Sometimes I wish that I was a timewalker, or that I had a Tardis, or could walk through standing stones…. Oh to be able to go back to my favourite historical events, just for 30 minutes or so! Wouldn’t that be wonderful?
And one of the events near the top of my want-to-see list is the Château Vert pageant of 1522 at York Place. It was one of the Shrovetide celebrations of king Henry VIII’s court that year, and Anne Boleyn and her sister, Mary, were involved, as was the king himself. Its theme was unrequited love, and it featured damsels in distress, lavish costumes, a peal of guns, fruit throwing and dancing… It sounds just incredible.
In last year’s 4th March “on this day in Tudor history” video, I shared a contemporary account of this pageant:
