Key dates
- 1515 Wolsey begins building
- 1529 Wolsey falls from favour; gives Hampton Court to Henry VIII
- 1688 The Glorious Revolution. James II is replaced by William and Mary. Hampton Court is one of their principal residences.
- 1689–1714 William’s major rebuilding work is continued by his successor, Queen Anne
- 1768 Great Vine planted
- 1838 Queen Victoria opens State apartments to the public
- 1986 The fire
Overview
Situated in a beautiful location on the banks of the River Thames about 10 miles south-west of central London, Hampton Court is really two royal palaces stuck together. The first, red brick, building that you will see is the most magnificent Tudor palace still in existence, and probably the finest one ever built. It was built by Thomas Wolsey, Henry VIII’s right-hand man, but soon passed to the King after Wolsey’s fall from favour. Henry acquired the palace at the height of his love affair with Anne Boleyn. Originally, her initials and falcon insignia were entwined with his tudor rose all over the new buildings that he constructed. These were largely removed after her execution.
After the Glorious Revolution of 1688, the new monarchs, William and Mary, decided to demolish the old-fashioned Tudor palace and replace it with one in the latest style, influenced by the new French palace at Versailles. Their palace, built by Sir Christopher Wren, the architect of St Paul’s Cathedral, turned its back on the tudor palace. The new entrance was through the Lion Gates and the front of Wren’s classically influenced building looks out over the Formal Gardens. Wolsey’s magnificent Great Gatehouse became the back door. Fortunately for us, the money ran out before the whole of the old palace could be destroyed. The magnificence of what is left gives an idea of what was lost.
History
Although every generation of monarchs from Henry VIII to George II had a hand in building the Hampton Court that we see today, the creation of the palace and gardens can be divided into 3 main phases.
Phase one: Wolsey
Thomas Wolsey was a self-made man par excellence. The son of an Ipswich butcher, he had risen in the service of Church and State by his own merits until, by 1515, he was Lord Chancellor of England, Archbishop of York and a Cardinal. He was, therefore, the most powerful man in the kingdom after the King, Henry VIII.
In 1515, Wolsey leased the manor of Hampton Court from the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem and set about building the most magnificent house in England. He chose the site because it was beautiful and healthy (various diseases, especially smallpox, frequently raged in the unsanitary conditions of the city). It was, moreover, conveniently located on the banks of the Thames, the main means of communication with Westminster.
Architects did not yet exist as a profession. The owner would decide what he wanted and the master mason would advise and build it. Wolsey’s master mason was John Lebons, who also built Wolsey’s Cardinal (now Christchurch) College in Oxford.
Wolsey’s palace was large and just that bit too magnificent. It gave rise to a popular rhyme…
Why come ye not to court?
To whiche court?
To the King’s Court
Or to Hampton Court?
…and eventually to the King’s jealousy. He had nothing so modern or impressive. Realising his mistake, Wolsey gave Hampton Court as a present to the King, but too late. This, combined with his failure to secure the King’s divorce from Catherine of Aragon and a legal marriage to Anne Boleyn, meant that Wolsey’s days were numbered. Fortunately for him he died in 1529 of natural causes.
Phase two: Henry VIII
Henry VIII was full of excitement and optimism; he was in love. He was confident that his recent divorce from Catherine and marriage to the already pregnant Anne would secure the heir to the throne that he was desperate for. He immediately began to make Hampton Court even larger and more lavish. He tore down Wolsey’s Great Hall and replaced it with one even larger and more splendid, with the latest design of hammerbeam roof. He was in such a hurry that huge numbers of candles were lit so that the carpenters could work through the night. He also built great new State Apartments for himself and the Queen.
Anne Boleyn did not live to enjoy these sumptuous rooms. The longed-for child was born a daughter – the future Elizabeth I – and after the subsequent miscarriage of a boy, Anne was executed on a trumped-up charge of adultery. When you are the King’s wife, adultery is treason. The tragic ‘Anne of the thousand days’ was beheaded in the Tower of London, and the way left clear for her replacement and her own lady-in-waiting, Jane Seymour. It is said that Henry was playing tennis on the court at Hampton Court when news of Anne’s death was brought to him. On Anne’s death Henry tried to remove all traces of her from Hampton Court, defacing her emblem and initials and replacing them with Jane’s where possible. Some survived underneath the central gatehouse which is now known as Anne Boleyn’s Gateway.
