Linked to the King’s beasts which is the name given to the carved heraldic creatures at Greenwich Palace this week’s store cupboard of quotes should be about Henry VIII – they can be primary, secondary – serious or not.

My own favourite tongue-in-cheek texts include 1066 And All That from which this particular quote comes :

Henry VIII was a strong king with a very strong sense of humour and VIII wives, memorable among whom were Katherine the Arrogant, Anne of Cloves, Lady Jane Austin and Anne Hathaway. His beard was, however, red.

And whilst we’re on the subject of Jane Austen her words about the Tudors in her History of England are also worth a chuckle:

His Majesty (Henry VII) died & was succeeded by his son Henry whose only merit was his not being quite so bad as his daughter Elizabeth.

If only I still had my Ladybird book of Henry VIII – I’m sure that I must have possessed one.

As last week if you have a quote you would like to share please add it to the comments so that the list of Henry VIII quotes grows.

My next post will be about books which don’t necessarily take history too seriously!