Henry VIII, despite the corpulent, square figure so familiar from his portraits, had in his prime a 'pretty leg', finer so the English ambassador affirmed, than that of the young French king, Francis 1.

Henry stood 6 feet 1 inch tall and the armours made for him in his youth show that he had a well-proportioned, lissome figure. One of these armours was long displayed in the Tower Armouries minus these legs, which have since been traced and are now reunited with the armour to which they belonged.

Provenance

Dykmore family


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