“Henry VIII is a monster, but he’s our monster. No other nation has a king who had six wives and cut the heads off two. We’re perversely proud of Henry.” – Hilary Mantel

Hilary Mantel brings a deeply reasoned perspective on Henry VIII, as she does with all the characters in her Wolf Hall Trilogy. She gives us two views: her own and that of his chief minister, Thomas Cromwell. Hilary also invites us to rethink our own view of the man who is probably the most famous English king in history, so far.

For example, while we know that no one is all good, nor all bad, we may agree that the lingering mythology surrounding Henry is cloaked in narcissism and brutality to the possible exclusion of any saving graces. 

Here are two views by the actors who played Henry in the TV and stage adaptation of Wolf Hall and Bring Up The Bodies.

The actor Damian Lewis spoke to Vanity Fair magazine about playing Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall TV version of the ‘cruel’ English king.

‘In this role that Hilary created, there’s a real opportunity to look differently at a period of history that is loved and well known. I was excited to bring a new perspective on the syphilitic, philandering man that people think King Henry VIII is. In terms of international recognition, Henry, as a brand, is right up there with Coca Cola,’ Lewis said.

‘I think we all have this understanding that he was this womanising, syphilitic, bloated, genocidal character. And actually the truth is, though it might be an odd thing to mention, he had a 32-inch waist and he remained that way for quite a long time,” Lewis explains.

In the Radio Times, Lewis also commented, 

‘Hilary reminds us that Henry was the pre-eminent sportsman in his court. He was much taller than anyone else. His beautiful, pale complexion was often remarked upon by commentators. And so I think what I’ve found in Hilary’s Henry is that the grandiose, more paranoid, self indulgent, self pitying, and cruel Henry who emerged in the period. What we’re trying to concentrate on a little bit, is just to give a more varied portrait of Henry, and that’s really how this is written.’

‘What you see in Hilary’s version of Henry, in Wolf Hall and Bring Up The Bodies, is that he develops a real affection for Cromwell. I think he likes this man who is humbly born, son of a blacksmith, born in Putney, has more worldly experience than any of the nobles that he’s surrounded by – because Cromwell was a merchant banker, he was an early prototypical merchant banker. He is a man of the world. And I think Henry is utterly taken with his straight talking, no nonsense approach, his intelligence and his legal mind. Henry just becomes wholly dependent on him.”

On the King’s infatuation with Anne Boleyn in Hilary’s version, Lewis comments,

 ‘Anne Boleyn was a formidable woman and she had an extraordinary power over Henry. He desired her and he wanted her. I think he also was struck by her undoubted intelligence and her strength of will. I hadn’t realised to what extent Anne Boleyn is something of a feminist icon – that’s something I have learned doing this.

‘It’s very easy to be interested in Henry VIII – he was a memorable, almost cartoonish King. In terms of his achievements, he laid the way for the Common Book of Prayer, the translation of the Bible into English; in a slightly violent way, he created the Church of England and it was his daughter who so expertly then mediated and created and allowed Anglicanism to thrive.

‘He made important adjustments to Parliament at the time and music flourished, literature flourished in his reign. But of course the reason we’re interested, is in the six wives and the fact that two of them were beheaded and the obsession with having a son.

‘Wolf Hall is a political drama that reveals the interior nuances of the key players who are required to do the bidding of this mercurial king. If we’re comparing Wolf Hall to other contemporary TV dramas then it is more House of Cards than The Tudors.

‘Henry was the king who wanted the most educated, cultured, sporting, elegant, fashionable, chivalric, and majestic court that England had ever seen – but what undermined him was his obsession for a male heir.

‘Hilary’s Henry is a changeable, volatile, very likable on many levels, brilliant, passionate man, who became increasingly fixated and paranoid on a single issue and a lot of people died as a result of it. So his trajectory is extraordinary.’

Nathaniel Parker played Henry in all three stage adaptations of Hilary’s trilogy. Speaking to the Daily Express, he too has a unique view of the king.

‘Henry is fabulous to play: an overgrown child who’s also very bright, very loving, and quite confused. He’s vulnerable and ­capricious,” Nat says. “He’s certainly not the chicken-bone-sucking, thigh-slapping, wench-grabbing Henry we’ve seen so often in old movies.

‘Hilary was there in rehearsals which was amazing – like having Oscar Wilde in attendance for The Importance of Being Earnest. Her breadth of knowledge is just extraordinary.’

So who was the real Henry? To find out, make sure you join us on the weekend of June 22nd and 23rd, 2024, as we discuss the life of Henry VIII as seen through Hilary’s magnificent books and compare her version with the views of some of the most qualified historians on his life: