Tag: Henry VIII

Henry VIII has been one of my greatest fascinations during the past four years—I love reading anecdotes that I can use to turn into literary design adventures.

A trip to Frankfurt to attend Heimtextil in January 2016 brought to mind one of my favorite anecdotes about Henry VIII and his court because it describes how the Tudor King doted on textiles. I came across the depictions of his affinity for fabrics in Nicola Shulman’s book Graven with Diamonds: The Many Lives of Thomas Wyatt.

The author wrote that Henry VIII made a cult of cloth, swathing himself in luxurious fabrics as effusively as his predecessors had donned their furs. “Books wore brilliant velvet jackets, harnesses came sleeved in satin and velvet,” she wrote. Everything he valued was covered in textiles, including his ample frame. But this glimpse into his reign proves how important fabrics were in the most fashionable sense.

“His court had no geographical location, but consisted of a group of men (and ladies, when the queen was in place) riding from one large, cold, unfurnished palace to another,” Shulman wrote. “Ahead of them went trains of wagons loaded with what it took to create a suitable court setting.” Framed paintings and mirrors would never have survived the journey on medieval roads, but cloth and plate, the other ornamental staple of Henry VIII’s regime, could. I feature this strong-willed king in a number of other posts so if you enjoy reading about his legacy, I hope you’ll stop by The Diary of an Improvateur.