How useful is a visit to the Tudor parts of Hampton Court to find out how Henry VIII used the palace?

A Hampton Court visit can teach us different things about how the palace was used in Tudor times and there are still things that are the same which can help us but many changes have taken place over the years since the palace was built and since Henry took over the Palace from Cardinal Wolsey. These changes mean that although the visit is useful it is not exactly how the palace was and therefore we can not get a full picture of what Henry's palace was like. As new owners took over the palace they added there mark to Hampton Court and this led to less and less of it being like it originally was. Hampton Court can still be used as a source of information as long as you can take into account the fact that it is not all Tudor. Even between the times that Cardinal Wolsey owned the palace and Henry owned the palace many changes took place like Henry knocked down Wolsey's great hall and built a much larger and grander one in its place. Over time people have knocked things down and added on, but in the Victorians they did try and restore many things but then they are not original Tudor and this just makes it hard to know which parts are Tudor and which are Victorian. Also before the Victorians there was William and Mary who owned the palace. They built a new section, knocking down a lot of the Tudor parts of the palace. This is why Hampton Court is so different from both ends. One side is Tudor and the other Georgian. William and Mary took over Hampton Court when they came to the throne and began to knock parts of the palace down. They planned to completely refurbish Hampton Court but they ran out of money and were unable to finish their building work.

Most rooms and places in Hampton Court have changed in one way or the other since Henry VIII owned the palace. The Great Hall though looks much like it did in Tudor times, with its carved hammer beam roof still in tact and the walls are still adorned with the tapestries made in the 16th century. The Great Hall took four years to build and it was massive; thirty metres long and eighteen metres high. The size was necessary for all the banquets and other entertainments that the royal court and visitors enjoyed. The hammer beam roof in the Great Hall is really impressive with the carved and painted wood. In Tudor times in the centre of the Great Hall there would have been a fire burning and to let out the smoke there would have been a louvre above the fire, this is a way to tell where the fire was placed in the room. At one end of the hall there is a raised platform where the main servants would be seated, all the rest sat on trestle tables in the main part of the hall. The large stain -glass window at the back of the Great Hall although impressive was not there in Tudor times, this is obvious as in the stained-glass there is mention of all six of Henry's wives and Henry himself standing in the centre. Although there would have been a window there it would not be the one placed there now. The Great Hall would have been used mainly by the servants at court as they ate and slept here. The Great Hall was basically a large and very richly decorated entrance room for visitors to the palace and on occasion it would have been used for banquets and balls.

The Great Watching chamber is the next room inside the palace; it leads off from the Great Hall. This is the room that was used as a dining room by the Lord Chamberlain and other very important servants. Many men would guard this room because off this room used to be the Kings bedchambers and private apartments. Henry's private rooms are now gone and so these rooms are not able to help us and show us how Henry would have used them. The great watching chamber has a wonderful restored roof, which is not Tudor but has been made to look how it would have done. The glass in the windows is not Tudor and the fireplace also is not. However the tapestries hanging on the wall were bought by Cardinal Wolsey and so are true Tudor tapestries but would not have been placed where we see them today. The tapestries were used to show wealth and status, these tapestries were from Wolsey's large collection and show religious stories which were appropriate to his position as Cardinal. Wolsey had commissioned over twenty sets of tapestries for Hampton court alone. The main function of the great watching chamber was as a dining room for the more senior members of the court also the guards slept in this room over night. Henry would sometimes eat here with his important servants but mostly he would eat in his private appartements.

Off this room is a small box room which is called the Garderrobe. This room was used as a toilet for those guards who slept in the great watching chamber over night. Now the room is just a plain empty room but in Tudor times there would have been a wooden seat over a brick shaft and this then dropped to a brick vault which had to be cleaned very regularly, this vent led to open air. There could also have been wash facilities. Through the Great Watching Chamber there is a room that today is called the Horn room but in Tudor times was the serving room. A staircase is still in place today in this room that is an original Tudor staircase, no one is allowed to walk on this to prevent damage and to cause wear on the stairs.

