Tea at Trianon: What Really Made Henry VIII Obese?

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Tuesday, October 10, 2023

What Really Made Henry VIII Obese?

From Love British History:

A big deal is always made of Henry VIII's middle-aged weight gain. One of his coats of armour, made in 1540 (almost certainly just worn for show) measures 52 inches around the waist, making him obese by even today's standards (1).

But as a young king, he was famed for his athleticism at jousting, riding and tennis - and, at the age of twenty-four, was considered by an ambassador "the handsomest potentate I ever set eyes on."(2) Portraits from early in his reign support this, too, showing a focused, pleasantly-smiling and slimmer Henry.

So what happened? Prominent historians are quick to point the finger at his diet of fatty roasted meats, poultry and dairy. Phillipa Gregory, writing about Henry's psychology, blames his weight gain on his "fat-rich diet and meats"(3) and various other sources that you'll find with not much Googling attribute it to his love of fatty fish, eels and roasted birds. The image of jolly old Henry, bingeing on piles of huge, roasted chicken legs and throwing the nibbled bones over his shoulder is set in legend.

But was it the meat? I'd argue that there was a much bigger factor - and something much more obvious that explains how Henry ballooned into the man who glares back at us from the dim light of the later portraits.

Before we look at Henry, let's look at what we know about the causes of obesity. (Read more.)