Hampton Court

A thirty-minute train ride from London lands you at one of the most spectacular and historically rich palaces in Britain. Located on the banks of the Thames, Hampton Court Palace includes 60 acres of beautiful parkland in addition to the palace itself. According to the palace website, the history of Hampton Court Palace includes the following monarchs: Henry VIII (r 1509-47); Queen Mary I (r 1553-8); James I (r 1603-25); Charles I (r 1625-1649); Charles II (r 1630-85); William III and Mary I); and George II (r 1727-60). But these kings and queens are not the only people to have left their mark on the palace. Other notable people include Oliver Cromwell and Cardinal Wolsey.

One of the most enjoyable aspects of the palace that I found was taking a tour through the different time periods and subsequent changes as seen through the development of the building itself. The building of Hampton Court Palace is billed as “the story of two palaces: a Tudor palace, magnificently developed by Cardinal Wolsey and later Henry VIII, alongside a baroque palace built by William III and Mary II” (Historic Royal Palaces). Of all the stories involved with Hampton Court, that of Cardinal Wolsey and Henry VIII is the most famous. And their story is what immediately drew me to the site.

The palace underwent major transformation during the time Cardinal Wolsey lived there, only to have the Cardinal lose his high-ranking position as a Cardinal, Archbishop of York as well as Lord Chancellor, but also his splendid house during the fallout with Henry VIII. Delderfield relates what happened: “It was Wolsey’s failure to arrange for Henry’s divorce from his first wife [Katherine of Aragon] that led to his dismissal in 1529 and summons the following year to London on a charge of high treason; he died on the journey” (64). Henry seized Wolsey’s magnificent house and turned it into a center of the Tudor court.

When it came to refurbishing his palace, no expense was too great in Henry’s eyes: “In just ten years Henry VIII spent more than £62,000 rebuilding and extending Hampton Court. This vast sum would be worth approximately £18 million today” (Historic Royal Palaces). By the time Henry was finished with it, Hampton Court Palace was elegant and sophisticated: “There were tennis courts, bowling alleys and pleasure gardens for recreation, a hunting park of more than 1,100 acres, kitchens covering 36,000 square feet, a fine chapel, a vast communal dining room (the Great Hall) and a multiple garderobe (or lavatory)—known as the Great House of Easement—which could sit 28 people at a time. Water flowed to the palace from Coombe Hill in Kingston, three miles away, through lead pipes” (Historic Royal Palaces). I especially enjoyed the atmospheric and hammerbeamed Great Hall; it didn’t take much to imagine a great table laden with food and surrounded by people and dogs, with the fire blazing in the middle as Henry looked on the scene proudly.

It is especially poignant to consider the situation surrounding the royalty living at the palace during Henry VIII’s time. At one time, the young prince and heir, Edward, lived with his two half-sisters who would both become queen someday, Elizabeth and Mary. Elizabeth’s mother was beheaded, Mary’s divorced, and Edward’s died. It’s the kind of situation that would definitely make for some awkward dinners. Nevertheless, the Tudors carried on, culminating in the Golden Age of the capable and intelligent Elizabeth I.


Hampton Court’s place in English history doesn’t end with the Tudors. The succeeding dynasty—the Stuarts—also made use of the palace, albeit in a somewhat diminished role when compared to its former centrality in English courtly life. In a rising tide of religious controversy and factious fighting, James I, a dedicated Calvinist except when it came to matters of church government, called for a conference to be held at Hampton Court between the bishops and the Puritans. Roberts relates that “the conference was by no means a total victory for the bishops, but the final outcome was, since James, once the conference ended, lost interest. He allowed the bishops . . . [to revise] the Book of Common Prayer in their own interest and secured passage trough Convocation of new canons, one of which required the clergy to subscribe to the royal supremacy, the Thirty-nine articles, and the revised Prayer Book” (331-32). This event is only one of many that illustrates the deep history and importance that the palace has played in British history.

---------------------
Works Cited

Delderfield, Eric R. Kings and Queens of England & Great Britain. London: Greenwich Editions, 1996.

Historic Royal Palaces. http://www.hrp.org.uk/. Accessed 5/6/2008 through http://www.hrp.org.uk/HamptonCourtPalace.

Roberts, Clayton, and David Roberts. A History Of England: Prehistory to 1714. Upper
Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 1998.