Sights and Insights: ON MY VISIT TO HAMPTON COURT ( PART--I )

Front View of the Hampton Court Palace

The Clock Court

During my second visit to England I have got an opportunity to see one of the most beautiful royal palaces where many important historic events happened and where so many artistic renovations took place during a period of nearly more than four hundred years. To reach Hampton Court by train, we have to get down at Waterloo Station and catch another train to travel fourteen miles and reach Hampton Court station. From here we have to walk just two hundred yards to reach the royal palace.

The Great Hall

The Gallery near the Royal Chapel

Surviving Kitchen room

The huge Fireplace

This palace was actually meant for a Bishop's grand mansion with state apartments to entertain the royal guests. Cardinal Wolsey, a close friend and Chief Minister to King Henry VIII, took this site in 1514 and lavishly spent more than two lakh gold crowns over seven years to build this magnificent mansion to display his status and also to please the royal guests.After the completion of the building, King Henry VIII stayed as his guest. This mansion was built by the Italian craftsmen in Renaissance or Classical style blended with simple style of Gothic construction. In 1528 Cardinal Wolsey gave away his palatial residence to Henry VIII as he fell out of favor with the king in the matter of getting a divorce from his queen. In 1530 the Cardinal died. The first courtyard, and the inner gatehouse which leads to the clock court (second inner court) were built during the cardinal's lifetime. The base court had forty four rooms reserved for guests while the clock court contained state apartments for providing lodging to king and his family. At present a part of Wolsey's original palace is seen on the west end of the base court.Ann Boleyn's gate with the clock (Clock Court) is seen on the east end of the base court.

The Royal Chapel

The wooden beam construction

The Crown of Henry VIII

King Henry VIII
(1491--1547)

Cardinal Wolsey
(1473--1530)

Ornamental Brick Chimney

Within six months after the death of the Cardinal , Henry re-built and expanded the mansion in Gothic style to accommodate and entertain himself and his courtiers numbering more than one thousand members. Though he owned over sixty houses and palaces, he found that they were not spacious enough to meet his requirements. He built very large kitchens comprising more than fifty rooms spreading over an area of 36,000 square feet with big cauldrons, ovens, and grates to cook meals for his royal guests and courtiers. We saw the huge logs of fire, huge cooking vessels and chunks of meat, displayed as specimens for the tourists. The sounds of sawing and chopping with hacking knives are echoed by sound equipment to suggest the large scale preparations made by chefs in those times. King Henry VIII added the Great Hall and the Royal Tennis Court between 1532 and 1535. The Great Hall has a carved hammer beam roof. He used to dine here seated at a table on a raised dais. It took five years to complete this spacious hall. The Gate House to the second inner court was adorned with an astronomical clock in 1540. The construction of the apartments for his queen Anne Boleyn above this gate was stopped when she was charged with infidelity and executed in 1536. .

In 1537 King Henry's male heir Edward VI was born to Jane Seymour, (Henry's third wife) who died two weeks after childbirth in 1537. In 1541 Henry's queen Catherine Howard (Henry's fifth wife) , guilty of adultery, escaped from her room and ran through the gallery near the Royal Chapel to beg for mercy. But she was re-captured and sent to Syon House and later to Tower to be executed in 1542. In 1543 King Henry married his sixth wife, Katherine Parr in queen's closet adjoining the Royal Chapel in 1543. In 1546 the British king arranged a grand feast for his French ambassador and the entourage of two hundred members along with his own court of thirteen hundred members for six days. A replica of the famous crown worn by Henry VIII is seen in the Royal Pew at Hampton Court Palace. The original crown was melted away at the Tower of London in 1649 on the orders of Oliver Cromwell signifying the abolition of monarchy during Republican rule.

After the death of Henry VIII his son Edward VI and his sisters Mary (born to Katherine of Aragon, Henry's first wife) and Elizabeth (born to Anne Boleyn, Henry's second wife) stayed in this palace after the untimely death of Edward VI in 1553. After her wedding at Winchester, Queen Mary returned with her Spanish husband King Philip to spend her honey moon here. Though she chose Hampton Court as the place for the birth of her child, she left after five months for the palace of Oatlands as she was far away from her royal supporters. Queen Elizabeth I did not make any improvements to this palace except the construction of the eastern kitchen which is at present used as Palace's Tea Room.

In 1604 King James I (who succeeded to English throne after Elizabeth I ) held Hampton Court conference with Puritans here. Though no agreement was reached, this meeting led to the commissioning of King James Version of the Bible which was completed in 1611. James I held many parties and indulged in pleasures of hunting at this palace grounds. In the Great Hall many dramas and mask shows were performed. In 1603 and 1604 Shakespeare's Company presented shows before the royal audience. Queen Anne, wife of James I, died in this palace in 1619.

The Longford River

Charles I (Son of King James I and Anne of Denmark) made this palace as his residence. He built a new tennis court and dug out the Longford canal which brings water still from a distance of eleven miles to power the fountains of Hampton Court's formal gardens. He also brought a large collection of paintings and sculptures from Europe. Charles I spent honeymoon with his fifteen-year old bride Henrietta Maria here in 1615. Later during Republican revolution he was imprisoned here before his execution in 1649. The palace became the property of the Commonwealth government presided over by Oliver Cromwell. The Government auctioned many articles of the royal household, but had not caused any damage to the palace. After Restoration (1660) Charles II (Son of Charles I and Henrietta Maria, sister of the French King, Louis XIII) and James II ( successor to his brother Charles II ) preferred to stay elsewhere as by current French standards the Hampton Court seemed old-fashioned.

Paintings on ceiling of king's chamber

King's stairway

Queen Mary II "s bed Room

Queen's staircase

In 1689 England had two new monarchs , William , the Dutch Duke of Orange, and his wife Mary II (daughter of James II). They re-built the Hampton Palace demolishing the Tudor palace and replacing it with a huge modern palace built in Baroque style retaining Henry's Great Hall. Their plan of constructing a huge palace around two courtyards at right angles to each other was given up as the resemblance of the new palace to Versailles palace seemed too weak and not strong enough. Henry's state rooms and private apartments were lost. The new wings around the Fountain Court contained new state apartments and private rooms, one set for the king and another for the queen. Each suite of rooms was accessed by a separate staircase. The king's apartments face south over the privy garden while the queen's apartments face east over the fountain garden. These suits were linked by a gallery decorated with frescoes done by Antonio Verrio and the ironwork done by Jean Tijou. The room furnishings were done by Daniel Marot. The chocolate kitchen was built for William and Mary in 1689. His personal chocolate maker was Thomas Tosier who ran his his own chocolate house at Greenwich managed by his wife, Grace Tosier, Her portrait is now seen hung above the fireplace in the chocolate kitchen. The Hampton Court maze was planted by George London and Henry Wise between 1689 and 1695. It covers nearly one third of an acre and contains half a mile of winding ways. After the death of Queen Mary in 1694, William lost interest in renovation and the construction work came to a halt. Later his sister-in-law, Queen Anne, undertook the completion and decoration of the state apartments.