On Saturday 31 July, 1535 Henry and Anne were met by the Mayor of Gloucester, John Falconer; aldermen; sheriffs, Thomas Payne and Richard Edwardes, and about 100 or so burgesses of the ‘town of Gloucester’. They stayed in Gloucestershire for six days, leaving Gloucester itself on Sunday 7 August.
In this guide, we travel to Norfolk, a county steeped in significant Tudor history. At its centre is the city of Norwich, once England’s second-largest and wealthiest city after London. Its eminence was built on its thriving cloth trade, and it was here that the Boleyns established themselves and began to amass their fortune. Let’s find out more!
On Monday 26 July 1535, the royal party left Sudeley Castle and made the seven-mile journey north-west to Tewkesbury. In keeping with protocol for all royal arrivals, the mayor and other dignitaries would have received the king, queen and their retinue just outside the town, with the two parties merging to travel in procession to the cathedral or abbey church.
On Wednesday 21 July 1535, Anne and Henry made the fourteen-mile journey from Langley to Winchcombe in Gloucestershire. There they lodged at Sudeley Castle with their immediate retinue, while the rest of the court stayed at nearby Winchcombe Abbey.
In this episode, I head to The National Portrait Gallery to the ‘Six Wives: The Stories of Henry VIII’s Queens’ exhibition. It includes over 140 works and is the first major exhibition to focus on the women who married the infamous Tudor king.
Just as with Beverston, the mention of Cotes as a location on the 1502 progress is fleeting.
Coates is a parish about three miles west of Cirencester in Gloucestershire. During the medieval and Tudor periods, Cirencester was a thriving wool town. Henry had visited Cirencester before, on at least one occasion. The choice of Cotes Place as a lodging for the royal party may have meant that the King could rekindle acquaintances with the wool merchants of the nearby town.
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The Mary Rose Museum is an incredible time capsule, a window onto everyday Tudor life as much as it is England’s Tudor naval history. For when the ship sank, its contents were covered in layers of silt, progressively encasing the wreck. This acted to keep around 40 % of the hull and thousands of artefacts in a fabulous state of preservation. Thus, we are left with a snapshot of the sixteenth century, giving us unique access to the ordinary and extraordinary objects of Tudor life in a way that you will not see elsewhere.
After the court had made the twelve-mile journey from Abingdon Abbey, they arrived at the Old Palace of Langley on 16 July , staying for five days. Today, perched on high ground to the south of the village of Shipton-Under-Wychwood, is the small hamlet of Langley, locally famous for being home to a site where it’s traditionally said once stood King John’s Palace. Although the Old Palace of Langley was extensively remodelled in 1858, the converted building includes Tudor walls and It’s still possible to see the initials H E, for Henry VII and Elizabeth of York, on a stone panel at the front of the farmhouse.
On 14 July 1535, Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn made the ten-mile journey from Ewelme to Abingdon en route to Langley. This was not the first time that the couple had relied on the hospitality of this great monastic house, as they had spent time there in late August 1532.
After staying at Reading Abbey, the second stop of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn’s 1535 progress was Ewelme Manor. While staying there Henry VIII asked for the property to be returned to the crown. Ewelme once more became a royal residence and was used by the king as a lesser house, a place where he retreated for greater privacy with a select group of friends while on hunting trips.
