BNPS.co.uk (01202 558833)<br /> Pic: PhilYeomans/BNPS<br /> <br /> Ian Tyers carrying out the study to date the portrait.<br /> <br /> A painting of Henry VIII that has hung in a stately home for over 300 years has soared in value overnight after it was found to be the last portrait created during the King's lifetime.<br /> <br /> Most works of art of the Tudor King were produced after his death and only a handful of contemporary portraits of him exist.<br /> <br /> Up until now the painting owned by Longleat House in Wiltshire was thought to have been a good 'later' copy of the monarch.<br /> <br /> But a painstaking tree-ring dating study of the oak panels the picture is painted on has shown the wood dates to 1529 - when the King was alive and in rude health.
{}