Episode Transcript
[00:00:21] Speaker A: The Tudor History and Travel show is a podcast that brings Tudor history to life by exploring Tudor places and artefacts in the flesh.
You will be travelling through time with Sarah Morris, the Tudor Travel Guide, uncovering the stories behind some of the most amazing Tudor locations and objects in the uk.
Because when you visit a Tudor building, it is only time and not space which separates you from the past.
And now, over to your host, Sarah Morris.
[00:00:55] Speaker B: Hello my time traveling friends. Wherever you are on the four corners of planet Earth, you are most welcome to this episode of the Tudor History and Travel show.
And in fact this episode begins a three part series.
We are going to be focusing on the final the exile years of Catherine of Aragon.
And on our journey we're going to be visiting Buckden Palace, Kimbolton Castle, and then of course, the place in which Catherine was laid to rest, Peterborough Cathedral.
Today's episode focuses on the first of those locations, Buckden Palace. But before we go over and join our expert guide for the day, there are just a couple of short announcements and things I'd like to say.
The first of those, if you are not aware, particularly if you do not follow me on Instagram or Facebook, is that over on Simply Tudor Tours, we are running a fabulous, absolutely amazing giveaway which you will not want to miss if you love Tudor history and visiting Tudor places, as I know, of course you do. Yes, my friends, we are giving a free, free place away on our September 2026 Rise and Fall of Amberlynn tour.
You do need to pay for your flights to get to England and your travel to the pickup point in central London. You'll also need to pay for your travel insurance and any sundries along the way. But apart from that, the whole of the rest of the tour, including all your accommodation, your breakfast, dinners in the evenings, your entertainment, your entry to all the different places we'll be visiting, to me and Adam as your tour guides, and to our historian and resident Estelle Parrank, is all included in our giveaway prize.
Now, if you want to enter, all you need to do is to share your email address with us and you'll find a link which will take you to the appropriate sign up page in the description associated with this podcast.
Now, that giveaway is open until 31st December and Adam and I will be drawing a winner at random in the first couple of days of January and alerting the winner very, very soon afterwards. And of course I'll announce that in probably it will be, yes, it could be January's podcast, possibly February's, but it will be announced on our website and across social media before then.
So what you waiting for, my friends?
[00:03:38] Speaker C: Good luck.
[00:03:39] Speaker B: I hope to see you next year on our Rise and Fall of Anne Boleyn tour.
Well, I think that's all the housekeeping actually for this month, so let's move on to focus on today's podcast and in fact, as I said at the top of this recording, the next three podcasts and one of the things I really enjoyed doing last year was following in the footsteps of Richard III as he prepared for the Battle of Bosworth.
And I really wanted to repeat a similar sequence at some point during this year. And in fact, my interest and attention alighted on Catherine of Aragon, a very, very popular figure in Tudor history, of course, and I particularly wanted to follow in the final years of Catherine's life after she had been exiled from court in the early 1530s.
We know that Catherine was lodged in three main locations. Following that, Buckden palace in Cambridgeshire, then Kimbolton Castle, similarly in Cambridgeshire. And then following her death there, on the 7th of January 1536, we finally will travel to the place of Catherine's internment, which of course is the glorious Peterborough Cathedral.
In each episode you'll be meeting with me and an expert guide on location.
As ever, we will explore the history of the location, particularly how that played out during Catherine's time, what the buildings look like, some of the events that took place there, and of course, information on how you can visit for yourself.
[00:05:26] Speaker B: Today marks the first of those locations, Buckton Palace.
Then in early January, on the anniversary of Catherine's death, I'll be publishing the episode associated with her death. That's of course Kimbolton Castle. And then later on in the month, on the anniversary of her internment at Peterborough, I'll be posting that final episode that was recorded on location earlier this year.
So it's time as ever to buckle up. Let's get time travelling over to our very first location in Catherine's story where, oh my goodness, so much drama played out. It's a place that you can still visit today and that makes it very special indeed. And so my friends, as ever, let's go straight over and visit the glorious Buckton palace and our expert guide today, Frances Farmer.
[00:06:26] Speaker C: Welcome, dear listeners, to Buckton Towers in the Cambridgeshire in the 16th century, actually known as Buckden Palace. And I'm here as part of a three part series which focuses on the final few years of the life of of Catherine of Aragon after she had been cruelly exiled from court by Henry VIII in 1531.
The first place, of course, is here in Buckton. And then from there we'll be going in subsequent episodes to Kimbolton Castle. And then, of course, following Catherine's death, she was finally interred at Peterborough Cathedral. And that, my friends, is where we will end our story sequence. But as I said, we are here today to focus on the first of these venues, and that is Buckton Towers.
[00:07:19] Speaker C: So, as usual, dear friends, of course we will be joined by an expert on site at each of the locations we will be visiting. And I'm delighted to introduce our first guest today, Frances. Frances Farmer. Hello.
[00:07:31] Speaker D: Hello, Sarah. Lovely to meet you.
[00:07:34] Speaker C: Thank you for having us and being our guide here today.
[00:07:37] Speaker D: It's a pleasure.
[00:07:39] Speaker C: Now, do you want to just tell us a little bit about yourself, who you are and what do you do here?
[00:07:44] Speaker D: That would be lovely. Well, I'm a member of the Friends of Buckden Towers and that was started to help with the restoration and preservation of the entire site. And we fundraise mainly so we can carry out restoration projects. We often work in collaboration with the owners, the Claritian missionaries, and this year we're very much focusing on lots of repointing and sorting out of some of the walls.
