Free Henry VIII by Alison Weir

Easthampstead Park, a house favoured by Katherine of Aragon and often used by Henry VIII as a hunting lodge. 6 Hanworth in Middlesex was later greatly embellished and assigned in turn to Anne Boleyn and Katherine Parr. In Essex, on the border of Epping Forest, was a small hunting lodge at Wanstead, which Henry renovated before 1515; 7 and not far away was Havering, a dower house of the queens of England, now assigned to Queen Katherine. The King’s House at Lyndhurst, Hampshire, was not used by any of the Tudor monarchs, but designated the headquarters of the Warden of the New Forest. Lastly, Tickenhill Manor at Bewdley, Worcestershire, was where Prince Arthur and Katherine of Aragon had spent much of their short married life.
    Henry VIII’s inheritance also included fourteen mediaeval castles. Berkhamsted Castle in Buckinghamshire had not been used since the death of Henry’s great-grandmother, Cecily Neville, Duchess of York, in 1495, and was falling into ruin. 8 Rochester Castle in Kent dated from Norman times, but when the King stayed in the city en route for Dover, he preferred to stay at nearby Rochester Priory. Also in Kent was Leeds Castle, another dower house of the queens of England, and Dover Castle, fortified and refurbished by Edward IV, and boasting luxurious royal apartments decorated with painted royal leopards and fleursde-lys; Henry VIII stayed there several times. Higham Ferrers Castle, Northamptonshire, had been owned by the dukes of Lancaster, but Henry VIII pulled it down in 1533 and used its stones to embellish Kimbolton, whither Katherine of Aragon had been banished. Also in Northamptonshire was Fotheringhay Castle, a former stronghold of the House of York, but now decaying. At Hertford was a Norman castle which Henry VIII would renovate as a residence for his children, believing that the air there was healthy—something the King was very fussy about. 9 Warwick Castle, built in the thirteenth century, was—and still is—a massive fortress; 10 Henry never stayed there, but he had the fortifications strengthened. Four miles to the north was Kenilworth Castle, extensively rebuilt by John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, in the fourteenth century; Henry V had built a “pretty banqueting house of timber” in a moated garden; 11 Henry VIII demolished it, replacing it with a timber “pleasaunce” in the base court. 12 Nothing remains of this today. Ludgershall Castle in Wiltshire dated from the twelfth century, but the King maintained only a small hunting lodge there. The towering fortress of Ludlow in Shropshire served as the administrative centre for the government of Wales; Prince Arthur had died there in 1502. Likewise, fourteenth-century Sheriff Hutton Castle in Yorkshire was the administrative centre for the North of England. 13 Also in Yorkshire was Pontefract Castle, dating from the twelfth century, where Richard II had been murdered in 1400. 14 Much of Sudeley Castle, Gloucestershire, dated from the fifteenth century, when it had been embellished by Richard III. 15 Henry VIII showed little interest in most of these castles; they were old-fashioned, inconvenient, and largely redundant. He preferred his newer, unfortified residences with their emphasis on comfort and style.
    Henry also owned the remains of the old palace of the Plantagenets at Clarendon, Wiltshire, which was never used by any of the Tudors and was in ruins by the reign of Elizabeth. Another mediaeval palace was that of the Black Prince at Kennington, two miles south of London Bridge. Katherine of Aragon had stayed there briefly in 1501, but the palace was demolished in 1531, and its stones used to build Whitehall. Finally, there were the ruins of the Savoy Palace on the Strand, once a fabulous residence owned by John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, but burned down by the mob in the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381 and never rebuilt. Henry VII had left funds for the building of a hospital on the site, but