The King and the Codpiece

The 500th Anniversary of Henry VIII's accession to the throne in 2009 was marked by many public events, television programmes, conferences, and publications. The volume of events organised at Hampton Court Palace alone - which ranged from a Tudor river pageant on the anniversary weekend of Henry's coronation, to daily re-enactments of the celebrations for Henry VIII's wedding to Katherine Parr, and an exhibition on 'Henry's Women' - is testament to the considerable interest this monarch continues to hold. The palace also played host to a performance of John Heywood's interlude 'The Play of the Weather', directed by RSC Director Greg Thompson; ¹ a series of public lectures given by eminent historians and historical novelists such as David Starkey, John Guy, and Hilary Mantel; ² and an international academic conference entitled 'Henry VIII and the Tudor Court'. ³ By catering for such a wide range of interests and educational backgrounds, Historic Royal Palaces demonstrated not only its dedication to public education, but also its ability to recognise a great marketing opportunity, for if any historical monarch is going to get the public to part with their money to attend cultural and educational events, it is Henry VIII.

Attendance at the 500th anniversary events was no doubt aided by the popularity of the Showtime television series The Tudors (2007-10), starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers as a svelte and youthful Henry, and the release of a film adaptation of Philippa Gregory's novel The Other Boleyn Girl in 2008. These dramatisations have not only brought the history of this monarch to a wider audience, but have also given him a sexy image and reputation. Now more than ever we recognise Henry VIII as a highly marketable brand, which also makes him something of a godsend for scholars who must demonstrate the 'impact' of their work: as long as they can find a suitable way of disseminating their research on this particular Tudor king, they are assured of a captive public audience. Leaving aside the academic concerns that accompany the new emphasis on impact, the corollary of using the Henry VIII brand to validate scholarship is that it may also be employed to reinforce the public identity of the canny scholar. David Starkey is one such scholar: although he has written a number of academic studies, he has based his media career on his popular histories and television programmes about Henry VIII. His four-part documentary Henry VIII: The Mind of a Tyrant, which was aired during the anniversary year, is the perfect example of why Starkey has become so closely associated with the monarch: this programme very consciously repackages Henry for a twenty-first-century audience. He may claim in episode 1 that the aim of the series is to find the 'real Henry' behind the myth, but the series is also billed as 'an examination . . . [of ] how Prince Charming became Bluebeard, the English Stalin'. ⁴ This apparent conflict in the aims of the documentary - which maintains it will free Henry from old clichés, but in so doing invokes new ones - raises the question of what precisely Starkey means by 'real'. Is the real Henry found in historical specificity? Or is Henry only real to us when he is made accessible and understandable in our own time?

In observing how Henry VIII has been remembered and refashioned for a modern audience through documentaries, dramatisations, and anniversary events, it becomes clear that the afterlife of Henry VIII has necessitated its very own branch of academic enquiry. Appropriations of Henry's image and name have been going on since the moment he became king, and in the last twenty years critics have begun to produce articles, chapters, and even whole books that engage with this activity. One of the earliest studies to do this was Henry VIII in History, Historiography and Literature, edited by Uwe Baumann (Peter Lang, 1992). Essays in this volume dealt with coronation poetry, Skelton's...