PALACE: From the Tudors to the Windsors,

Book number: 95737 Product format: Paperback Author: GARETH RUSSELL

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Bibliophile price £5.00
Published price £10.99


One of the UK's most iconic buildings, Hampton Court was put on the map by Cardinal Wolsey, chancellor to King Henry VIII, who developed it as a palace fit to entertain royal visitors after its long medieval occupation by the Knights Hospitaller. History does not record whether the 2044-strong retinue of the Emperor Charles V were all accommodated there, but when Wolsey fell from grace over his failure to secure Henry a divorce, the King took it over and his new queen Anne Boleyn had an apartment there. A cultivated woman, Anne took a leading role in initiating a new design for the palace, inspired by her time in France as a maid of honour to Henry's sister. She had a private oratory, a letter-writing closet and a secured jewel-house. There was a huge storage facility for her clothes, and even bathrooms with hot and cold running water. The lurid accounts of serial adultery presented at her trial are now regarded as unconvincing, but Anne never lived to see the final improvements she had planned. Anne's daughter Queen Elizabeth I was at Hampton Court in 1562 for her near-death illness, with her favourite Robert Dudley in attendance. Elizabeth's successor James I was bisexual and conducted some of his dalliances with male courtiers in the palace, in particular the handsome Scots laird Robert Carr, soon to be further ennobled by the adoring monarch. It was also at Hampton Court that James sat down with churchmen of every religious persuasion to commission the King James Bible, which has never been out of print. Cromwell stayed in Hampton Court, surrounding it with a military palisade as he grieved for the death of his daughter Betty. Victoria and Albert started the process of turning the palace into a museum, and the book concludes with official visits by Kate, Princess of Wales. 460pp, paperback, colour photos.

Additional product information

ISBN 9780008437015

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