henry vut's suit of armour made towards the end of his life, probably by Erasmus Kyrkenar at Greenwich, It reminds us of the medieval past when monarehs were expected to lead their men into battle. Henry's father had won the throne by conquest and all his life Henry VIII hankered after military glory. The waist was flared out and the thigh and knee armour cut away to accommodate Henry's enormous bulk, which was so great that pulleys had to be used to hoist him up and down.
Henry that the English troops had deserted just when he was about to do terrible things, and Henry, in his innocence, authorized his father-in-law to cut the throats of any English he found running for home.
For 1513 Henry kept the same ally but changed the plan. Ferdinand would strike in the south while Henry landed an expeditionary force in the north. Another mighty army was prepared. This time Ferdinand baled out without a blow struck, leaving Henry to carry on alone. A three months' campaign succeeded in capturing the town of Therouanne, described unkindly by Thomas Cromwell as an ungracious French doghole, and the important town of Tournai, held for only five years and handed back in the next diplomatic bouleversement. A rather straggly cavalry action was dignified as the battle of the Spurs. Meanwhile, Lord Surrey, left behind to guard the border against the Scots, inflicted upon them one of the most crushing defeats of all time at Flodden
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