Today was our last day of London sightseeing. We had heard good things about another Henry VIII location, Hampton Court, a half-hour train ride away from the city's center. It was the only thing on our list today, so we were hoping for an easy day. The kids were hoping for an easy day as well.
Hampton Court Palace is a royal palace in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. It has not been lived in by the British royal family since the 18th century. Today, the palace is open to the public, and is a major tourist attraction. It is cared for by an independent charity, Historic Royal Palaces which receives no funding from the Government or the Crown.
Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, a favorite of King Henry VIII, took over the site of Hampton Court Palace in 1514. Over the following seven years, Wolsey spent lavishly to build the finest palace in England at Hampton Court.
The first courtyard, the Base Court, contained forty-four lodgings reserved for guests, each with an outer room, an inner room and a lavatory. A guest of the cardinal would bring a large entourage and many servants.
The second court, Clock Court, contained the very best rooms. Wolsey added new sumptuous private chambers for his own use, as well as three suites for the new royal family: one each for King Henry VIII, Queen Katherine of Aragon and their daughter Princess Mary.
Clock Court. Henry VIII stayed in the state apartments as Wolsey's guest immediately after their completion in 1525. At this time, Hampton Court was more magnificent than the King's own palace, the Palace of Whitehall. The fact did not escape the King's notice.
Wolsey was only to enjoy his palace for a few years. In 1528, unable to secure an annulment from the Pope for King Henry and knowing that his enemies and the King were engineering his downfall, Wolsey passed the palace to the King as a gift. The following year, Wolsey was accused of treason and en route to London fell ill and died.
An early example of a post-Copernican astronomical clock. Still functioning, the clock shows the time of day, the phases of the moon, the month, the quarter of the year, the date, the sun and star sign, and high water at London Bridge. The latter information was of great importance to those visiting this Thames-side palace from London, as the preferred method of transport at the time was by barge, and at low water London Bridge created dangerous rapids.
Within six months of coming into ownership, the King began his own rebuilding and expansion. Henry VIII's court consisted of over one thousand people, while the King owned over sixty houses and palaces. Few of these were large enough to hold the assembled court, and Henry's plan was to transform Hampton Court to a principal residence which could accommodate the court. By the way, servants would often sleep in the corridors.
All around London, we have seen groups of school children looking so charming in their school uniforms.
The palace is massive and offered many different tours, including several audio guides. We selected a children's audio guide to Henry VIII's apartments.
Henry added the Great Hall, the last medieval great hall built for the English monarchy. The room is spanned by a large and sumptuously decorated hammer-beam roof and its walls are hung with Henry VIII’s most splendid tapestries, The Story of Abraham.
A lady of the court answering school children's questions about life at court.
Henry used Hampton Court to impress. Most famously in August 1546 Henry feasted and fêted the French ambassador and his entourage of two hundred gentlemen – as well as 1,300 members of his own court – for six days. An encampment of gold and velvet tents surrounded the palace for the occasion.
After the execution of Anne Boleyn, Henry's second wife, he had all traces of her removed from Hampton Court. Our audio guide pointed out a last remnant of Anne that was missed by workers. Here on the wood panels of the Great Hall, you can still see a small H for Henry and A for Anne.
Henry stained glass window in the Great Watching Chamber, just off the Great Hall. The room takes its name from the royal bodyguards who were stationed here to control access to the King.
In one hallway was this famous and very interesting family portrait.
In the center is Henry with his son Edward VI and Edward's mother and Henry's third wife, Jane Seymour. Edward became king when he was 9 years old and died at only 15. It is interesting to note the inaccuracies of this portrait. Firstly, Jane died just two weeks after giving birth to Edward. Plus, this portrait was painted while the king was married to his sixth wife, Catherine Parr.
On the left side of the painting, farthest away from Henry, is Mother Jak, Edward's wet nurse. The aristocracy, nobility or upper classes had their children wet-nursed, in the hope of becoming pregnant again quickly to ensure an heir, most especially if the infant was the first born, or if the first born was female. It was also common, among many classes, when the mother died in childbirth.
Then, a step closer to the king, but still separate from him, is his first child Mary with his first wife, Katherine of Aragon. When Henry married his second wife, Anne Boleyn, Mary was declared illegitimate and when her half-sister Elizabeth was born, her place in the line of succession transferred to her half-sister. Mary was was expelled from Court and she was sent to serve as a lady-in-waiting to little Elizabeth. Perhaps most painful, however, was Henry forbidding Mary to see her mother, even as Katherine lay dying years later, pleading to see her daughter. Mary would go on to become queen after her half-brother died, but will forever be best known as "Bloody Mary" for her brutal persecution of English Protestants.
On the far right side of the painting is Will Sommers, Henry's best-known court jester. In the King's later years, when he was troubled by a painful leg condition, it was said that only Sommers could lift his spirits. The jester was also a man of integrity and discretion; he sometimes drew the King's attention to extravagance and waste within the royal household by means of a joke.
One step closer to Henry is his second daughter, Elizabeth, by his second wife, Anne Boleyn. She was also declared illegitimate but would come to throne after the death of Mary, her half-sister. After the short reigns of Elizabeth's brother and sister, the Virgin Queen's 44 years on the throne provided welcome stability for the kingdom and helped forge a sense of national identity.
