Henry VIII's 500th anniversary

Apr 2 - An exhibition marking the 500th anniversary of Henry VIII's accession to the throne uses spectacular armor to highlight his love of sport and interest in warfare as well as the king's expanding waistline.

"Henry VIII: Dressed to Kill" opens at the Tower of London on April 3 and runs until Jan. 17, 2010, and is one of a series of exhibitions planned across Britain this year to celebrate the famous king's coronation in 1509 aged 17.

The exhibition calculates Henry's changing body shape based on the size of the armour. At age 23, the king's waist was 88 centimeters (cm) and his chest 105.5 cm. By age 48, the portly monarch's waist had grown to 129.5 cm and his chest to 138 cm.

(SOUNDBITE) (English) THOM RICHARDSON, KEEPER OF ARMOUR AND ORIENTAL COLLECTIONS: "The exhibition is about the arms and armours of Henry VIII, and it brings together the biggest group of arms and armour that have really ever been seen together, and it tells us first and foremost about the physicality of the monarch. You can do whatever you like with portraits and illustrations and books but the armour can't lie. The armour has to fit the man in order for him to move in it and so you get a unique perspective on what the man himself was like at the different ages of his life."

"We see often the image, the icon of Henry as a great old fat man, but when you look at these armours made for him as an athletic young sporting king , you see that he was young and slim once and so we get a better picture of him not only of his exact physicality but how it changed throughout his life."

(SOUNDBITE) (English) ANDY DEANE, INTERPRETER OF THE COLLECTION: "It's a bit hot, bit sticky, bit heavy, but this armour was made specifically for me, it was made a couple of years back, a replica of some of Henry's armours. It weighs about 60 kilograms , because the weight is all around me it works very well and you get used to it . Like any piece of sporting equipment , if you practise and it fits well then it's not too bad."

"It's a bit like being a Formula One driver, you're in the cockpit being thrown around, doing something silly at 200 miles an hour, it's the same with the armour , it's heavy, it's a bit uncomfortable, but it's brilliantly engineered , so it moves when I move, it doesn't everything that I need to do, and most importantly it protects me when a big man tries to hit me with a big stick."

"I need several friends, I'm literally bolted in, it takes about half an hour to get in and out and when all else fails and I really need to find the loo then a can-opener will do the job."