Will Somer: Henry VIII’s Royal Entertainer | KS1 History

✨ Travel back in time with your Key Stage One students to meet Will Somer, a royal entertainer at Hampton Court Palace. Discover what his job was like, how he became close to Henry VIII’s family, and did he really have a monkey? 🐵

🔎Our KS1 history resources help young learners explore significant individuals, using primary sources as evidence to understand how we know about these people today.

📚 Find classroom tasks for students and knowledge boosters for teachers with Historic Royal Palaces: https://www.hrp.org.uk/schools/signif...

📌 In this video:
00:00 Will Somer key facts
01:00 Life in the Tudor period
02:30 Where did your monkey come from?
03:03 How do you make people laugh?
03:47 How do we know about Will Somer today?
04:08 Mystery object
04:23 How can we remember Will Somer today?

Produced by Three Arrows Media
Performer supplied by Simon & How
Will Somer played by Cian Binchy
Accessibility consultancy by Access All Areas

📸 Images

Henry VIII (1491-1547) © Royal Collection Enterprises Limited 2025 | Royal Collection Trust

The Family of Henry VIII © Royal Collection Enterprises Limited 2025 | Royal Collection Trust

Psalter of Henry VIII © British Library Collection Royal 2 A. XVI, f.63v

All other images © Historic Royal Palaces