Editing Henry VIII (section)

== Public image ==
[[File:Pastime.jpg|thumb|left|Musical score of "[[Pastime with Good Company]]", {{circa|1513}}, composed by Henry]]
Henry cultivated the image of a [[Renaissance man]], and his court was a centre of scholarly and artistic innovation and glamorous excess, epitomised by the [[Field of the Cloth of Gold]]. He scouted the country for choirboys, taking some directly from Wolsey's choir, and introduced Renaissance music into court.{{citation needed|reason= Incorrect terminology. England already had its own votive style of renaissance music. Does a source intend to mean that Henry VIII introduced continental music into his court? If so, quantify on what scale compared to his father, Henry VII, who was also a patron of music who also accepted continental influences into the final phase of the votive style found in the Eton Choirbook|date=April 2025}} Musicians included Benedict de Opitiis, [[Richard Sampson]], [[Ambrose Lupo]], and Venetian organist Dionisio Memo,<ref name="scarisbrick1516"/> and Henry himself played and kept a considerable collection of flute instruments including [[Recorder (musical instrument)|recorders]].<ref>Oxford Companion to Music. see section 2 of the article on "Recorder Family"</ref> He was skilled on the [[lute]] and played the organ, and was a talented player of the [[virginals]].<ref name="scarisbrick1516">{{Harvnb|Scarisbrick|1997|pp=15–16}}</ref> He could also sightread music and sing well.<ref name="scarisbrick1516"/> He was an accomplished musician, author, and poet; his best-known work is "[[Pastime with Good Company]]" ("The Kynges Ballade").{{Sfn|Weir|2002|page=131}} It is also frequently said that Henry wrote the sixteenth-century [[English folk music|English folk song]], [[Greensleeves]]. However, it is certain he did not, as Greensleeves is based on an Italian style of composition that did not reach England until after Henry's death.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-11-10 |title=Henry VIII: was he a good composer? |url=https://www.classical-music.com/features/artists/henry-viii-composer |access-date=2025-04-24 |website=Classical Music |language=en}}</ref>

Henry was an avid gambler and dice player, and excelled at sports, especially jousting, hunting, and [[real tennis]]. He was also known for his strong defence of conventional Christian piety.<ref name="Crofton2006a"/> He was involved in the construction and improvement of several significant buildings, including [[Nonsuch Palace]], [[King's College Chapel, Cambridge]], and Westminster Abbey in London. Many of the existing buildings which he improved were properties confiscated from Wolsey, such as [[Christ Church, Oxford]], [[Hampton Court Palace]], the [[Palace of Whitehall]], and [[Trinity College, Cambridge]].

Henry was an intellectual, the first English king with a modern [[humanist]] education. He read and wrote English, French, and Latin, and owned a large library. He annotated many books and published one of his own, and he had numerous pamphlets and lectures prepared to support the reformation of the church. [[Richard Sampson]]'s ''Oratio'' (1534), for example, was an argument for absolute obedience to the monarchy and claimed that the English church had always been independent of Rome.{{Sfn|Chibi|1997|pp=543–560}} At the popular level, theatre and [[minstrel]] troupes funded by the crown travelled around the land to promote the new religious practices; the Pope and Catholic priests and monks were mocked as foreign devils, while Henry was hailed as the glorious king of England and as a brave and heroic defender of the true faith.{{Sfn|Betteridge|2005|pp=91–109}} Henry worked hard to present an image of unchallengeable authority and irresistible power.<ref name="hibbert"/>
[[File:10. Westminster Roll selected scenes 260814 005 A5.jpg|thumb|upright=1.25|Catherine of Aragon watching Henry [[jousting]] in her honour after she had given birth to a son]]
Henry was a large, well-built athlete, over {{Convert|6|ft|m|disp=sqbr}} tall, strong, and broad in proportion. His athletic activities were more than pastimes; they were political devices that served multiple goals, enhancing his image, impressing foreign emissaries and rulers, and conveying his ability to suppress any rebellion. He arranged a jousting tournament at Greenwich in 1517 where he wore gilded armour and gilded horse trappings, and outfits of velvet, satin, and cloth of gold with pearls and jewels. It suitably impressed foreign ambassadors, one of whom wrote home that "the wealth and civilisation of the world are here, and those who call the English barbarians appear to me to render themselves such".{{Sfn|Hutchinson|2012|p=202}} Henry finally retired from jousting in 1536 after a heavy fall from his horse left him unconscious for two hours, but he continued to sponsor two lavish tournaments a year. He then started gaining weight and lost the trim, athletic figure that had made him so handsome, and his courtiers began dressing in heavily padded clothes to emulate and flatter him. His health declined rapidly near the end of his reign.{{Sfn|Gunn|1991|pp=543–560}}{{Sfn|Williams|2005|pp=41–59}}{{Sfn|Lipscomb|2009}}