Welcome to the 28th of January, a significant date in Tudor history for two reasons:

• On this date in 1457, Henry VII was born
• On this date in 1547, Henry VIII breathed his last

Tidy how that works out, isn’t it, with the same date, and the transposed digits in the middle? 

When the founder of the Tudor legacy was born, his father had already been dead for a few months, and his mother was barely old enough to stay up late. She was only 13, but that wasn’t unusual for that time, of course. Unlike his much-married son, he wasn’t born into royalty right away, he had to go out and grab his reign by the reins.

When Henry Junior made his mark on this date, he was an even worse mess than you’d imagine. He was gray-haired,  morbidly obese, and covered in nasty boils. (Good thing he wasn’t in the market for a new wife at the time!)  He was often carried from place to place in velvet-covered chairs because his gout made it hard for him to walk.

His last words were “Monks! Monks! Monks!” so it seems that religion, a hot topic during his time as king, was on his mind to the very end. He was only 55; the day would have been his father’s 90th birthday.