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four or five mounts. From all accounts Henry did not, as one would expect, triumph over his opponents merely because he was the king; he genuinely surpassed them in size, strength and skill. He was by sixteenth-century standards a very tall man. His standing armor, preserved in the Tower of London, accommodates a man of about six feet two, and the size of his jousting armor suggests that he may have been even taller. 1 Like Richard Lionheart and his maternal grandfather Edward IV, Henry towered over his courtiers and guardsmen, and when he walked in a crowd he was easy to distinguish. He was not only tall but powerfully built, with broad shoulders and muscular arms and legs, andwith no trace of the repulsive girth he acquired at the very end of his life. “He is well made, tall and stout,” an observer wrote of the king at twenty-one, “and when he moves the ground shakes under him.” 2
    Henry seems in fact to have combined the force of his massive size with good coordination and unusual dexterity. Proficiency in the joust, for which he regularly trained and toughened himself two days a week, required both accuracy of aim and the stamina to withstand repeated blows to the chest and head. For to win a tournament required not only breaking the most lances but breaking them on the helmets, rather than the saddles or body armor, of the opponents. And striking the tilt, or wooden barrier, more than twice, or striking a horse instead of his rider, or losing your helmet twice, or, unthinkable dishonor, striking a disarmed knight or one with his back turned, all meant immediate disqualification.
    The jousting lasted until dark, when the challengers, including the earl of Essex and Lord Thomas Howard, were defeated by the four Knights of the Savage Forest. The king was applauded and cheered one final time as he rode off the field, still in the guise of Sir Loyal Heart. His triumph once again bound the spectators to him by an emotion stronger than loyalty to a sovereign and not far short of gratitude to a savior. He had entered the lists not as their king but as their champion, a half-enchanted knight emerging from a mysterious forest. And by the true valor of his arms he had won the day.
    On the following day the combats were introduced by a chivalric procession climaxed by Henry’s solemn entry in his own person, as sovereign, under the canopy of royalty. Again, the queen and her ladies in place, the trumpeters summoned the jousters, and a parade of gentlemen rode in single file up and down the length of the lists, testing their horses and displaying their arms and devices. A group of lords in russet and cloth of gold followed, and a party of knights in the same colors. Then came a great party of gentlemen and yeomen on foot, the former in silk, the latter in matching damask, with scarlet hose and yellow caps. They surrounded the king, and held the supports of the miniature pavilion of cloth of gold and purple velvet under which he rode. The canopy, richly embroidered, had a fringe made from thin gold wire, and was surmounted by an imperial crown. Sewn all over it were replicas of Queen Katherine’s monogram, the letter K, cast in fine gold. Henry, in gleaming armor, rode a prancing horse in golden trappings and with a horn attached to its forehead like the horn of a unicorn. The golden letters, hearts and pomegranates covered his armor and horse cloths, and as he made his horse curvet and bow the gilt spangles that hung from the plume of his helmet shook and glittered in the sunlight.
    Next the three disguised knights from the previous day rode onto the field, each with his own pavilion of crimson and purple topped by a largegold K, and with fifty attendants on foot. And finally, to remind the company of the absent prince whose birth had occasioned the jousts, twelve “children of honor” were led in on great war horses, no two dressed alike. With this the king’s party was complete.
    Then, as the crowd looked to the