#will sommers

[margaritiques]

To Henry's right in this illumination is his jester, William Sommer, who is introduced into the scene by way of an ironic allusion to the accompanying Psalm (Vulg. Ps. 52:1): 'The fool says in his heart, "There is no God".' The British Library Royal MS 2.A.XVI, f. 63V — The Books of King Henry VIII and his Wives by James P. Carley, published 2004.

[dark-scape]

Reading about court jesters and discovered this guy Will Sommers, Henry VIII's fave guy ever.

On the one hand, it's kinda unfair to start a rap battle with a juggler. On the other hand, Thomas shouldn't have done whatever he did to piss Will off.

Will was believed to be a "natural fool" which would indicate some sort of disability. You can tell from his wikipedia page he was very witty, though, and was able to exert influence from his position as jester.

[caffineandsugar]

Six Months

Steven Colbert only lasted six months into the Trump administration. Who's next? Kimmel, Fallon, SNL, The Daily Show?

You know, even tyrants like Henry VIII allowed their court jesters. Don't believe me? Here he is. Will Sommers, ladies and gentlemen. Proof that a spoiled petty tyrant who murdered women for fun could still laugh at himself.

Henry VIII allowed this guy to use the line between comedy and rebellion as a jump rope.

It's just getting worse over here. And nothing is getting better.

[historicconfessions]

[bforbetterthanyou]

I’m new to the Tudor fandom and have never heard of Jane Foole and William Sommers. Can you tell more about them?

Will Sommers was the King’s fool and Jane was the Queen’s fool (she actually doesn’t have a known surname so she’s often just given the surname “Foole”).

Will served Henry VIII and Jane originally served Anne Boleyn and then moved into the household of Princess Mary (future Mary I) and then eventually came to serve Kathryn Parr before disappearing from the records.

Basically, there were two types of “fools” in the Tudor period—natural fools and artificial fools (which would eventually be called jesters). Artificial fools were actors basically or the  equivalent of modern-day comedians. They would put on a show to entertain and act funny. Natural fools were people with disabilities (usually a mental or learning disability but they could also be physically disabled). A lot of people sort of have this idea that royalty would have natural fools to, sort of, make fun of them or laugh at them for their disability, but—at least in the case of the Tudor period—that’s not really true. In fact, natural fools were often revered because of their (seeming) inability to lie. People thought that having a disability like that meant that you were closer to God. So Will and Jane were actually very well taken care of and they were treated with kindness and compassion.

Will Sommers was apparently the only one who could lift Henry’s spirits after Jane Seymour’s death. Famously, after her death he holed himself up in his chambers with only Will for company and refused to see anyone else.

Jane was also treated well. Kathryn Parr gifted her some grease and apparently she (Jane) loved to heard them around like a shepherd. One of my favorite stories of Jane (that might not be true, but I like to believe that it is) is that, at Anne Boleyn’s coronation, she shouted at the crowds to show Anne more respect. And I think that shows that, clearly Anne took care of Jane and treated her well and Jane was fond of Anne otherwise she wouldn’t have shouted at people to pay their respects.

Unfortunately, there’s not really much more known about them. But Henry clearly cared enough about both of them to include them in the portrait of his family (Jane is on the far left and Will is on the far right):

[queenaboleyna]

that scene in season 3 episode 5 of the tudors, when cromwell and.. some guy are discussing henry revoking the protestant reforms, after a full episode of henry moping over jane, and the other dude not understanding why and cromwell bitterly says “because in his heart he has always been a true catholic except in this one thing that he would have neither pope nor luther nor any other man set above him” and then it cuts to the empty throne room where henry’s fool will sommers is lounging on the throne, wearing a crown on his head and with a cornucopia (a symbol of nourishment) positioned next to him, softly starting to laugh and as the scene backs away his laughter becomes more and more loud and disturbing while a soundtrack named ‘a throne fit for a fool’ plays in the background........ poetic cinema

[inky-duchess]

hello! I was wondering if you had any knowledge regarding jesters and similar jokey entertainment folks in medieval times. I've lowkey loved jesters since I was a kid watching The Court Jester with my dad and I was thinking it could be fun to write about them one day. Additionally, do you have any suggestions on where to procure any further knowledge or sources to check out?

The jester was the hired entertainer. Working under the master of revels, the jester had the daunting task of making the monarch and their family laugh. They would tell jokes, tell stories, cause havoc in the court for laughs and lighten the mood. Jesters would be apart of the main household though each royal might have one of their own.

The most successful jester of all time was Will Somers, jester to Henry VIII. Will broke bad news to the infamously bad tempered monarch and got away with things that would have sent others to the block. Will survived most of Henry's reign, his head intact. He is the first step I would recommend taking in learning about jesters.

[bforbetterthanyou]

Top 5 favorite Tudor women. I would be interested in knowing why you like them as well

I assume, by “Tudor women” you mean women of the general Tudor period and not just the women of the Tudor family.

Also, you didn’t specify this, but since this is an Anne Boleyn blog, it should be pretty obvious that Anne is my number 1 forever, so how about I do my top 5 besides Anne Boleyn?

And these are in no particular order

1. Anna of Cleves —um need I say more? Coming to England must have been pretty terrifying for her and even staying in England after the annulment I’m sure wasn’t easy and yet, she seemed to take it all in stride. And I also really love how she wanted to be Queen and wanted to please Henry and the English people—but not in like a naive people-pleaser kind of way. And she clearly succeeded because it seems like the only person who didn’t love her was Henry himself—which is entirely his own fault really.

2. Jane Foole and Will Sommers — I’m putting them together because I like them for the same reasons. Disability history is really important to me and I really wish that more people knew about Jane and Will. There’s not much information about either of them, but the little we do know really shows how Tudor people viewed the disabled. (Also, for the record, Will Sommers has been depicted in media before and he’s never been shown as being disabled...so obviously that’s disability erasure and that’s a huge problem that needs to be fixed)

3. Margaret Beaufort — Uh yeah she was awesome and people only hate her because they hate to see a girlboss winning

4. The whole Boleyn family — they’ve all been so unfairly maligned or just portrayed totally wrongly. Thomas was a good person and a good father, Elizabeth was obviously a girlboss, Mary was adventurous and fun and bold and not some delicate little flower who was mistreated by her family. George was intelligent and charismatic and maybe a little arrogant but a great brother and son and a wonderful, caring husband. And Jane...everything points to Jane actually getting along with her in-laws very well and caring about them as if they were her own family. And I 100% believe she genuinely cared about George and even grew to love him.

5. Bessie Blount — this girl deserves so much more love. And also some reconsideration. She’s often portrayed or thought of as being sweet or shy or soft-spoken but like...she had an affair outside of wedlock...with a married man...who was the King. That tells me that she was bold and adventurous and maybe even a bit feisty; and that she was intent on living her best life regardless of social conventions. Also, her second husband was 14 years her junior and their marriage was viewed as very scandalous, but did Bessie give a shit? No. Because she loved him and he made her happy and they remained married until her death (and even had 3 children). Oh and I only just learned this but apparently Bessie briefly served as a lady-in-waiting to Anna of Cleves. I think Bessie deserves to be thought of beyond just being Henry’s mistress and the mother of FitzRoy.