Will Sommers And Jane The Foole, Court Jesters Of The Tudors
incamerastock/Alamy Stock PhotoKing Henry VIII with his children. Royal fool Will Sommers stands behind them.
Both Will Sommers and Jane the Foole were considered “natural fools” in their time. In today’s terms, we would say the two suffered from learning disabilities, but in their day, they each found favor in the Tudor court.
Will Sommers enjoyed a humorous rapport with Henry VIII, and this earned him the king’s affection. That fondness also allowed Sommers to say what no one else could to the king.
According to Historic England, Sommers once told the king, “As please your Grace, you have so many frauditers, so many conveyers and so many deceivers to get up your money, that they get all to themselves.”
Sommers said this as a joke, but he was actually warning the king that he was being exploited by those closest to him — something most members of the Tudor court wouldn’t dare say.
Sommers was paid well and given fine meals and clothes for his service, and he was additionally assigned a “keeper” to look after him, as it was known in court that he didn’t have the capacity to care for himself.
Jane the Foole had a similar situation. She was employed as the “woman fool” by Henry VIII’s second wife, Anne Boleyn, and like Sommers, Jane was well-paid and well-clothed. In fact, records from the time show eight separate payments of four pence for “shaving of Jane [the] fool’s head.”
One thing that is clear, both from historical accounts and contemporary paintings, is that the Tudor fools held prominent positions in the court, as they were favored for their humor and directness.