The Chapel was originally built by Cardinal Wolsey but when Henry took over the palace he added a new ceiling which is just as we see it today. The wooden screen now in the chapel was added much later and was not there in Tudor times neither was the staircase. The chapel is ornately decorated with a ceiling painted blue with gold stars and magnificent carved angels. His royal motto 'Dieu et Mon Droit' placed in several places round the chapel ceiling painted in gold. Today it shows how richly decorated the rest of the palace must have been. Outside the chapel stands the kings coat of arms again with his royal motto placed upon it. It is traditionally furnished with crimson velvet. Upstairs the Holy day closet stands completely different to how it was in Tudor times now with dark varnished wood and inside it has been separated whereas in Tudor times it would have been open for the king and queen to sit and watch the mass above the rest of the court. This way King Henry was closer to God while having mass. Many people tried to get Henry to sign papers here as it was the only time when anyone knew where the King was. Henry came to the chapel at least once a day and therefore it was the perfect time to find him and ask him to sign papers.

The Kitchens were extremely important in Hampton Court as this place was where all the food was made for the king and his court. Henry had to enlarge the kitchens when he took over the palace in order for servants to be able to prepare all the food for the important guests in the palace. There were also many store rooms around the palace too and a wine cellar. Each room was used for a different purpose. The main kitchen today is divided into two but in Tudor times the Kitchen was just one whole enormous room. Huge fireplaces line the wall, so they were able to roast meat on them. All the kitchen rooms were near to the Great Hall in order to be able to carry the food up without it going cold. Most of the food prepared in the kitchens was for the Great Hall but some food was made for the Great Watching Chamber depending on where you ate, it depended on which type of plates you were given. So those in the Great watching chamber ate on silver plates instead of pewter which was used for the great hall. Hampton Court needed such a big kitchen in order to get all the food prepared in time for the king and all of his servants, courtiers and guests in the palace.

The main entrance to the palace was and still is West front. Visitor's today's impressions of the main entrance would not be that different from that of a visitor in Henry's day. In the 16th Century there the main entrance was built using deep red brick which was adorned by using black bricks to create diamond patterns along the front. The moat which is still in place today would have been filled with water (this was a castle design used again for Hampton Court). Today the moat is not filled but you can still see the water line along the brick where it would have been filled to. The ornate chimneys which were restored by the Victorians are very impressive to look at and each chimney holds its own personal design. These chimneys were designed not only to look good but many of them were in use. The mass amount of chimney's shows that Hampton Court must have needed many fires to keep the palace warm as there was no central heating and therefore fire was there only source of heat. The entrance column used to be two more storeys high but now is only three storeys.

Beyond the main entrance there are two courtyards Base court and Clock Court. The first courtyard has not changed much. Base Court used to be the place of Wolsey's guest lodgings but Henry knocked this down to create a bright entry court yard. Lead-capped turrets and gargoyles all built by Wolsey. In each tower on the gateway leading to the next courtyard Wolsey had commissioned busts of royal roman emperors and these still remain in tact and in there original place.

In the next courtyard there is quite a bit of change most of the Tudor buildings have been demolished and in its place stands large columns leading to a new part of the palace built by William and Mary. Also on in this courtyard is the wonderful astronomical clock that is the only one like it in the world. This clock was built for Henry and now stands today just as it did in Tudor times.

Many places today are closed off to the public or used as offices around Hampton Court and therefore many areas are inaccessible to the main visitors of the palace. Also the use of Costumed actors is a good way of learning how the Court would have dressed and how luxurious the clothes were of that time. Guides also help you to learn different things about the palaces, going round with a guide means that you spot every little detail that they show you and you discover more about the palaces history than if you just go round on your own but all these things mean that the palace is very different from the way it was in Tudor times. Miniature models can help you discover what has changed around the palace and what things are the same.

In conclusion I believe that although many parts of Hampton Court have been changed you can still use it to find out about how Henry used the palace. The parts that are still the same show just how grand Hampton Court was and this shows us that Hampton Court was used to impress others and show off. Even today things like the Great Hall and the astronomical Clock are still extremely splendid and magnificent this teaches us how Henry used his palaces to make a statement of how rich he was and of his high status. It is useful in some ways but not others as we can still see many parts of the palace but the main parts like Henry's private apartments are no longer there and therefore we can't discover how Henry used those parts of his palace, but by looking at different palaces from the same time period like Nonsuch and Eltham we can build a picture of how Henry used his palaces. We must consider all the available evidence to find out how Henry used his palaces, using written sources, pictorial sources, other remaining Tudor palaces and Hampton Court itself we can learn a lot about the ways the palaces were used and created to impress, entertain and for the business and private living of Henry VIII.

