Long-lost picture of Henry VIII as a child discovered It's been sitting here, being looked at now and again, since the 1920s, and we got to the point where we thought it might be nice to digitise it. I started looking carefully at the illuminations, and was struck by this group of two little girls and a boy. It raised so many questions, and all the research we have done points to it being Henry VIII at around aged 11. Saying Henry VIII was depicted as a child "very infrequently," he added: "He felt the death of his mother more than anybody; it really, really rocked him. He was absolutely inconsolable. This picture now reinforces what we know from the texts. The picture, one of several dozen in the Vaux passional, shows Henry as a child, with his red head buried in his arms on his late mother's bed. His sisters Mary and Margaret are depicted sitting on the floor near to him, while his father sits on a throne in the foreground. The text, which is in medieval French, contains a retelling of the passion of Christ, along with a religious poem. It is described by experts as a "high status text, written for royalty." Dr Maredudd ap Huw is now hoping to discover who commissioned the work, thought to be a gift for Henry VII to console him as he got used to life as a widower. The book is known to have fallen into the hands of Lady Joan Guildford, who served in the household of Queen Elizabeth of York and acted as "lady governess" to the royal princesses Margaret and Mary Tudor. Upon her death in 1538, it was kept by her family before passing into the possession of Sir Kenelm Digby in the 17th century and then by descent to Wales. It was donated to the National Library of Wales by philanthropists Miss Gwendoline and Miss Margaret Davies of Gregynog in 1921.