I'm also a voluntary guide and there are nine of us, and we do tours for people and try to extend people's knowledge about the history and show our love of the place.
[00:08:27] Speaker C: Lovely. Excellent. So we're in very capable hands today. Thank you so much.
So we are. Let's get our sort of bearings. First of all, where is Buckton Towers? I mentioned Cambridgeshire, but for those people, and there are many people who are tuning in from all over the world who might not be so familiar with UK geography. Can you give us a sense of where we are and maybe what some of the nearby major towns or cities might be?
[00:08:52] Speaker D: Yes, well, Buckton, or Buggy Dean, as it was known in the 16th century, is about 60 miles north of London on the A1 or the Great North Road, and it's about 25 miles west of Cambridge.
[00:09:07] Speaker C: And I'm glad you mentioned the Great North Road, because that's actually very important in terms of the reason, I think, why this building was here in the first place. So perhaps you could just say a little bit more about the Great North Road and tell us about the origins of this palace.
[00:09:29] Speaker D: Well, we're having some discussions at the moment as to why the bishops of Lincoln chose this site and didn't choose a site nearer the Roman Road of Ermine street.
[00:09:42] Speaker D: And one of our members is Doing an investigation at the moment.
So, because Ermine street was the original road and the Great North Road was the secondary road. But anyway, the bishops of Lincoln chose Buckden, and in Doomsday, it records that they have a manor in Buckton here. So. And that's in 1086.
[00:10:04] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:10:05] Speaker C: Right, okay.
And, of course, I mean, I think we should say that people like the bishops have made bishops of Lincoln and so on and so forth in the medieval period had a really important role to play at court.
And they were forever commuting, to use a modern word, commuting between their bishopric and London. And there were often a series of palaces located along the way. You see that, for example, in Kent, with the Archbishop of Canterbury, with his many. His chain of palaces going out from Lambeth palace down towards Canterbury. So it's the same here with the Bishop of Lincoln.
[00:10:43] Speaker D: Yes. Bishops were extremely powerful.
They had the ear of the king.
And the bishopric of Lincoln was huge. It stretched at that time from Lincoln all the way to Dorchester on Thames. So they had to have places to stay on their journeys throughout their diocese.
[00:11:00] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:11:01] Speaker C: And they were like. And we should remind people also that they were like.
[00:11:04] Speaker B: They were.
[00:11:04] Speaker C: They were considered like princes of the Church.
[00:11:06] Speaker D: Absolutely.
[00:11:07] Speaker C: So they had that same wealth and status and therefore were able to afford to build beautiful buildings like this. Now, Today, the main A1, as we call it, you can kind of just hear. We can hear the buzz in the background, but I presume the Great North Road, as it was, literally went past the gatehouse, which is just over here to our left. So maybe I should try and describe, or maybe you would like to give our go at describing what we. We can see. See right adjacent to the road.
[00:11:41] Speaker D: Right. So we have the outer gate house here. This was built in the 1480s by Russell, Bishop Russell. And it's a fine example of Early English brickwork. Bricks are smaller then than they are now. And it's got some patterns where they used, I understand, burnt bricks, they used to make the patterns with.
[00:12:06] Speaker D: And that, as you say, went straight out onto the Great North Road, which runs straight by here. And then there's a walled enclosure, a wall enclosing the site on that side.
[00:12:17] Speaker C: Lovely crenellations along the wall there.
[00:12:19] Speaker D: So on the other side of the road was the Bishop's great park, where they went hunting.
They had a deer park there. Whereas the site we're on now is known as the little park, and was then.
[00:12:32] Speaker C: So. So we have the outer gate house, and that leads straight across here. There's a stone Built bridge. Was it always a stone built bridge, do we know, leading into the inner gate house?
[00:12:43] Speaker D: I think it would have been a brick built bridge at the time. And there were wooden gates on the entrance to the inner gate house. And the inner gate house shows Bishop Russell's coat of arms.
And one of the patterns on there is a bishop's mitre.
[00:13:02] Speaker C: And so Bishop Russell was the person responsible for building this palace?
[00:13:06] Speaker D: No, he didn't build all of it. Bishop Rotherham, prior to him, built the great tower in around 1480. And then following on from him, Russell built this inner gate house and the outer gate.
[00:13:20] Speaker C: So we're talking about 15th into 16th century building essentially here.
[00:13:24] Speaker D: Yes, definitely. And they. It's a moated. It was a moated site.
[00:13:31] Speaker D: But that was filled in the 18th and early 19th century.
[00:13:35] Speaker C: You can see little traces, can't you?
[00:13:37] Speaker D: Absolutely.
[00:13:38] Speaker C: Just the remnants of it on either side of the bridge there. Although now. And we may pop into the garden. There's a beautiful knot garden that you've created on what was part of the original moat, correct?
[00:13:49] Speaker D: Yes. So the Knott garden was created in the mid-1990s.
[00:13:55] Speaker C: Oh, lovely. It's beautiful.
[00:13:57] Speaker D: And a lot of people volunteered to have work and they also had prisoners from Little Hay who came to work here as well.
[00:14:05] Speaker C: So I must say I first came here, I think it was probably back in about 2013, probably. I was writing in the Footsteps of the Six Wives of Henry VIII. And I think if people do come and visit, they'll be delighted by finding this little hidden gem away from the usual tourist trail.
And looking at it here, it's everything you'd want to see, isn't it, from a sort of a medieval Tudor building. Perhaps again you could have a go at trying to describe a little bit more about this range in front of us.