Jane Seymour bore the desperately needed son and heir, the future Edward VI, at Hampton Court. He was baptised in the Chapel Royal there when he was just a few days old. A few days after that his mother’s body lay in state there for 3 weeks, following her death from post-natal fever.
Anne of Cleves was Henry’s fourth wife in name only. She was replaced by Catherine Howard, a young, lively, attractive and flighty member of one of the most powerful noble families in England. Married to a corpulent, middle-aged man, she gave too much of her attention to courtiers of her own age and was soon, this time probably justifiably, accused of adultery. Knowing that Henry was at prayer in his Royal pew in the Chapel Royal, she escaped from her guards and tried to reach him. She believed that if she could just see him face to face she could change his mind. Caught at the chapel door, she was dragged away screaming. She followed in the footsteps of Anne Boleyn; to the Tower and execution. Henry must have heard her, and it is said that her screaming ghost still haunts this corridor today. Henry married his 6th and final wife, Catherine Parr, at Hampton Court in 1543.
In 1604, James I convened a meeting of church leaders at Hampton Court to settle religious disputes. This eventually lead to the creation of the Authorised (King James) version of the Bible in English.
The tragic monarch Charles I and Henrietta Maria spent their honeymoon at Hampton Court. It later became his prison during the English Civil War. In 1647 he escaped through ‘the room called Paradise,’ but he was recaptured and executed in 1649.
Henry VIII, divorce, the Pope, and the Church of England
Henry had an older brother, Arthur, who was married when still a child to a Spanish Princess, Catherine of Aragon. This marriage was arranged to cement a political alliance between the new and fragile Tudor monarchy of Henry VII and the superpower, Spain.
Arthur died whilst still a young teenager, but Henry VII still wanted to hold on to the political alliance with Spain. He, therefore, obtained the Pope’s annulment of Arthur’s marriage on the grounds that it was not consummated, and his permission for Catherine to marry his other son, Henry (VIII). Henry and Catherine lived happily together for 19 years and had a daughter, Mary.
As Catherine grew older, Henry VIII became increasingly anxious that he had no son to succeed him. Women could succeed to the throne, but they were seen as a weaker and more dangerous alternative, church law dictating that they should be ruled by their husbands.
When the middle-aged Henry fell in love with the young, vivacious Anne Boleyn and she became pregnant, only a legitimate heir would do. Henry, therefore, sought the Pope’s permission for a divorce on the grounds that church law forbade a man to marry his brother’s wife.
Henry thought that he had the perfect man for the job in Thomas Wolsey. From humble beginnings, Thomas had risen to dizzy heights in the King’s service and owed his position to Henry. Moreover, he not only held the highest political position in the realm, that of Lord Chancellor of England, but he was also an Archbishop and a Cardinal. Who better to plead the King’s case in Rome? Unfortunately for Wolsey, the Pope was under the influence of Spain. Spain, naturally, did not want a member of their Royal Family to be divorced and her child illegitimised in this way. The Pope, therefore, refused, leading to Wolsey’s downfall.
Henry’s only answer lay in removing the power of the Pope in the matter by making himself the head of the Church in England. Henry was a man of great intelligence and learning, a true Renaissance Prince. He was already interested in the new Protestant religion developing in Continental Europe and the Boleyns were supporters of Luther’s ideas. He therefore broke away from the Roman Catholic Church and established a Protestant Church of England with himself at its head. He was then able, with the sanction of a subservient Parliament, to give himself permission to divorce Catherine and marry Anne.
Henry’s oldest daughter, Mary, briefly brought England back within the Catholic fold in a reign of terror and bloodshed but her sister, Elizabeth, returned to the Church that her father had established. To this day, Roman Catholics are prohibited from ascending the English throne.
Phase three: William and Mary
After the Glorious Revolution of 1688, the new joint monarchs, William and Mary, chose Kensington and Hampton Court palaces as their principal residences. Here, to the west of the city, the air was purer and less troublesome to the King’s asthma. They had major plans for Hampton Court. The whole of the old Tudor palace was to be demolished and replaced with modern buildings with up-to-date facilities. The style was influenced by the French palace of Versailles, which the King greatly admired. Henry’s State Apartments were demolished and Sir Christopher Wren started work on the new palace, completing the new Royal Apartments around the Fountain Court. In 1694, however, Queen Mary died and the money began to run out, saving the rest of the old palace from destruction. In 1702 King William was riding in the park at Hampton Court when his horse stumbled on a molehill and threw him. He died later from his injuries.
