I have always had a soft spot for Henry VIII, he was nothing if not determined. However you could be forgiven for thinking that he was a power crazed, self obsessed, unreasonable, bad tempered, overweight, misogynistic despot.
But not any more!
Turns out he was a keen gardener and everyone knows that gardeners are all lovely.
A new exhibition at Buckingham Palace that opens in March includes his gardening manual, the 14th century version of the RHS Encyclopaedia!
The Ruralia Commoda is written in latin (just to make things easier!) and offers advice on laying out gardens, growing specific plants and estate management. Henry Is supposed to have used it when planning and creating his garden at Whitehall - sadly no trace of this remains so it's quite hard to know if the book is any good.
It's 'well thumbed and annotated' as all good gardening books should be and will be exhibited alongside this painting showing glimpses of Henry's gardens through the arches.
This Telegraph article tells you all about it, and links it to the new series Wolf Hall on BBC 1 - perfect marketing all round.
So you see, Henry VIII was the Percy Thrower or Monty Don of his time, though I'm not sure that either of them would fertilise squashes with human bone and water them with oil for quick fruiting.
In fact I think Henry deserves huge respect for even thinking about gardening in that outfit!
Painting Paradise: The Art Of The Garden will be on display at The Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace, from March 20 until October 11.
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