All language subtitles for The.Private.Lives.of.the.Tudors.S01E02.WEBRip.x264-ION10-NH

- The tudors are one of
the best known dynasties

in world history.

They took England from
raging civil wars

at the brink of ruin and transformed it

into a powerhouse on the world stage.

From their romances to their health

the fate of the country
was closely linked

to their personal lives.

We've seen how Henry vii loved and lost

and how the untimely
death of a young prince

created one of the most
notorious kings in history,

but what really went on
behind the closed doors

of their palaces?

In this episode we look at
the life of king Henry viii.

His gargantuan appetite for
food, sport and women.

His endless quest for an heir

and of course the horrific leg injury

that plagued most of his adult life.

Welcome to "the private
lives of the tudors".

- Make way!

Make way the king, the king!

Come on!

- King Henry viii had
been on the throne

for 27 years, but on the
24th of January 1536

his reign very nearly came to an end

at a tournament in
greenwich when he suffered

an almost fatal accident
while jousting.

Henry in full armor fell from his horse

which in turn fell on him.

One report said he was unconscious

for two hours and there
seemed to be no hope for him.

- Be careful!

- But true to form Henry
did regain consciousness.

The Henry that emerged
though was very different

from the Henry before the accident.

Contemporary accounts
recorded a marked change

in his personality,
no longer the happy,

generous and athletic king.

He was now depressed, paranoid

and plagued by health problems.

This was the beginning
of Henry the tyrant.

- A lot of people thought
that he was going to die

and it does seem to have possibly
changed his personality.

- He's capable of being quite
brutal the whole way along.

Personally, my own view is that

Henry was always capricious.

He was always capable of making

a very hard and basic calculation

about people and he was
completely unsentimental.

When you were eaten up
and you were useless

to him he spat you out
and threw you away.

- Henry had always been
a fit and handsome man.

Renowned for his fine calf muscles

and his pretty rounded face,

but after the jousting accident

his health had begun to deteriorate.

He was no longer able to take part

in the sports that he had loved

and his leg had become
painfully ulcerated,

it was a problem that
would stay with him

for the rest of his life.

- There's no question that the accident

in 1536 opens up an old wound

and it causes a second
injury in the other leg

and the injuries on
his legs undoubtedly,

but that's eventually
what's gonna kill him

because there are no antibiotics,

so these are reinfecting wounds

and they must've been very painful.

As he becomes more
sick, physically sick

I'm sure his temper became shorter,

but whose wouldn't and I'm sure

he can be more unpredictable.

- His explosive temper
and volatile mood swings

were a constant source of fear
to his ministers at court.

On several occasions it was reported

that he became violent lashing out

at even his most trusted confidants.

- As he becomes more housebound,

chairbound, bedbound, he
loves to frighten people

and he enjoys that whole
business of tormenting people

and he likes the fact that
they find him unreadable.

- The ulcer on his leg would
have been very painful

because they believed
in keeping it open

to allow the pus to keep coming out

because they thought that
would stop the ill humors

building up in his body.

The other problem was of course

it was very ugly and this is a man

who has prided himself
on his appearance.

This is a time too when the health

of the king is considered
very important

because the king is
after all the leader,

so it was very difficult for Henry

to be less than the fantastic
specimen of manhood

that he had once been.

- Ill tempered and racked
with constant pain

Henry had to be regularly attended

by his personal medical team.

These tudor physicians were something

only the very wealthy could afford

charging around 10 schillings
for their services,

which was out of reach
for the vast majority,

but despite their large fees
they were still limited

in terms of their medical expertise.

Most of what they knew had been based

on ancient writings from
the likes of Aristotle

and hypocrites or old wives tales

that had been handed down
through generations.

- Tudor medicine was based on the idea

of the four humors, so basically
hot cold, wet and dry.

The idea was that those four elements

should be in perfect
balance in your body

and when they got out
of balance you got ill.

If your doctor considered
that the reason

for your illness was that you were

too hot and dry he
would prescribe things

that would make you colder and wetter.

He might well prescribe you all sorts

of changes to your diet, so
for example young animals

were considered to be
hotter than older ones,

so you might be told to eat
meat from young animals

rather than older ones which
would sound rather strange

to us today, but from
the way they thought

it was perfectly sensible.

