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increasingly elaborate ceremonial that attended every aspect of their highly public lives, as well as by pageantry and symbolism, calculated to enhance the royal image. The development of royal palaces and progresses were just two aspects of this policy: a king needed to be visible and to be in touch with his subjects, and also to impress them and foreigners with a display of magnificence. Henry VIII was the first English king to adopt the style “Your Majesty,” rather than the traditional “Your Grace” or “Your Highness”; foreign ambassadors were addressing him as such before 1520. Like other European sovereigns, Henry was influenced by humanist teachings on sovereignty, which emphasised strong, centralised rule, dynastic continuity, and the consolidation of royal power.
    â€œThe Prince is the life, the head and the authority of all things that be done in England,” wrote Sir Thomas Smith. 11 More than a century before Louis XIV, the King was seen as the embodiment of the state. 12
    At the foundation of the Tudor monarchy was the concept of princely magnificence. The outward show of power and status, displayed by both king and court, was extremely important in an age of widespread illiteracy, and also in a culture that valued the trappings of rank, and it had the advantages of impressing foreigners and attracting talented and able men to the royal service. Magnificence, or
majestas
, was calculated to dazzle the beholder; it could create an illusion of wealth and power that might belie the reality, and was therefore very effective as a propaganda tool.
    Mediaeval monarchs had certainly understood the value of outward display, but it was not until the reign of Edward IV (1461–1483) that the promotion of princely magnificence became official policy and the focus of Edward’s household ordinances. Edward IV had “the most splendid court that could be found in all Christendom.” 13
    Edward and his successors were merely emulating the fifteenth-century Valois dukes of Burgundy, who had created the cult of grandeur and set standards in taste, ceremonial, and culture for the rest of Europe. The Burgundian dukes impressed the services of architects, artists, musicians, and scholars, and in so doing enhanced their own prestige.
    By Henry VIII’s reign, the court of Burgundy was no more, 14 but its influence was everywhere to be seen. The Italian writer Baldassare Castiglione, in his book
The Courtier
, stated that the perfect ruler “should be a prince of splendour and generosity, giving freely to everyone. He should hold magnificent banquets, festivals, games and public shows.”
    Henry VIII exemplified this ideal. His court was the most magnificent in English history. Henry was rich enough to lavish extravagant sums of money on his palaces, clothes, entertainments, and lifestyle, and on the open-handed hospitality that was expected of a great prince. He was determined from the first to outshine his European rivals, the King of France and the Holy Roman Emperor, each of whom had at least four times the resources he did. By clever bluffing, he managed to achieve this aim.
    Henry himself embodied the virtues of magnificence. He was a big, impressive man and had a natural authority and assurance. He looked and acted like a king.
    Henry made the most of his opportunities. He had a genius for choosing talented men to serve him, notably Cardinal Wolsey and Thomas Cromwell. But while Henry delegated much of his power to these ministers, and left them to work out the details of his policies, he remained very much in control, and kept his own counsel. “If my cap knew my counsel, I would throw it in the fire,” he once said. 15 It was indisputably he who directed the course of his reign. If any dared cross him, he threatened, “there was no head in his kingdom so noble but he would make it fly.” 16 Court factions might seek to influence the King, for he was not