Thomas W. Hodgkinson

Hampton Court: an architectural symbol of royal lust

The history of the magnificent Thames-side palace, with its outrageous shenanigans spanning five centuries, is vividly brought to life by Gareth Russell

Henry VIII against a backdrop of Hampton Court, the palace he seized from Thomas Wolsey after the cardinal failed to facilitate the king’s marriage to Anne Boleyn. [Getty Images] 
issue 12 August 2023

The Dowager Countess of Deloraine, who was governess to the children of George II at Hampton Court and other royal homes, was a notorious bore – so much so that her ‘every word’ made one ‘sick’, according to the courtier Lord Hervey. When she naively asked him why everyone was avoiding her, he replied with exquisite irony that ‘envy kept the women at a distance, despair the men’.

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