London Travels: Henry VIII — the ultimate alpha male?

As we were visiting Hampton Court Palace, my wife had a question — why does Henry VIII, the palace’s most-famous former occupant — carry such cultural resonance?

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

I mean, other than the awesome Twitter account under his name.

Don't just dream of getting fat and sexy, make it happen! #inspiration pic.twitter.com/9rm3B0FGqN

— Henry Tudor (@KngHnryVIII) January 26, 2018

But the secret to Henry VIII may be in the epic self-confidence in the Henry Tudor Twitter. Consider:

— He was married six times, and when he couldn’t get his first marriage annuled, he quit the Catholic Church and got himself made head of the Church of England. He also dissolved the monasteries and took all their money and property.

— After Cardinal Thomas Wolsey couldn’t get him that annulment, he eventually took over the palace Wolsey had built for himself, the very palace we were visiting today.

— He was an absolute tyrant.

— He got fat, but who was going to stop him? He was king!

So the (mostly) tounge-in-cheek answer we came up with was that Henry VIII lived what a lot of men would consider a fantasy life.