- Astrology and horoscopes
also played a big part

in determining Henry's health
and how he should be treated.

It may seem strange but from birth

Henry's star sign was
closely monitored.

Doctors maintained that the king

who was born under the
astrological sign of cancer

was governed by the maternal
cycles of the moon.

Henry's horoscope suggested
that he'd be vulnerable

to such diseases as
small pox, rheumatism

and even kidney stones.

To this day Henry's astrological clock

remains here at Hampton court.

Designed by the king's clock
maker Nicolas kratzer

it shows all 12 signs of the zodiac,

the cycles of the moon and
the position of the sun.

His birth chart had
cast him as a cheerful

and happy child who would grow up

to become a man of action.

He would be ill tempered,
eat and drink to excess,

sensitive to criticism and
have a healthy libido,

maybe there was something
in it after all.

But there was one thing
above all others

that continued to
worsen Henry's ailments

his love of excessive eating.

I've come to the kitchens
at Hampton court palace

to see food historian mark meltonville.

- So I understand this one of your

favorite part of the palace.

- I love the tudor kitchens here.

I think you get more of a sense

of how the court operates here

than in any other part of the palace,

but you're the food expert
you talk me through it.

- Well I like to think of this

as sort of the beating
heart of the palace.

Yes, you've got the courtiers upstairs

swishing around in their posh dresses,

but this is where over 200 people

are sweating away, producing
meals twice a day

for four or five, 600
people it's just fantastic.

- It's a production line and you know

over you shoulder there a familiar site

the pies, is that all they ate?

- No a shame it's not.

This entire room is dedicated

to the roasting of meats,
so roasted beef and mutton.

The pies are secondary really,

they're through the hatch
they're waiting to go up

to the great hall.

- Well lead on through.

What do we have in the next chamber?

- This is our favorite.

This is our veritable
cathedral to food.

- Amazing.

During Henry's reign the royal court

was constantly increasing in size,

which meant that there were
a lot of mouths to feed,

so in 1529 he had the
palace kitchens extended

to meet the demands of
his hungry courtiers.

At it's height the great
kitchen comprised 55 rooms

spanning over 3000 square feet

where it's 200 strong staff were tasked

with serving 600 meals twice a day.

We're here in what
probably was the biggest

and busiest kitchen in the world

and this is the heart of it.

What would have gone on here?

Whose food would have been cooked

in this part of the kitchen?

- Well obviously everyone thinks

this is the kitchen for the king

'cause why wouldn't you, but the king

had his own private or privy kitchen,

his meals were served to
him and his inner circle

and cooked in a much smaller space.

What were sat in is basically
the works canteen,

but it's so much more than that.

- They must have got through a
gargantuan quantity of food

every single day?

- Yep, on time, no excuses

this is like a modern hotel
everything works like clockwork.

- One of the myths about Henry viii

is that he was very
uncouth when dining,

you know there was the
throwing of the chicken legs

and it was all a bit raucous,

but it really wasn't like
that at all, was it?

- No, we don't think so because

we have a couple of cookbooks,

but we have even more manners books

survived from that period, so we know

how you were supposed to dine politely

and someone like Henry viii he's
gonna be trained from birth

to behave properly,
to behave like a king

and the one thing they didn't like

was the idea of you
eating like an animal.

We're not animals, we are man
and you don't chew on bones.

- What would have been a typical meal?

Would it been three courses?

Did he choose from different dishes?

- Here it gets complicated
'cause the answers yes,

but when we think of a course
we think of a plate of food,

so if I say three courses
for you for dinner

you're thinking of
three separate things.

A course in tudor times
in fact through most

of British history is a buffet,

a small buffet for
you, me and two others

referred to as a mess, so we'd sit here

and a selection of food
is brought before us

and that's showing the
wealth of your host.

- Well it was tailor
made for fussy eaters

wasn't it really if you
didn't like one dish

you could just choose another one.

- That's the point.

No one leaves a royal
table dissatisfied.

- Roasted meats were available

at almost every meal
at court most people

at the time if they were lucky enough

would've eaten preserved meat,

but fresh meat year round was a
sign of wealth and opulence.

