How much did King Henry VIII weigh?

Answer 1

At the time of Henry's death, between obesity and fluid retention caused by circulatory problems, he was enormous, and it took four strong men to lift and carry the sedan chair that he was carried around in. His coffin, which was lined with lead, was so heavy that it broke the supports that were provided for it in at least one of the churches it was displayed in.

We know from seeing Henry's armour (he had several sets made a different times in his life), and from measurements taken of his skeleton about 200 years after his death, that he was probably around six foot, three to six foot four inches tall during his lifetime. His early armour indicated an athletically built man with a small waistline -- he probably would have weighed in the neighborhood of 180 to two hundred pounds at this time. There are a couple of other sets of armour in existence, including one made for his final invasion of France in the last two years of his life. The waist on this last set of armour would fit a waist of about 58 to 60 inches, as compared to the first set of armour which would have fit a waist of about 34 to 36 inches.

From personal experience, as my father is six foot, four inches tall, and has a waist measurement of about 58 inches, I would say that at the time that Henry had the last set of armour made, his weight was probably at around 300 pounds. After his return from France, he entered the time of his final illness, where his body became very bloated from fluid retention (called "dropsy" in those days, because the patient's hands would swell so much that their grasp was impaired, causing them to drop things). So it is likely that Henry probably weighed well in excess of three hundred pounds by the time of his death. Though these sizes, particularly of the first suit of armour, don't seem that enormous to us today, it should be noted that in Henry's time, people were much shorter and smaller than they are now, due to lack of proper nutrition and health care. He was almost literally considered a giant in his time, and his size had much to do with the glamour associated with him when he was a younger man -- and with the stories of his enormous size as an older man. Also, as he began to become heavy, Henry insisted that all his clothes be designed to hide his expanding waistline, which is why he adopted the extreme padded shoulders that are seen in his later portraits. By the time he died, his clothing literally extended as wide as he was tall, to create an image of a man with very wide shoulders and a powerful build, rather than the "pear shaped" body that was hidden underneath them.

Answer

Henry the eighth as a young man was not fat. He was a keen royal tennis player, Martial Arts enthusiast and loved hunting and jousting. In middle age he gained weight as his lifestyle changed and he was obliged to commit himself to the legalities of running his realm. Eventually he weighed 18 stone.He was hampered in his movements by a ulcerated sore on his leg and this made him even more cumbersome. His large suit of armour is in the Royal Armories in the Tower Of London

Presumably it was the result of over-eating.

Answer 2

His weight is unknown but measurements have been taken from his suits of armour and they show that towards the beginning of his reign his waist measurement was a trim 32 inches but when he was 54 years old his waist measurement matched his age!!