Hatfield House
Part One
A Brief history.
When I write
classic, historical, romantic fiction I am inspired by visits to places of
historical interest. Hatfield House within easy reach of my house, close to where
I live, always provides ample fuel for inspiration and imagination.
Starlington at en wikipedia.
When
Henry VIII appropriated the original house completed, at the end of the fifteen
century by the Bishop of Ely, he frequently used it to accommodate his
children. From the tower above the Banqueting Hall to the west of the current building,
Henry’s older daughter, Mary, waved to him after he had divorced her mother,
Catherine of Aragon, but he rode past without acknowledging her. After his
second wife, Anne Boleyn’s execution, his younger daughter lived there without the
necessary clothes to keep her decent. Later her relationship with her
father improved and she lived happily at Hatfield House with her brother, Edward.
After her father and her brother’s deaths, the roman catholic queen Elizabeth’s
half-sister Mary, kept her at the house in splendid isolation and tried to force
her to renounce the Church of England for the Roman Catholic faith.
In 1558, while Elizabeth sat under an oak tree in the park reading a book, she received news of Queen Mary’s death and said, It is the Lord’s doing and it is marvellous in our eyes. She summoned William Cecil, subsequently Lord Burghley. After Queen Elizabeth’s death, King James preferred Theobald, the residence of William’s son Robert, and exchanged it with him for Hatfield House. Robert enjoyed building and in 1608 pulled down three sides of the old house and built the magnificent new one which is still owned by the Cecil family.
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Interesting information on a splendid house.
ReplyDeleteNo wonder you make history come to life in your novels, with such inspirational settings a stone throw away. I love your novels, always so well researched, with strong heroines. Thanks for sharing.
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