Jonathan Rhys Meyers doesn’t want to eat like a king

In his role as Henry VIII for three seasons on The Tudors, Jonathan Rhys Meyers has learned a lot about life in 16th-century England. When Henry wasn’t busy bedding comely lasses, he was famous for imbibing rich food and drink.

“If you look at the Tudor diet, I’m surprised anyone lasted longer than six months,” JRM told the Edmonton Sun (Season 3 of The Tudors recently premiered on Canadian TV).

For instance, take the royal recipe for poultry:

“They would take a chicken, tear the top off, giblets on the top, and they would take giblets from the bottom, they would take the throat, and the head, and the feet, and they would clip the wings, and they would cook those,” Rhys Meyers said. ” The breast would go to the poor.”

Peasants’ diets were more like what we prefer today, he added. “The poor were mostly rural, agricultural, so they would eat vegetables, they would drink water, they would eat roast beef, whatever they had at the time. Whereas if you went into the city, you’re having jowl of salmon, jowl of chicken.”

Hang on — salmon has jowls? Not exactly, say those familiar with the Oxford English Dictionary. In this case, jowl means the head and shoulders of the fish, which was likely poached.

Henry and others at court probably would’ve had a hoppy brew to wash down that fish head, JRM said. “When you’re inside the kingdom itself, sanitation goes out the window. Clean water was not a possibility. What they used to drink as water had a good percentage of ale in it.”

On average, men would drink nearly six gallons of alcohol a week, he said, while women would consume about four gallons.

“When you see portraits from that time and everybody looks a little worn? That’s why they look worn,” added the Irish actor, who is no stranger to binge drinking himself.

Image: Courtesy of Showtime