, organised a marriage between his son and the widow. For this he had to get my permission as it would make his son my brother-in-law. Because Cromwell was in high favour at the time this permission was granted.
So in answer to your question, yes I was related by marriage to Thomas Cromwell being the brother-in-law of his son.

Q.552 Hi Henry
Why are poor people referred to as “scratching a living”?

It’s all about Hens and Cocks, which are naturally forest dwelling birds and are always foraging in the undergrowth for food, insects and seeds for instance.

Yes! I do have a picture!



Q.553 Hi Henry
I read that suspected witches were put on trial by the ducking stood, how would that be sufficient evidence to convict them of sinister undertakings?

It is a combination of superstition, fear, suspicion and someone to blame for a village problem. But, you must consider the times before you judge. People lived short hard lives, women had a life expectance of about 35 years if they were married with children, whilst single women could expect to life up to about 70 years as the effects of dangerous childbirth did not count for them. A single woman in a village would be very poor, would have to rely upon foraging for food and begging, or she could make brews for people to help cure illnesses or even become a Brewster and make an Ale of her own concoction.
Living twice as long as most women would bring the eye of contempt and suspicion upon her and if her brew was seen as a possible cause of death or sickness she could be accused of witchcraft. Her house would have a large pot for cooking, an open fire under her thatched roof, she would dress in drab dark clothing and hide her age and facial problems under a hood. Walla! She’s a witch. Nobody wanted to be the one who declares her guilty so the law would be to tie her to a wooden contraption, the ducking stool, and duck her under water with the whole village looking on.
If she survived the ducking she was deemed to be guilty and then would be burnt as a witch. If she drowned, she was seen as innocent but because she had lived twice as long as normal women nobody felt bad about her ordeal and passing.

Q.554 Hi Henry,
How could a food taster get instant results so you could eat your food in confidence?

A very valid point. Poison had a smell or taste or it showed up in crystals and texture in the food. A Royal food taster was not just some lay person daft enough to want to take the risk, he was trained to find the poisons and detact their trace in food, hence the saying “suck it and see”. He would also inspect the kitchens and be around when my food was being prepared, after all he would die with me if he missed any toxic poisons. So my food tasters would be well paid, well trained and well looked after, with a degree of power over the preparation of my food.

Q.555. Hi Henry. You were brought up a strong Roman Catholic in faith, how could you so quickly dump such beliefs for the reformation of the church?

Only control of the church was my ulterior motive. I am high in rank and so see that only men ran things. The Emperor Charles, the Pope are only men in reality. I am but a man too, so I saw that these two men were stopping me producing a legitimate heir to the throne of Tudor by not allowing a divorce or annulment of my illegal marriage to Katherine, by Brothers widow. Charles was her nephew and so family was involved in their decision. I decided to rid England of Papal control, the reformation of the Catholic church was just what it says, “a reformed Catholic Church” no thoughts of being Protestant ever crossed my mind. Remember that we were not alone in religious turmoil, the rest of Europe was in a deeper crisis than England with their fighting against Martin Luther’s new church of Protestors of Papal doctrines. Yes we had the same enemy, but we were world apart in delivery. I gave the task of reforming the church into the Catholic church of England to my councillor Thomas Cromwell who maybe went a little too far with some of the things he did, but mainly he kept in the spirit of the reforming process. Until that is he leant a bit too far towards Protestant values with his executions of various bishops and the support he had for clerical marriages, of which I had no liking whatsoever.
In 1539, May I believe I brought in “The Six Articles” legislation to stop the flow towards Protestantism, the main article was the reintroduction of the Holy Sacrament from the old Romanised version. Cromwell had to back off his thrust towards the European growth of the Lutherans and England’s new Catholic Church settled down into a cohesive religion. The Duke of Norfolk. Cromwell’s deadliest enemy, took Cromwell’s position to be traitorous and even his organising of the marriage to Anne of Kleves was deemed in the Lutheran camp. Cromwell lost the battle and died.
So a quick answer to your question, I never backed away from my beliefs, I took away foreign control and foreign effigies, as the new church developed it moved too close to Lutheranism and I pulled in the reigns.
Here’s a little ditty about a group of revellers who accidently became Traitors due to the effect of drink, but who were forgiven by my generous intervention.