Roasting was hugely expensive,

not just for the cost of the fuel,

but because you had to pay
someone called a spitboy

to constantly attend it.

- There is no meal
without the roasted meat

and within the roasting kitchen

there are six fires like this,

four spits on each we reckon
at least 100 pounds of meat

needed on every fireplace just
to get the whole court fed.

We've only got two pieces on here

because this is just choice for you.

- And what do we have here?

What's the meat?

- I've got the two most
common meats roasted here

'cause everyone expects
a deer or a boar.

Yes, they ate those, but everyday

there is fine roast beef
the best of England

and fine roast mutton.

- And there is quite a
lot of skill involved,

isn't there Robert?

It looks like a fairly monotonous job

certainly a very hot
job, but how skilled

were these spit turners.

- Well you do have to
keep your wits about you.

You have to examine the meat
make sure it's not overdone.

It is not the most job
with the most variety,

but it's an important
job 'cause this is

a really extravagant way of cooking.

Probably the most extravagant
way of cooking ever invented.

Ridiculous, you're burning
a ton of seasoned oak

per fire per day, outrageous.

- So all of this is making me

pretty hungry, do I get
to try some of this meat?

- You do and in true tudor fashion,

we can't tell you what to have

you get to choose between a fine piece

of English beef or the
slightly more rare mutton.

- I think I'm going for the rare mutton

that sounds delicious, thank you.

- Good choice.

I'll just let Robert come to a halt.

Thank you very much.

And cut some of this off.

- Well I'm gonna be like Henry viii

take a fairly delicate
piece to begin with.

That is absolutely delicious.

I think that is the best
mutton I've ever tasted.

- People always think
it's gonna be really dry

'cause they see it go around the fire

and go quite dark, but that's
actually all the juice

cooking on the outside,
it's really really moist.

- With all that food the courtiers

needed something to wash it down with.

Henry had three large
cellars in his palace

and with good reason, an
incredible 600,000 gallons

of ale were consumed
at court every year

and wine imported from gascony

was held here in over 300 oak casks.

At any one time there would have been

15,000 gallons of it available.

The king himself certainly
had a taste for wine,

which in tudor times was
incredibly expensive

and that made it all
the more impressive

when Henry marked festivals
and special occasions

by ordering the construction
of lavish wine fountains,

like the one on display
here at Hampton court.

Revelers would have been greeted

by these remarkable
tudor drinks dispensers

and allowed to help themselves

to this seemingly
endless supply of wine

that flowed from their spouts.

He sadly knew how to throw a party.

All that food and drink meant Henry

was growing in size,
which certainly kept

his tailors and craftsman busy.

As king, Henry didn't
have to lose weight

to fit into his clothes and armor

he simply had new ones made.

Three suits of armor kept
here at the tower of London

reveal just how much he grew
in size over the years.

The most skilled armor makers
of the time were German,

so Henry had some of these
craftsman brought over

and established at a
workshop in greenwich

where they spent their whole
time making the king's armor.

He had been greatly impressed
by the eye catching

and beautifully intricate armor

worn by the holy Roman
emperor, maximilian I

and Henry didn't want to be outdone.

- When Henry came to the throne
he wasn't that impressed

with the armorers of England,
there were very few of them,

there was definitely one in London,

but it wasn't making armor
of the quality he wanted.

So he imported armorers from
where we would now call Germany

and the low countries and he formed

what still is the royal armories

and they were there specifically

to make high quality
armor for the king.

- The greenwich armor produced
by the royal armories

was of the highest quality

and distinctly decorative in fashion,

but most of the armor
that Henry had made

was not intended for the battlefield,

it was for the tournament.

Henry loved to compete in the joust

and that meant he needed
the proper protection

because the fact he was king
didn't mean his opponents

would let him win.

- You can't cheat with jousting.

Nobody going up against
Henry was letting him win

they were giving as good as they got,

it's like a big game of chicken

there's no defensive moves in jousting

you simply sit there and say hit me

because I'm gonna hit you.

How does that feel your majesty?

Are you able to move properly?

- Yes, yes.

