Read Online Henry VIII by Alison Weir - Free Book Online

responsible for furnishing his lodging and keeping it clean. Occasionally, the King would help: Henry provided his cousin the Marquess of Exeter with a pallet from the Royal Wardrobe of the Beds and ordered the Office of Works to make him two stools. 30 When, in 1534, Lord Rochford wanted mullioned windows in his lodgings, the King paid to have them installed. 31
    Aspiring courtiers who had not been allocated lodgings had to ask the King’s permission to come to court. The giving or withholding of such permission was a fair indicator of whether or not the supplicant was in favour. The termination of a courtier’s right to lodgings was usually an ominous sign; if he was allowed to remain in attendance upon the King, he could face the ruinous cost of paying for accommodation near the court. Banishment from the King’s presence was calamitous in the extreme, and meant utter social disgrace: Sir Ralph Sadler told Thomas Cromwell that compulsory absence from court would mar a man’s fortunes forever. 32
    The Comptroller of the Household allocated stabling for courtiers’ horses and beds for their retainers: twenty-four horses and nine beds were allowed for a duke or archbishop, three horses and two beds for a chaplain. 33
    At first courtiers were allowed to bring dogs with them, but the animals caused such a nuisance that in 1526 the Eltham Ordinances banned all dogs except ladies’ lapdogs from the precincts of the court; if courtiers did obtain the King’s permission to bring their pets with them, they had to keep them in the kennels provided so that the palace might be “sweet, wholesome, clean and well-furnished, as to a prince’s house and state doth appertain.” 34 Ladies were also allowed singing birds. Other animals were kept as pets: Cardinal Wolsey had a cat, while in 1539 the King was offered “two musk cats, two little monkeys and a marmoset.” 35 Katherine of Aragon owned a pet monkey; she appears with it in a miniature by Lucas Horenbout.
    Henry VIII kept canaries and nightingales in ornamental birdcages hanging in the windows at Hampton Court. He also kept ferrets, although he forbade courtiers to do so. 36
    Henry’s favourite pets were his dogs, especially beagles, spaniels and greyhounds; the latter were considered a particularly noble breed. 37 Over the years the King sent hundreds of such dogs, all “garnished with a good iron collar,” as gifts to the Holy Roman Emperor and the King of France. 38 Henry’s own dogs wore decorative collars of velvet—permitted only to royal dogs—and kid, with or without torettes (spikes) of silver and gold; some were adorned with pearls or the King’s arms and his portcullis and rose badges. His dogs’ coats were of white silk, 39 and the dogs had their fur regularly rubbed down with “hair cloth.” 40 Sixty-five dog leashes were found in Henry’s closets after his death. 41 Pet dogs were fed bread, not meat, to discourage them from developing hunting instincts. Two of Henry’s dogs, Cut and Ball, were prone to getting lost, and he paid out the huge sum of nearly 15s (about £225 today) in rewards to those who brought them back. 42
    Henry VIII’s court was never as licentious as the court of Francis I of France. By comparison with his French rival, Henry appeared a paragon of virtue, although he was simply far more discreet and, unlike Francis, he sometimes married his mistresses. The fact that Nicholas Wotton, Henry’s ambassador in Paris, was so shocked by the behaviour at the French court suggests that much higher standards prevailed at the English court.
    The English were not squeamish about sexual matters; in fact, they were frank, outspoken, and “somewhat licentious in their disposition.” 43 Erasmus commented on the fact that the women always kissed a man on the lips when they greeted him, a custom he found delightful. In a court where women were very much in