Day 1 - Hampton Court 11/11/2012
To which court?
To the King's court,
or to Hampton court?
Nay, to the King's court!
The King's court
Should have excellence
But Hampton Court
Hath the pre-eminence"
John Skelton
Hampton Court was one of Henry VIII's main palaces, originally built for Cardinal Thomas Wolesey, the King's favourite, who eventually fell from grace in 1529, after he failed to secure Henry a divorce from Katherine of Aragon, and thus gave Henry Hampton Court. As seen in the extract above by John Skelton, Hampton Court rivalled that of the Kings own palaces, and hunting lodges etc. Once in Henry's hands, Henry enlarged it, on a grander scale to rival other palaces within continental Europe. Both Henry's and Cardinal Wolesey's designs within/on the palace can still be seen to this day.
After a two hour coach trip to Victoria Station, and then an hour long train journey from Victoria, Mute and I were stood at the gates of Hampton Court. Our second visit to the palace, and still the magnificence it showed astounded us. After getting our tickets, and dropping off our luggage into the lockers, we headed to the Chapel Royal to attend a Choral Matin (well, we enjoyed it so much last time). Staring up at the breath-taking ceiling that Henry himself had designed, Mute and I took to our pew, right behind the choir.
The Chapel Royal - It is thought that Jane Seymours heart is buried within the chapel.
In the picture above, you are able to see where we were sat. If you looked up, you were able to see the Royal pew, where monarchs sit and listen to the services. For an hour and a half we were lost in the music, and in the humble service giving thanks to the soldiers who had fallen and fought for us. As a Te Deum was sung, I was thrown back into the past, thinking of Henry who had sat so very close, listening to the same Te Deum, as we were now. It truly was astounding.
Once the service was over we moved onto the kitchens. As we went through the many different rooms, and corridors, it was interesting to see how a Tudor kitchen ran. As the kitchens were serving many courtiers etc. they were of course large, for me it is always interesting to see the spit in action, the taste of roasted meat from the spit is apparently magnificent. Did you know that a pie in Tudor times, worked in the same way as our modern day take-away equivalent? They would rip the top off of the pie, and eat the insides, discarding the rest of the pastry, or eating it as was there fancy. They also allowed meat to cool for an hour, so that the rich herbs and spices flavouring the meat could be infused. You could imagine trying to keep meals from turning cold, before being presented in the Great Hall was a mammoth task in the Tudor days. I particularly loved the kitchen administrators office, with rolls, upon rolls of parchment. These rolls would have included the costings of the kitchens, and orders would have been made there. Also, the pewter and silver were on an adjacent room to the kitchen administrators office, so that they could always be closely watched, as they were such costly items.
After our kitchen tour, we suddenly became quite hungry (can't think why?), so we stopped off into the privy cafe to enjoy a hearty beef stew, with crusty bread and butter. It was delicious, a tad over priced, but you expect it to be at historical establishments. Once warm and full, we headed off to Hampton Court maze. In all honesty we had thought we were going to be in there hours, instead it was ten minutes if that, and we didn't get lost once! We were quite happy with our feat however, and the photo below shows it.
'Looks like we made it...'
After the maze, we headed back into the palace to enter one of my favourite parts of the palace, Henry VIII's apartments, housing the Great Hall. These rooms really helped show the splendour that Henry constantly had around him, giving you a better insight into how his majesty lived, alongside his wives, nobles, courtiers, diplomats etc. Upon entering the Great Hall, you are in awe of the tapestries which line the walls, these are Henry VIII's own personal tapestries depicting the stories of Abraham, and are the second costly item the monarchy own under the Crown Jewels housed at the Tower of London. But did you know, these aren't all the tapestries? There is another from the series within Westminster, it is hidden away from public view. You can still see the woven gold within the tapestries, and though the colours have faded somewhat, you can just imagine how they would have been 500 years ago.
The hammerbeam roof is also an architectural dream, surrounded by the wonderful stain glass, throwing various colours into the hall. Time Team have done there own reconstruction of how the hall might have originally looked back in Henry's day (Time Team - Henry VIII's Lost Palaces). It would have been alive with colour.
The Great Hall
In this hall there is something very special. When Henry had his second wive Anne Boleyn executed on 19th May 1536, he had all her emblems removed from the palace, but he had missed one! A lovers knot enterwining an A and a H. I have included it in a picture below.
The last remaining lovers knot of Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII
After speaking to one of the stewards within Hampton Court, he spoke to us of his studies into the palace, and how the Great Hall had changed over the years. He stated that the lovers knot that remains might be a Victorian invention to bring visitors to Hampton Court. I hope this is not true, for it would be wonderful if this was truly Tudor. We also saw a stone carving of Anne Boleyns falcon, the detailing was phenomenal. It's the little thing's that help make the past come alive.
Moving on from the Great Hall, we went down into the Haunted Gallery, where Katherine Howard so say escaped house arrest, and ran down the hall screaming for Henry's name, and banging on the door of the Royal pew. The portraits that hang the wall are very fine, but one particularly caught my interest. It shows just how much power the reformation was having in England.
The Four Evangelists Stoning The Pope: A Protestant Allegory, By Girolamo De Traviso The Younger, c.1542.
Before we knew it the day was drawing to a close, we just had time to nip into the shop, and buy a bottle of mead (mmm... if you haven't tried it, you haven't lived!). Bottle of mead in hand, we walked out of Hampton Court, and out of the gates on to the street, and my heart sank. I can not wait for our next visit. We stayed at the Kings Arms Hotel over looking the Hampton Court Maze, in the Anne Boleyn suite for the night. I noticed they had all of the queens, except Anne of Cleves?? The pub had a picture of all Henry's Queens on the bar, which was quite nice. As the night drew to a close, we put our heads down, and went to sleep ready for our journey, the next day.
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