Hey Blog! On Saturday, I went to Hampton Court Palace!
Henry VIII – remember him? The rather large bloke in the posh embroidered robes who got through six wives in his lifetime and is most likely the reason why all the rest of English history is so convoluted – first, because he made England a protestant country, so we went to war with the rest of Europe; then, because we never won completely, we wreaked havoc on the rest of the world by building a massive empire. He started all that. Coincidentally, he also looks a lot like a family member, so we may be related – I don’t know quite how to feel about that. However, whichever way you look at him, he is always very impressive.
A Potted History of Henry VIII
This mighty monarch became king after the passing of his father, Henry VII – who had established the Tudor dynasty at the Battle of Bosworth. He was a charismatic individual, with a passion for jousting and tennis, and was mostly on good relations with everybody. People hoped he would be a lively, free-living king, unlike his father who seemed a bit of a miser. Happily married to his brother Arthur’s widow, Catherine of Aragon (Spain), the early part of his reign was rather pleasant. However, after a couple of decades, he turned away from Catherine seeking a male heir. This meant blatantly disregarding the Pope and changing the whole country from Catholic to Protestant – setting the scene for the next few centuries. Anne Bolyn, his next wife, was no more successful than Catherine, and after a short marriage, he changed his mind and had her beheaded. Jane Seymour, his third wife, provided him with a son – and then died. After three more wives – Anne of Cleves, Katherine Howard and Catherine Parr, he finally settled down and died, second of the Tudors, leaving behind a young King, and two daughters, who would cause a great deal of havoc and leave the throne to a Scot by the name of James VI and I. Thus goes the Tudor Dynasty.
Before the period when he broke with Rome, he went through a cabinet reshuffle and attempted to remove one of his ministers. This minister, Thomas Wolsley, was busy building himself a nice house along the Thames at the time – well, the inclinations of the rich and famous haven’t changed in 500 years – and to try and get back into Henry’s good books, gave him the house, Hampton Court. Henry then embelished it, employing hundreds of workers to renovate the house, and it became perhaps the third most famous palace in the country, after Buckingham and Windsor.
Unlike those two, however, Hampton Court is no longer the home of the royal family; George II was the last to live there. Instead, it is a museum, which covers Tudor, Jaccobite and Hannovarian history. And it looks AMAZING! I would not mind a great hall like the one at Hampton Court – though it might be just a tad on the large side to fit in my shed. It took us about six hours to visit, including lunch, and yet there were still things we didn’t get to do – I wish we had had time to attempt the maze, said to be the oldest in the world; and there were dozens of closed off rooms which would have been interesting to explore. To think you have walked the same halls as several monarchs, people from the past who we actually know what they did, is a bit of a cool feeling! I probabaly need to revisit the site at some point. Might have to go at night, as it’s said to be haunted – fancy meeting King Henry, anyone?!