[00:14:39] Speaker D: Yes, well, it is a very picturesque Tudor building indeed.
And there were apartments here and this gatehouse that we see here extended further to the west and there was a bakery and a dairy on site as well. And they had a brewery as well in this building.
The.
[00:15:06] Speaker D: On the west end of this building that's been rebuilt in the early 20th century because a lot of it tumbled down.
[00:15:15] Speaker C: So it's much shorter than it would have been and in fact, much shorter than the building Catherine would have seen as she came across this very drawbridge.
[00:15:22] Speaker D: Absolutely. It would have continued further round. She would have seen a bowling green here when she crossed onto our right.
[00:15:30] Speaker C: Hand side here on the grass, which is a green now. Oh, bowling, bowling. How lovely.
[00:15:34] Speaker D: Yes. Bishops Needed to be entertained.
[00:15:37] Speaker C: They did, didn't they? They enjoyed life as much as any secular person did.
[00:15:40] Speaker D: That's right. Bowling, hunting.
[00:15:42] Speaker C: Yeah, indeed. Okay, well, let's take a walk across. So we are now walking across the bridge that originally spanned the moat. And maybe I should just say a few words. I talked at the top about Catherine being exiled from court in 1531. And when she was exiled from court, she was originally sent to the moor in Hertfordshire, which had been one of Wolsey's properties, and then on to Ampthill.
And then sometime in the summer, certainly by the 16th of July of 1533, she had left Ant Hill and she came here to Buckton. And now we are standing directly under the inner gatehouse.
[00:16:24] Speaker B: And I want to.
[00:16:25] Speaker C: Wanted to pause here, Francis, because although we are talking about Catherine and her time here specifically, I do notice that on the wall you have a kind of an information pack which gives a little plan of the palace, but also the historical residents and visitors. And there are a number of very, very famous people who have been here and maybe I could just read them. We've got. You mentioned Thomas Rotherham, who was built the tower, John Russell, who you said extended it.
What about Richard iii? What was he? Do we know what he was doing 1484, the year before the Battle of Bosworth? Was he on progress?
[00:17:09] Speaker D: He was coming from Cambridge to Nottingham.
[00:17:13] Speaker B: Right.
[00:17:14] Speaker D: And so he might have just stayed here overnight.
[00:17:17] Speaker C: Yeah, an overnight stop.
And then we have Margaret Beaufort, who was here in 1501.
Quite an important year for the Tudors. That was the year, of course, that Prince Arthur married Catherine of Aragon. And Thomas Woolsey, was he also on his travails around the country?
[00:17:34] Speaker D: I should think he was, but I'm not certain of that, no.
[00:17:38] Speaker C: And then of course we come to Catherine of Aragon and she was here, as I've just said, from the mid summer of 1533-1534. I think it was about 10 months in total, wasn't it, that she was at the palace here?
[00:17:54] Speaker D: I think that's correct, yes. 10 or 11 months she was here.
[00:17:58] Speaker C: So let's go through, because I'd love to know more about what the palace looked like.
[00:19:19] Speaker C: We are coming out of the inner gate house into, I presume, what would have been the inner courtyard.
[00:19:27] Speaker D: This would have been the inner courtyard and Catherine would have entered through the gatehouse and she would have seen a great hall and she would have seen a great chamber which is no longer here, which would have adjoined the Great Tower.
[00:19:43] Speaker C: And what we've got Today, essentially, is to our right, the most dramatic building is, as you've just said, the great Tower, which is what, three stories high?
[00:19:55] Speaker D: Four stories.
[00:19:56] Speaker C: Four stories high. And then you also have a piece of crenulated wall that connects the tower with the gatehouse range, which, as you've pointed out, is built from beautiful Tudor brick with a lovely diapering pattern and all the kind of features you would hope to see in a medieval and Tudor brick building.
But we should just say that the.
The great chamber range that extended in front of us out away from the tower and the great hall have gone.
[00:20:27] Speaker D: They have.
And between the chamber and the hall, there was a chapel. The bishop's chapel was there. And that's where Catherine would have worshipped when she was here.
[00:20:38] Speaker C: Yeah. Fantastic. So, and also, I also should say over to our left here, there's a much later Victorian building. Is it?
[00:20:45] Speaker D: Yes, built in 1870 by James Marshall as a wedding present for his son Arthur and his wife Constance.
[00:20:52] Speaker C: Well, we'll come to the later history because it'd be nice to know what happened to the palace and why it is as it is today and how it functions. Because today you can clearly see the Victorian building and directly in front of us, where that great chamber block would have been today is a chapel.
[00:21:09] Speaker D: That's right, the Church of St Hugh of Lincoln, and that was built between 1956 and 59 by the current owners, the Claritian missionaries.
[00:21:19] Speaker C: So we've got all sorts of different age changes, haven't we, here on site? It's a real smorgasbord of different eras and different epochs.
[00:21:30] Speaker D: Absolutely. And you've got this addition to the right of the gate of the gatehouse, that was rebuilt from 1919 onwards by the owner, Dr. Edelston, at the time, because the previous one had tumbled, been pulled down. I'm not clear.
[00:21:47] Speaker C: Tell me why Napoleon is written over the door.
[00:21:49] Speaker D: That's right. So it says Napoleon III, because Dr. Edelston was a fan of Napoleon III, who was living in exile, I think, in Kent, and he hoped to create a small museum to Napoleon iii, but that didn't come to fruition. But we have no affiliation to Napoleon III at all.
