To wonder which ‘history facts’ aren’t true.

[LeslieKnopefan]

I understand that history isn’t always true and the further we go back in time the harder it is know what the truth is and what is simply made up.

However I recently posted that I thought it was true that Marie Antoinette hair turned white overnight after her best friends head was paraded in front of her and that I only realised it wasn’t when I told a mate who pointed out it couldn’t be true.

So which history facts that people think are true are known to be lies?

Oh for god's sake, Henry was a short arse, with sti's in abundance, plenty of consorts (not all female) and his armour was not built to size. He was diseased and had mental health issues.

A lovely teenager by all accounts though.

Little I came on to post in detail but you have summed up almost everything I was going to say!
I am very much in the Richard camp too (as the username suggests) and of course the Princes do interest me, I'm not suggesting for one minute that Richard wouldn't have been capable of murdering the boys but I don't believe he would have just said nothing about it and hoped it would go away. Unfortunately I doubt we will ever know

I don't think that some careless baker started the 'great fire of London' I think it was started by people employed by Christopher Wren, so that he would get the contract for the rebuilding.

Anyway who even writes history?

Yeah of course he was. What do the likes of David Starkey or Suzannah Lipscomb with their paltry PhDs know about it?

I'll take all the actual history books I've read about Henry VIII if that's okay rather than unsourced waffle

Oh for god's sake, Henry was a short arse, with sti's in abundance, plenty of consorts (not all female) and his armour was not built to size. He was diseased and had mental health issues.

I'm genuinely interested in knowing which chronicler or historian revealed this. Why so shy about your sources @Elendon?

I spend way too much time thinking about how much everyone must have stunk in those days, not counting all the medical issues causing even more smell
In these palaces/castles, do I remember right, peeing in corners was the norm.

There's a wealth of contemporary evidence around how Henry VIII looked. Suits of armour like his were works of art, and ceremonial pieces were sometimes made to be larger than the actual wearer. However, Henry wore his when jousting until he was no longer able to and therefore his suits needed to fit.

Elendon can you please tell us where you sourced this ‘fact’ that Henry VIII was a ‘short arse’ from please?

A poster above provided you with a link via a reliable source detailing how Henry’s height has been measured from his multiple suits of armour. This is also corroborated by his coffin which has been viewed and photographed in modern times and is 2m long, dwarfing the coffins next to him.

The other stuff (with the exception of ulcers on his legs) is just gossip and rumour.

I think this thread gives us a pretty good idea why these historical myths come into existence. People with very little knowledge and their own agenda present half remembered tit bits from dubious sources as authoritative fact and some people are daft enough to believe them.

I'd love to know the source for Henry VIII's vile penis...

He employed a portrait artist to paint dick pics of his vile penis and sent them to potential conquests.

Henry VIII was not a short man FFS!
Go look at his armour in the Tower of London. Read contemporaneous sources. Don't talk rubbish.

I don't think that some careless baker started the 'great fire of London' I think it was started by people employed by Christopher Wren, so that he would get the contract for the rebuilding.

I love this theory. You should write a book.

mornings

The notion that a King would have his armour built to show him as a foot taller than his actual size is pretty startling. Armour has a function which would, to say the least, be somewhat impaired if you can't see out of it because your head is behind the breast piece and the leg pieces came up to your waist.

let's not forget Mary Boleyn's first son, Henry.

Even this article on Tudor myths acknowledges Henry VIII's height.

oh yes Henry Carey and Catherine Carey.
Didn't Catherine Carey bear a startling resemblance to H8?

this thread gives us a pretty good idea why these historical myths come into existence. People with very little knowledge and their own agenda present half remembered tit bits from dubious sources as authoritative fact and some people are daft enough to believe them.

Actually maybe that's what Elendon is trying to demonstrate here - the penny's just dropped!

Henry was not known for intimate cleaning in his later years

No one was known for being clean in the 16th century. Elendon, you're talking bollocks.

Henry is said to be between 6ft and 6ft 4ins.

We know that Anne Boleyn was around 5' 2ins. They were said by sources at the time to stand in a manner that was most pleasing to Henry.

Katherine was tall.

His suit of armour I've actually seen. Oh how we laughed!

I was with other people at that time.

I think the jury is still out re the Careys whereas the paternity of Henry Fitzroy was undoubted and acknowledged.

I read that the Duchess of Cambridge descends from one of the Careys, so Prince George may well become the first monarch in centuries to descend from Henry VIII. (And Charles II, thanks to Diana).

YY to a PP. There was no Irish famine. It was technically genocide.

How do you know that no one cleaned themselves intimately in Tudor times?

Everyone washed then. They did so with cold water and a form of soap we would probably turn our noses up at. But they kept clean.

What they didn't clean very often was their clothes. Now they did stink!

Again, what is your source for Anne Boleyn’s height? Contemporaries described her as either ‘rather tall’ or of ‘middling stature’. And although skeletons have been found at St Peter ad Vincula in the tower they’re not really sure which were her bones.

They were said by sources at the time to stand in a manner that was most pleasing to Henry

What does this mean?