- It would have been a real thing

to go and see the king jousting.

Don't forget this is not a
sport for the faint hearted

this is dangerous, this is brutal,

the king could and was injured

on several occasions
when he was jousting.

- From a young and healthy prince

to a dangerously overweight
middle-aged king,

Henry's armor gives us an
almost completely accurate

account of his growing size.

- Well we're quite lucky in the fact

that we've got quite a lot
of Henry's armor left

almost from when he's a teenager

right up until his later years

the last armors he wore
when he invaded France

and what you could do in fact

is you could put plaster
into the armor,

pour plaster in and you'd
have a very good record

of how his body changes over the years.

He's young and fit and then obviously

he becomes older and fatter
as he exercises less

and eats more, so you'd
actually be able to see

from those casts you could take

of the inside of the armors
how his girth grows.

- As Henry's size and
weight started to increase

so too did his number of illnesses,

but despite best efforts
Henry continued to suffer.

He regularly underwent a
wide variety of treatments,

both conventional and experimental.

It was probably during
a bout of illness

when he was surrounded
by the physicians

who were trying to cure
him that Henry himself

became interested in
the world of medicine.

He granted a royal charter to establish

the worshipful company
of barber surgeons,

shown in this painting by hans holbein,

which still hangs here
in the great hall today.

One of the men depicted in the painting

was Thomas alsop who was among Henry's

most trusted physicians.

Alsop was a skilled herbalist
with extensive knowledge

of pharmaceuticals, as such the king

granted him permission
to gather what he needed

to make his medicines from
the royal herb gardens,

like the one here at the
worshipful company of barbers.

Dr. Tim cutler is honorary curator

of their tudor physic herb garden.

- There's been a garden on
this site since about 1450.

- It's that old!

- The original hall had a garden

and we have records of the
beetle buying plants for it.

- With the same sorts of plants?

- Yes, probably a few more added,

but we particularly commemorate

John gerarde who was master
of our company in 1607.

- John gerarde was one
of the first people

in England to record and
publish how plants and herbs

could be used to cure various ailments.

His book "gerarde's
herbal" brought together

the theories and remedies
that had been used

by the likes of Thomas alsop

when developing treatments for Henry.

- Great botanist, surgeon,
plantsman, gardener.

We have produced this
garden in his memory

really through his writings
of "gerarde's herbal",

which came out in 1597

and listed all the known
medicinal plants at the time

and plants that were
useful in many respects,

both for medicine, both
for scenting the air,

for dyeing clothes.

- Many of the herbs
used in tudor medicine

can be commonly found
in most kitchens today;

sage, marjoram and
parsley were widely used

in cures for common
ailments, known as simples,

but the more complex the illness

the more outlandish the remedies.

For example, if you had jaundice

you would likely be prescribed

a revolting mixture of lice and ale

to be drunk every morning.

How important were herbs
to tudor medicine?

- Herbs were the basis of most
medicines used at that time.

They'd been described
1500 years earlier

by dioscorides and galen and
nothing had changed much

and it was not until
"gerarde's herbal" came along

that the subject was expanded
to include more plants,

but they were using the same herbs

as have been used for generations.

- Of course Henry viii's
major health problem

was his ulcerated leg.

What sort of herbs would
his doctors have used

to try and cure that?

- There were quite a lot of plants

used for wound care at the time

and gerarde writes
enthusiastically about them.

He writes about hypericum perforatum,

the St. Johns wort, which we know about

for used in sort of mild
depressive illness now,

but gerarde rated it as very
important for wound healing.

He writes about alchemilla mollis,

lady's mantle the plant
that's still here.

Look the dew is still on it.

Dew was regarded has having
very magical properties

and dew gathers on alchemilla leaves

and so this was thought
to be very special.

And the mandrake.

- Very well known still.

- It's unchanged for 2000 years,

I mean the history of the mandrake

goes back to the time of Christ

and this contains the
active ingredient hyoscine

that we now know about,
but it was known

as a very effective source of
pain relief in those days.

So his wound would have needed

these dressings to
encourage it to heal.

- Henry's other
preoccupation was of course

the need to beget an heir.

Now were there any herbal remedies

that could have helped his libido?

