Wesminster Abbey

Westminster Abbey was first consecrated December 28 1065 about nine months before the Battle of Hastings. William the Conqueror was crowned here and it has used ever since for the coronation of the Sovereign.
It houses the last remains of 10 Royal Soveriegns, Elizabeth I, Mary Queen of Scots and Anne of Cleves to name but a few of the Britains most powerful and Pious.
It was stripped of its consecrated status by Henry VIII during the Dissolution but was converted by Elizabeth into a " Royal Peculiar" a church responsible to the Sovereign.
It is very much a modern church too, keeping up with the times. Above the main door there are statues of 20th Century martyrs that includes Martin Luther King jr.

To hear carols or evensong in the Abbey is a moving experience and to think that services have been held here for nearly a thousand years.

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I Like her Not !

It was on this day in 1539 that Henry VIII first set eyes on Anne of Cleves. It was at the Bishops Palace in Rochester Kent and Henry was impatient to see his intended bride. He was in disguise which fooled no one but they all played the part anyway. He came away from the meeting crestfallen and said "I like Her not." He then met her formally on New years day but I think by that time the image had been created of her as the Flanders Mare.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and there is no accounting for taste. All sorts of cliches could be made but in the Henry VIII special exhibition still on at Windsor castle there are some water and pin colour sketches of his wives painted by Holbien on display. These are magnificent in detail and Anne of Cleves does not look unattractive at all in comparison to the others. This could be the brush deceiving the eye or she could have been exactly as portrayed either way Henry just did not fancy her but went through with the marraige for the good of the country.

Anne of Cleves out lived all the other wives but after Henry died she was treated very poorly by Parliament depiving her of the money that was rightfully hers by the divorce settlement. She is entombed in Westminster Abbey.

Wolf Hall

Wolf Hall, not the new Booker Prize winning novel by Hillary Mantel about Thomas Cromwell. Wolf Hall in Wiltshire is the home of Jane Seymour third wife of Henry VIII and mother of Edward VI. Wolf Hall was recorded in the Domesday book of 1086 as Ulfela. Unfortunately there's not much left of the original building. The present building dates from the Victorian period. It's a large house set back from the narrow twisting road surrounded by large trees with a number of farm buildings all around.
The great barn that held the Wedding feast of Henry VIII and Jane survived until the 1920's and was destroyed by fire, there are photos of the Barn showing what it was like still available.
St Mary's church at Great Bedwyn a couple of miles away holds the tomb of Jane's father John. Above him is a stained glass window commemorating the wedding of Henry and Jane and dating from that time which came from the original house and was reset into the Church in 1901. John was also father to Thomas who married Catherine Parr after Henry died and was uncle and Protector of Edward VI.
Great Bedwyn is a Roman settlement but there is a chalk barrow indicating that the place has been inhabited for centuries before that. It was a city under the Saxons and appears in the Domesday book but was not assessed or tithed.

Jane was not high born but achieved the one thing that Henry wanted above all else, a son.





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