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Statue of Henry VIII
The reign of Henry VIII of England (r. 1509-1547) brought England into a new age of religious conflict and division. When the Pope did not allow him to separate from his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, the king created his own Church of England, opening his kingdom to anti-Roman Protestant reforms, including the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Henry is, of course, notorious for having six wives, two of whom, Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, were beheaded for adultery.
The Statue of Henry VIII stands at the gateway of St Bartholomew Hospital in London. One writer, observing the irony of its location, commented that Henry’s “contribution to surgical science consisted, in most people's minds, of the separating heads from their bodies.” However, Henry is remembered fondly by the hospital, as it was only preserved due to his intervention. Set to close in conjunction with its church, St Bartholomew’s Priory, in 1539, the king allowed the hospital to remain open following petitions from Londoners. The statue of Henry VIII was built in 1702 by a stone mason, John Strong. The figure of the king is based on his famous portrait by German artist Hans Holbein. With a widened stance exposing his large calf muscles, padded shoulders, cloaked in jewellery, and a prominent codpiece, it sought to depict the king as the ultimate symbol of power, wealth, and masculinity.
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Original image by Mike Quinn. Uploaded by Michael McComb, published on 16 April 2025. The copyright holder has published this content under the following license: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike. This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon a work even for commercial reasons, as long as they credit the author and license their new creations under the identical terms. When republishing on the web a hyperlink back to the original content source URL must be included. Please note that content linked from this page may have different licensing terms.
