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. 8th.

These talks were recorded live in collaboration with history today

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

In this episode, historian Margaret George explores Henry D.8's personality, this episode, historian Margaret George, explores Henry VIII's personality,

paranoia, and his realization of power. Well, we're here to talk about the young and the old Henry.

We all seem to be talking about that. The real Henry the eighth, will the real Henry the eighth

please stand up? And it seems that we have ideas about different Henrys that would stand up.

I think that actually he, that both Henrys coexisted in him, always.

And that he, depending on what stage of life he was in, one or the other dominated.

Now, when he was, we were always fascinated

with the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

And in this case, we have a long childhood

in which he seemed to be this golden boy.

He was, when he first came to the throne,

one of the ambassadors said about him,

nature could not have done more for him.

And that's certainly true. He had looks. He was stunningly handsome. They called him the New Apollo.

...