Henry VIII was not the only one to be a fan of the codpiece, men in his court waltzed around with bejewelled versions in order to attract attention, which would have been held closed by string ties, buttons, folds, or other methods. One can still find one of his regal codpieces on display at the tower, alone weighing in at more than two and half pounds.Īlessandro Alberti with a Page, possibly 1544/1545, National Gallery of Art Although we know Henry to have struggled to produce healthy children, it was said that women would stick pins in his decadent red velvet codpiece to ward off barrenness. When you stepped on the right spot, the royal codpiece would swing forth. The King was such a big fan of the codpiece in fact, that there used to be a wooden statue of him at the Tower of London with a secret mechanism in the floor. Portrait of Antonio Navagero (1565) with an accentuated codpiece, oil on canvas by Giovanni Battista Moroni, Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan There are even stories of men using their codpieces as a kind of pocket, and proudly producing oranges from it in order to impress women. Whilst originally this modest covering was fashioned from a triangular shaped piece of cloth, by Henry VIII’s times the codpiece was a far more extravagant affair, stuffed to unnatural proportions, embellished with all manner of jewels, adorned to perfection and proudly worn for all to see. ![]() Agnolo Bronzino Lodovico Capponi 1550-1555 © Frick Collection In 1463, Edward IV’s parliament went so far as to make it compulsory for a man to cover “his privy Members and Buttokes”. At first, when in the late 14 th century, men’s clothing was made up of linen leggings and shorter tunics, normally worn under a mantle or cloak, there was no hiding the protruding bulge of a man’s genital region. Whilst the codpiece began life intended to protect a gentleman’s modesty, it quickly became a symbol of his masculinity, fertility and strength. You can almost hear the greetings at Hampton Court: “Prithee, doth that be a cod in thy piece, or art thou merely glad of my acquaintance?” Henry VIII, from the studio of Hans Holbein the Younger, 1540-50 © National Trust Images ![]() Shaped and padded to emphasise the genital area, it became fashionable to design the codpiece to hold his manhood in a position insinuating it was erect constantly - a statement of political and economic power. And according to King Henry, the bigger the codpiece, the better. This clothing device was known as the codpiece, which comes from the Middle English word ‘cod’, meaning scrotum. Indeed, during his reign, one of the most important fashion items in a gentleman’s ensemble was a designated pouch that protruded from the crotch of men’s trousers, enclosing the genital area. You only need to have a gander at the armour that Henry VIII used to wear to see how proud he was of his nether regions. Detail of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, by Titian, 1533, shown wearing a codpiece with short doublet, Museo del Prado.
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