I believe a visit to Hampton Court is useful because although many aspects have changed those that are still there can teach us a lot about how people lived in Tudor times. Guides and Costume actors can teach visitors new and interesting facts about the palace and Henry. Today although many aspects of the palace have changed either because of refurbishments or because a new owner of the palace wants to change things (like William and Mary) Hampton Court can still be used along side other sources to learn about the Tudors. Thousands of people from all around the world who are learning about the Tudors come to Hampton Court. The parts of the building that have changed can help us to learn about the change through time periods and the difference between the Tudor and Georgian periods. Hampton Court is an amazing palace and from this we can learn a lot about the Tudor period, as long as you take into account that there have been changes and it is not exactly how it was in Tudor times it is a great source for Historians and anyone who wants to learn about Henry VIII.

A Great Hall is a main room of a royal palace or castle and was very fashionable in the middle ages. Mainly the royal homes from England, Scotland and France held Great Halls but other European countries did have rooms that were similar. Most great halls like the one at Hampton Court were rectangle and were entered through screens and had large bay windows along the walls of either side of the hall. Also like in Hampton Court many Great Halls had a raised area at the front which was where a top table could be placed for the higher members of the court to sit and sometimes the monarch also would sit here, directly opposite a minstrel's gallery for musicians, it also had a fire in the middle where the court ate and slept. Most great halls were like this and Henry used these ideas to create and design his own great hall for Hampton Court

The first people to live in Hampton Court were a religious order called the Knights Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem. They were founded in the 12th century to protect the Holy Land. They used the site of Hampton Court as a centre for their agricultural estates. Produce was stored and accounts kept but there was very little accommodation. After some time the abbots of the order started to use Hampton Court as a rural retreat and many buildings and accommodation were built but it was not until 1505 that Hampton Court was used as a permanent home and therefore there was no great hall needed on this site. In 1505 Sir Giles Daubeney took on the lease of the property and began to build a place for living. Sir Giles Daubeney wanted to impress King Henry VII as he was his Lord Chamberlain and to do this he probably would have built the first great hall on the site.

When Wolsey took over the palace in 1514 after Sir Giles Daubeney died he completely changed Hampton Court building new kitchens, court yards, lodgings, galleries and gardens also building rooms for Henry VIII and his queen and daughter but we can't tell whether Wolsey changed the Great Hall or not he may have rebuilt it or just kept it how Sir Giles Daubeney had, had it. Wolsey would have used the Great Hall for both eating and playing with his servants. Then in 1528 when Henry took over the palace he began building a much larger palace and adding many more rooms including the kitchens and the great hall. He made the great hall very splendid. This great hall took five years to build and this included servants working through the night by candlelight to complete the work, as explained in source 6. Since the Tudor times William and Mary have changed the palace but luckily they did not have enough money to complete the work they were planning to do. William and Mary hoped to knock down the whole of Hampton Court palace and rebuild a much more fashionable one but they run out of money and therefore the Tudor Great Hall is still in place along with the whole of the west front of the original Tudor palace.

In Tudor times Great Halls had gone out of fashion and were mostly left in the old renaissance palaces. Hampton Court's Great Hall was one of the last Great Halls built. In this question I will be discovering whether Great Halls were in decline and if Hampton Court supports this. I will be using written sources and picture sources also my visit to Hampton court to help me answer this question. I will also be talking about how the Great Hall today can help me learn about great halls and there uses.

The Great Hall is a splendid chamber that is 106 feet long and 40 feet wide with a ceiling reaching 60 feet in height. The Great Hall has been repaired many times since the Tudor period having suffered from years of living. The Great Hall is truly magnificent with many features that some may have said were out of fashion but were used by Henry in is Great Hall. Hampton Court palace's Great Hall was the only palace built by Henry that consisted of a Great Hall. The Great Hall showed off Henry's wealth with its many luxurious furnishings and glorious tapestries, which are now the second most expensive things in the country under the crown jewels. This shows just how expensive this Great Hall would have been in the times of Henry VIII and his court. Everything in Henry's Great Hall had to be magnificent.

The finely carved minstrel's gallery above the Great Hall was designed for musicians to play for the crowds down below as they dinned. The musicians were there for entertaining as parties, banquets and balls were held. The stained-glass is modern and shows a picture of Henry with all six of his wives. The Great Hall has an amazing hammer beam roof which means the ordinary roof beams are cut through making the hall seem like it has a greater height and so makes the whole hall feel much larger and grander. The roof is richly decorated with mouldings and carvings. Palaces such as Westminster and Eltham also have a hammer beam roof and some small churches also have them on a much less grand scale. 'The ceiling was a magnificent hammer beam construction designed by the King's master-carpenter James Nedham.' (M. Sturgis in 1998). The roof was painted with different colours such as red and gold's and in the centre of this hammer beam roof they had to have a vent to take out the smoke from the fire which was in the middle of the room. Now the vent has been covered over but a mark remains on the floor where the fire used to be lit.

