ers of
Katherine of Arragon and Anne Boleyn, the Princesses Mary and
Elizabeth. Thus the Palace has associations with all of the six queens
of King Henry, the one of whom Hampton Court has least memory being
Anne of Cleves, the Queen who appears never to have had even the
briefest place in the roving affections of the King, and who enjoyed
little of the Court splendour beyond the magnificence of her reception
at Greenwich. Anne was at Hampton while awaiting the decree of divorce
which followed close upon the ceremony of her marriage; and it was the
neighbouring Palace of Richmond that became the home of this Queen,
who was promptly removed from the position of the King's wife to that
of his "sister".

Edward the Sixth during his short reign appears to have been but
little associated with the place of his birth, though he was here when
the Protector Somerset was nearing his fall, and hence were sent out
frantic appeals to the people to come armed to the defence of their
youthful sovereign. Here King Edward splendidly entertained Mary of
Guise, Queen-Dowager of Scotland, on her journey through England. The
most notable association of Hampton Court with the boy-king's reign
is, however, that it was then that the aggrieved people of the
surrounding afforested area dared to give voice to their feelings and
petition against that oppression before which they had had to bow
under Henry. The petition was successful, and the district was
dechased, the palings and deer being removed.

King Edward's dour sister-successor Queen Mary and her sombre spouse
Philip of Spain were scarcely the people to make the place bright on
their occasional visits, and when they were here shortly after their
marriage it was said "the hall door within the Court was continually
shut, so that no man might enter unless his errand were first known:
which seemed strange to Englishmen, that had not been used thereto".
The most gorgeous association of the depressing couple with Hampton
Court was the Christmas feast of 1554, when the Great Hall was
illuminated "with a thousand lamps curiously disposed".

When Elizabeth came to the throne the Palace became again the centre
of much Court splendour. It is a curious fact that although
magnificence and pomp are generally more associated with Roman
Catholic than with Protestant Courts, the Tudors were exceptions to
the rule. Under Queen Elizabeth, Hampton Court saw again something of
the brilliancy and pageantry