As we move forward (or should that be make progress?) with the Henry on Tour project we have been doing some travelling of our own. We have visited some key locations from the four primary progresses at the core of our research (1511, 1522, 1535 and 1541) and are beginning to get a sense of the unique stories they have to tell and how Henry used different sites for specific purposes. Some sites Henry owned (or acquired), while some are courtier’s houses. Others are religious houses or episcopal palaces. Each one projected a particular message and offered Henry the opportunity to do different things, from political manoeuvrings to private conversations, from pleasure trips, like hunting, to showing displeasure or favour by expecting hospitality. Recent trips have included Collyweston in Northamptonshire, Lyddington Bede House in Rutland and Beaulieu New Hall in Essex.
Collyweston
Collyweston is a 'lost' palace developed by Henry’s formidable grandmother, Margaret Beaufort. We are working with the Collyweston History and Preservation Society who have been working hard to try to locate the palace and determine its layout for many years – a wonderful example of amateur local interest generating fascinating insights and results. The tentatively-identified palace site is spread across several private gardens, a farmer’s field and some road layout, which presents a challenge in thinking through how this emerging story should be told. We are also supporting the Society in thinking through how the exhibition in the church, housed in a small chapel built in Margaret’s time, can be developed to incorporate the new findings and reach new audiences.
Lyddington Bede House
The exquisite and evocative Lyddington Bede House is now in the care of English Heritage, but was an active and occupied almshouse complex for over four centuries. What survives today as the Bede House is the fragment of the once large episcopal palace of the Bishops of Lincoln, but built on a domestic, human scale. This was a place of rest and privacy, not a place for show and status, so it is interesting to think how Henry might have enjoyed or used a visit to such a place hosted by his long-standing confessor, Bishop Longland (who miraculously retained his position across four decades of Henry’s turbulent and religiously volatile reign!).
Again, members of an very active and extremely erudite local history society, Lyddington Manor History Society, have been working on the village and its long history, as well as the fascinating houses and how they relate to the story of the episcopal palace. Questions around the impact of a progress on a community, what it meant for two hundred horses and around four thousand people to descend and require accommodation, feeding, entertainment are being considered? What role do such ‘private’ sites play in progress planning?
Beaulieu New Hall
Our most recent visit has been to Beaulieu New Hall in Essex. Now a private school, this splendid site on the outskirts of Chelmsford has a long and complex post-Tudor history including Oliver Cromwell, the Dukes of Albermarle, and the Canonesses of the Holy Sepulchre! In Henry’s time it was a palace in royal ownership, a place where he housed his daughter Mary after his divorce from Katherine of Aragon. Parts of the Tudor palace survive, along with some glorious artefacts and architectural fragments some of which were discovered by Time Team during excavations at the school, others of which have been discovered during routine maintenance.
What is striking about this site is how large the grounds and palace are, and how, unlike Collyweston, Lyddington or even Petworth or King’s Manor, it is not associated with a village or significant population settlement. One wonders how cut off from everything Mary might have felt when she was housed there, but also how private Henry could have been and to what extent he could orchestrate his interactions with the privy council away from the hothouse of London and Westminster.
Future plans
Our task now is to think through how we draw out these stories working with our local communities and project partners… keep an eye out for more updates in 2024!
