Six wives on One King day 5

Day 5 Today we had to backtrack to Sudeley castle becuase it was closed yesterday. You can’t have a six wives tour without all the six wives and Katherine Parr is the last wife. The only Queen of England buried on private property and lies peacefully in the Church alongside the castle. The castle was blown up by Oliver Cromwell ( we really don’t like him)and lay derelict for over 200 years until Emma Dent bought it and restored it to something approaching its former glory. There is a new exhibition in the south hall, a part of the castle that was Katherine’s private apartments. There are some interesting portraits on display and the rooms themselves are very small but heavy with history. In the church, Katherine lies in the corner she died in childbirth here at Sudeley but I’m a bit sorry to report that there is a display of her “lying in state” in the Lady Chapel, it’s a bit out of keeping with a church setting. There are also some really good artefacts on display in the main museum such as Her Prayer book. From there we had a long journey to catch up with the tour at Buckden Towers. Though along the journey we were very surpised to have the only airworthy WWII Lancaster baomber fly directltly over us. Buckden the place where Catherine of Aragon was held before being moved to Kimbolton. Charles Brandon the Duke of Suffolk came here to move her but the local men who loved her dearly, stood menacingly in his way for 5 days. Charles went away and come back with more men and eventually brought her to Kimbolton. The friends of Buckden Towrs have recreated a garden of the typoe that Ctaherine woulkd have known here and it is a really lovely peaceful place. I think Henry had her sent to Buckden as it was at the edge of the fens and there was malaria around at the time, a case of assination by natural causes. Kimbolton has much changed since 1536 and the place that Catherine would have known. It has been a private school since 1956. Here it was that she spent the last 20 months of her life confined to just a small suite of 2 rooms with her personal maids. To stand in those rooms, which incidentally is the head masters office, and to hear the last letter she wrote to Henry VIII read out is a very moving moment. A reflective afternoon in all and one of the points on the tour that makes you think of the hard life that Catherine had once Henry had decided to divorce her.