Did Henry play at No.8?

He had almost enough wives to start his own football team. And, following a discovery by historians, such an idea may not seem as fanciful as it first sounds.

For it appears that when he wasn't butchering the clergy or building up the Navy, King Henry VIII was leading his men on the pitch.

Historians researching his wardrobe have found that he owned a pair of football boots, suggesting he was one of the first monarchs to play the sport.

It was already known that Henry enjoyed tennis, jousting and horse riding. But now Dr Maria Hayward has found records showing he had a special pair of shoes for playing football.

Dr Hayward, of the Textile Conservation Centre at Winchester School of Art, said: 'Football in Tudor times was a very vicious game with no teams and no rules.

'According to contemporary writer Sir Thomas Elyot it was a game of "beastly fury and extreme violence" so it was not a game for gentlemen.

'This makes it all the more surprising that Henry had a special pair of shoes for playing football in. The game was especially popular on Shrove Tuesday.

'Sadly, no clothes or shoes owned by Henry VIII have survived. Many items were given away as gifts and a few pieces still in the royal collection in the 1640s were sold by Oliver Cromwell.'

The order for shoes from shoemaker Cornelius Johnson in 1525 includes ten pairs of English leather boots, 45 pairs of velvet shoes and 'one pair sotular ( meaning shoe) for football'.

The footwear would have cost about four shillings - or £96 in today's money.

Henry would have been nearing his mid-thirties when he ordered the boots. He eventually banned the sport in 1548. The king, who had the blood of numerous Catholic ministers on his hands, told his subjects the sport had to go because it was violent and incited riots.

Games are thought to have often produced fatalities during his reign.

They would be fought out by hundreds of men and stretch between two villages.

Oxford University historian Diarmaid MacCulloch said the teams would kick an inflated pig's bladder to one another.

King Henry VIII split from the Roman Catholic church because of his desire to remarry.

He eventually took six wives and formed the Church of England.