May 15th 1536 Anne Boleyn was found guilty of her alleged crimes of Treason, adultery, incest and others. The Jury was stacked and even her uncle the Duke of Norfolk was presiding. I think the message was clear, get rid of her and quick. Henry couldn't face the prospect of a another divorced wife. Catherine of Aragon had only just died of a broken heart in January and she had continually maintained that she was his one true wife, for 10years! So he didn't want another one doing the same thing. One other curious aspect of the whole thing. She was entenced to be burnt to death or beheaded. The King in his mercy decided that the headsman from Calais should do the deed. Why was that? and when did he decide?

Day 7 Hampton Court Palace

Day 7 Hampton Court Palace.

Only a short journey to get here today so we had the Great hall to ourselves right after the door opened. It’s great to be in there with nobody else, you can really feel the centuries falling away as you look at the Kings tapestries hanging there, each one as costly as a battleship and a magnificent work of art. The story of the series of playlets today was the King chasing Jayne Seymour around the Palace to try and woo her with poetry money. It was the time that Anne Boleyn was in disgrace and the actor playing Thomas Cromwell was especially creepy and unctuous, he even threw two us out of the council chamber! To the great enjoyment of the people gathered there. You just never knew when you would round a corner and there would be Jayne desperately trying to distance herself from the Kings presence and seeking your aid in her endeavours. Great entertainment and a history lesson in one go.

There is much to see in and around Hampton court Palace, the Gardens, the Maze, the Great vine, the kitchens, Young Henry, the history of the palace, and others, not to mention the drop dead excellent pot bellied pies in the kitchen cafe. We kept moving all day with the Tudor parts that we did not have time to visit the new exhibition of the Wild the Beautiful and the damned portraits of King Charles II principle Mistresses, so I well make a special effort to see them next time we’re there in May. We headed off into Central London where we finished off the tour in grand style with a Tudor Banquet in the medieval crypt in St Katherine’s Dock. It’s a hugely enjoyable show and finally exhausted after trying to find Henry all week, we found him here singing Greensleeves to us as we supped our ale and wine.

day 6 Windsor

Day 6 Windsor The Queen was in! The Royal standard was flying above the round tower in the stiff breeze. The Changing of the guards took place in the courtyard which meant we couldn’t see much at all as the public are not admitted there especially when the Queen is at home! We stood at St George’s gate and watched them march out, wow the band was load in such a small confined space.

We were in St Georges chapel almost by ourselves as the crowds always go straight to the State Apartments after the change. We had very engaging chats with the custodians around the place. What has superman got to do with Henry VIII? Well Superman is 500 years old, yes that’s right the new superman film out later this year stars Henry Cavil as Superman. The actor Henry Cavil, as all Tudor fans will know played Charles Brandon alongside Jonathan Rhys Myers Henry VIII. I digress a little but Charles Brandon is buried under a marble slab in St Georges Chapel not too far away from his friend Henry VIII. The Royal apartments are elegant and again we managed to view everything within them without all the crowds so we took our time and finished our tour in the new undercroft cafe. The rain had kept the crowd s thin out and it’s a perfect time to go and visit as the royal apartments can take two hours to go round. There’s a lot to see in Windsor other than the castle, the Crooked House for example is a delightful tea room that has much more charm in its wonky timber interior than the usual coffee houses that you can find anywhere.

Dinner tonight was in a lovely family run Greek restaurant with a superb bottle of Cypriot wine.

day 5 Portsmouth

Day 5 Portsmouth Southsea castle was buffeted by high winds and waves this morning. The waves were crashing over the promenade so much that you had difficulty walking without getting wet. On the plus side the top of the keep was open and we got to stand in the footsteps of Henry VIII as he watched the Mary Rose sink in calm waters in the Solent. She would not have put to sea in weather like we had today, but we did see a small sailing boat trying to make way against the wind, seafaring folk are a bit hardy I think!

The Mary Rose Museum is being wound down in its present form and getting ready to transfer to the new purpose built ship hall and Museum just 400 meters away. Some sections were cordoned off so that some of the exhibits were being made ready for the move, not an easy thing to move a three ton 12 foot long cannon! I can’t wait to see the new museum open later this year. The Historic Dockyard has plenty to see in the way of maritime history, HMS Victory, Nelson’s flagship at the battle of Trafalgar. And has many original artefacts from 1805. HMS Warrior the Navy’s first Iron Clad steamship and the most powerful ship afloat launched in 1860. It was made obsolete within two years. This time not by the French but by the Americans. Dining at The Still & West pub right at the mouth of the Harbour was a unique experience. You can just sit there and look out the window as the huge cross channel ferries sail into port so close that you could just reach out and touch them. They are 7 stories high and they sail right past the Spinnaker Tower all lit up and welcoming to their home port.