Drunken Traitors We
By Henry Tudor
A Coventry trick when night covers thick
Was to crawl from Tavern to Inn.
We four friends so true can drink and then spew
With the world about us in spin.
But new to us now was the Church of the King
With laws designed to stay true.
Never destroy, disrespect, mess or employ
A holier than thou attitude.
I’m John Robbins a maker of clothes
My friends Harry, William and Rob.
We drink ‘til we are sick, we dance and act thick
From ale house to ale house we lob.
But one drunken spree, turned dangerous for thee
Roger’s tavern then Pannier’s toll.
We ended up sprawled at the town’s old cross and did fall
Needing desperate toilet and washing facility.
No paper on hand, no wash bowl on stand
So we used the King’s posters to wipe up the grime.
This was a traitorous act, our freedom was sacked
Even though we could not remember our crime.
The village then spoke, “without them we’re broke”
So the King shook his finger and drew a new line.
A wry smile behind his tough face. He said “watch this space”
You four must repent, no ale money spent will be fine.
Become pure and never do drink.
Keep away from the cross, my paper to floss
Keep an eye on each other, don’t blink.
Of course we still drink, what does the King think?
No water is clean to drink neat.
But now we carry a roll, when out on a stroll
And look for a hidden privy seat.

Q.556. Hi Henry. I am fed up of looking for facts about your illegitimate daughter Audrey Tudor, there is no exact details as if trying to hide her! Can you give me a true account of her life and whereabouts?

I loved that little girl, blue eyes and always smiling in my world of corruption and intrigue she gave honesty and innocence to the meaning of my life.
First of all Audrey is her nickname, she was called Etheldreda and only for a few days did she have the right of the surname Tudor. Her Mother was Joanna or Jane Dingley, daughter of a Sir John Moore and widow of James Dingley of Dunkelyn county Worchester. She was a lower noble and was in and around the Palaces when I first saw her in 1534. She was low enough in status to not be a political problem when she became pregnant with Audrey, only if the baby would have been a boy would it matter. At the time the two tailors who made my incredible suits were constantly in my rooms and we became friendly. John Malte was my principle cutter and botcher and we worked closely together to produce never seen before designs. A botcher is a tailor who sews cut pieces together to make the shapes, so you could say my clothes were “botched together” hehehe. Anyhow I digress, John Malte was asked to take in the baby Audrey and to bring her up as his own daughter, thus being now called Audrey Malte, or Etheldreda Malte. Named after the daughter of King Anna of East Anglia, Princess Etheldreda went on to found a monastery and nunnery in Ely.
I made a lifetime pension allowance for the girl and Malte and his wife, lived well because if it. As you know I died in 1547 and lands were left to the tailor and Audrey as a sale by the Crown to “....John Malte and his base daughter Awdrye.....” Only ten days later, I died knowing I had settled my daughter for life. The land! The Manor of Kelveston, Somerset.
Audrey married by my guidance to the Knight Sir John Harington who was one of my confidential servants. Audrey also inherited lands from her now wealthy step-father, the manors of Watchenfield and Offynton in Berkshire. Queen Elizabeth I became their son’s godmother when she was only 20 years of age.

As you will be aware from your previous research Kelveston in Somerset is just north of the Abbey of Glastonbury of pop festival fame today. The Manor grew into a small village called Kelston situated 4 miles northwest of Bath, and 8 miles east of Bristol, on the A431 road. It is situated just north of the River Avon, close to the Kelston and Saltford locks.

It is the site of the Elizabethan Kelston Manor House, built by the Harington family with wealth created from the rich dowry Audrey inherited, the house was demolished in the 18th century.


The village of Kelston, courtesy of Flickr.
Cannot stop here as this story crosses over a famous happening!
Nearby and interested in the welfare of Audrey was a certain John Horner of Clofford Somerset. Horner was married to another of John Malte’s daughters, Meriola (Audrey’s step sister). John Horner obtained his land from the pie containing the deeds of the Abbey at Glastonbury, he kept the best property for himself as payment for the delivery, Mells in Somerset. Little Jack Horner!
Have to finish now, could talk about dear Audrey all night.

Q.557 Hi Henry. Who was your earliest best friend?

From the age of 2 yrs I had a pageboy who was a ward of my Father, King Henry VII. The pageboy was 11 years old at the time and was called William Compton. His father had died and left Williams future in the hands of the King. We were inseparable as companions in arms in the French battle at Tournai (1512), he was my emissary and a constant partner in hunting expeditions. I was broken hearted when William died in 1528. I went to stay at his family home of Compton Wynyates in Warwickshire many times and I gave him the privilege of displaying the Royal Lion of England in his coat of arms. There is a bedroom called Henry VIII room and my daughter Queen Elizabeth I, King James I and King Charles I stayed there too.
Compton Wynyates got its name from the family of Compton and a windmill overlooking the house. Known early on as the Compton’s windgate.

Q.558. Hi Henry. On a windmill why are there no solid panels on the sails?

