Kinesic intelligence and historical research: Gestural communication at the court of Henry VIII

This chapter offers case studies of the uses of kinesic analysis in early modern politics and a demonstration of its value to contemporary scholarship through a close analysis of the original reports of Eustace Chapuys, the imperial ambassador at the court of Henry VIII. Modern commentators place considerable emphasis on close analysis of the “body language” of politicians and celebrities, scrutinizing their physical interactions, posture, gestures, and deportment for insights into their emotional states, unstated intentions, or levels of sincerity. Historians have much to learn from the similar (and often more sophisticated) applications of kinesic intelligence in the high-stakes political reportage of previous centuries. At the Henrician court, foreign ambassadors such as Chapuys watched the monarch, his advisors, and companions with anxious intensity, reporting even minute details of their gestures, posture, and personal interactions. The potential evidence that they provided of royal mood, of likely shifts in policy, and of who was favored or not, offered a valuable resource for those whose responsibility it was to analyze and try to pre-empt political action, for on such matters might rest the fates of alliances and dynasties, as well as of individuals. Such reports provide an equally valuable resource for the historian, suggesting how a single gesture, such as Henry VIII’s apparently convivial placing of his arm around Sir Thomas More’s shoulders as they walked in the latter’s garden, or the way that an ambassador might exchange courteous gestures with a controversial figure, such as Queen Anne Boleyn, could give rise to distinct, complex, and richly multi-layered implications for the various participants and their political masters across Europe.