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England ’s King Henry VIII is best known for his temperamental and sometimes violent behaviour — he espouse six times and had two of his married woman behead , for example — and now , investigator say the Tudor male monarch ’s brutal ways may have stemmed from brain injury he got during several sporting accident .
Henry VIII suffered a serial publication ofhead trauma , potentially resulting in traumatic brainiac injury that may explain his loutish behavior , a Modern study said .
An engraving of King Henry VIII
In the field , the researcher analyzed diachronic documents for reports of the king ’s wellness and behaviour , up to his decease , at years 55 . [ Inside the Brain : A Photo Journey Through Time ]
They find that Henry experienced two knockout blows to the nous during jousting tournament , including one instance in which his horse cavalry fell on him and he lost cognizance . In plus , he was reported to have come into a ditch once while hunt , the study state .
The historical text file also illustrate that Henry VIII see many of the symptom associated withtraumatic brain injury , including storage problem , impulse controller , headache , insomnia and depression , the authors wrote .
" It is challenging to retrieve that modernEuropean historymay have alter incessantly because of a blow to the head , " Dr. Arash Salardini , a behavioural neurologist at Yale University and the aged writer on the study , say in a statement .
Indeed , the king was not always known for his wrath problem ; in his young , he was conceive much more even - temper , concord to the study .
" Historians have struggled to explain the shift of Henry VIII of England from a vigorous , generous and intelligent early days to a vicious and secondary autocrat in previous age , " the authors wrote in the study .
There ’s no doubt the king ’s wellness devolve over the course of study of his reign . As he was trade out wives , he also experience serious blood infections , skin infections and meaning weight gain .
One estimate is that the king went from having a body mint indicator ( BMI ) of about 26 when he was in his XX to a BMI of nigh 50 by the metre he die , the research worker spell in their study .
Other researcher have propose several alternate conjecture to explicate Henry VIII ’s variety in health and behavior . These mind focus on the possibility that he had a condition that strike his hormones , such as Cushing syndrome , in which abnormally high amounts of cortisol lead to weight amplification .
But Cushing syndrome makes less sense as an account now than it did in the thirties , before scientist knew much about traumatic nous harm , Salardini told Live Science .
In accession to the cognitive symptoms of traumatic mastermind injury , the researchers also noted in the new study that the king ’s head combat injury could have direct to hormonal problems . This could explain his weightiness amplification and evensexual disfunction , they wrote .
Because the effect of traumatic brain harm are accumulative , it ’s possible Henry VIII could have recovered a bit after his first two injuries , Salardini state . At that point , the king seemed to have milder symptom , such as headaches , Salardini say .
For treatment , a Tudor medico — one with 21st - century knowledge , of course — could have discourage the king from jousting , endeavor to improve his mood withherbal remediesand improved his sleep riding habit and diet , Salardini said .
But after the 2nd jousting injury , in which Henry may havelost consciousnessfor about 2 hours , things would have been more difficult , Salardini said .
" As a clinician , I would have been most worried about [ that ] jousting fortuity , " Salardini said .
The subject area was issue Feb. 5 in theJournal of Clinical Neuroscience .