Mmm. That's because it is in neutral, the sails need to be pulled over the frames to create the surface area. The rear fan powers a bevel gear to rotate the main fan into the wind. The mainshaft then turnes another bevel gear to direct the rotation vertically and drive the stones. Quite complicated really.





Q.559. Hi Henry. Quite a difficult question for you. Did the Tudors have Orchids?
Yes.
Orchids are millions of years old and there are 35,000 species so it would have been their place of growth that would be the problem of accessibility. A hot and humid climate such as South America or closer to England, Madagascar would have been the source. It was about 1518 that the vanilla orchid was discovered from the invasion of the Aztec Empire by the Spaniard Hernando Cortes. Remember that I was still married to a Spaniard at that date so I could easily have had the seed pods as flavouring or made into a widely accepted potion for health. Chocolate from the Cocoa plant was mixed with vanilla to make a soothing drink to calm the nerves. It was not until about 1602 when vanilla pods became a sweet flavouring in its own right and not just for a medicine, this was started by Queen Elizabeth's apothecary, Hugh Morgan.
The biggest user of the Vanilla Orchid today is the Coca Cola drink company! Oops have I given away the secret their most guarded ingredient?
The name Orchid comes from the old Greek “testes”, so it was viewed as an aphrodisiac as well as the old favoured Globe Artichoke. I did use a lot of such plants whilst trying to father a boy.

Here's a picture of my favourite one.



Q.560. Hi Henry. Why were Tudor Bricks so small in thickness?
It is a misconception that Tudor bricks were thinner to allow a more intricate pattern to be built. It was because we rushed them into manufacture and set up many small brickworks who had poor drying and oven facilities.
Tudor bricks are poor quality and had a huge scrap rate thanks to the cores being wet and firing before they were completely dry. The expansion in the wet centres would crack and distort the brick causing a low acceptance rate for Royal building stock. Walls around properties ended up with the worst acceptable brickwork, even at Hampton Court around the Tiltyards where today you can see poor examples of brick.
The thickness was small because they air dried quicker and hopefully lowered the scrap rate. The fashion for brick in-fills to timber framed walls which superseded the old Wattle and Daub system created a huge demand for kiln produced bricks. The London borough of Willesden was expanded from a small river dwelling to a bustling, brick making town on the River Brent, the way over being Brentford. Nearby a house had two ways over the River and was named two-fords, Twyfords! About 80 workers were involved with the brickworks and much of the production went into Hampton Court on Royal purchases. These 80 workers brought in a further 200 dependents and thus the town grew.
The pre-Henry Hampton Court built by Cardinal Wolsey used common brick and painted the different patterns instead of arranging coloured bricks in a built pattern. I rebuilt over these Wolsey walls to bring them up to my standard. I also discarded the Timber framing for full brick walls with structural stanchions and bowed timber roofing spans which was quite a step forward in building design, again though increasing the need for brick production to be increased.
Here’s a few pictures of poor Tudor bricks taken in Hampton Court’s Tiltyard, though it must be said, they are nearly 500 years old and still there! In 500 years time how may modern buildings would have survived?




Q.561. Hi Henry. Without proper maintenance what would a Tudor house look like after many years of neglect?

Nature takes all back eventually. Windows would break, stone would layer and fall apart, bricks would fall under their own weight as the mortar breaks down, wood would rot and fall off leaving roof's on the floor and that dreaded Ivy would take over.
I had to ride a few miles to find this picture, it is Bank Hall in Bretherton, Lancashire.



Q.562. Hi Henry. The Knights rode big strong horses as the rider was dressed in heavy armour, what protected the horses?
Mmm. They wore armour too!



Q.563. Hi Henry. Just what does a wild boar look like, is it big?

Very big and very dangerous.



Q.564. Hi Henry. Why do some stone stairways in round towers go clockwise up and some anticlockwise up? Is it to stop the running soldiers getting dizzy?

Thank you for the laugh, it cheered up my boring day.

Never think that the leader of any castle gives a hoot about the dizziness in a soldier, the soldier is a tool to the boss.
The fact is though that 5/6 people are right-handed and the other 1/6 left-handers were forced to be awkward right-handers. Now put your sword in your best hand, your right hand, run up a spiralled staircase with that sword in your hand, which direction makes it impossible to attack the soldiers up stairs? Clockwise upwards. Now if the defending soldiers are downstairs the worst rotation for the attacker is clockwise downwards. So this the reason for the two uses of the spirals. The defender are at the top the stairs spiral clockwise up to them, this allows the defenders to have their swords in their right hands and all the space needed to swipe at the incoming attackers. But is the defenders are under the entrance, in a cellar or dungeon, the staircase would need to go the other way to keep this advantage.
This is true not a wind-up, or wind-down!
Now I’m on the subject of tower stairways! Did you know that they werew designed to be as narrow as two people passing even though the castles is large enough to very wide towers? Why? Because an archer cannot fire an arrow around a corner but is the corner is wide enough he can kill people on the tangent of the circle. Clever eh! AND he would have to be a left-handed archer too!
Now I’m feeling dizzy.

