alicehoffmans:

Well. 

The year was 1511, and the birth of a prince traditionally meant celebrations, tournaments and jousts. For Henry, this being his firstborn prince and thus the heir to the throne that would secure the succession, this meant that these celebrations were grandiose and glamorous: the third most expensive spectacle of his reign. 

“On the second night, there was great revelry in the White Hall, with ‘an interlude of the Gentlemen of his Chapel before His Grace,’ in honour of the Prince, and a pageant, The Garden of Pleasure, in which Henry again appeared as Coeur Loyal, wearing a purple satin suit adorned with gold H’s and K’s.”

So, the Spanish ambassador and a bunch of other people are like “I bet those letters are not even real gold.”

Henry: !!!!!! They are so real gold, that is so mean, why would you even say that?? 

And it seems they kind of kept egging him while they’re dancing over it, like nah! bet not! until Henry is like well pull them off and see for yourselves!! they are so!!

(For context he’s like… nearly 20 when this happens so. Y’know. It’s not SO unbelievable).

So them pulling them off gets misinterpreted as a free-for-all by the commons (who were allowed in that day to watch the pageant themselves), and they rush forward, pulling at the stage and props and anything of value, including jewels and clothes (nobles wore valuable trinkets pinned to their clothes often) which were getting torn off in the process. 

Henry’s reaction to all this is to laugh, even when it gets to the point where he’s stripped down to doublet and hose himself (Sir Thomas Knyvet is not quite as lucky– according to records he gets stripped naked and climbs a pillar). He doesn’t try to intervene until the mob starts to do the same to the ladies’ costumes (evidently he drank his respect-women juice that day), at which point he calls it to a halt and they obey him. 

@quillington it was…a moment in time.