[00:22:06] Speaker C: It's a very strange thing. I was like, what is?
[00:22:10] Speaker D: Talking points.
[00:22:10] Speaker C: Ah, brilliant.
So I want to come on to the events of. I think it's December 1533. And I think one of the reasons that I love Buckden so much is that there are surviving letters from both Chapuis, who of, we know, was the Spanish ambassador, who had his Nose into everything and knew all the gossip.
And there are also letters in the hand of Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, who was entrusted by his boon companion and king and master, Henry viii to come to Buckton to basically move Catherine. Can you tell us a little bit about what the aim of that visit was? A little bit more?
[00:22:57] Speaker D: Well, Charles Brandon was charged with moving Catherine to the castle at Somersham, which was deep in the fens.
And it's been suggested perhaps they thought Catherine might die a bit earlier if she went into the fens. Perhaps malaria, sleeping sickness would take over. But of course that's not the way it went.
[00:23:17] Speaker C: No. So Somersham is how many miles away from.
[00:23:21] Speaker D: About 15 miles.
[00:23:22] Speaker C: And the fens area can. Maybe. So again, people may not know what the Fens are.
[00:23:26] Speaker D: Well, it's a low lying at sea level and below part of eastern England and the fens weren't drained until the 17th century. So it was pretty marshy, might have been quite unpleasant.
[00:23:38] Speaker C: Yeah. Also you say lots of insects and very damp conditions.
And I think looking back at the. Because dear friends, dear listeners, all of these letters you can actually find online on the letters and pen papers of Henry viii if you have a good search around. And I think if you look back at this time, even as early as when Catherine was at Amped Hill, people had started noticing this persistent cough that she had.
So she was clearly falling ill in some way. And maybe she realized, I think by that time she was about, around 48. She was in her late 40s by this time time. So not a young woman by any stretch of the imagination. I think maybe she realized that her health was maybe not as robust.
[00:24:27] Speaker D: I think she would have done. She was a very intelligent woman. She would have known. And her living conditions were being reduced all the time and may well have been quite damp and unpleasant.
[00:24:38] Speaker C: Yeah. And so she.
We should remember also what's going on in the summer of 1530. Of course, this is a pivotal moment. Henry finally marries Amberlynn, marries Anne Boleyn. And that actually happens when Catherine is at Ant Hill. So she would have known that was going on. And of course, legally her title was stripped back from Queen to Princess Dowager.
[00:25:04] Speaker D: Which she never took on board. No.
[00:25:08] Speaker C: And I think, I think I'm right in saying that was of part. Part of Charles's mission when he was sent here was not only to move.
[00:25:16] Speaker D: Her to Somersham, but to make her accept her title.
[00:25:20] Speaker C: Well, okay, so here we go. So I'm going to.
I have a few excerpts from the letters that I'VE brought along with me because I thought it would be nice to read out visitors, our listeners. Sorry, I should say, I wish they were visitors.
[00:25:36] Speaker D: I wish.
[00:25:37] Speaker C: I wish you were all here with me. But anyway, here we go. We'll see what we've done. And this is part of a letter described by Chapuis. It's a letter dated 23rd December 1533.
And he states exactly that, that the Duke has been, and I quote, commissioned to bring the Queen by force to a house surrounded with deep water and marshes, which is the most unhealthy and pestilent house in England.
[00:26:07] Speaker B: Chap.
[00:26:07] Speaker C: We've clearly had some very clear ideas about this.
[00:26:11] Speaker D: Sounds very unpleasant indeed.
[00:26:13] Speaker C: Indeed. And so we have Charles Brandon. We can imagine him galloping across the bridge here and into the courtyard. Catherine very well aware of her visitors.
And I think what also happens next is a series of encounters.
Can you perhaps tell us a little bit about maybe the first of those that happens, I think, in the great chamber here?
[00:26:39] Speaker D: Well, Catherine was never going to accept the title Dowager Princess. She always affirmed up until her death that she was Catherine, Queen of England.
So she would not have wanted to engage at all with Charles Brandon. And we believe she locked herself in her rooms and refused to go anywhere.
[00:27:01] Speaker C: She absolutely did. And we're going to be able to go and actually stand, we think, and we can have a little bit of a debate about that, if you like, about whether this was the very chamber or not.
And I, again, I've got some quotes here that perhaps are worthy of reading out, if I may.
I think there were. They were here for a few days.
[00:27:27] Speaker D: I would imagine they would have been, but they were not a large party.
[00:27:31] Speaker C: No, indeed. And again, we have Chapuis telling us who was here.
He talks about the said commissioners who were, of course, Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk. We've also got Sussex, Sir William Paulette, I assume, and Sampson. I'm not sure who Sampson is. I'd have to come go back and look that up. But they were here six days, so this is all.
[00:27:52] Speaker D: It's a long time.
[00:27:53] Speaker C: It's quite a while. And over the Christmas period. So poor Catherine, she's getting bullied and harassed at one of the holiest times of the year.
[00:28:03] Speaker D: Suffolk was under a lot of pressure to make his mission successful and to move her and. And weigh her down, but she would not be moved.
[00:28:13] Speaker C: We're just walking here towards what, the chapel. But originally there was a range of buildings in front of us, extending out from the Great Tower.
[00:28:25] Speaker D: Correct. Next to Them two stories, I think, and with a chapel next to them and then a great hall on our left.
[00:28:32] Speaker C: Right. And today we have the chapel, the. The modern chapel, the 20th century chapel, right in front of us. But we don't. There is one record, there is one record of one of the first encounters between Charles and Catherine taking place in her great chamber.