Spirals
By Henry Tudor

With sword in their hand
With fear in their heart.
The foe enter this land
To kill from the start.

But a castle so high
With towers so great.
Spiral up to the sky
A hard task they make.
The hunted defend
From top floor they wait
The foe cannot sword bend
This becomes their end fate.

A genius it was that found
When towers spiralled round.
To make it clockwise quite sound
To the top from the ground.

Keep staircase quite narrow
To stop a stray bows arrow
Make it awkward to fight on
The battle now won.


Q.565. Hi Henry. Fellow follower of Tudor History from Cornwall.
Love the website, view it all the time.

I was hoping you could clear up the mystery of measurements for me. I have always been confused why the Imperial system is so complicated yet the Romans always worked in multiples of 10. Please have a go at this mystery for me.

Well, I won’t insult you by mentioning Cornish miles.
The potential Roman Empire had no real measurements before they invaded and they had a very clever way of measuring lengths. It was the norm of the Romans to build a stopover infrastructure every 15 Roman miles which was a day of marching. Miles came from 1,000 Roman paces, mille. Now I can hear you say “that’s a big pace” but a pace was actually 2 steps, so the right foot started again from the same position. A Roman Pace was 58” or 1.62 yards. So a Roman step was 29” or 0.81 yards. This shows just how short Romans were! I think I have mentioned it before that too big a pace rubbed the legs on the ends of their leather thonged kilts.
Now if you multiply 1.62 yards by 1,000 paces then a Roman mile is 1,620 yards long. When the Romans left and the Brit’s were left behind they multiplied their pace of 1.760 yards to get our mile of 1,760 yards.
In medieval days fractions were used instead of decimals, so ½ mile, ¼ mile and then 1/8th which is 220 yards and became the length of a furrow for serfdom land working. The furrow length became the Furlong which is still in use today in the horse racing world. Now into the equation comes the Roman Catholic Church, they built churches with a sanctuary end under the cross, called the Rood end. A barrier was fixed for the hunted to enter the Rood whilst the hunter could not be allowed in with weapons. The depth of the Rood was two lengths of the sword tip to the halfway of the swordsman! Confused eh! This meant nobody could in theory fight in the rood. This length was 16.5 feet long and became known as the Rood length which became the Rod Length.
Now because all churches had a rood length it became the standard way to measure land area, four rood lengths X one furrow length was the old way of measuring land, the archaic way, the acre!
Now let us calculate the actual acre.
1 rood length X 4 X 220 yards = 16.5 feet/3 yards X 4 X 220 = 4,840 sq.yds or 43,560 sq.ft
Now in comes the guy who builds dry stone walls around fields with the rood in his hand, he measures the perimeter in rood lengths and multiplies the basic height of the wall at 4 feet tall. This measurement is called perches.
Of course things go wrong, we sent over with our intrepid explorers lots of casks of liquids. Measured in gallons at the filling stage, the liquid soaked into the wood and evaporated and so after many weeks at sea it had lost some volume. The other end let the liquid out in gallons which are now called US Gallons, which are smaller than imperial gallons. Still confused? Me too.
Wait before you go, the Roman roads were built to accommodate the width of a chariot wheel tracking. Our present railway system is the same as well as any country we or the Romans have been to building infrastructure, so the track are the same in America too. To transport the rocket boosters for the space shuttle, NASA had to make sure they fit on their railway system so the diameter of the booster rockets were dictated by the Romans. Now that’s progress!
Where did the Yard come from? The dimension from the centre of a body to the finger tips, this was the way sellers of cloth measured it off the roll in the yard outside the houses. Big sellers gave more which is a tall order.
Well, maybe I will mention Cornish miles. How come the road signs in Cornwall show distances which are not true? Example: “Newquay 3 miles.” Three miles later, “Newquay 1.5 miles”!

Q.566. Hi Henry. If you loved riding your 200 horses, did you suffer from horse fly bites a lot?

Not the regular type of question I receive, but quite a good one all the same. it was well known in my day that darker horses attracted more flies. I rode on white horses and rarely got bitten. If you explore this answer on the internet, you will find that the eyes of horse flies define movement of swishing tails and dark bodies stand out whilst white bodies are nearly invisible. We also cut the tails shorter.