Our Island Story confounded again as it becomes clear Henry V111 was often clean shaven
Beard Liberation Front Research Note. April 2023
Following a social media comment by Beard of the Year Michael Rosen, I checked the historical reality of Henry V111’s beard.
Popular British history invariably shows Henry as a rotund figure with a designer beard.
However he was not always hirsute.
On learning that the new King of France, Francis 1 had a beard, Henry determined that before he hosted him at Greenwich in 1517 he too would grow a beard, being at that point clean shaven.
Some commentaries suggest that his then wife Catherine of Aragon did not like the beard and got Henry V111 to shave it off. However Henry himself clearly liked his hirsute appearance, hence the images we have show him with a full beard
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