Jesters' school is fool's paradise

You don't see many court jesters around these days, despite the best efforts of some members of the royal family - but attempts are under way to groom a new generation of fools.

Staff at Henry VIII's old home - Hampton Court Palace - have setup a "Fool School" for the month.

Pete the Fool, alias actor and theology graduate Peter Cooper, is giving lessons in the arts of falling, stilt-walking, juggling and fire-breathing. In short, all the things that filled those long, cold 16th-century nights with raucous laughter and japes a-plenty.

Few figures were more important at the court of Henry VIII than his two fools, Will Somers and Jane the Fool. Both proved more durable than, for instance, any of Henry's six wives.

Somers had dining rights and lodgings in the palace's Clock Court, and was immortalised when his likeness was painted into the King's psalm book. Despite his court persona as the country bumpkin, contemporaries felt that his jokes were so acerbic he must have spent hours rehearsing them.

"Henry VIII's court wasn't all wives having their heads chopped off and courtiers looking over their shoulders for when the king was going to have them imprisoned in the tower," said Chris Gidlow, who advises on the historical aspects of the school.

"Most of the time this was where the king came to relax with his family. The king employed fools like his best friend Will Somers. He was a confidant of the king. Fools were allowed to say anything they wanted - and get away with it - precisely because they were fools."

The school's appeal isn't limited to young children - the oldest participant so far has been a man in his forties.

Admission to the Fool School is included in the price of a ticket to Hampton Court. Lessons take place three times a day at weekends.