One of the most famous images of the most famous of kings: Hans Holbein's portrait of Henry VIII. A stamp was issued in January 1997 to mark the 450th death anniversary of Henry. Other stamps in the set naturally featured his six wives.

Hans Holbein the Younger was born in Bavaria and came to England in 1526. The humanist scholar Erasmus sent him with a letter of introduction to Sir Thomas More, and Holbein produced wonderful portraits of More and his family, amongst other members of Henry's court.

Henry VIII was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death on 28 January 1547. His life was too full of incident to detail here, but his connection with the navy, and in particular the ill-fated flagship Mary Rose, is shown on a stamp from the Martime Heritage issue of 1982.

You can see another stamp from this issue showing Lord Nelson and the HMS Victory on our icon page dedicated to the HMS Victory.

Illustrations

Portrait of Henry VIII stamp, 1997

Henry VIII and the 'Mary Rose', 1982