Embedded Files
Jousting was considered the most masculine sport of the medieval world, and Henry thrilled to prove his manhood on the “lists.” In 1524, 32-year-old Henry was seriously wounded when an opponent’s lance hit him just above the right eye.
He would suffer severe migraines for the rest of his life.
An even more dangerous accident occurred 12 years later when he was 44. Henry, wearing full body armor, was thrown from his horse during a tournament. The horse fell on him, knocking him unconscious for nearly two hours (and initially leading many to believe he had died).
His inability to exercise led to massive weight gain, which can be tracked by his evolving body armor, which shows his waist growing from 32 to 52 inches.
And yet, he continued his notorious eating, perhaps swallowing his pain and misery along with food and ale. He developed gout and eventually had to be lifted on to his horse and carried around on a chair.
He finally died in January 1547, aged 55.
The son Henry had so desperately wanted? Young Edward VI became king at age nine, and reigned for just six years, dying at 15 from what was likely tuberculosis.
He was succeeded by his two half-sisters, Mary and Elizabeth, whose own failures to produce heirs led to the end of the Tudor dynasty.
His 9-year-old son Edward VI succeeded him as king but died six years later. Mary I spent her five-year reign steering England back into the Catholic fold, but Elizabeth I, the longest-reigning of the Tudor monarchs, restored her father’s Protestant religious reforms.
Edward VI, 1546 to the right
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