So this would be. The great chamber, would be like a presence chamber where audiences were held.
[00:29:02] Speaker D: Right. So I wonder if that's the room which we now call the King's room in the Great Tower, because we know that the bishop met people, the bishops met people there.
[00:29:14] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:29:14] Speaker C: I mean, it's interesting, isn't it? Because that could well be the place. I mean, that's one of the riddles with this building. We don't exactly know which rooms that are referred to in the letters and papers are the ones, whether they're still here, whether they're ones that have been lost. But as you point out, the great tower, which is a fantastic structure on the first floor.
[00:29:35] Speaker D: Yes, on the first floor. The kitchen. Kitchens are in the basement.
[00:29:39] Speaker C: So why don't we go in there and I perhaps read another bit of a letter which talks about the first encounter between Charles and Catherine.
[00:31:34] Speaker C: So we've actually come into the tower, the great tower. We're on the first floor here. So where are we exactly? Can you describe what this room was all about in the 16th century?
[00:31:49] Speaker D: Well, this is where the bishops would have met their important visitors, and it still retains its 15th century fireplace.
And we think that this was a. This room was attached by a short spiral staircase to the great chamber.
[00:32:09] Speaker B: Right.
[00:32:09] Speaker D: And then the bishop would have had his rooms up above this on the second and third floor.
[00:32:15] Speaker C: Okay. Which we'll visit in a moment, won't we?
[00:32:17] Speaker D: Yes, we can.
[00:32:18] Speaker C: Lovely. Okay. So as I said, it's a little bit difficult to pull the story apart and to know, because obviously names of rooms change.
It's possible maybe that what I'm about to read took place here in this room, although it does specifically in Charles Brandon's letter, talk about the great chamber. So it could be a room, a space which has unfortunately been lost to time.
But I'm going to read, if I may, a letter written by Charles Brandon on the 19th of December.
He'd already had an audience with Catherine. In fact, he wanted to have a private audience with Catherine, but she was having absolutely none of it. She said to him, whatever you've got to say, you. You going to say it in front of my household? I guess so there were Witnesses, Absolutely.
And he wrote to the King, I think quite diplomatically about what had happened. But then he wrote more bluntly to the Duke of Norfolk and to Cromwell about what exactly had happened in the great chamber at Buckden.
And he said, she protested with open voice that she was your Queen and would rather be hewn in pieces. Pieces. Than depart from this assertion.
She refuses the name of Princess Dowager and resists her removal to Summersham because of her health and for all the persuasions that could be made by us or Lord Mountjoy or Dymock, her almoner, who urge her to remove, however she might order herself in her cause. She refuses to take any person into her soul sworn to her as Princess Dowager.
So there were quite a lot of her servants dismissed at this point. I understand.
[00:34:13] Speaker D: I understand that when she left, she only had three servants to take with her, so. Personal servants.
[00:34:20] Speaker C: Yeah. And I think the rest had just literally, as Charles Brandon said, they had refused to bend to the King's will of causing a Princess Dowager, and on pain of perjury, they had declined to take the oath.
And so they were. I think there's actually a quote by. That's right, a quote by Chapuys. They were driven away with great harshness.
[00:34:48] Speaker D: I'm sure they were, because we know later on that wages weren't always paid to her other servants that were owing to them.
[00:34:56] Speaker C: And so, as you said, Frances, she was only left with, I think, three people. And we know who they were. Again, good old Chapuy is right in there with the gossip, right up to date with what's going on. So he's writing on 27 December, saying they debated on taking away her confessor, a Spanish bishop, but on the Queen saying that she never confessed nor knew how to do it except in Spanish, they left him and said nothing to her physician and apothecary, who are Spaniards. They took away almost all of her femme de chambre, her ladies of the bedchamber. But as the Queen affirmed, she would not have any others and would sleep in her clothes and lock the gate herself.
They returned two of them, but not those that the Queen wished.
All her present servants, except the confessor, the physician and the apothecary. So the three you mentioned there, who cannot speak English, have been sworn not to address her as Queen. I'm not quite sure how they did that if they didn't speak English, but let's not get too bogged down in the detail.
And for this, she has protested before the commissioners that she will not regard them as her son servants, but only her guards, as she is a prisoner.
It's all very dramatic, isn't it, but that's Catherine.
[00:36:24] Speaker D: But she was always firm. She was always firm and said what she needed to say.
[00:36:29] Speaker C: Yes, firm. Some might say stubborn, but yes, she was very firm. She was very clear and very principled and decisive. Yeah, yeah, indeed so.
[00:36:42] Speaker C: So obviously this first encounter with Charles Brandon failed miserably. She didn't budge an inch.
But they had their orders.
[00:36:51] Speaker C: To take her to Somersham.
[00:36:54] Speaker D: Yes, but no amount of persuasion by Charles Brandon was going to move Catherine.
She'd shown us in the past that she was resolute in her belief and her thinking.
[00:37:05] Speaker C: And so we then come to perhaps. I mean, in a way it's slightly comical, but I'm sure it wasn't for Catherine at the time. This is kind of the final showdown between Catherine and Suffolk, who is trying to get her to move to Somersham. And we have this letter that tells us of her. I think you mentioned it earlier, Frances, about her locking herself in her bedroom.
[00:37:30] Speaker D: Well, we understood that she locked herself in her private chambers and we have to remember that it was a difficult job for Suffolk. Although loyal to Henry, he was also sympathetic to Catherine.
