Wolf Hall: Nice teeth, shame about the codpiece

Wolf Hall exposes several myths about Tudor times, not least that Henry VIII (Damian Lewis, left) had six wives.

The TV series of Hilary Mantel’s award-winning books has begun screening in Britain, bringing with it surprising details about life in Tudor times and setting the record straight about Henry VIII, writes Olivia Goldhill

There's a reason why the Tudors are one of the most popular periods of history at school: all those battles, magnificent outfits and bizarre habits make for an entertaining introduction to the past.

But it seems that many of those titbits we learned in the classroom don't hold up to historical scrutiny. The filming of Wolf Hall first exposed the Tudor fashion for egregiously large codpieces - far bigger than those that will be shown in the TV programme. As Damian Lewis, who stars as Henry VIII, says, "Men of the court were encouraged to wear prominent cod pieces. It was a symbol of your virility, your derring-do, your sense of adventure."

The six-part adaptation, which follows Mark Rylance as Thomas Cromwell and includes Jonathan Pryce as Cardinal Wolsley, combines both Hilary Mantel's original books Wolf Hall and Bring Up The Bodies. Mantel is writing the third part of the trilogy - The Mirror and the Light.

Mantel explained that the actors in Wolf Hall all have historically accurate clean white teeth. Contrary to the myth that Tudors had terrible dental hygiene, their mouths were actually in very good condition, because they ate so little sugar.

So, what else have we got wrong about the Tudor period? According to Diarmaid Macculloch, professor of the history of the church at Oxford University, many popular facts about the Tudors are completely false.

1. Henry VIII didn't (officially) have six wives ...

The most widely held belief about Tudor times is incorrect. King Henry VIII didn't have six wives - because three of his marriages were declared "null and void". Unlike a divorce, where a married couple chooses to end their union, these annulments essentially declared that a true marriage never took place.

"If you'd walked up to Henry VIII and said, 'You're a man who's had six wives' then - apart from beheading you - he'd have said, 'No, I've had three wives and the others were just terrible mistakes that didn't happen at all," says Macculloch.

2 ... And he wasn't much of a womaniser

His six (ahem, three) wives may suggest otherwise, but Henry VIII wasn't a philanderer compared with typical behaviour in his day.

"His sexual shenanigans were not all that great by the standards of most monarchs of the time. He had six wives but having six wives is proof that you're not really good with ladies - not the other way around," says Macculloch. "He didn't have all that many mistresses during his younger years."

3. The king didn't have syphilis

STD rumours persist but there's no evidence to suggest that Henry VIII had syphilis. Instead, he suffered from ulcers in his legs.

"The consensus is that these were old tournament injuries - in other words, bits of lance had got into his flesh and no one got them out again. That caused him an enormous amount of pain," says Macculloch.

"There's no sign of serious mental deterioration - he did get even more moody, angry and cruel as time went on, but you tend to if you're in a lot of pain. The symptoms don't really look like syphilis."

4. Sir Walter Raleigh didn't bring tobacco to Britain

The guilt for lung cancer doesn't rest entirely on Raleigh's shoulders - it's likely that tobacco first arrived in England before Raleigh's import, and the explorer only helped popularise the habit. "It's the difference between actually introducing it and a celebrity doing it," says Macculloch.

5. The Tudors didn't burn witches

Being a witch was still a punishable offence, but the Tudor method of justice was to hang those they found guilty. Heretics, by contrast, were those who were treated to being burned at the stake. "We've mixed witches up with heretics," says Macculloch. "Witches were burned in bits of mainland Europe so I think that's why the stereotype got attached to witches over here."

6. And one that might be true: Anne Boleyn did have six fingers

"It's a fairly odd idea to make up," says Macculloch, who believes the tales of six-fingered-Annie have a basis in reality. Though Boleyn's extra digit may not have been fully formed. "I'm sure it wasn't full six fingers, it was probably some slight deformity."

Fine foods fit for a king

In Hilary Mantel's novels, on which the series is based, the food is so vivid it practically becomes an extra character. Courtiers spoon up junkets, and quinces stewed with honey. They eat syllabubs; poached chicken breast in a tarragon sauce; "fat brambles with yellow cream"; and roasted Warden pears.

Mantel imagines Anne Boleyn when she is the king's mistress, mischievously purloining a "fine aged cheese" given as a gift to the Queen, Catherine of Aragon. First Anne steals the cheese; next the husband.

Mantel rightly depicts Tudor dining as a considered affair, where what is eaten reflects not just taste but rank. When the king's servants observed a Church fast day, for example, they ate austere meals of brown bread and salted fish.

For Henry, on the other hand, even a fast day was a feast, as Susanne Groom explains in At the King's Table: Royal Dining Through the Ages. In 1526, a fast meal served to Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon included "soup, herring, cod, lampreys, pike, salmon, whiting, haddock, plaice, bream, porpoise, seal, carp, trout, crabs, lobsters, custard, tart, fritters and fruit". The Tudors loved fruit, both fresh and preserved.

It was Henry who introduced apricots to Britain, and he employed a gardener to grow salad vegetables for his table.

The annual provision of meat for the Tudor court included 8200 sheep, 2330 deer and 53 wild boar, and countless little birds. But this was not all for the King's personal consumption. At Hampton Court 600 courtiers were entitled to eat twice daily in the Great Hall. The King dined in the relative quiet of the Privy Chamber, where - after the master cook had first checked them for poison - he enjoyed such dishes as baked lampreys.

Far from rudely gobbling haunches, the king observed complex etiquette. The general rules of table were more polite than our own. Hands were washed before, during and after every meal. Henry had a special fingerbowl and a designated napkin to protect his fine "manchet" bread roll. When he had eaten enough, he stood and washed his hands while an usher brushed crumbs from his royal person.