- Well he might have tried the
candied roots of sea holly,

eryngium, that was
marketed as an aphrodisiac

and that was certainly
available in tudor times,

so I suspect he tried
that from time to time.

- And given that he was king of course

with all of these great
remedies at his disposal

did he have any made specially for him?

- The king's graces ointment
was his own prescription,

it was an ointment made
from a plant we know well

called the yellow sweet clover.

If you pound it up you get
a nice, soft, mushy mix

that produces a very soothing ointment

and it is written up in Henry's papers

that it was used to cool the
inflamed parts of his anatomy.

We can leave it to your imagination

as to which bits he
needed to put it on,

but there it was it
was his own ointment.

- That's a fascinating insight

into Henry's personal life.

The fact that Henry's
heath was in decline

didn't stop him from moving on

to his third wife, Jane Seymour.

In 1538, within seven
months of the marriage

Jane was pregnant.

When word got out that
the king's new wife

was with child there were
celebrations across the land;

bonfires were lit,
church bells were rung

and prayers were said in
hope of a safe delivery.

However, it would be anything but,

Jane was forced to
endure a 36 hour labor,

which in tudor times would have been

extraordinarily painful and torturous.

- Jane had a very long
and arduous labor

and there weren't that many
comforts available to her.

Modern pain relief as we understand it

just didn't exist and
also the church believed

that women should experience this

this full manifestation of original sin

and so they frowned upon midwives

administering things like opium.

- Prayers would be said and
the recitation of prayers

and focusing on that could act
as some kind of relaxant,

but other than that there
was obviously no ether,

there was no epidural.

- Herbs were used and some of them

might actually have had
some sort of effect,

such as willow bark which we know today

that aspirin is made from,

so there may have been
something like that.

- It was common practice of the time

that the expectant mother would
have taken to her chamber

to give birth, known as lying in.

She would have been shut
off from public gaze

and surrounded only by
her female attendants,

usually close friends known
as godsips or gossips.

The labor would almost
always have been supervised

by a midwife and men
were strictly forbidden

from entering the room.

- Jane Seymour's confinement
in delivery was different

because for the first time

Henry invited men into the chamber.

They were present during
the time of delivery

and afterwards and we know this
from a letter that survives

that they all put their name to,

including Henry's own
physician sir William butts.

This is quite interesting in terms

of a departure from tradition because

it indicates Henry was very concerned

about Jane's delivery and also

about the survival of this child.

It's as if he knew that this
child was his last chance

and he didn't want to
take any risks with it

and so he threw all his
available resources at it.

- Henry may have had good intentions,

but it was a decision that
would have fatal consequences.

- Men though did have a
more detached knowledge,

they didn't have hands on experience

that was a very female thing

and also there's a status problem

with men actually touching
the queen's body,

so men were probably
standing back and observing

while the women actually
did the business

of delivering the child
and then bringing some

of their academic knowledge
to bear after the event.

- Jane eventually gave birth
giving Henry what he desired

above all else a son.

Henry was overjoyed, but his
happiness was short lived.

Just 12 days after giving
birth to Henry's heir,

prince Edward, Jane tragically died.

She contracted what
was known at the time

as child bed fever, which
may have been caused

by a retained placenta or by
the unsanitary conditions

in the birthing chamber.

- It's quite likely that
the inclusion of men

in the birthing room
in Jane Seymour's case

led to a conflict of interest

as the senior figures at court

their opinions would have
trumped those of the women

and so they probably had the final say

when it came to Jane's care.

- I think that Jane Seymour
was deeply unfortunate

in having royal physicians
rather than midwives

looking after her.

The royal physicians just
were not as experienced

and knew much less in
relation to childbirth

than did midwives, so it
would have been exhausting

as well as full of pain
and then of course

she died afterwards
because almost certainly

the placenta did not come fully away.

- In the days after giving birth

we know that there was
some criticisms made

this comes from a letter
from Thomas cromwell

who commented that she was
allowed to catch cold

and that she was allowed
to indulge her fantasies

in eating unsuitable foods.