[00:37:46] Speaker C: He was.
[00:37:46] Speaker D: He was.
[00:37:48] Speaker C: So I think it was very difficult for him. And we'll go upstairs in a second, if we may, and sort of go to where we think those chambers might be. But before we go, you were telling me off mic about a really interesting story. We're looking back in the room. There's a lovely. There's some beautiful, beautiful beams up there, aren't there, on the ceiling?
[00:38:05] Speaker D: Correct. So we know from a drawing from mid 19th century there was a medieval boss where the beams meet.
There were two, in fact, but they are lost. And I believe they were found in a wood pile in the adjacent parish church of St. Mary's in the 1980s.
And unfortunately, one was stolen, but the other one is kept in the treasury in St. Mary's is it in quite good condition? It is, yes.
[00:38:37] Speaker C: Oh, how wonderful. That's lovely.
[00:38:39] Speaker D: I have a photograph I could perhaps send.
[00:38:41] Speaker C: That would be lovely. And it's a good time for me to remind folk, as ever, that there will be a show notes page associated with this podcast. I already have a blog on Buckton Palace. I wrote that a few years ago, dear listeners, and actually a lot of the letters and things that I'm quoting here you will find on that blog post. But we'll also update the blog post to include some pictures of today and yes, it would be lovely to have.
[00:39:08] Speaker D: That photo of the boss.
[00:39:09] Speaker C: Yeah, that would be great.
[00:39:12] Speaker C: So one of the things we know is that this final encounter that I talk about took place in her chambers. So may we go upstairs and perhaps.
[00:39:24] Speaker D: Let's see.
[00:39:24] Speaker C: See if we can investigate. So we're going up a. We're leaving the great chamber. We're going up a beautiful. It's in the side turret. It's a spiral staircase.
[00:39:37] Speaker D: And we should pause here so we can see.
[00:39:40] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:39:40] Speaker D: This bricked up door.
[00:39:42] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:39:42] Speaker D: Which we think led to, to the chambers.
[00:39:46] Speaker C: The great chamber. Yes.
[00:39:48] Speaker D: But as you've been speaking, I wonder if this room behind us was called the great chamber, then. It could have been.
[00:39:54] Speaker B: It could have been.
[00:39:55] Speaker C: And this is what can be confusing because obviously names of, you know, names of rooms change over time. But there definitely is a bricked up doorway and there was a range there and you've shown me. In fact, we'll try and include this in the show notes page.
[00:40:10] Speaker C: We've got a couple of old etchings that we have that show Buckton palace before that particular range was demolished. And who knows, there could have been a large chamber in there that was considered the great chamber.
[00:40:24] Speaker D: And so I, I always like to think that perhaps Catherine ran to here and that's when she locked herself in.
[00:40:30] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:40:31] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:40:31] Speaker B: Difficult.
[00:40:32] Speaker C: Difficult to know.
[00:40:32] Speaker D: It might not have been that way, it might have been the other way.
[00:40:35] Speaker C: Or she may have just come up these stairs to the privy chamber above which is. Would have been her bedchamber.
[00:40:41] Speaker D: The bishop's rooms were upstairs.
[00:40:43] Speaker C: That's right.
[00:40:43] Speaker D: And as you said, they would have been given to Catherine.
[00:40:47] Speaker C: Yes. So we should note that whenever royalty visited any, any home really, the most luxurious high status suite was always given to the. The king or the queen or the most high status visitor.
[00:41:04] Speaker D: So we've got this wonderful original banister here which Catherine might have.
[00:41:08] Speaker C: Isn't it gorgeous?
[00:41:10] Speaker D: Have touched.
[00:41:11] Speaker C: This is a stone. It's. It's stone. It's literally almost like carved, set into the wall. And clearly many hands have run along now. It's very tactile, isn't it?
[00:41:23] Speaker D: Absolutely.
[00:41:24] Speaker C: And I think she did, I think she ran her hand up these, these railings.
[00:41:29] Speaker D: So otherwise she may have come to this room, this chamber.
Unlock this great door.
[00:41:36] Speaker C: Right, let's go in now.
So we are. Now we've come up to the. Is this the top floor?
[00:41:41] Speaker D: No.
[00:41:42] Speaker C: Oh no, there's one more above us. But this was the original bishop's private rooms.
[00:41:47] Speaker D: Private rooms or up here and on the Floor above.
[00:41:51] Speaker C: And today, of course, it's much modernized. Those. All those medieval and Tudor interiors have gone. It clearly was a dormitory at some point, some stage, because there's lots.
[00:41:59] Speaker D: It is a dormitory now.
[00:42:00] Speaker C: It's a dormitory now. And we'll come on to why it's a dormitory towards the end. But we've come up here because I really wanted to come into this room to read and to talk about this final episode. So we have another.
[00:42:18] Speaker C: Snippet of a letter here, and it's a ferocious counter between the Duke of Sudden, Suffolk, because it comes to the final day and Catherine's still intransigent and, as you said, refusing to move, she flees into her chambers and bolts herself in. And the letter says this.
The said commissioners, Suffolk, Sussex, Paulet and Sampson, stop six days as well to close the house as to see if the Queen, through the loss of her servants and their rough menaces, would change her purpose. This must be Chapuy talking, I think. But seeing that she was constant, they proceeded at length to load the baggage and get a litter and horses in order to mount the Queen thereon.
In the meantime, she had locked herself in her chamber since the morning, and when the commissioners came to take her away, she told them through a hole in the wall that they must break down the doors and if they wished to remove her.