…and later
Later monarchs continued to add to the palace, commissioning work from such well known 18th century designers as Vanbrugh and William Kent. Georgian architects were influenced by the classical principles of balance and harmony made popular by the Italian Palladio (“palladian” architectural style). The Georgian Rooms at Hampton Court are a beautiful example of the elegant style of the period, which can also be seen at Bath. However, George II was the last monarch to live at Hampton Court. George III is said to have hated it, thanks to a childhood incident when his father boxed his ears there. After George II’s death, the palace was converted to grace and favour apartments for people of note. Dr. Johnson applied for an apartment there in 1776, but was turned down. In 1838, Queen Victoria opened the State Apartments to the public and Hampton Court became a favourite destination for day-trippers from London.
The 1986 Fire
Grace and favour apartments continue in the palace and it is in one of these that a fire started in 1986. The fire devastated the Royal Apartments facing the Thames and many historic features, including Grinling Gibbons carvings, were lost. They have now been recreated by modern craftsmen and the post-fire re-organisation of the palace has opened up and developed many new areas of interest, such as the Tudor Kitchens.
Arts
Architecture and decorative arts
The Great Hall, chapel and Wolsey’s Closet contain some of the best and most magnificent Tudor decors still in existence, particularly the ceilings. The terracotta medallions around the Clock Court show the heads of Roman Emperors and were commissioned by Wolsey from Giovanni da Maiano. Along with Henry VII’s tomb in Westminster Abbey, these are the earliest known examples of Italian Renaissance art in England.
Sir Christopher Wren, rebuilder of London after the great Fire and architect of St Paul’s Cathedral, commissioned a team of master craftsmen for work on the new King and Queen’s palace. These included the metalworker Jean Tijou, who created the Lion Gates for the new entrance, the balustrade on the King’s staircase and the garden screen in the Privy Garden. History’s finest woodcarver, Grinling Gibbons, also worked there. Gibbons’ work is all over the palace but the finest examples are the Chapel Royal, the overmantle in the King’s Drawing Room and the cornice in the Queen’s Gallery. Later works include many of the greatest names in architecture and decorative arts from the heyday of the English stately home. Verrio painted numerous walls for William and Queen Anne, Vanbrugh did the same later for George II in the Georgian Rooms. William Kent completed the Queen’s Staircase and worked on the rooms, which now include the Cumberland Suite.
Gobelin Tapestries dating to 1662 can be seen in the Queen’s Gallery and home-grown craftsmanship can be seen in the tapestries made at Mortlake and Hatton Garden in the Prince of Wales staircase in the Georgian Rooms.
Queen Mary was a collector of blue and white porcelain, which can be seen throughout the apartments. Some of this was specially designed to display the royal collection of tulip bulbs. The collection of tulips, recently discovered by the Dutch in their explorations of the east, was a huge craze in 17th century Holland (William was a Dutch Prince). Huge fortunes were spent on acquiring a single bulb. William had 30,000 tulip and hyacinth bulbs planted in the palace gardens in 1699.
At the south-east corner of Wren’s building is a small room known as Queen Mary’s Closet. Although she died of smallpox at Kensington palace before she could use her new apartments at Hampton Court, this room was originally hung with needlework made by the Queen and her ladies.
Fine Arts
Charles I was a famous connoisseur and collector of paintings and hung the finest of his collection at Hampton Court. Many were sold by Oliver Cromwell, but the Orangery houses the 9 huge paintings of the Triumph of Caesar by Mantegna, which survived.
The “Windsor Beauties,” the famous series of paintings by Lely of the ladies of Charles II’s court, hang in the Communication Gallery in the Queen’s Apartments and a painting by the same artist of Queen Anne as a child holding a bird is in the Queen’s Bedchamber.
Some of the best Renaissance paintings from the Royal Collection are displayed in the Wolsey Rooms and Renaissance Picture Gallery.
Antonio Verrio’s paintings can be seen throughout the State Apartments, but see particularly the scenes taken from Julian the Apostate’s “Satire of the Caesars,” on the King’s staircase. This is probably an allegorical painting on the subject of the exclusion of the Stuart dynasty after the Glorious Revolution (1688) and their replacement by William III, the owner of the palace.
The Cartoon Gallery in the Georgian Rooms contains 7 paintings of Raphael’s famous cartoons (these are not cartoons in the modern sense but patterns for tapestries). The originals are in the Victoria and Albert museum, in London.
