He was the prime example of medieval gluttony. King Henry VIII of England was an over weight, over sexed and it would appear, out of control when it comes to marriages and religion. Most portraits of the king show a man who is clearly obese, or extremely over weight at best. But he wasn’t always this way. King Henry VIII was thin in his youth.
Lets face reality for a moment. Henry VIII is known for many things. His excessive weight, many marriages and reform of the church in England. Many a jilted husband must look upon the man with admiration at the way he dispatched his many wives, not that anyone would be able to legally do what he did today, but a dejected man can only dream. Then there was his reform of the church. When his attempt to have his marriage annulled was rejected, he had a simple solution. Just make a new church. He was the medieval form of L. Ron Hubbard or William Miller. Disagree with with the church, make your own. The only thing he had that the others didn’t was an army to enforce his will. Then there’s his weight.
Henry VIII thin, really? What happened?
Did you know that Henry VIII wasn’t always fat? In fact in his youth Henry VIII was thin, athletic and beardless. Being the athletic kind he enjoyed the sport of the aristocracy at the time, jousting. This turned out to be his undoing. In one jousting tournament he had a bad fall from a horse and suffered a serious injury. This injury contributed in part to his weight gain later in life, but only in part. Part of this weight gain was due to ongoing pain from the injury. The other contributing factor to his weight gain was a diet high in fatty meats. These problems became even worse later in his life as his diet would encourage gout which further incapacitated him.
