Whitehall Palace

Short video on Whitehall Palace, Henry VIII's impressive palace. Upon Thomas Wolsey's downfall in 1529, Henry acquired York Place which was subsquently rebuilt as the Palace of Whitehall. The building work was a joint project between Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn who planned the palace to be their future marital home. Anne's coronation feasts and jousts were held at the palace in 1533 by which point serious building work had commenced on the site. By 1536 an act of parliament gave the palace the official status as the king's chief residence.

Overall Whitehall covered over twenty-three acres and on the western side of the palace it housed the largest recreation centre of any Tudor palace. The palace also included four tennis courts, two bowling-alleys, a cockpit, a pheasant-yard and a gallery for viewing tournaments. Throughout Henry's lifetime the palace was filled with treasures; after his death it took eighteenth months to catalogue all his goods.

Interesting Simon Thurley in his work on the Tudor palaces (he features in the video) noted that Anne Boleyn was almost certainly the only wife of Henry VIII with a particular interest in architecture, which she shared with her husband. Building plans for Whitehall were sent to Henry and Anne for approval and interestingly Henry allowed her a significant say in decorations. Unfortunately for Anne, she never lived to see the building work completed.


Whitehall Palace was also were Henry VIII died on 28th January 1547. His entrails were buried in the Chapel Royal there, and his body lay in state in the Privy Chamber. The same room housed the famous Whitehall Mural by Hans Holbein, which depicted life-size images of Henry VIII, Jane Seymour, Henry VII and Elizabeth of York. The original painting was destroyed in a fire in the seventeenth-century, but the cartoon for the mural survives and is on display at the National Portrait Gallery in London. A copy of the Whitehall Mural was commissioned by Charles II in 1667.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Palace
• of
• Whitehall
• London
• Henry
• VIII
• Anne
• Boleyn
• sixteenth
• century
• building
• work
• formally
• York
• Place
• Tudor
• dynasty
• palaces
• England
• architecture

[TheMrGobble]

I wish so much Anne had had a son. imagine the England they could of built together.

[TheGrandDuchess]

That wine celler alone was amazing. Almost 500 yrs old and still amazing.

[QueenCatherineParr]

Extremely interesting!

[LadieGreensleeves]

@TheMrGobble Come on, Elizabeth was an iron woman, she COULD build everything on her own! =)

[cbIndy]

In fact, there are quite a few bits of the old palace left behind the skin of the Whitehall departments, including Cockpit Passage. See my book Whitehall - the Street that Shaped a Nation (Simon and Schuster)

[alexxaf]

Fascinating, as usual!

[cleogurl79]

it's Tony Robinson! :)

[belamoure]

Thank you how wonderful to learn all that from the Tudor epoch.

[ladydeath40]

Again wonderful work....It is a pleasure to watch what you put on You Tube.