Possibly the academic knowledge

triumphed over the experience

and Jane's death may
have been the result

of an infection or possibly the fact

that the men didn't know
that part of her placenta

may have remained in her womb
and needed to be removed,

which would have simply
been whipped out

by a midwife by hand,
so the gender battle

in the birth room might have resulted

in Jane's premature death, which
was possibly unnecessary.

- Henry was devastated
at the loss of his wife

writing of her death he stated,

"Providence has mingled my joy

"with the bitterness
of the death of her

"who brought me happiness".

Henry would not remarry
for more than two years,

it would be the longest period

that he'd be without a wife throughout

the whole course of his reign.

- Henry was delighted to
have a son at long last

probably anxious about whether
or not the son would live

and he seems to have been distraught

by the death of Jane Seymour.

She had delivered the child
he had so much wanted.

He hadn't been married
to her very long,

so she hadn't alienated him
as Anne bolyne had done

and he withdrew rather
as his father had

at the time of the death
of Elizabeth of York

from public view and
mourned in private.

- Henry was clearly
grieved by Jane's death,

a letter he wrote on that day said that

she'd both given him this ultimate joy

and ultimate grief from the fact

that she had passed away at the time.

However, Henry was fairly pragmatic

and although he went through
the period of mourning

and he didn't marry again
for a couple of years

he didn't stop looking at other women

and marriage negotiations
were already taking place

within months of Jane's death,

so although he did mourn
her on a personal level

he still knew he had a duty as a king

to take on another
queen and possibly try

and father even more children.

- By the time Henry had
reached the age of 50

the once slender and athletic king

had become monstrously fat

with a waist measuring 52 inches

a full 20 inches bigger
then when he first

came to the throne.

It was said that three of
the biggest men at court

could fit inside the king's doublet.

He was so fat that he had to be winched

onto his horse and a special
device had to be built

to get him up and down stairs,

partly it was due to
his lack of exercise,

but mainly it was the
rich and plentiful food

that was constantly on
offer here at the palace.

You would think that with his huge size

and festering leg sores that Henry

would have been a little less choosy

about potential matches,

but nothing could be
further from the truth.

Arrangements are made
for him to remarry

and it is suggested he
chooses the daughter

of an influential German
Duke, Ann of cleeves.

The artist hans holbein is
dispatched to paint her portrait.

He is told to capture her true likeness

and not to flatter her.

Upon seeing the painting Henry

immediately agrees to the marriage.

But when he meets Ann in the
flesh he is utterly revolted,

not only is she ugly with
very little resemblance

to her portrait, but she's also said

to have evil airs about her,

but the contract has been signed

Henry has no choice but to
go ahead and marry her.

Henry made no secret of the fact

that he did not find Ann
pleasing to the eye,

so what was it that he was looking for?

What did tudor men consider attractive?

- The ideal of beauty was
that a woman should be

well proportioned and graceful

and be not too much of one thing

and too much of another, so
she shouldn't be too tall,

she shouldn't be too short.

Everything was in moderation,
it showed harmony,

which was the ideal.

- Your figure needed to
be certainly not skinny

because in tudor times that
suggested you were poor

or possibly ill and the
big thing you wanted

was for your future wife to be healthy.

Certainly you wanted lots of babies

if you were an aristocrat and
lower down the social scale

your wife had to be healthy

because she was gonna
have to work really hard,

carrying around pails
of water and all that,

no good being a weakling.

- So they were looking for
someone with clear skin,

with good teeth, they
were talking about

particularly the smell of a woman.

They didn't want a woman
who smelled of spices,

but a woman who smelt sweet

and that might give an indication

that she wasn't suffering
from any rotten teeth

or sores or anything
unpleasant like that.

They were also looking for a woman

who was well made and
who was clearly built

for giving birth to children,

so they wanted a fairly
round, hourglass figure.

Someone who would be able
to bear a child healthfully

and go through the
rigors of childbirth.

One of the tudor ideals though

was that of a very fair complexion

and there were steps
that women did take

to try and lighten their complexions

using things like lemon
juice and other mixtures

and also the tudor red-gold
hair was very famous,

very popular at the
time and quite rare,

which increased it's value.

- There was no particular one type.

The ideal was much more based on

this notion of being well
proportioned and being graceful.