Day 4 Lewes and Michelham Priory

Day 4 Lewes and Michelham Priory

Michelham Priory near Hailsham in East Sussex has the distinction of having the longest moat in England. It survived the dissolution because when Thomas Cromwell turned up he rather liked the place so he paid the King a peppercorn rent for it. Yes just a single peppercorn! When he lost his head it, was given to Anne of Cleves as part of the divorce settlement and she got the proper rental income from it. The place is charming and tranquil, except that is one of the most haunted places in England and they have many Halloween events there. There is a working floor mill and you can walk around the gardens and meadows at peace with the world. It was a Crystal clear day when we climbed to the top of Lewes castle Keep, you could see for miles. The Downs looked so impressive and the chalk cliffs were bright white in the sunshine. Rudyard Kipling wrote a poem about them and likened them to giant whales and they do too. Walking around Lewes you are never far from History, the Castle saw real action as a result of the Battle of Lewes in 1264. Right in the middle of town there is a memorial to the 10 Lewes martyrs burnt at the stake in one fire by Bloody Mary. They are remembered every November 5th at the annual Bonfire celebrations, each one has their name on a fiery cross that is paraded through the town. Tomas Paine’s house is in the High street and just down a narrow Twitten is Virginia Wolfe’s house. Lewes Priory was particularly singled out by Cromwell for destruction and its present ruins are but a quarter of what it once was. Anne of Cleves house is the only one of her houses remaining intact and open to the public that is not a place for something else such as a pub and it is now a museum, the list of historic sites goes on.

We had a wonderfully engaging talk by Hands on History where members of the group got to handle weapons of the period and got to try on the armour and helmets too!. Not only that artefacts from the period and items that were in everyday use such as leather, fox fur cow horn bowls and drinking vessels. The evening was finished off with a pint of Sussex ale at the White Hart hotel.

Day 3 Dover and Deal

Day 3 Dover & Deal castles

5 worlds in one are to be found at Dover Castle, Roman, Norman, Medieval, Napoleonic and World War II. You can spend many hours if not all day here, such as exploring the eerily quiet tunnels from the siege of 1216. The Norman keep dressed out as if Henry II was living here in 1190. The furniture and tapestries are faithfully recreated and as you wander about the Halls and galleries there are ghostly holograms to help guide you and tell the story. The World war II tunnels have a different exhibition telling the story of the build up to war and the dramatic rescue of 338,000 Allied troops from the French coast. Henry VIII passed through here on his way to the Field of the Cloth of Gold in France. There is a painting at Hampton Court Palace of the occasion with all the treasure ships just leaving England. Is this where Henry secretly married Anne Boleyn? Deal castle built in a hurry in 1540 by Henry VIII and has been maintained virtually intact ever since as a fortress to protect this part of the coastline. It is a clover leaf design so that wherever you are standing on the casements you have protective support fire from somewhere else. The castle is the middle one of three built at the same time to protect this vulnerable beach which is ideal to land an army. The range of the cannons overlap with each of the other two castles so they were well designed and sighted.

Anne of Cleves first set foot in England here after a long winter journey from the Rhineland. Anne still had a few days to travel yet before that fateful meeting with Henry VIII at Rochester . Somewhere in her entourage of 126 people was a violinist, such an instrument had never been seen in England before. So I think she should be credited with a lot more than just being the Kings Reject!

Day 2 Eltham Palace & the Tower of London

Eltham Palace and the Tower of London.

The boyhood home of Henry VIII is high on a hill with a commanding view of the city of London. The Great Hall of the old palace is the substantial structure still left from the great days of the Palace. The moat is still there running three quarters of the way round and there are huge carp lazily swimming around in the sunshine. It’s easy to imagine a young carefree Prince Henry running away from his sisters and tutors and trying to catch some fish. Henry grew up here in the company of his mother, grandmother and sisters until he was 10 then history came calling to Eltham. The Palace was substantially rebuilt in the 1930’s by Stephen and Virginia Caulthault in an Art Deco style that would not have been out of place in the first class lounge of the Titanic. There are inlaid marquetry panelled walls, specially commissioned furniture and carpets around the rooms. You can literally pass from one world to another just by stepping through a door. On to Central London and the Tower of London by river boat to see Traitors gate from water level as Anne Boleyn, Catherine Howard and Elizabeth I would have seen it. The Tower is a great place to visit and on a Sunday afternoon when the crowds are going home is the ideal time to see the Crown Jewels . The new exhibition is really good , much better than the previous one and it really heightens your anticipation of seeing the incredible and magnificent Jewels of the Nation.

We walked over Tower bridge and for the first time in my life I saw workmen abseiling(rappelling) off the iron work, sooner them than me. The day was finished off with fish and chips in the George Inn Southwark the oldest galleried Pub in London and one where Shakespeare played. Is this the setting for Romeo and Juliet?