Dr Judith Morgane recounts the exciting time had by all when hosting Henry VIII at Exeter!
Imagine the Tudor king riding towards Exeter, with an entourage of courtiers and servants, and local people cheering him along the way. Tents erected outside the city gates and entertainment for the king’s arrival, music, food, everything of the best quality, and city worthies to greet him and join in procession to the cathedral, where the king is greeted with music of sackbutts and cornets, the bishop welcoming him and the holy relics displayed for the king. The feasts given in the king’s honour, and the weeks of preparation that went into it all.
For over a year we were researching, planning and coordinating the enactment of an event that never really happened. Henry VIII never actually came to Exeter but meticulous research on visits to other cities for Historic Royal Palace’s Henry on Tour project gave us everything we needed to inspire our Tudor festivities. For more details, see our 2024 blog post Hosting Henry VIII at Exeter.
The connection? Powderham Castle. The current Earl of Devon’s forebear Henry Courtenay, Marquess of Exeter, was Henry VIII’s first cousin and long-term favourite. Lord Devon tells me he jested once many years ago about Henry Courtenay’s flamboyant cloak of arms and that he would love to wear it. Well, Professor James Clark from the University of Exeter and Professor Anthony Musson of Historic Royal Palaces were clearly up for a challenge because that’s exactly what happened: fashioned by students from Wimbledon College of Arts, the Earl wore the heraldic cloak in the civic ceremony to welcome King Henry VIII to Exeter.
And yes, you are quite right, Exeter no longer has its city gates and re-creating Henry VIII’s entourage would have been beyond our limited budget, but we managed to pull off something even more remarkable: we brought together Exeter’s heritage and cultural sector to create a long weekend of Tudor festivities throughout the city. And hundreds of participants can now tell tales of seeing Henry VIII himself in Exeter. Quite an achievement, I’d say.
To give you a bit of context, Exeter, like many medieval cities in England, is full of history, historic buildings and heritage organisations, and – like many other places – wars, arbitrary town planning, and the passing of time have destroyed or hidden some of this heritage from plain view. But if you look a bit closer, you will find a plethora of heritage sites and activities in every one of the city’s four quarters. To highlight these places and connect people with heritage more strongly, what is now the Exeter Heritage Partnership was founded about six years ago.
Hosting Henry VIII in Exeter needed substantial coordination, which was achieved courtesy of Lightbear Lane, an arts and heritage organisation with a focus on place-making through creative practice. Lightbear Lane created a promotional asset package with posters, flyers, graphics and press release for all partners to use and widely share, so everyone’s advertising for events looked coordinated, with appropriate HRP/Henry on Tour branding and acknowledgement of funders in place. This unified approach worked effectively to spread the word of a noteworthy city-wide event.
Exeter City Council pulled out all the stops to help promote and advertise our festivities, and Exeter Guildhall with the Lord Mayor staged a ceremony worthy of a young and proud Tudor king. Hundreds of people saw the short procession to Exeter Cathedral, where they were joined by Tudor re-enactors to follow the king into the Cathedral to Tudor music performed by His Majesty’s Sackbutts and Cornetts and the University Chapel Choir. With the Earl of Devon resplendent in his replica heraldic cloak and the acting bishop of Exeter welcoming the king, Henry VIII led a motley congregation of onlookers, passers-by, tourists, locals and history fans in re-enacted worship of a griffin egg (I had a good long look and concluded it was a golden Thornton’s chocolate egg). And while this might sound like a bit of silliness, the effect was rather humbling: the crowd was hushed, the choir and incense created a historical ambience and the king, a marvellously handsome young Henry VIII, was very humbly and earnestly on his knees.
The coped Cathedral clergy, and Tudor ladies and gentlemen, beautifully outfitted by the Royal Albert Memorial Museum, played their parts to such perfection that many commented on how moving an affair it all was. For a moment, we all caught a glimpse of the past. Later on, we enjoyed a concert of Tudor music befitting the ceremonial that would have taken place in te Cathedral after the ‘Civic Welcome’ with the Exeter Cathedral Choir and His Majesty’s Sackbutts and Cornetts in the presence of ‘King Henry VIII’. It was an aural experience of the very rare kind, especially as it featured some pieces by Devon composers probably not performed in the Cathedral for 500 years!
Over the following couple of days, Exeter hosted further events at Tuckers Hall, Exeter Guildhall, the Cathedral and St Nicholas Priory. School visits gave children the opportunity to learn about Tudor food, clothes and music. Children got a chance to try a sackbut and sing along and play percussion with the Tudor instrumentalists, view the city’s impressive swords and maces, as well as chat with King Henry VIII himself and ask him “how many people have you killed?” and “how many ways of killing people can you think of?” – what a gory lot!
David Smith, our young Henry VIII, didn’t bother changing out of his costume for the duration of the festivities, even when we took him for lunch – we got some funny looks at Turtle Bay while sipping our rum punch and a number of young ladies wanted selfies with him (perhaps not fully aware of his – that is Henry’s - reputation)! One of our expert re-enactors, Rosemary Griggs, portrayed Lady Katherine Champernowne, Sir Walter Raleigh’s mother, at Tuckers Hall, the Guild of Tuckers, Weavers and Shearmen, to delight children and adults alike with her knowledge about Tudor dress, how clothes were made, who wore what kind of outfit, and much more. She had researched and made two new headdresses to reflect changing fashions for women in Tudor times. It all depends on which queen was on the throne!
Professor Anthony Musson’s excellent talk about new research into Tudor feasts was sold out early on; it was followed by a Tudor food tasting session lead by Tudor cook Sally Dyer in St Nicholas Priory’s stunning medieval kitchen. The priory, incidentally dissolved by Henry VIII, served as a Tudor town house for the rich merchant family of William Hurst and the Tudor parlour gave our audience the perfect opportunity to get into the spirit of feasting. Which is exactly what we did at Exeter’s historic Guildhall later that night.
A VIP fine-dining experience in Tudor style, the evening was brilliantly led by David Smith as Henry VIII and Samantha Stott as Anne Boleyn. The Guildhall staff spared no cost or effort to host by candlelight (!) and present the original Henry VII’s Sword and Cap of Maintenance to the Tudor guests and city dignitaries. With musical entertainment from University Chapel minstrels, locally sourced food, including venison gifted by the Courtenay estate, and wine flowing freely, the evening ended with a galliard led by Henry and Anne who encouraged all the esteemed guests to join in some Tudor dancing too.
The following week, festivities continued at Powderham Castle to delight visitors and school groups with Tudor recipe cards by Brigitte Webster, falconry displays, cooking sessions, games and more. As part of the display two items recorded in the Courtenay accounts were brought to life. Highlighting the ancient skills of the bowmakers and fletchers, Devon craftsman, Tim, from Black Arrow Longbows beautifully realised Lady Gertrude Courtenay’s hunting bow and quiver of arrows. The highlight, however, was the little boy’s costume which Henry Courtenay commissioned for his son in the likeness of his own outfit. Wimbledon College of Arts students working under their course tutor, Kathleen McKee, managed to create something very special that speaks through the ages to all of us of paternal love – what an achievement!