19 JANUARY 2008, Page 22

Tudors: not very Welsh

Sir: Your correspondent Mr Williams objects to my description of Henry VIII as the ‘English Stalin’ on the grounds that the Tudor dynasty was Welsh (Letters, 5 January). It is true that its founder, Henry VII, had a Welsh grandfather. But his grandmother was Flemish and Bavarian, his mother was English and his father a mixture of English, French and Welsh. As S.B. Chrimes, author of the best life of Henry VII, writes, ‘the Welshness of Henry Tudor can be, and often is, exaggerated.’ As he married an Englishwoman his son Henry VIII was even less Welsh. He showed no interest in Wales except to suppress its institutions and incorporate it in England, a characteristic act of the English Stalin.

Paul Johnson

London W2