A day in the house of the Kings.

Yesterday I went to the excellent London Town web site (www.londontown.com) which is a guide for London. It is full of very useful information.

After searching the cool places to see, we decided to go to the Eltham Palace. The have chosen that because it was completely restored by the British Heritage and shows all the opulence of 1930s Britain, with all the luxury and glamour.

We left home and headed to that place, but when we arrived there we discovered that it was closed from December 2004 until February 1st, 2005. Not willing to let the day go down, we decided to turn back and go all other way to the Hampton Court Palace.

In a few paragraphs, a short history of that palace:

The palace started its life in the 13th century as a house for knights. In the 16th century, the property was given to Thomas Wosley, which was Archbishop of York. By 1515 Wosley was pointed as both Cardinal and Chancellor of England and he had ambitious plans on turning that building into something worth of a person of his importance.

For many years he turned the palace in huge building yards, transforming it in a palace worth of himself and also worth of hosting the King Henry VIII. In 1528 he lost his favour with the King when he was unable to grant with the pope the right for the King to divorce. After that he had to relinquish the property in favour of the King.

There are also other histories telling that the building was so magnificent that many told that it was much more beautiful than any of the possessions of the King himself, attracting the jealousy of Henry VIII.

The fact is that after the King took ownership of that property, he spent something like £62000 to improve it. That sum converted in today’s money would amount to something like £18 millions.

The palace was used by the Tudors beginning with King Henry VIII, housed the Stuarts from King James I to Charles II, then King William III and his wife Mary II and finally Kings George I and II. King George III (crowned in 1760) showed little or no interest to that palace, preferring the Windsor Palace.

The palace eventually was restored by Queen Victoria and opened to the public.

As you can see from that short history, the palace has passed by many generations and suffered many influences. You can clearly see the rustic and ruthless decoration of King Henry’s rooms, the simplicity, elegance and melancholy of William III and the opulence and magnificence, as well as demonstration of power of George I.

The palace is also surrounded by gardens and these gardens are carefully projected to point to certain rooms in the house. It was also prepared to support the hunt, as it was a sport much loved by King William III.

What can be seen on the palace are the kitchens and various apartments from King Henry VIII, King William III and King George I as well as Queen Anne (1702 – 1714).

When you talk about kitchen, you think about a simple small place where you prepare your food. Well, think about it again. The kitchens in the Tudors time where a huge complex of highly specialized rooms completely equipped to prepare feasts for as much as several thousands of people. It was also very well managed by a master cooker, which managed 14 chief cookers, which by their turn managed other dozens of cookers, servants, assistants and all other staff needed to run that incredible machine.

For a feast to something like 1000 people there would be tens of dishes and the master cooker had to manage all the dozens people he had under his command to get all these dishes ready on time for serving.

There were also specialized storage rooms for every kind of ingredients, like different meats, spices, salt, bakeries and vegetables. It’s impressive to see that. It’s also impressive to see that in the 16th century they already had mechanical automated machines to roast pork and do other things.

After the kitchens we went to see the apartments. I don’t have much to say other that they are very beautiful and they can give you a precise idea of how hard was to be a King. Rooms and more rooms full of people, even the bedroom prepared for public and stuff. King William III had only a few like two rooms where he could be completely alone as even his toiled was watched by some servants and staff.

There’s also the demonstration of power in the Queen Anne’s apartments, where everything is carefully built and decorated to show you how unimportant you were compared to the Queen. Even the size of fire places was dimensioned to be bigger or smaller than you depending of how important you were. Bigger fire places meant that you was worth nothing and smaller ones meant that you were important. By entering these rooms you can understand why and you can even admire how it was so carefully planned.

The exterior of the palace is also very beautiful. It clearly demonstrates also the many different generations that passed by there.

After all, it’s a well worth visit and as they give you free audio guides and free guided tours you can really enjoy it to the maximum.

Hampton Court Palace: ****