The portraits of English royalty form rather a separate category in his work. Somewhat surprisingly he did not enter the royal service until 1537, but his potential seems to have been recognized by Thomas Cromwell, whom he painted in 1534. Although Holbein created a standard type for portraits of Henry VIII, only one portrait of him is now accepted by all scholars as being from Holbein's own hand. This painting (Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, Madrid) was almost certainly the pair to the portrait of Jane Seymour, Henry's third wife (The Hague, Mauritshuis).

Henry married six times. As with virtually all royal marriages of the period, it was not a matter of personal preference or love but of dynastic and political needs. Yet Henry's dealings with his wives differed from those of other princes at the time in that he divorced two of them (Catherine of Aragon and Anne of Cleves). and had two of them executed (Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard). Jane Seymour died after the birth of the future Edward VI, while Catherine Parr outlived him.

Holbein not only created the official image of Henry VIII, which has kept its hold on the popular imagination until the present day, but also captured the whole atmosphere of the Tudor court as it passed through one of the most dramatic periods of English history.

Preview	Picture Data	Info
	Portrait of Henry VIII 1536 Oil on wood, 28 x 19 cm Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
	Henry VIII after 1537 Oil on canvas, 234 x 135 cm Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool
	Jane Seymour, Queen of England 1536 Oil on wood, 665 x 41 cm Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
	Portrait of Jane Seymour c. 1537 Oil on oak, 26 x 19 cm Mauritshuis, The Hague
	Portrait of Anne of Cleves c. 1539 Parchment mounted on canvas, 65 x 48 cm Musée du Louvre, Paris
	Portrait of Edward, Prince of Wales c. 1539 Oil on oak, 57 x 44 cm National Gallery of Art, Washington
	Portrait of Henry VIII 1540 Oil on panel, 89 x 75 cm Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica, Rome
	Portrait of a Lady 1535-40 Oil on wood, 72 x 50 cm Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio
	Henry VIII and the Barber Surgeons c. 1543 Oak, 180 x 312 cm Royal College of Surgeons of England, London
	Henry VIII and the Barber Surgeons c. 1543 Paper mounted on canvas, 160 x 280 cm Royal College of Surgeons of England, London
	Edward, Prince of Wales 1543 Oil on wood, diameter 32 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York