The beautiful riverside Hampton Court Palace is a treasure trove for Tudor history lovers, which is why it features on all three of our Tudor history tours.
Visitors cannot help but be awestruck at its beauty and excited by the Tudor treasures this still sumptuous palace keeps safe.
The History of Hampton Court Palace
Hampton Court Palace started off as a manor that was built for the Knights Hospitallers of St John Jerusalem in the 13th century, sometime before 1338. The manor was the central part of a large farm estate which had been designed to provide money to support crusaders in the Holy Land.
In 1494, one of Henry VII’s senior courtiers, Giles Daubenay, leased the estate and then in 1514 Cardinal Thomas Wolsey obtained it on a 99 year lease and began transforming it from a private house into a huge palace complex fit for a king. Wolsey built the palace to impress the whole of Europe and it was a wonderful fusion of Catholic iconography and Renaissance art and architecture, with an incredible “long gallery”, a huge new entrance courtyard, new chapel and cloister, and hundreds of fine tapestries. So lavish was Wolsey’s palace that Henry VIII used it in 1527 as the location for the peace treaty negotiations with France.
When Cardinal Wolsey fell from royal favour in 1529, after failing to get Henry VIII’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon annulled, Henry removed him from the palace, which Wolsey had already offered him as a ‘gift’, and took possession. He and his intended bride, Anne Boleyn, spent the equivalent of many millions of pounds in today’s money (some say 18 million!), turning Hampton Court into the palace of their dreams. Improvements carried out by Henry VIII included:-
- New Queen’s lodgings – Although planned by Anne Boleyn, she never actually had the chance to use them.
- The kitchens – These were enlarged significantly, to cover an area of 36,000 square feet, so that they could cope with serving Henry’s court.
- The Great Hall with its carved hammer-beam roof
- The Royal Tennis Court
- Privy lodgings with hot and cold water for the King
- Bowling alleys
- Pleasure gardens and a 1,100 acre+ hunting park
- A beautiful royal chapel
- The Great House of Easement – a lavatory system which could seat 28 people at a time!
- Lead pipes to carry water from Kingston’s Coombe Hill, 3 miles away, to the palace.
- Paintings – Henry VIII commissioned Renaissance artist Hans Holbein as his Royal painter.
Hampton Court Palace had become a true royal palace!
As well as entertaining the royal court and providing a home for Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn and Henry’s subsequent wives, the palace was also the setting of key events in Tudor history – the birth of Edward VI (son of Jane Seymour and Henry VIII), the death of Jane Seymour from suspected puerperal fever, the house arrest of Catherine Howard, the marriage of Henry VIII and Catherine Parr, Mary I’s acceptance of Philip II of Spain’s marriage proposal and her confinement in 1555.
Henry VIII, His Six Wives and the 21st Century Hampton Court Palace
Although the palace has undergone many changes over the centuries and suffered from fire damage, much of the palace so loved by Henry VIII still exists today:-
- The Wolsey rooms – Part of the palace built by the cardinal in the 1520s
- The Great Hall – Can you find the HA motifs that Henry’s workers missed when they were ordered to remove evidence of Anne Boleyn?
- The Chapel Royal with its magnificent1530s blue vaulted ceiling – It is said that the heart of Jane Seymour was buried in this chapel
- Henry VIII’s Great Watching Chamber with its Tudor ceiling and tapestries.
- Tudor portraits and paintings, including “The Family of Henry VIII”
- The amazing Abraham Tapestries – These Flemish made tapestries depicting the Biblical story of Abraham are from a set of 10 ordered by Henry VIII in the 1540s
- The Haunted Gallery – Woooooohhhh!
- Henry VIII’s astronomical clock – An amazing clock with gears and dials showing the time, day, date and position of the sun in the zodiac.
- The Wolsey Closet – Found in the Georgian Apartments, this small room features a ceiling from Henry VIII’s reign and a frieze linked to Cardinal Wolsey because it displays his motto “dominus michi adjutor“, “the Lord is my judge”.
- The remains of Henry VIII’s kitchens – Carpenter’s Court, Boiling House, Fish Court and the Great Kitchens all educate visitors about how Henry VIII’s banquets would have been prepared.
Hampton Court Palace Ghosts
Like many old houses with a colourful history, Hampton Court Palace is said to be the home of a collection of ghosts:-
- Catherine Howard – It is the ghost of Catherine Howard, Henry VIII’s fifth wife, which gives “The Haunted Gallery” its name. According to legend (and not history!), when Catherine was charged with adultery in 1541 at the palace, she broke free from the guards and attempted to run into the chapel to find Henry. Unfortunately, Henry would not help his queen and Catherine was beheaded at the Tower of London for adultery and treason. It is said that she floats around the Haunted Gallery with a look of despair and making an awful shrieking sound!
- Jane Seymour – Jane is said to haunt Clock Court and is seen carrying a lighted taper.
- Sibell Penn, “the lady in grey” – Sibell was little Prince Edward’s nurse (Edward VI) who died in 1562 and was buried at Hampton Church. Her remains were disturbedin 1829 when the church was demolished and she now returns to the rooms she once knew so well at Hampton Court Palace.
- “The Wolsey Closet Dog” – Yes, a phantom dog can be found at Hampton Court Palace in the Wolsey Closet alcove.
- “Skeletor” – This ghost dressed in period costume turned up on CCTV footage of the area near the Introductory Exhibition in Clock Court. On three consecutive days it caused trouble by opening a fire door.
Other Sights to See
As Tudor lovers, we are drawn to the parts of the palace that relate to Henry VIII and his six wives, but there are other parts of the palace that are well worth a visit:-
- The Great Vine – This vine was planted in 1768 by Capability Brown and still lives on, producing the most wonderfully sweet black grapes. I bought a cutting of this and so have a part of Hampton Court Palace in my garden!
- The Gardens – There’s nothing better on a warm, sunny day than strolling round the beautiful gardens. See the Privy Garden, the Great Fountain Garden, the Banqueting House, the Pond Garden, the Rose Garden, the Tiltyard Gardens, the Wilderness and Maze, the Long Water and Chapel Court garden.
- The Georgian Private Apartments, once home to George II’s family.
- Mary II’s Apartments which were built over the remains of Anne Boleyn’s lodgings and which consist of huge, lavish rooms complete with rich furniture, marble, tapestries and paintings.
- William III’s Apartments – A series of awe-inspiring Baroque style rooms
Our Tours
Hampton Court Palace is visited on every single one of our tours, with our own private guide, so do check out the tour itineraries and details at our special tour website History Tours of Britain. We offer:-
- The Anne Boleyn Experience – This Anne Boleyn focused tour in September 2012 is based at Hever Castle but has a day at Hampton Court Palace.
- The Executed Queens Tour – This takes place in June 2012 and is split between Coombe Abbey and Hever Castle. Attendees will visit places associated with Mary Queen of Scots, Anne Boleyn, Catherine Howard and Lady Jane Grey, including Hampton Court Palace which Catherine Howard is said to haunt.
- The Discover the Tudors Tour – New for 2012, this June tour is an 8 night/9 day tour taking attendees back in time through visits to the Tudor attractions of London, including Hampton Court Palace, and Stratford-upon-Avon.
Early Bird Booking Offer
We’re presently offering an Early Bird Discount of £100 off the full cost of our Tudor tours if you book before midnight on Friday 9th September. You can reserve your place with a deposit of £300 per person. Click here to reserve your place.
Now sit back and enjoy these photos of Hampton Court Palace taken on our recent tours.
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Have you been to Hampton Court Palace? Which were your favourite bits?
