Henry VIII court rules

Lesson at a glance

Suitable for: Key stage 1, Key stage 3, Key stage 4

Time period: Early modern 1485-1750

Curriculum topics: Changing power of monarchs, Significant individuals, Tudors

Suggested inquiry questions: What did a normal day look like for Henry VIII? What was Henry VIII's court like?

Potential activities: Find out how Henry VIII’s image was portrayed by Hans Holbein and other artists in the period.

Download: Lesson pack

How did Henry VIII get up in the morning?

Henry VIII became King of England in 1509, aged 18. He was determined to be a great king, looked up to by everyone. He showed this in lots of ways: his grand portraits, his keenness for French wars and his behaviour towards his court and to other kings.

He also showed it in his control of every detail of his daily life. One measure of greatness at that time was the number of people that surrounded you, the more people, the more important you were. When Henry stayed at Hampton Court he was attended by nearly 1,000 people.

Controlling this number of people was quite a job and in 1526, while he was staying at another of his palaces, at Eltham, a strict and detailed set of rules was drawn up by his closest advisor Cardinal Thomas Wolsey. Use this lesson to find out about Henry VIII’s rules at court and how he controlled the way the people who surrounded him behaved.


Tasks

1. These are extracts from the Ordinances of Eltham, which sets out the start to the King’s day.

  • Write down what the pages and esquires did each morning.
  • What did the gentlemen of the privy chamber have to do?
  • Who were the only people allowed to touch the King?
  • Why do you think this was?

2. This section of the ordinances deals with the duties of the King’s barber and the behaviour of his staff.

  • How often did the barber visit the King?
  • What tools did he use to help him with his job?
  • What was the punishment for the barber if he mixed with the wrong kind of people?
  • Why do you think that it was important who he mixed with?
  • What were you not allowed to do in the King’s chamber?
  • When was the only time you would be allowed to do this?
  • Why do you think it was so important?

3. This piece of the document deals with how the people who worked in the Privy Chamber should act.

  • What do you think is meant by the sentence ‘fhall be loving together, and of good unity and accord’?
  • Why do you think they were not allowed to talk about what happened in the chamber?
  • If you had to write a list of rules for the people who worked in the chamber, what would they be?

4. You are now going to pretend you are making a film about how King Henry VIII gets up.

  • Draw a table with a column for the shot number, one for what each shot would show, and a third column for the voice-over (words to go with the shot)
  • Now fill in the your table for what you think you would put in your film
  • Add a fourth column to your table for the King’s words
  • Think about what the King would say in each shot, then add this to your table

5. The point of all this was to increase the importance of Henry VIII. How do each of the following points show this?

  • having lots of servants
  • having upper class people serve the King
  • doing things in the right order
  • strict control of good behaviour

Background

Henry’s father Henry VII was always careful with money and his court was not famous for its show of wealth. Henry VIII wanted to change all that. When he met one of his rivals, King Francis I of France, just outside Calais in 1520, a complete town of tents and timber was built for the meeting. Yards of velvet, satin and cloth of gold were sent to decorate the temporary palaces. It was called ‘The Field of the Cloth of Gold’. Henry loved all this display: by the end of his reign he had amassed 55 palaces, 2,000 tapestries, 150 paintings and nearly 1,800 books. He also owned 41 gowns, 25 doublets (a doublet is a snug fitting buttoned jacket), 20 coats, eight cloaks, 15 capes and eight walking sticks.

The number of people waiting on the monarch was another sign of power. But even better than numbers was the quality of your servants. Kings and great barons had always taken young boys from their friends’ families into their households. It was a good education for leadership: you learnt how great men ran their affairs, how to behave, and made contacts, which would be useful all your life.

However, to get on at Henry’s court young men had to have more than noble blood. Sixteenth century monarchs were expected to play, sing and compose music, read and discuss books, speak several languages as well as wrestle, play tennis, joust and hunt. Henry could do all these things superbly and his favourite ‘gentlemen of the privy chamber’ did as well. Not surprisingly, some of the older aristocrats looked with disdain at these clever young men – ‘minions’, or pretty boys, as they called them.

Henry was intelligent enough to see that there was a point to all this. His father, Henry VII, had won the throne of England by fighting for it, winning the battle of Bosworth in 1485. Henry VII did not have a strong claim to the throne, so his son’s was not much better. In the 15th century kings and barons had been rivals for power. In fact, some barons were more powerful than the king himself. Henry VIII could see that putting a big distance between the monarchy and the barons, building up his magnificence, his separate position, made him more secure.

Everything outlined in the extracts from the Ordinances of Eltham, therefore, built up this separateness and specialness. The elaborate rules about who was allowed to get near the king and when, the requirement to be well-behaved and for servants to be keep the King’s secrets, all contributed to this image-building.


Teachers' notes

The first extract from the Ordinances of Eltham used in this lesson explains how Henry VIII started his day. The second extract details the duties of the King’s barber and the behaviour of Henry VIII’s servants. The final extract deals with how the people who worked in the Privy Chamber should act. All sources are provided with transcripts and simplified transcripts. Students can work through the questions individually or in pairs or groups reporting back to others in the class.

These extracts from the Ordinances of Eltham help to explain the strong sense of personal monarchy which will characterise any study of the Tudors. It was important to Henry VIII, as King, that he was surrounded by of high-born pages and esquires, a feature of earlier medieval courts. The account of his getting up in the morning stresses privacy and we learn who was allowed into the royal presence. The sources actually reveal who could touch the royal person, namely the barber. 200 years later, ritual at royal courts had changed to such an extent that Louis XIV of France created a whole royal lifestyle out of the ‘levee’ or the rise – a ceremony that took place every time the King or Queen woke up.

The rooms mentioned in these sources include the ‘pallett room’ where the King slept, a pallett was a bed. The ‘privy chamber’ was a private room next to the pallett room. The pages, esquires and gentlemen of the privy chamber who attended the king were the sons of rich and powerful lords and knights. Other members of the royal household were ordinary people namely servants, grooms, ushers and the barber. The King’s Chamber was a large room where he conducted his public life.

All documents are provided with transcripts. Students can work through the questions individually or in pairs and report back to the class.

Sources

Image: E344/22 – Returns of the Valor Ecclesiasticus

Sources 1, 2 and 3 – SP 2/B – Transcript of the Ordinances of Eltham


External links

A brief history of Henry VIII
https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofEngland/Henry-VIII/

The story of the Field of the cloth of Gold:
https://blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/the-field-of-the-cloth-of-gold-1520/

Henry VIII’s break with Rome
https://blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/anglo-papal-relations-henry-viii-break-with-rome/

Connections to curriculum

Key stage 1
Significant people

Key stage 3
The development of Church, state and society in Britain 1509-1745

Key stage 4

Edexcel GCSE: Henry VIII and his ministers, 1509–40

OCR GCSE: Tudor government: growth of royal power under Henry VIII; the role of Parliament under Henry VIII and Elizabeth I.

Back to top

Lesson at a glance

Suitable for: Key stage 1, Key stage 3, Key stage 4

Time period: Early modern 1485-1750

Curriculum topics: Changing power of monarchs, Significant individuals, Tudors

Suggested inquiry questions: What did a normal day look like for Henry VIII? What was Henry VIII's court like?

Potential activities: Find out how Henry VIII’s image was portrayed by Hans Holbein and other artists in the period.

Download: Lesson pack

Related resources

The Great Seal

What can it tell us?