It's so wonderfully Catherine, isn't it?
[00:43:24] Speaker D: It is. It is. I'm not going. I've already told you this. I'm staying here. I don't want to go to Somersham in the fens, and I am not.
[00:43:32] Speaker C: Going to Somersham in the fens. And in fact, at this point, Catherine did get her own way. I think she did.
[00:43:41] Speaker D: She remained. But also a group of villagers had assembled outside the gatehouse, we're told, with their pitchforks. And Suffolk had come only, as we say, with a small party, and he thought better of removing her. She was the villagers and the country's beloved queen.
[00:44:02] Speaker C: Yeah, absolutely. I think the thought for Charles Brandon of almost literally manhandling the Queen, or the Princess Dowager, as she was then known, but for him, probably in his heart of hearts, still the Queen, because.
[00:44:16] Speaker D: It was one step too far.
[00:44:18] Speaker C: It was just one step too far. So he held up his hands and said, okay, okay. And he left without achieving his aim. And it was interesting you talk about the villagers, because I think the villagers really took to Catherine, didn't they?
[00:44:35] Speaker D: They did. Well, she was known for her generosity to the poor, and we believe she gave out bread and ale from the almondry, which is adjacent to the inner gate house. So she would give out bread and ale from the wooden window each day.
So she was popular and she had. There was always a place in her heart for the poor in improving their lives.
[00:44:58] Speaker C: And again, we're lucky in that we've got some sort of written accounts of that.
Now, these come from later chroniclers. Nicholas Harpsfield, who of course was a very much speaking on behalf of the Catholic faction, so very much a supporter of Catherine, nevertheless describes her time here, saying, she spent her solitary life much in prayer, great alms and abstinence. And when she was not this way occupied, then was she and her gentlewomen working with their own hands, something wrought in needlework which she intended to the honour of God to bestow upon some of the churches. So it's really nice, I think, that we get a little insight into how she spent her time here.
[00:45:47] Speaker D: That's right. Well, she did lace making, we understand, with her ladies, and she taught ladies in Anthill to make lace as well.
[00:45:55] Speaker C: Right, okay. Lovely.
[00:45:57] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:45:57] Speaker C: And actually another bit talks back to your.
What you were talking about, the connection to the locals.
He goes on to say that she regained some of her cheerfulness and peace of mind at Bugden.
How did you pronounce it?
[00:46:13] Speaker D: I said buggy, Dean.
[00:46:15] Speaker C: But it is Bugden, where the country people began to love her exceedingly. They visited her frequently out of pure respect, and she received the daily tokens of regard they showered her with most sweetly and graciously.
[00:46:31] Speaker C: So how long was she here before she moved on to her next location?
[00:46:37] Speaker D: Only about 10 to 11 months, because the Duke of Suffolk returned the following May, but he came early in the morning and he moved her to Kimbolton.
[00:46:48] Speaker C: Oh, really?
I haven't seen any records of that. Have you ever read any encounter, did that happen quite.
[00:46:57] Speaker C: Without drama.
[00:46:58] Speaker D: Well, as I understand it from the reading I've done.
[00:47:02] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:47:03] Speaker D: And that's why he came early, take her off guard. Yes. And also, people wouldn't have been up and about and. Yeah, he came prepared with the litter, presumably.
[00:47:13] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:47:14] Speaker C: Interesting, though, that they moved the location to Kimbolton. Maybe. Maybe that was.
And I think actually we're gonna. Obviously we're gonna be going to Kimbolton, and I think it was thought of not as bad as Somershire.
[00:47:25] Speaker D: Not at all. And I think there's a link with the Wingfields part of his family who owned Kimbolton, I think.
[00:47:32] Speaker C: Yes. Right, okay. So perhaps she was a little bit less reluctant to go there.
I won't Talk about kimbolton, because I say that's going to be where we're going to go next. So we'll dive into Catherine's again. Very dramatic time at Kim Bolton. There was always a degree of drama following Catherine around, of course.
[00:47:53] Speaker C: She certainly gives us a good story, that's for sure.
[00:47:57] Speaker C: So one of the things I'm aware of, we've just been talking about her kind of religious life and we know that, you know, you were saying there's the chapel downstairs. There's a window in there, isn't there? Is it possible to look at that? Or maybe.
[00:48:09] Speaker D: Oh, yes, we can go in there.
[00:48:11] Speaker C: It's a later window, but it commemorates her time.
[00:48:14] Speaker D: It's dedicated to Catherine's time here.
[00:48:17] Speaker C: So let's go and have a quick look at that. Yeah, that'd be lovely.
[00:50:21] Speaker C: Right, so.
[00:50:23] Speaker D: Okay.
[00:50:24] Speaker C: Right, we're going through the. The modern church.
[00:50:30] Speaker C: Into the back.
This is.
[00:50:34] Speaker C: Okay. Ah, right.
[00:50:36] Speaker D: So we've.
[00:50:37] Speaker C: It's a little like chapel, isn't it, at the back of the main church. Oh, I see, yes.
[00:50:42] Speaker D: So we think this is where the chapel would have been that Catherine worshipped in. I see.
[00:50:48] Speaker C: On this same footprint.
[00:50:50] Speaker D: Absolutely, we think so, because the great hall.
[00:50:56] Speaker D: Would have been behind it because that stretched where the current church is. And then we've got the chambers that were built next to the tower. I see.
[00:51:07] Speaker C: And it's certainly got the same kind of roof, the same kind of oak beams that are in the tower.