Lifestyle
The Great Hall
In England, the Dark Ages (Anglo-Saxon/Viking period) and the early medieval period were the heyday of the great hall. It was the central dominating feature of domestic life. This was a time when people lived much more communally and there was little emphasis on privacy. Most houses consisted of just one room. In large and important houses this could be huge. There would be a central fireplace with a louvred hole in the roof to let out the smoke. The windows did not have glass but a series of wooden shutters, which could be partially opened to let air and light in, and smoke out. Here everyone cooked, ate, slept, worked, played and told stories.
By the 14th century, changes in society were reflected in changes in buildings, especially in the homes of the nobility. Wealthy houses had always had separate chapels. However, cooking was now done in separate kitchens to remove smells and reduce the risk of fire. Chimneyed fireplaces had been invented, so everyone did not have to huddle around one great fire. The owner and his important guests could now sleep, and often eat, in separate rooms. This threat to tradition was feared by some, and Bishop Grosseteste wrote to the Countess of Lincoln in the late 13th century; “so much as you may without peril of sickness and weariness eat you in the hall afore your many, for that shall be to your profit and worship.” Langland’s 14th century poem Vision of Piers Plowman laments:
Wretched is the hall…. each day in the week
There the lord and lady liketh not to sit
Now have the rich a rule to eat by themselves
In a privy [private] parlour.
Or in a chamber with a chimney, and leave the chief hall
That was made for meals, for men [servants] to eat in
The Tudor Great Hall
Whilst the hall had lost its pivotal role by the Tudor period, it still played an important part in the life of a great household.
a great household and many guests gorging together in a huge and magnificently decorated hall, to the accompaniment of fanfares of trumpets, was a supreme expression of power, ritual, wealth and hospitality
(Life in the English Country House, Girouard)
Thus Henry VIII’s Great Hall at Hampton Court was the largest, most sumptuously decorated room in the palace. 97 feet long, 40 feet wide and 60 feet high it could accommodate 300 people at each sitting. Its hammerbeam roof is famous, and its carved pendants and corbels were of the latest fashion. The woodcarver Richard Rydge of London was paid £3.3s.4d. for each “pendaunt standing under the hammerbeam.” Textiles were used extensively in all houses for comfort and warmth. Hangings or tapestries (often called an “arras” after the town famous for their manufacture) were used to cover bare walls and exclude drafts. In 1540, Henry bought a series of huge tapestries showing the story of Abraham, for his Great Hall at Hampton Court. Tapestries were hung slightly off the wall on a wooden frame, which could allow space for spies and busybodies to eavesdrop on conversations. Thus, in Hamlet, Polonius was killed by Hamlet because he was hiding behind the arras.
The Great Hall would be used for special events, entertainments, etc. and the king might even eat here, ‘in public,’ once in a while. Elizabeth I and James I held lively banquets, balls, masques and plays here. Over Christmas 1603, 30 plays were performed in the Great Hall. The scenery was designed by Inigo Jones and the players included the King’s Company of Comedians, who numbered William Shakespeare among their company. Inigo Jones continued to design masques and balls and scenery for the plays written by Ben Jonson for Charles I. On a daily basis, however, only the lesser nobles – the King’s ‘men’ – would eat here.
The retreat into privacy
The state rooms of great and royal houses chart the retreat of the owners into privacy, continuously pursued by those demanding their attention.
By the time that Wren was building new apartments for William and Mary we can see the pursuit drawn out into a long series of chambers: Guard Chamber, Presence Chamber and Audience Chamber were areas in which the monarch displayed themselves in public. They could then withdraw into the (with)drawing room with their more select companions. In reality, though, they were on public display right up to and including their State Bedrooms. The only place in which they could achieve any measure of privacy was in the small (often tiny) rooms called closets. Here they could be alone, or could have private conversations (hence ‘to be closeted with’). For a courtier, the degree of penetration into this complex of rooms displayed your status and the extent of your favour with the King.
The Tudor Kitchens
The Tudor Kitchens at Hampton Court are the largest and best preserved kitchens of the period anywhere in the world.
The size of a tudor household would vary, depending on who was resident and who was visiting. Cardinal Wolsey’s household amounted to around 500 people but this could be boosted to over 1000 by visitors and their households (the visiting French Ambassador brought with him 280 courtiers as well as servants and staff in 1527).
