Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe LONDON, Feb. 18 (UPI) -- Apart from his love of women and food, Britain's King Henry VIII also had quite a passion for footwear, The Mirror reported Wednesday. As researchers were learning the portly bearded king enjoyed playing soccer occasionally based on an order for a pair of soccer boots in 1526, it became apparent he liked to pamper his feet. Advertisement Dr. Maria Hayward, a clothes historian at the Winchester School of Art who discovered the order said there was a lot more to it than soccer boots. "The order was 10 pairs of English leather boots; 10 pairs of Spanish leather buskins; a pair of velvet buskins; 38 pairs of velvet shoes in purple, black and crimson; three pairs of slippers in black velvet; three pairs of arming shoes; six pairs of English leather shoes; another six pairs of shoes in Spanish leather and then the football boots," Hayward said. And that was just for a six-month period, she added. While Henry VIII is believed to have played soccer only occasionally, as a young man he had a more athletic physique and was a keen jouster, tennis player and wrestler in his younger days. Advertisement In his later years, he was better suited to sumo wrestling, the newspaper said.
