 Late in life , Henry became obese , with a waist measurement of 54 inches ( 140 cm ) , and had to be moved about with the help of mechanical inventions . He was covered with painful , pus @-@ filled boils and possibly suffered from gout . His obesity and other medical problems can be traced from the jousting accident in 1536 , in which he suffered a leg wound . The accident re @-@ opened and aggravated a previous injury he had sustained years earlier , to the extent that his doctors found it difficult to treat . The wound festered for the remainder of his life and became ulcerated , thus preventing him from maintaining the level of physical activity he had previously enjoyed . The jousting accident is also believed to have caused Henry 's mood swings , which may have had a dramatic effect on his personality and temperament . 
