Now National Trust rebrands Henry VIII a ‘disabled king’
AS A young man and into middle age, his vigour was legendary.
Henry VIII had six wives, picked a fight with a pope and was so feted as a sportsman that foreign ambassadors remarked on his prowess.
But he has now been described as a disabled king by the National Trust, which has given him a ‘woke’ rebranding.
The charity names him alongside disabled people associated with its properties in a video that critics have labelled a ‘distortion of history’.
It was only following a jousting accident aged 44 that Henry’s mobility became hampered. He died 11 years later.
The National Trust has previously come under fire for a ‘woke agenda’ that has seen staff told to wear gay pride badges and the word Easter removed from egg hunts.
Its video, Everywhere And Nowhere, was made in collaboration with the University of Leicester and looks at the lives of ten disabled people. It is described
‘Desperate to promote a woke ideology’
as highlighting ‘stories of disability [that are] widespread but rarely publicly presented’ – despite every schoolchild knowing how Henry VIII is said to have needed a hoist to mount horses towards the end of his life.
They include Sir Jeffrey Hudson, who was known as the Queen’s dwarf after becoming a favoured entertainer of Charles I’s wife, Henrietta Maria. During his colourful life he served as a Royalist soldier and was captured by pirates.
Another is amputee and mountaineer Geoffrey Winthrop Young, who lost a leg during First World War action in what is now Slovenia but managed to hobble 16 miles in two days to avoid capture by the Austrians.
Henry – who appears in multiple portraits at NT properties including as a young, virile man – was 44 when an armoured horse fell on him and crushed his legs in 1536.
He became plagued with ulcers and used sticks and wheelchairs to get about. His 32in waist ballooned to 52in and he is believed to have weighed 28 stone when he died in 1547. Chris McGovern, of the Campaign for Real Education, said: ‘Henry was regarded as one of the fittest and most talented horsemen of his generation. It was commented on by foreign ambassadors who admired him for his athleticism.
‘In later life he had a jousting accident and his girth grew but for most of his life he was admired for things that the National Trust is not highlighting, so they are distorting history.’
Mr McGovern – who is researching the life of Italian Giovanni Portinari, who served several Tudor monarchs including Henry VIII – added: ‘They are desperate to adopt a woke ideology to promote a political agenda but Henry VIII is a bad example.’
A National Trust spokesman said: ‘Everywhere And Nowhere researches a specific aspect of Henry VIII’s life, which was the impact of the injury he sustained in later life, an injury that left him reliant on mobility aids.’