Six wives of one King day 4

Day 4 A late start today as we only had about 6 miles to travel from Stow to Sudeley. Imagine my heart as it sank when we arrived at the gate to see it padlocked shut and a small notice pinned on saying closed for a private event we regret any inconvenience caused. Ye gods and little fishes !! Closed! And both the telephone numbers on the sign board were recorded messages. We just have to come back tomorrow and yes we are inconvenienced. From there we travelled to Coughton Court (pronounced coat-en) the home of the Catholic Throckmorton family for over 600 years. Here we find Bess Throckmorton favourite lady in waiting to Elizabeth I until she married Sir Walter Raleigh in secret and was banished from Court. Now a curious tale about her is that when Sir Walter was beheaded, she carried his head about with her for the rest of her life, just about 25 years. By the way his head can be found in a velvet sack in the room of consequences. The real reason to visit Coughton is the Tudor artefacts, the chemise worn by Mary Queen of Scots at her execution and the Bishops mantle sewn by Catherine of Aragon. Both are together in a darkened room but it is the Bishops mantle that sets the heart racing, actually handled by a loved Queen of England. From Coughton we travelled to Kenilworth castle and where we are to spend the night. Kenilworth is such and important place in the history of England it’s hard to know where to start. In Tudor terms, Henry VIII came here but the royal progress of 1575 beats that hand down. Robert Dudley the Earl of Leicester spent millions on today’s money to get Elizabeth to marry him, all to no avail. Henry V was given a chest of Tennis balls by the French king in March of 1415 an insult that backfired spectacularly at the Battle of Agincourt in October of that year. I had some tennis balls form Hampton court palace that I gave to people so that we could say that we have played with tennis balls in the great hall of Kenilworth Castle We finished off the day with dinner in a pub called the famous Virgins and Castle, built in 1565. Some great beer and good food and a discussion of the day’s highs and lows.