Hello, I'm Lucy Worsley, chief curator at Historic Royal Palaces.

You're listening to our podcast that explores the history and stories of our six palaces.

These talks are a collection of some of our best live events.

I really hope you enjoy listening.

In this series of talks by renowned Tudor historians,

we closely examine the monarch and man himself, Henry D.8.

These talks were recorded live in collaboration with history today

to mark the 500th anniversary of the coronation of Henry D.8.

Historian John Guy explores Henry's successes and the role of his chief ministers in achieving them.

If we believe the Henry Hype, he was a patriot king who squared up to the papacy,

to France and Spain, who reinvented England, our language, our history, our literature, our identity. He left an architectural

legacy of 55 palaces, including this one. He sponsored the first official English Bible,

and yet still found time to found the College of Physicians. But we also think of him,

and I've done this really for 25 years, but I had a bit of a rethink in preparation for this talk.

We think of him as a talent spotter.

You know, some people have said he's a fan of equal opportunities because he made Cardinal Woolsey

a butcher's son from Ipswich, his first chief minister.

And then he picked Thomas Moore, one of the finest minds in Europe, the author of Utopia,

to be his secretary before making him Lord Chancellor.

And by the way, more was Henry's secretary for almost 10 years before he became Lord Chancellor.

That's an awful long time.

And the secretary was the closest man to the king, who saw the king really every day.

...