A sex-crazed monster? Henry VIII really was a fussy squeamish who went to bed in a velvet cap!

A gluttonous and ungainly ruler with a boundless libido? That is the popular image of Henry VIII.

But it’s wrong, says author and historian Alison Weir — and we should blame actor Charles Laughton and his infamous portrayal of the king in the 1930s film The Private Life of Henry VIII.

At one point in the film, directed by Alexander Korda, Laughton drinks from a tankard, chews on fried chicken, and proclaims:

“Refinement is a thing of the past. Manners are dead.’

The real Henry VIII was a refined and fastidious man, says historian Alison Weir

Yet Henry was a refined, cultured and sometimes prudish man, Weir told the Hay Literary Festival.

An athlete and scholar, he had remained a virgin until his first marriage was consummated.

The author, who has written both fiction and non-fiction about the Tudors, said the real King Henry was doused in favor of a “bloated monster who changed women and shopped wittily.”

“He was a very fastidious man and unusually obsessed with hygiene for his time. Henry,” she said, according to The Times.

“He was much more discreet and prudish than we might think.”

Review of her new novel, Henry VIII: the Heart & the Crown, Weir described Henry as a disciplinarian about manners.

Whatever Laughton’s depiction suggests, the Tudor King’s table was in some ways more civilized than what we see today.

Hands were washed before, during and after each meal.

Henry was also more faithful than some 21st century husbands.

The king was married to Catherine of Aragon for over 20 years, had only a handful of mistresses, and preferred to keep his extramarital affairs known only to a small inner circle.

He waited years to consummate his relationship with Anne Boleyn and remained faithful to her until marriage.

Mrs. Weir describes his many refinements and achievements and has previously written that Henry was ‘a lover of music, technology, art, mathematics and astronomy.

Weir suggests that writers, including herself, had spent too much time on his wives and should now spend time looking at Henry himself, depicted here surrounded by his family.

Henry had relatively few extramarital affairs and kept them largely private. Shown here talking to lute player Anne Boleyn, who would become his second wife. His first wife, Catherine of Aragon, watches from the doorway

Judith Weir has written both fiction and non-fiction about the Tudors

‘He designed buildings and weapons. He was a world-class tennis player

“A sentimental man who suffered from fits of crying or crying and blushed at crude jokes.”

A long way from the coarse buffoon of the popular imagination.

According to Mrs Weir, he often spent the equivalent of £24 million a year on clothes, but went to bed in a long nightgown and velvet cap.

While Weir admitted that she had a “more sympathetic view of Henry than many historians,” she suggested that writers, herself included, had devoted too much time to his wives and should now focus on Henry himself.

She said, “It’s perfectly legitimate to bring up women’s history,” she told the audience. “But I think Henry is still out there to be discovered.”