- Henry divorced Ann
shortly afterwards,

but although her lack
of physical attractions

has traditionally been blamed

for the failure of her
marriage to Henry,

did the fault really
lie with her husband.

There is evidence that
Henry was impotent

by the time he married her.

This is corroborated by the
story of his next marriage.

His fifth wife Catherine Howard

was just a teenager
when she married Henry

who was more than 30 years her senior.

Although he couldn't keep
his hands off her in public

in private Henry failed to
fulfill his husbandly duty.

By 1541 and within just a few months

of their marriage Henry's
health took another turn.

His leg ulcer had become infected

and there was serious
concern that the king

might not pull through.

Andrew borde, a physician who
examined Henry at the time

described him has hugely obese

and having enlarged arteries
with pale and sweaty skin.

Aware that he was not looking his best,

Henry would refuse to see
his wife for weeks on end.

It wasn't long before Catherine

started to seek sexual
gratification elsewhere

and she soon found it in the
shape of Thomas Culpepper,

one of the king's closest servants,

but nothing remained a
secret at court for long

and when the affair was discovered

Catherine went straight to the block.

A year later Henry moved
on to wife number six.

On paper his marriage
to Katharine parre

seemed to be one of
reason and practicality

rather than passion.

She was a wealthy 31 year old widow

with wit, intelligence and
an unblemished reputation,

but she also understood
Henry as a person

and was attentive to the fact

that his disastrous marriage
to Catherine Howard

had left him deeply lonely and unhappy.

She provided him with all
the care and comfort

of a loving wife.

Their marriage seemed
to be set for success,

but by the summer of 1546 Henry viii

was dangerously ill.

His enormous girth and poor health

meant his mobility was so restricted

that he could barely walk.

Only his closest body servants

knew the full extent
of the king's illness.

They saw the separating
ulcer on his leg

the stench from which was enough

to turn the strongest of stomachs.

The king was dying.

- From the middle of 1546 the king

becomes less and less
inclined to go out

and spends more and more
time in the privy chamber.

He also is beginning to
think about his plans

for the succession and the
fact that he thinking

in these terms, he's writing a will,

he's talking about a
council of regency,

which is a very unusual idea.

- Henry started to make
provisions for his death.

He had officially
declared his son Edward

as heir to the throne.

However, he was still just a boy,

so the king appointed a regency council

made up of 16 trusted
men from his court

to help him rule until Edward
reached the age of 18,

but Henry knowing that
he would not be there

to protect Edward and along
with his ever growing paranoia

set about ridding his son
of any potential threats.

He became convinced that
members of his privy council

would try to seize
control after his death.

Powerful men such as bishop gardiner,

Henry Howard and his father Thomas

were either excluded,
imprisoned or executed.

- By taking out those big men he thinks

a group of smaller men
will work better together.

Of course he doesn't really calculate

on how ambitious the seymours are.

- Little did Henry know
that his wife Katharine

would go on to rekindle her
romance with Thomas Seymour.

Together they will attempt
to influence the court

of Edward when he becomes king.

- The seymours also have made
a very practical alliance

with Katharine parre the last queen

and between them they
control the privy chamber

at this stage.

- At the beginning of 1547, Henry moved

to whitehall palace and retired

to his private apartments,

away from the prying eyes of the court.

There on the 28th of January
on what would have been

his father's 90th birthday,
he breathed his last.

He had spent his last days bedbound.

His doctors unable to
tell him he was dying

as predicting the king's
death was an act of treason,

but with his room
filled with the stench

from his rotten ulcerations
they probably didn't have to.

Henry summoned the archbishop
to hear his last confession

and absolve him of his sins

in preparation for the afterlife,

but by the time he reached the king

it was too late.

Henry was 55 when he died and
had reigned for 37 years.

Now it was time for his children,

Edward, Mary and Elizabeth
to take their turns

as England's monarch.

In the next episode we'll
see how a phantom pregnancy

left queen Mary a
laughing stock at court.

Examine the unusual
methods of contraception

practiced by the tudor women

and look at how Elizabeth
I love of sugar

and cosmetics left her a bald

and toothless shadow
of her former glory.

Next time on "the private
lives of the tudors".