17th Century Whitehall, Part I by Katherine Pym

Whitehall Palace

Whitehall Palace was a sprawling conglomerate of buildings that made no sense or order. Today, only the Banqueting House remains. 

Part I, A quick history:

In the 13^th century, Whitehall was called York Place. It was not a palace, but a mansion built by an archbishop between the cities of Westminster and London. It wasn’t too large then, but over the centuries, its owners added on to it which accommodated kings, queens, and their entourages when they visited York Place.

Sprawling schematics of Whitehall Palace

By the 16^th century, in the reign of King Henry VIII, Thomas Wolsey, Archbishop of York, lived in it. He had expanded it to such a degree that it rivaled most of the king’s palaces. Besides the fact Wolsey was Catholic, and Henry now rebuked Catholics, to have a minion with a larger house than his did not sit well. King Henry stripped Wolsey of all power, then moved into York Place and renamed it Whitehall.

King Henry made his own changes. He updated it until it encompassed 23 acres and was the largest palace in Europe. He erected merriment buildings that included a cockpit (turned into a theatre during the reign of King Charles II), tennis court, and a tiltyard. There was the King Street Gate and Holbein Gate that allowed the Court to traverse from Whitehall to St James’ Park without ever crossing a public road.

Each king or queen thereafter Henry VIII added to Whitehall until in 1660 when King Charles II took residence there, it had become a rambling jumble of chambers, passageways, and staircases connected by uneven floors that amounted to more than 1,500 rooms. It was also a montage of architectural designs. 

Banquet House, the only piece left of Whitehall Palace

During Queen Elizabeth I’s time, the first of the Banqueting Houses came into being. Elizabeth I had a large chamber built of timber and canvas to house entertainments. It occupied the site of the current Banqueting House, until James I commissioned Inigo Jones to build a solid structure, which replaced the aging, and dilapidated building. This new one was completed by the end of James’ reign. It was large with windows on all four sides, an interior balcony that hugged the walls, and an undercroft that took up the entire base of the building.

King Charles I commissioned Rubens to paint the Banqueting House ceiling. He was given £3,000 and a gold chain for the effort. Rubens painted the canvases and sent them to England for installation on the ceiling, which finished in 1635.

Rubens’ work effectively put the Banqueting House out of business. It was feared smoke from torches and candles would damage the splendor, so a new reception room was built. This was placed beside the Banqueting House where most of the ceremonial functions took place.

Charles I was executed on a platform outside the Banqueting House. After this, Whitehall Palace emptied out during the Civil Wars, but once Cromwell became the new sovereign, Whitehall filled up, again. After Cromwell’s death, what remained of the Rump Parliament tried to sell the palace.

Then, with the Restoration of King Charles II, Whitehall became alive again. As with his father and grandfather, Charles II wanted to make changes to the already sprawling palace. He hired Sir Christopher Wren to make it more like Versailles, but all that planning never came to fruition. He did, however, make new and sumptuous chambers for his favorite mistress, Barbara Villiers, 1^st Duchess of Cleveland.

After Charles II died, King James II made changes in the forms of bettering his wife’s apartments, and adding a new chapel. By the time William III & Mary II took up residence in Whitehall, its importance was on the decline. King William suffered from asthma. The palace sat on the banks of the Thames, drafty and damp. He preferred Kensington Palace. By Queen Mary’s death in 1694, Whitehall was rarely used. 

Drawing of Whitehall Palace

In 1698, the great rambling palace of Whitehall burned to the ground. The only structures that remained were the Banqueting House, the Holbein and Whitehall gates. Today, only the Banqueting House still stands.

