Hampton Court Palace

Előszó

Hampton Court Palace

HAMPTOMCOURT Hampton court was built in the reign of Henry VIII by Thomas Wolsey, Archbishop of York, on a site which he acquired on lease in 1514 from the Order of St. John of Jerusalem. In the following year Wolsey became a cardinal and Lord Chancellor of England. He was already the most powerful and was rapidly becoming the richest subject in the kingdom. This country house on the bank of the Thames was planned and furnished with a magnificence rivalling, if not surpassing, that of a royal palace. The Cardinars household numbered nearly 500; 280 richly furnished rooms were kept always prepared for guests; and when a treaty between Francé and England was signed in 1527 the French Ambassador and his retinue of 400 were entertained at Hampton Court at the Cardinal's expense. But his fali was near. Two years later he was stripped of all his wealth and power. In a desperate effort to regain the King's favour he had presented to Henry VIII his manor of Hampton Court with its buildings and furnishings, its tapestries and its plate; but on 3oth October, 1529, all his lands and goods were declared forfeit to the King. Although he received a generál pardon in February 1530 and retired to his Province of York, he was arrested in November for high treason, but died while he was being brought to London. Henry VIII at once began to enlarge the house, making it one of the most luxurious palaces in the kingdom. In turn he brought Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard and Catherine Parr to the palace as Queen. His children, Edward VI (who was born here), Vissza