Henry VIII's gardening manual to go on display at Buckingham Palace

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Henry VIII may be known as one of history's most ruthless rulers - remembered best for his penchant for chopping of his wives' heads - but it seems the much-married monarch may have had a slightly less violent hobby: gardening.

A well-thumbed book found in his library seems to suggest Henry took an interest in horticulture in between ordering the biggest religious upheaval the country had ever seen.

Ruralia Commoda, a manual written more than 700 years ago and acquired by the king on the death of his chaplain, contains a host of great gardening tips - including advising readers that squash will bear fruit after nine days, but only if planted in the ashes of human bone and watered with oil.

It also suggests cucumbers shake with fear at the sound of thunder, and planting ingredients including a radish and lettuce seed inside a ball of goat manure will result in tasty lettuces.

The manual will be part of a new exhibition - Painting Paradise: The Art Of The Garden - which will be held at The Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace, from March 20 until October 11.

The Tudor Titchmarsh! Gardening manual belonging to Henry VIII which helped the king take the edge off divorces and religious upheaval


Book contains tips including planting squashes in human bone ash

700-year-old manual also suggests cucumbers are afraid of thunder

Advises monarchs on the appropriate size and layout of their gardens

Historians speculate it may have been used to create Whitehall gardens

Book is part of an exhibition of early gardening texts starting in March


By (the appropriately-named) Flora Drury For Mailonline
24 January 2015
Daily Mail


Henry VIII may be known as one of history's most ruthless rulers - remembered best for his penchant for chopping of his wives' heads - but it seems the much-married monarch may have had a slightly less violent hobby: gardening.

A well-thumbed book found in his library seems to suggest Henry took an interest in horticulture in between ordering the biggest religious upheaval the country had ever seen.

Ruralia Commoda, a manual written more than 700 years ago and acquired by the king on the death of his chaplain, contains a host of great gardening tips - including advising readers that squash will bear fruit after nine days, but only if planted in the ashes of human bone and watered with oil.

It also suggests cucumbers shake with fear at the sound of thunder, and planting ingredients including a radish and lettuce seed inside a ball of goat manure will result in tasty lettuces.


The manual, entitled Ruralia Commoda, is believed to have entered Henry VIII's library in 1543


Historians speculate Henry, who is known for chopping off his wives' heads, may have used the manual when designing his gardens at Whitehall

But perhaps more interestingly for Henry - who received the book in 1543, the same year he married his last wife, Catherine Parr - it contained advice on how to create the perfect royal garden.

The book is going on display as part of an exhibition of some of the earliest and rarest surviving records of gardens and plants from the Royal Collection at Buckingham Palace in March.

Curator of the exhibition Vanessa Remington, of the Royal Collection Trust, said: 'This is no coffee-table book but a real, thumbed-through and annotated gardening manual, showing that its various owners referred to it time and time again.

'Although it is impossible to know, it is tempting to think that Henry VIII may have sat in his library and looked through it for inspiration.

'What is important is that we can link the first painting of a real, recognisable royal garden with the world's first gardening manual.'


This 1545 painting - which shows Henry next to his son Edward and third wife Jane Seymour, as well as his daughters Elizabeth (the daughter of Anne Boleyn) and Mary (the daughter of Catherine of Aragon) - gives a glimpse of the gardens, through the two open doors at either end


The guide suggests monarch's gardens should be at least 20 acres, and fragrant herbs should also be planted



Henry had the gardens at Whitehall created in the mid-1540s - about the time he received the book


Henry created the Great Garden at Whitehall Palace in the mid-1540s, but it was destroyed by fire in 1698 and no trace of it remains.

But it can be seen in the background of the painting The Family of Henry VIII, from around 1545.

The painting, which will be shown in the exhibition, is a dynastic family portrait of the monarch with his wife Jane Seymour, their son Edward (the future King Edward VI), and the two princesses, Mary (the future Queen Mary I) and Elizabeth (the future Queen Elizabeth I), Henry's daughters by Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn.


These images are included in the manual, seeming to illustrate the advice the 700-year-old book hands out


The manual holds that the size of the garden and the perfection of the trees and plants within it were an expression of a king's status, wealth and mastery over his environment.

It advises a royal garden should occupy a plot of 20 acres or more, and the planting of fragrant herbs was recommended because they 'not only delight by their odor, but ... refresh the sight'.

The gardener should 'between these plants ... form turf in the fashion of a seat, flowering and pleasant'.

The royal garden should also include walks and bowers, 'where the king and queen can meet with the barons and lords when it is not the rainy season', and should be surrounded by suitably high walls.


The manual wasn't just about kings' gardens, however: it also had advice on estate management, from hunting and falconry to wine production and keeping neat fields


Vanessa Remington, of the Royal Collection Trust, pictured with the book, said: 'Although it is impossible to know, it is tempting to think that Henry VIII may have sat in his library and looked through it for inspiration'

In such a garden 'the king will not only take pleasure, but ... after he has performed serious and obligatory business, he can be renewed in it'.

Glimpses of this advice put into practice can be seen through two archways in the painting.

The manual also recommends that a very pure spring be diverted into the garden and a huge, tiered, circular fountain formed the focal point of Henry VIII's garden at Whitehall.

But it wasn't just providing advice on creating 'gardens for kings and other illustrious and wealthy lords': Ruralia Commoda covered estate management, from hunting and falconry to wine production and keeping neat fields.

It also advised the reader how to grow giant leeks, produce cherries without pits, grow different coloured figs on the same tree, preserve roses before they bloom, and transform basil into mint.

The manual contains an illustration of a mandrake with a root resembling a human, which, according to myth, would scream when it was dug up, killing those nearby.

Painting Paradise: The Art Of The Garden will be on display at The Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace, from March 20 until October 11.

Painting Paradise: The Art of the Garden

 
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