Next time, Other Stuff about Whitehall.

~~~~~~~~~~~  

Sources:

Adrian Tinniswood. By Permission of Heaven, The true Story of the Great Fire of London. Riverhead Books, NY, 2003

John Evelyn. Fumifugium: Or, The Inconvenience of the AER, and SMOAKE of London Dissipated. Together With some Remedies humbly proposed by J.E. Esq; To His Sacred MAJESTIE, and To the Parliament now Assemble. Published by His Majesties Command. London 1661

http://www.hrp.org.uk/learninganddiscovery/Discoverthehistoricroyalpalaces/thebuildinghistories/BanquetingHouse/WhitehallPalace

Buy Here

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE

New releases from Books We Love

Click the book covers to purchase

A Matter of Time - Priscilla Brown

PURCHASE FROM AMAZON US

PURCHASE FROM AMAZON UK

What happened to 2016? Did the minutes/hours/days somehow speed up? While I consider my time management skills to be reasonable, I do have a few tasks intended for completion but undone. (Why is that cupboard still in its prehistoric mess?) I seem to have lost "time" somewhere. Perhaps I could reduce the amount of this precious commodity devoted to reading (no, this is needed for pleasure, and essential to nurture the  imagination and to escape real life); mornings spent in cafes (important for meeting friends and researching stories--see Hot Ticket below); viewing art and craft exhibitions (appreciated for the visual joy of artistic talents); travelling (new experiences, possible story locations, again see Hot Ticket).

Writers are often asked "How long did it take you to write that?" My answer has to be "I have no idea". I may be able to give the year in which I commenced the actual writing of any one story, but the characters and possibly some of the plot (my plots are not complete in advance, rather they evolve as the characters develop) may have been in my head and my notebook for some time. For me, the first written sentence may not be intended as the first sentence in the novel, and almost certainly won't be the opening sentence which will eventually appear in the published work. Months zip by as the writing progresses; since I have no definite story line until I'm into the narrative, when another idea for a situation pops into my head I usually need to backtrack to foreshadow this. More time! Believe me, I have tried to change my approach, but this "make it up as I go" does work for me eventually! Having reached THE END, the manuscript lies fallow for a while; when brought to light after an unspecified period, I then subject it to a major edit which often involves fundamental changes. And this is not forgetting the time I spend on research, a task which I enjoy.

Researching well-known novels and their authors, I discovered Robert Louis Stevenson wrote The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde in a six-day frenzy, followed by a few months revision. John Boyne's  The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas took him two and a half days, although further drafts needed several months. Anthony Burgess completed A Clockwork Orange in three weeks, while the epic that is Gone with the Wind occupied Margaret Mitchell for 10 years. J.R.R.Tolkien needed 16 years for The Lord of the Rings trilogy, understandable since he was inventing a whole new world.

PURHot Ticket at 90k words is one of my longest novels, which I'd been tinkering with for several years. I adored Olivia and Callum, "the lady and the cowboy"; they were having such fun that in a way I was reluctant to let them go. On holiday in Darwin, I found a location for the cafe where barista Callum introduces himself to Olivia by serving her a latte with a chocolate heart on top. Sadly, the charming barista at my research cafe did not put a heart on top of MY latte!

Olivia and Callum's contemporary romance is available for 99 cents on Kindle Countdown Deals for these dates: Amazon.com 5-12 January; Amazon.co.uk 6-13 January.

If you are celebrating New Year's Eve, have fun. And may 2017 be kind to you.

Priscilla xxx

https://priscillabrownauthor.com

 https://www.facebook.com/priscilla.brown.52056

http://bookswelove.net

A New Point of View -- Canadian Brides, Quebec

by Kathy Fisher-Brown

As a writer, I’m used to having ideas for my books come to me in a variety of ways. Sometimes a dream will set the trigger that sends my mind racing to sort out characters, plot, subplot(s), the whats, wheres, whys, and whens. Sometimes I’ll read something that sparks the imagination. Most of the time, I take months—even years—to let the idea germinate before I begin the preliminary work, the research, exploring appropriate character and place names and settings. Usually I don’t start the actual writing until my mind begins to bubble over, no longer able to contain the story. By this time, I can’t stop myself from hitting the keyboard, often writing away for countless hours at a clip, unaware of the passage of time. 

But never in all my years have I been presented with a concept and been forced to come up with a story based on a theme.

Sir John Johnson, American traitor,

Canadian founding father

