Henry's biographer, Susanna Liscombe, is not surprised the king got so fat.

The thing about Henry VIII's eating habits is that he mostly ate meat.

In those days, you ate meat if you could afford it.

So it's probably a very sort of vitamin-free diet without any fresh vegetables.

None of his five a day that were recommended to eat.

So he would have obviously put on a lot of weight, taking in all that protein and without anything to work it off.

This is a suit of armor from his younger, slimmer days.

This armor shows the king at his most glorious, the warrior king.

Somerset's in a powerful position and Dudley's trying to get close to him.

Yes, and that has sort of built up over the 1540s.

They're friends and they're aligned.

And it's clear that their position on faith might be similar, but that they get along and they can work together.

And William Paget is perhaps the third of their number, this little trio together.

who essentially take power.

But though they're great friends, Edward Seymour and John Dudley, Dudley in the end does for Seymour.

And it's Dudley hovering at the bedside table with lots of bits of paper to sign.

Somerset's in a powerful position, and Dudley's trying to get close to him.

Yes, and that has sort of built up over the 1540s.

They've be-- They're friends, um, and they're aligned, uh, and it's clear that their position on faith might be similar, but that, th- that they get along, and they can work together.

Uh, and William Paget is perhaps the third of their number, this little trio who essentially take power.

Um, but though they're great friends, Edward Seymour and John Dudley, Dudley, in the end, does for Seymour.

So a couple of years into Edward's reign, Seymour has proved unpopular because he has pushed forward with these religious ideas, of course, but also there's been, um, things to do with enclosure and agriculture that are deeply unpopular.

And the upshot of this is that he sends Dudley to deal with some rebels in, in Norfolk, in Norwich, and Dudley presides over the massacre of about 300 of them within two weeks.

Mm

absolutely ambitious and he's presumably quite clever as well because he allies himself with the person you've already mentioned Seymour Duke of Somerset who is King Edward VI's uncle so he's a good guy at the start of this reign Edward VI Somerset's in a powerful position and Dudley's trying to get close to him

Yes, and that has sort of built up over the 1540s.

They're friends and they're aligned.

And it's clear that their position on faith might be similar, but that they get along and they can work together.

And William Paget is perhaps the third of their number, this little trio.

who essentially take power.

But though they're great friends, Edward Seymour and John Dudley, Dudley in the end does for Seymour.

think he wrote it in his own hand? Oh, it's definitely in his own

It's almost like there's been some kind of shift that makes people more receptive to the idea that the Catholic Church isn't the only way to do things.

I mean, there've been a lot of heresies over the years, and the, the Cathars definitely fall into that category.

The Lollards, I think you can see actually quite a lot of similarity between Lollardy, the ideas of that, and what emerges in the Reformation, which is questioning this power.

I, I-- maybe it contributes to it that we have the most awful pope in Rodrigo Borgia.

You know, and if you're thinking about pointing out the excesses of the Catholic Church, a man who has got not just like a, a, a, a quiet heir off to the side somewhere, but, you know, loads of children that he parades around, that he's having, you know, the famed dance of the chestnuts with possibly, you know, sex workers picking up chestnuts from the floor whilst wearing no clothes, whilst surrounded by cardinals in the heart of the Vatican.

I mean, you can sort of conclude that things maybe have gone slightly wrong.

But what I think is so fascinating about this period is that we know that it becomes the Protestant Reformation, and we know that it becomes this great schism in the church, but that nobody knows that it's gonna work out like that, and that we have people like Thomas More and Erasmus, who are great humanist thinkers.

But then at some point, the attitude changes to think it's, it's a real s- thing that we should be scared of and that we need to chase out of the world.