Did you know that the young Henry VIII had a major idol?
Discover how Philip the Handsome, a dashing European ruler, made a lasting impression on the 14-year-old prince during their fateful meeting in 1506. From his athletic prowess to his dynamic leadership, Philip left an indelible mark on the future king of England.
Join me as I dive into the fascinating story of Philip the Handsome and explore how this charismatic ruler influenced Henry VIII’s life and reign…
Transcript:
Did you know that the young Henry VIII had a bit of an idol, a bit of a man crush really?
Well, he did!
He idolised a young and dashing European ruler called Philip the Handsome, or Philip the Fair, a man Henry met in 1506 and who made a lasting impression on the 14-year-old prince.
Let me tell you more…
First, let me introduce you to Philip the Handsome.
Philip was the son of Maximilian of Austria, who would later become Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor, and his wife, Mary of Burgundy. He was born in June or July 1478 and so was 13 years Henry VIII’s senior.
In 1482, when he was just four, his mother died and he inherited the duchy of Burgundy, although his father acted as guardian of those territories until Philip was 15.
In 1496, Maximilian negotiated the marriage of Philip to Juana, second daughter of Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile, and sister of Catherine of Aragon. Philip’s sister, Margaret, was to marry Ferdinand and Isabella’s only son, Juan, Prince of Asturias. John died in 1497, Juana’s older sister, Isabella, died in 1498 and Isabella’s son in 1500, so in 1504, when Juana’s mother died, Juana became Queen of Castile. However, Philip and his father-in-law signed a treaty in June 1506 and Philip was proclaimed King of Castile due to Juana being deemed unfit to rule due to her “infirmities and sufferings”. He was now Duke of Burgundy and King of Castile, a powerful man.
However, his rule was cut short by typhoid fever. He died on 25th September 1506 at the age of just 28.
But what was Philip like?
Well, as he was nicknamed Philip the Handsome or Philip the Fair, he was clearly known for his good looks. The Venetian ambassador described him as “physically beautiful, vigorous and rich”, King Louis XII of France on seeing Philip exclaimed “What a handsome prince!”, and Polydore Vergil said that “he was of medium height, handsome of face, and heavily built; he was talented, generous and gentlemanly.” He was also athletic and a keen and skilled sportsman. He enjoyed handball and other sports, knightly pursuits, and riding. So skilled a horseman was he that he could leap from one horse to another.
Philip was also a patron of the arts, acting as patron to artists such as Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch and scholars such as Erasmus, as well as talented composers and musicians.
That’s a very brief introduction to Philip, but let’s move on to his impact on the young Henry VIII.
Henry’s older brother, Arthur, had died in 1502 and Henry’s life changed dramatically when he suddenly became heir to the throne. His father, Henry VII, became stricter with him and started grooming the young prince to become king. As David Starkey points out in his book “Henry: Virtuous Prince”, although the young prince’s reading and his education would have presented him with “many different styles of kingship”, before 1506, “he had seen only one contemporary monarch in action: his own father, Henry VII”, who, by this time was 49 years old, positively ancient in the 14-year-old prince’s eyes. But then in 1506, fate brought a young, dynamic ruler to the English court: Philip.
In that January, Philip and his wife, Juana, were on their way to Spain, sailing from the Netherlands, when their fleet was caught in a storm in the English channel. Philip and Juana’s ship was driven to land at Melcombe Regis on the coast of Dorset. Sir Thomas Trenchard of Wolfeton House in Dorset offered the couple shelter, with John Russell, later Earl of Bedford, attending on them. As Starkey explains, Philip and Juana weren’t guests as such, they were hostages. Philip sent his secretary to Henry VII requesting an audience with the king and it was arranged that the two rulers would meet at Windsor. Sir Thomas Brandon, Henry VII’s Master of the Horse, escorted Philip to Windsor, stopping on the way at Richard Foxe’s bishop’s palace at Winchester, where Henry VII and his heir, Prince Henry, greeted Philip before they moved in to Windsor.
Philip ended up staying at the English court for six weeks and during that time, he was made a Knight of the Garter, while Prince Henry was made a Knight of the Golden Fleece, and the two kings negotiated a commercial treaty which removed all duties from English textile exports. But it was also a time of pageantry, banqueting, hunting and hawking, and sport. At one point, while the two kings were watching a game of tennis, Philip suddenly got up, stripped off his heavy outer clothing and played against the Marquess of Dorset. This dynamic twenty-seven-year-old must have been quite a contrast to the aging Henry VII, and Prince Henry obviously admired Philip and the two got on very well during Philip’s visit. Not long after Philip left the English court, the prince wrote to him asking Philip to “apprise me from time to time and let me know of your good health”, so, to keep in touch. Sadly, Philip died just a few months later.
Erasmus wrote to Prince Henry offering his condolence on the news of Philip’s death and the prince replied, saying “for never, since the death of my dearest mother, hath there come to me more hateful intelligence.” He was obviously grief-stricken by the death of this man who’d offered him another model of kingship, one which was preferable to that of his father.
It was after that, as Starkey points out – and I’d highly recommend his book – that Henry threw himself into sport, particularly jousting, or rather, running at the ring, as full jousting was seen as far too dangerous for the heir to the throne. I’m sure he wanted to emulate his idol, and he did, within limits.
I do think that Philip was a huge role model for the young Henry VIII. He showed the prince that you could be a ruler AND be sporty and fun, and we see that in Henry VIII in his early reign. He left the boring stuff to people like Wolsey and enjoyed all the perks. He jousted, he played other sports and games, hunted and hawked, enjoyed banqueting and pageantry, he lived the good life, while also being a patron of the arts, a Renaissance man.
Perhaps the two men also have something not so good in common, something more dark, their ill-treatment of the women in their lives. In her book, “The Monstrous Regiment of Women: Female Rulers in Early Modern Europe”, Sharon Jansen writes that “In some accounts, Philip is depicted as a kind of sexual psychopath, a ruthless sadist who “held Juana in a vicious cycle of affection, abuse, and intimidation from which she was constitutionally unable to escape,” while Juana is portrayed as a woman so “madly in love” that “she allowed herself to be psychologically abused,” unable to free herself from her husband’s “domination and sexual magnetism.” Juana was kept in confinement in the Low Countries for a time and, of course, deprived of her crown. And, when Henry VIII decided to cast Juana’s sister, Catherine of Aragon, aside, he banished her from court and demoted her from queen to Dowager Princess of Wales. Catherine’s final years were ones of uncertainty, separation from her daughter, and suffering. It’s an interesting comparison, I think.
So, there you go, the young Henry VIII was wowed by the dynamic Philip the Handsome.
How much of an influence do you think that this European ruler had on the prince? Please do share your thoughts.
