King of the flat-pack! How Henry beat Ikea
Elly Blake
HENRY VIII may have invented the flat-pack long before Ikea existed because of his dislike of tents when travelling, a historian has revealed.
Dr Alden Gregory, curator of historic buildings at Historic Royal Palaces, described the Tudor king as “not much of a camper” and instead ordered his craftsmen to construct self-assembly wooden houses while overseas.
Historians believe these became more extravagant over time as his standing grew but physical abilities diminished.
Evidence suggests the first flat-pack timber structure was built in 1513, when Henry, then in his early 20s, besieged the French towns of Therouanne and Tournai during the Battle of the Spurs.
A draft royal inventory describes it as a two-room wooden structure, painted to resemble brick and the roof decorated with heraldic beasts, crowns and vanes.
It also featured heated fireplaces with iron chimneys. Each room was 12ft wide, one 24ft long and the other 16ft and took 12 carts to carry the disassembled parts.
But by 1544, during the siege of Boulogne, Henry’s flat-pack structures had morphed into a “rather over-the-top expression of masculine self-image and dynastic success”.
Henry, aged 53, now ordered the erection of a Gothic-inspired structure that took about 30 carts to move.
It was thought to measure up to 75sq ft with five rooms, the main chamber and four tower rooms, and elaborate 66ft-high wall hangings which resembled those at Hampton Court Palace, his residence. The interior was lit by leaded windows horn and the exterior painted resemble stone.
Dr Gregory said: “Perhaps the King – ageing, ailing and no longer personally or physically able to cut the magnificent warrior figure on the battlefield that he had three decades before – now compensated for his weakness with his timber lodging.”
Henry’s army took Boulogne in September 1544, although it was returned to the French six years later under his son EdwardVI.
Dr Gregory added that to make the flat-pack castle collapsible and reusable, the craftsman abandoned the traditional pegged mortice and tenon joints, making it “inefficient and unreliable”.
Instead they used screws, iron plats and nuts and bolts to fasten the timber components into place.
He added that the structures were “a very visible symbol of royal power” and acted as a “strong room right at the heart of the encampment where the King could sleep or retreat in moments of extreme danger”. of to