In addition, it was necessary for the status of a great man to keep an open house with plentiful food and drink for casual visitors. The ensuing conspicuous waste was then fed to the poor – a further ritual obligation of a great household.
This gargantuan level of catering was achieved without the help of modern equipment. Open fires were the only means of cooking, by roasting on a spit, boiling or baking. The fires were therefore lit all year round, even in the hottest summer. Meat featured prominently in the diet of a great household (bacon, dairy produce and vegetables were considered to be poor men’s food). The roasting spits were originally turned by small boys. Nineteenth century technology replaced them with turbines – fans placed in the chimney which were driven by the rising hot air and, through a series of gears, turned the spits.
The design of these main kitchen rooms, with their high, often domed, ceilings, sought to reduce the ensuing heat. Separate, cooler rooms were used for storage and specialised areas of catering such as pastry-making.
Kitchens were always a fire hazard and were placed as far away from the main house as possible. This meant that the food often had to be carried long distances along cold corridors. The final touches (garnishes, sauces etc) were added in a servery before being paraded into the main dining hall, to a fanfare. At Hampton Court the Horn Room was originally the servery for the Great Hall.
Science
The Astronomical Clock
Situated in the Clock Court directly above Anne Boleyn’s Gate, the clock was constructed in 1540 by Nicholas Oursian. This was before the findings of Galileo and Copernicus showed that the Earth and planets orbited the sun. It therefore pictures the Earth as centre with the sun moving around it. The 18th century cupola, which now tops it, contains the clock bell that dates from 1480 and is probably the only surviving relic of the original pre-Wolsey building belonging to the Knights of St. John.
The Visit
The Gardens
Many English monarchs were personally interested in gardens and had a hand in developing those at Hampton Court. The gardens that we see today were largely influenced by the new style of garden design that Charles II saw at Versailles, while in exile during the English Civil War. Wren’s new palace for William and Mary, who also admired the Versailles fashion, sits perfectly within this formal garden. The best view of the formal gardens is from the Queen’s Drawing Room. The Broad Walk and the Privy Garden also include work by the famous 20th century garden designer, Gertrude Jekyll.
The gardens can be divided into 3 areas:
The Formal Gardens
On the east side of the palace, the Great Fountain Garden and the ornamental waterways, including the ¾ mile long Long Water, are set out in formal style and are meant to impress. The pathways, lines of trees and other features are designed to focus the attention on one spot; the centre of Wren’s facade. This was where the most important person, the owner, sat. The existing fountain is the sole survivor of the thirteen installed by William. He was a great lover of fountains and had 50 in the Dutch Royal Garden at Het Loo. The Lion Gates (Tijou) were originally intended by Wren to be the main entrance to the new palace.
The Pleasure Gardens
To the north and west are the pleasure grounds for the household and their visitors. These include the famous Maze laid out for William III and the Tiltyard where Henry VIII practised his jousting skills. The Tiltyard café is housed in the last surviving tower of 5 that were built for spectators. Henry’s famous real tennis court, the oldest tennis court in the world, is also situated here, but is accessed from the Broad Walk in the Fountain Garden. The real tennis game bears only partial similarity to modern tennis and is more like a cross between squash and tennis.
The Privy Gardens
Between the south of the palace and the river lie the privy or private gardens. These were reserved for the family and their private guests. Queen Anne used Wren’s tiny Banqueting House as a pleasant riverside retreat. The Privy Gardens incorporate the vestiges of what would have been features supplying the kitchens before being turned to leisure use. The Pond Garden was originally the palace fishpond. Fish was a very important part of a catholic medieval diet and all big medieval houses had their own fishponds. The Orangery would originally have supplied the 18th century house with soft and exotic fruits (such as oranges), which were sometimes grown in tubs so that they could be brought to the dining room for diners to pick fresh from the tree.
The existing Great Vine was planted in 1769 as a cutting from a black Hamburgh vine growing in Essex. It truly deserves to be called ‘great.’ Its stem is over 7 feet in circumference and it still bears hundreds of bunches of black grapes every year.
Further sources
- Life in the English Country House, Mark Girouard
- The English Garden Tour, Mavis Batey & David Lambert (among others by Mavis Batey)
- The art and architecture of London, Ann Saunders
- Elizabeth, David Starkey
Films
- A Man for All Seasons
- Anne of the Thousand Days
- Elizabeth
- Shakespeare in Love