The set of ten individual tapestries on the wall tell the story of Abraham which was very suiting for Henry VIII because Abraham wanted children and God gave them to him and Henry too wanted a son for heir and so there would be a new king for the throne when he died. These tapestries were commissioned by Henry VIII and made to fit the Great Hall. The weaved tapestries were hung covering all the walls in the Great Hall. These tapestries are still in place and although faded are just how Henry had seen them. As you enter the great hall you come through screens made of wood panelling with the letters A and B carved upon them standing for Anne Boleyn, Henry's second wife. So why if Thurley's statement is correct would Henry spend all this money if Great Halls truly were in decline? I believe that he did this because he wanted to show off his power and wealth by building something that may not be necessary but looks magnificent and this is proven by looking round the rest of the palace at the luxuriously decorated rooms.

From source four you can learn that the Great Hall at Hampton court was used mainly for three things; estate occasions, court entertainments and daily use. 'Those rooms were designed to provide a setting for the public life of the King', the hall was especially used to impress others. When the court was staying at Hampton court courtiers and servants used the Great Hall for things like eating, talking, dancing and at night they slept there. This happened in the winter but during summer they did many things outside instead. This shows that the Great Hall was mainly used by the servants and courtiers for their own daily use at court. After working they would come and eat and sleep in the Great Hall. So one of the main uses of the Great Hall on a daily basis was for servants and courtiers to eat and sleep in. In source five and six it is showing that the Great Hall was built in order to fit the whole of Henry's large court. 'Once in royal possession Hampton Court had to be enlarged to accommodate the royal court', 'The hall is more than 30m long and 18m high.' It had taken so much money and effort from the builders that it was used for the court to eat in. There was originally a Great Hall built by Cardinal Wolsey and maybe Henry liked the idea of Wolsey's hall and wanted one for himself as he noticed its splendour. Henry wanted to show that he was rich and wealthy to foreign visitors and the rest of the members of his court and therefore this may have made him build a Great Hall to show off his affluence, this is showed in source seven 'Henry was keen to impose a sense of regal magnificence upon the palace'.

The Great Hall was mainly used by servants and lower members of the court but Henry did use the hall for entertaining as this room was the most magnificent room in the entire palace and therefore this room could be used to show others his wealth. Masques and balls were held in the Great Hall and there is a raised area at one end of the hall where the king could sit and watch the entertainments and celebrations away from the others.

During the Tudor period it was important for the King to show that he was of a higher status than everyone else. The king could do this by spending money on making himself look good and the places he lived fashionable and glorious. When Henry was in residence at Hampton Court it became the middle of government and kingly business but the king not only had to complete all this business he had to show others that he had wealth and splendour that reflects his power. A Great Hall would make sure others knew Henry's importance. The Great Hall is able to show that Henry is wealthy as it cost so much to build and was decorated so lavishly. A Great Hall would impose a sense of regal magnificence and demonstrates that the monarch has power and stature.

Before the Tudor times Great Halls were used all the time and were the centre of all courts and the life revolving around the monarch. In the middle ages a Great Hall was a room with multifunctions. It would have been a room to meet and talk with guests and it was the place that the household would use for eating in, this included the lord of the house. Many servants use to sleep on the floor of the Great Hall during the night too. Many Great Halls around the country are still in place today for example; Westminster Hall and Penshurst place in Kent which is a 14th century hall and has had only little altered inside. By Tudor times the Great Hall began to loose its purpose because royal no longer wanted or needed to sit and eat with their servants and the servants were separated from the king while eating. New rooms were made so that they could eat else where and so Great Halls had much less importance. Just like Turley explains in source one, there was a decline in the building of Great Halls 'the king had effectively abandoned the Great Hall by the early 16th Century', you can prove this by looking at the palaces built by Henry and how very few of them were built with a Great Hall.

Source one supports the idea that the use of a Great Hall had lessened by the Tudor times, and now its main use was for the 'lower members of the court' and they 'ate communally in the Great Hall'. Source two shows that even in the mid-14th century the Great Hall was in decline 'wretched is the hall' and that the rich should eat by themselves and not with their servants and members of court who were below them, 'rich a rule to eat by themselves.' Great Halls were not extremely comfortable and it was much warmer in their private rooms and therefore it was much more enjoyable for the king to eat alone in their rooms than in an open and airy Great Hall along with their servants and courtiers. Source seven states 'only common servants and the lesser officials now dined in the Hall on a daily basis' this shows that now the Great Hall was only used for the common servants.