All that changed when Jude Pittman, the publisher of Books We Love, asked me to participate in an exciting new project now known as “The Canadian Historical Brides” series.

For my story, I chose Quebec Province, a place I’d visited a few times in my youth on family vacations, and twice since while an undergraduate in college…well over 45 years ago. I had no idea what I’d gotten myself into. From that moment, I found myself scrambling. What did I know about Canadian history? (My answer, in retrospect, was “close to zilch.”)

My writing partner for the project, BWL Canadian author Ron Ady Crouch, and I tossed some ideas back and forth. We did some reading and preliminary research, settling on an idea only to toss it aside for any number of reasons before agreeing on another period in history. Neither of us had ever worked before with another writer, and Ron, who specializes in contemporary mystery and suspense, had never written a historical.

We soon found ourselves steeped in information-gathering. An overwhelming prospect for one who’d never taken on anything like this before. For me, it was eye-opening.

Loyalist Refugee settlement
on the Richelieu River

Yes, I LOVE research and expanding my knowledge of history almost as much as the writing itself. I like exploring old books, journals, maps, first- and secondhand accounts of events, and now the internet, which is a gold mine of reference materials. I like imagining how life was lived in times past and the places they lived it in, going to historical sites and reenactments and asking questions of the docents and participants. I live for the inspiration, the way my mind runs with images and facts, and how these in turn lead to plot twists and character development.

The period we chose is one I feel very close to, having set most of my books during the mid-eighteenth century and the American Revolution. I’ve felt an affinity toward this time period since childhood. From grade school on, I had ideas drummed into my head about the foundation of my country and the ideals and philosophies that were at its core. The Patriot cause was noble and idealistic, its heroes and heroines idealized, sometimes to the point of being mythologized.

Only this time it’s different. Our project is from the point of view of another side: the Loyalists, those “Americans” who chose to maintain their allegiance to the King of England. Especially those who were forced by circumstance (and often in the face of extreme bias and even violence) to leave everything—their lives, friends, families and homes—and migrate to Canada.

Our story is about a courageous young woman and her family, who make a perilous trek through the wilds of the colonial frontier, suffering loss and privation en route to the British stronghold on the outskirts of Montreal, and eventually being reunited with the man she loves. The story is both timeless and timely.

Map of Loyalist refugee camps

How does one put aside a lifetime of information, attitudes, and knowledge, and approach it from the other perspective?

One thing I learned as student of drama (I received an MFA in acting many eons ago) is that when playing the role of a “villain” you must never for a moment think of the character in those terms or you risk having your portrayal reduced to a stereotype at best; at worst, it’ll be a shallow and lifeless performance. And so began the effort to shake a lifetime’s worth of attitudes and “facts” and to immerse myself in the Loyalist mindset.

Fort Chambly, site of Loyalist refugee camp

In researching our story (as yet untitled), I am reminded of the old adage that history is written from the vantage point of the victors. And here in the U.S., that is what we read in our social studies (anyone remember social studies?) and history classes throughout our formative years. Finding a wealth of sources from another perspective has been a revelation. Also, when delving into the study of a certain historical period, it’s just as important to travel further back in time to gain a deeper understanding of the people and events that came to shape our story's “present.” I’ve learned a lot more about Canada’s rich past than I’d originally dreamed, but such is the lot of us history fanatics when we get caught up in an intriguing narrative.

And now, with a new understanding and appreciation of these exiles and the hardships they endured to leave one life behind and begin anew in a wild and unsettled wilderness known as Canada, Ron and I are raring to go. We have high hopes that this story will entertain as it educates.

Stay tuned for updates as we forge ahead. And do check out the new Canadian Historical Brides blog, where details of this story, and the other exciting books in the series, will be posted on a regular basis.

~*~

Kathy Fischer Brown is a BWL author of historical novels, Winter Fire, Lord Esterleigh's Daughter, Courting the Devil, The Partisan's Wife, and The Return of Tachlanad, her latest release, an epic fantasy adventure for young adult and adult readers. Check out her The Books We Love Author page or visit her website. All of Kathy’s books are available in e-book and in paperback from Amazon.