All throughout the day, there were activities celebrating Henry VIII's marriage to his sixth wife, Catherine Parr.
In the Clock Court, we met Thomas Seymour. He began talking to a large gathering of people, but then focused on me and said coldly, "Mistress, you are looking at me through a strange telescope-like contraption." It took me a few seconds to realize he was letting me know that I wasn't allowed to videotape him. I lowered my camcorder and shut it off with a red face. Nowhere did it say we weren't allowed to videotape (we were everywhere else), but it was still embarrassing.
Seymour identified himself as a member of Henry's court and the brother of Henry's third wife, Jane Seymour. He gestured over his head to indicate the rooms where Jane had given birth to a son, and then died two weeks later of complications. But what Thomas was most interested in telling us was of his secret love who was to marry another today. He would not identify this mystery lady but felt sure she must return his love, as she has gazed in his direction many times with a certain look in her eyes.
At one point, he questioned Micaela, asking her if when it came time to marry, since at the age of 13, she was eligible, "Will you do your duty to your family and marry the man your family chooses for you, or will you foolishly follow your heart and marry for love?" There was a long pause, and then Micaela answered hesitantly, "For.....love?" Seymour gave David and me his condolences on having such a head strong daughter who would be sure to bring us pain by not doing her duty to us.
A small window above us was opened and his true love's sister appeared at the window. She did not seem pleased to see Seymour, but agreed to meet him in the Great Hall. We all returned to the Great Hall where Thomas gave the sister a box and asked her to present it to the bride.
In the Great Watching Chamber, we finally meet the bride. It is none other than Henry's intended, Catherine Parr. She is not over-the-moon about marrying the king, but knows she must do her duty to her family and the country. And then face-to-face with his beloved, Thomas Seymour cannot bring himself to declare his love for her and instead wishes her well on her wedding day.
Note: Thomas and Catherine eventually did marry not long after Henry's death, but it was not a happy ending. Catherine, who had already been married three times but had no children, soon became pregnant, during which time Thomas developed a "possibly unhealthy interest" in his wife's stepdaughter, the Princess Elizabeth. Catherine died from complications of childbirth and Thomas Seymour was beheaded for treason less than a year later.
As we made our way to the palace restaurant for lunch, we passed under the the gatehouse the astronomical clock sits atop, known today as Anne Boleyn's Gateway. Work was still underway on Anne Boleyn's apartments above the gate when the King, having tired of her, had her executed.
Before coming to London, we had given the kids a very brief history lesson on Henry and his wives. They learned the mnemonic for the fates of Henry's wives: "divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived" (Katherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard, Catherine Parr). It is not wholly accurate. Firstly, Henry was never divorced from any of his wives; rather, his marriages to them were annulled by the Church of England. Secondly, four marriages — not two — ended in annulments. The marriages to Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard were annulled shortly before their executions and, although her marriage to Henry was annulled, German-born Anne of Cleves survived him, as did Catherine Parr.
While attending mass in the palace chapel here at Hampton Court, King Henry was informed of his fifth wife's adultery. The Queen, Catherine Howard, was dragged away, screaming, from a gallery leading to the chapel. Her ghost is said to haunt it.
Speaking of Henry, we kept getting glimpses of him throughout our tour. Here, he was was posing for pictures with school groups. We would miss other events of the day, such as seeing Henry celebrating his last hours as a single man, helping his wife to choose her wedding dress and congratulating the bride and groom after their wedding.
At this point in his life, Henry was unhealthy and had to be moved about with the help of mechanical inventions. His large size dates from a jousting accident in 1536 in which he suffered a leg wound. This prevented him from exercising and gradually became ulcerated. It undoubtedly hastened his death at the age of 55.
We walked past the royal tennis court Henry had built and where he often played.
It is still home to an active real tennis club
After lunch, we successfully navigated the palace's maze.
Walking along the Fountain Garden, one of the many palace gardens
Swan bums are funny!
In 1689, England had two new joint monarchs, Dutch-born William of Orange and his wife, Queen Mary II. In comparison to French court standards (i.e. Versailles), Hampton Court seemed old fashioned. Within months of their accession, William and Mary embarked on a massive rebuilding project at Hampton Court. They employed the country's most eminent architect, Sir Christopher Wren. Wren's original plan was to demolish the entire Tudor palace, except for the Great Hall. Neither the time nor the money proved available for this ambitious undertaking.
Wren had to be content with rebuilding new state apartments and private rooms, one set for the King and one for the Queen. Here you see the Queen's Apartments.
The swans seemed annoyed we didn't have any scraps to throw their way.
We did a kids' audio tour of William's apartments and learned about how so many of the king's rooms, such as the royal bedroom, were never used by the king. They were on display to the public. His private rooms, the ones he actually used, were upstairs. William had asthma, so he had the lower floor built with low ceilings so he would not have to climb so many stairs to get to his private rooms. And one of the more interesting William facts: He really did love his wife Mary.
Leaving Hampton Court with the feeling that we saw only a very small percentage of it. It deserves a return visit, where one could take adult audio guide tours and have time to explore the renowned kitchens and Chapel Royal. Yes, one really needs to make another visit.
Welsch Dragon
Heraldic beasts lining the entrance to the Tudor section of Hampton Court
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