Henry VIII owned many palaces all of which were used by him during his reign many times but not many of them had Great Halls and out of the few that did most of the Great Halls were not actually built in the Tudor times. Henry lived in old castles and palaces that he had made grander or extended and many of the palaces that he took over already had a Great Hall built. Eltham Palace (the place Henry grew up in) already had its great hall in place before Henry was even born. Its Great Hall was built by Edward IV in the 1470s. Eltham palace was one of the king's favourite palaces until Greenwich palace was extended because it was so large and was able to fit the whole court. Another palace owned by Henry with a Great Hall that was already in place before he took over ownership was Westminster with its very fine high ceilings and glorious wood roof. The palace of Westminster was the main residence for the kings of England up until 1512. The Great Hall of which the walls were built in 1097 is one of the largest medieval halls in Europe. One other palace that was owned by Henry that had a Great Hall was Winchester Palace. Its Great Hall was built around 1136. Winchester palace was a 12th century palace located south of the river Thames sadly this palace was destroyed by fire first in 1814 and then again in the 19th century and now just stands its remains.

Most of Henry's other palaces did not contain Great Halls they did not need them because Henry wanted to eat in his private rooms and therefore Henry decided not to pay so much money to have them built. Palaces such as; St James, Whitehall, Nonsuch, Bridewell and Greenwich all of which were palaces built mainly by Henry in the Tudor period. S. Thurly in source one points out that in any sort of description of court life 'none of which mention a Tudor king eating in a Great Hall.' This shows that in most written cases the king did not use the Great Halls anymore or if they did then not for the same reason as the old kings of England did. In the More in Hertfordshire Henry removed its Great Hall and replaced it with a new outer room and smaller rooms inside and therefore it no longer had its Great Hall. Henry did this to many palaces going round redesigning the houses and demolishing their old great halls. As stated in source nine and shown in the drawing of the More in source eleven. Nonsuch plan (source 12) shows that there was never a Great Hall built for the palace. I believe that Henry decided to re-build Wolsey's Great Hall at Hampton Court because it was a way for him to show off to visitors but he didn't build Great Halls in the other palaces because they were not going to be or meant to be as grand as Henry wanted Hampton Court palace. The other palaces may not have been used as much and consequently they did not need as much money spent on them as Hampton Court which was going to be used more often.

Although Great Halls were out of fashion and people no longer saw the point in great halls, Henry still rebuilt Wolsey's Great Hall. Henry ignored the decline of the old Great Halls and built one in Hampton Court. I believe he did this because he wanted to impress foreign ambassadors and members of court and one way to do this was to build a Great Hall that was extremely impressive. He tried to impress others and show his power and wealth off to others and this is one reason why Henry built the Great Hall at Hampton Court. Although Hampton Court was the only Great Hall he built, he did modernize old palaces Great Hall and therefore he must have wanted them for some reason. The Great Hall at Hampton Court is extremely impressive as it shows in source six, this proves that Henry must have spent a lot and enabled him to show others his wealth and status.

Many people would have believed Henry to be old fashioned because he was building a Great Hall but the Great Hall at Hampton Court was not at all unfashionable as it used modern materials and was built totally from scratch. Old Great Halls would not have been on the first floor like Henry's and visitors would not have entered it by going up a pair of very grand stone staircase like the one at Hampton Court. The Great Hall was used more as a very grand entrance hall for important guests rather than the old use as a dining hall.

I believe that Simon Thurley's interpretation is correct; however my visit to Hampton Court does not support this. Hampton Court has a very grand and luxurious Great Hall but considering all the evidence can show that Hampton Court is one of only few Great Halls from the early 16th Century. Many of the original uses of the Great Hall in the middle ages were not needed anymore and therefore the number of Great Halls built decreased. There was no longer much use for a Great Hall other than for a dining place for servants and a place to hold entertainment such as balls and masques. The sources used may not be reliable and therefore I can't make my judgement based on just these facts that may or may not be dependable. I must look and discover using palaces still standing to find out if great halls were in fact in decline. Looking at the number of palaces shows that they were in decline in the early 16th century as they slowly lost their use. Most of the palaces totally commissioned by Henry were the palaces that did not contain Great Halls; therefore this shows that Henry did not believe he had much of a use for them. Although this is true; he did rebuild many Great Halls and so he must have believed they were worth all the money and effort.

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Beatrice Meecham 11KH