[00:51:14] Speaker D: Well, that's been recreated because when the Cloesians came here in the 1950s, there were just the walls.
[00:51:23] Speaker C: I see.
[00:51:23] Speaker D: No ceiling.
[00:51:24] Speaker C: I see. Okay.
Have you had any studies done, archaeological studies on the site?
[00:51:31] Speaker D: I don't think we have. That's another area that wants exploration.
[00:51:37] Speaker D: When they came in the 1950s, I suppose they weren't required to do studies. So I've said the same footprint, but I'm not sure it's the. The same brick.
[00:51:48] Speaker C: Yeah, right, sure. And so now we are. One side of the chapel is illuminated by a window with Catherine clearly at the centre.
So just describe what we're seeing here, Frances, if you could.
[00:52:01] Speaker D: So it's three panes, and in the middle pane we have Catherine of Aragon. And above her, her symbol, the pomegranate. Obviously a symbol of fertility.
[00:52:15] Speaker D: Which of course is very difficult for Catherine.
[00:52:20] Speaker D: And then we've got the coat of arms of Catherine. Mix two of England's coat of arms and castles from Castile and the stripes from Aragon. And then certain scenes from her life.
A picture with her as she was a Renaissance scholar with Thomas More, Henry's chancellor. And she was also friends with Erasmus, but he's not shown on this window. And then she was a frequent visitor to Walsing Walsingham, Marian shrine in England. And she would have gone there, I'm sure, to pray devoutly for the birth of a son. And she went there after her army's success in Scotland, when she was left as regent at Flodden. That's right, yeah. When she was left as regent, so obviously powerful and well respected lady. And then she's shown when Suffolk came in the bottom left pane refusing to swear the oath of succession.
[00:53:24] Speaker D: And on the right pane at the bottom we have Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, looking out and seeing the villagers who had come to protest at the idea of him taking Catherine away to Somersham.
So he thought better of it and he came back in 1534 in May.
[00:53:46] Speaker B: Lovely.
[00:53:46] Speaker C: And we should say, I mean, this is a modern window, isn't it?
[00:53:49] Speaker D: When we say painted in the 1990s by Paul Quayle, a well known stained.
[00:53:55] Speaker C: Glass artist, it's lovely that that was done.
[00:54:01] Speaker C: Now I think perhaps we're getting towards the end of our story, but I always like to finish by talking about what happened. Obviously Catherine Leeds, she's taken to Kimmolton, but the story of Buckton goes on and it's an interesting one. So maybe we could just go to. I'd love to go into the Knot Garden actually and just take in a beautiful view of the palace because you get very photogenic from that spot.
I'm. Anybody who's been following the Tudor travel guide for a long time will know that I used the picture from that spot in the Knot Garden as a banner on my YouTube and on my website for a long, long time. Because it's, it's so for me it sort of captures the spirit of the Tudor period. But then maybe we can go there and talk about what happened to Buckden. Certainly what it is today.
[00:54:48] Speaker C: Okay, let's, let's go.
[00:54:52] Speaker D: Sa.
[00:55:18] Speaker D: Sam.
[00:55:53] Speaker C: So we've come outside, you can probably hear the acoustics have changed somewhat and we're heading into Queen Catherine's garden. Very apt, of course.
Can you tell us a little bit about the history of the garden?
[00:56:04] Speaker D: Yeah. So a gentleman called William Dawson came to create this Knot Garden in Tudor style in the 1990s.
Prior to that it had been a kitchen garden, but that was after the moat had stopped running through, because the moat ran between the tower and the church.
And at the end of the 18th century, that part of the moat was filled. Filled in because the church tower was sinking.
[00:56:38] Speaker C: I see.
[00:56:39] Speaker D: And then.
[00:56:42] Speaker D: In the 1830s, the remainder of the moat was filled in.
[00:56:46] Speaker C: That makes a lot of sense. I mean, we haven't even mentioned the church, which literally is a stone's throw from the tower.
It makes a beautiful view here with the gatehouse range, the connecting crenulated wall, the magnificent tower, and then over on the right there, the lovely church. And then you've got this lovely garden. What a beautiful place just to sit and take in the history. It is.
[00:57:12] Speaker D: So an Italian style knot garden which wealthy Tudor people were keen to have.
Yes. So it's planted with all plants that would have been available in the 16th century. Yeah.
[00:57:28] Speaker B: Lovely.
[00:57:28] Speaker D: And it has a viewing platform as well. Shall we go up where you might have met your lover for a quiet.
[00:57:37] Speaker D: In the afternoon and hops and vines and then these beds in. In knots with box hedges. But we've got one bed with a. A lamb in. And we've got two beds that reflect.
One reflects the chevrons on Bishop Russell's coat of arms. And a second bed which has a fleur de lis in it. A symbol, a Marian symbol, but the symbol of the bishops of Lincoln as well. And it has a bed here. This is the medicines bed.
So plants that people use to make medicines with. My favorite is always.
[00:58:15] Speaker D: This one. This is a southern wood which was made into a paste to.
[00:58:23] Speaker D: Halt or prevent baldness.
Obviously not a great success.
[00:58:27] Speaker C: No. Nice smell, though.
[00:58:28] Speaker D: Yes.
[00:58:29] Speaker C: I don't think I've ever come across that before.
[00:58:31] Speaker D: And then we have a dye bed as well, with plants that we use for dyeing.
[00:58:36] Speaker C: Okay, lovely.
[00:58:37] Speaker D: The artichoke gives a nice turquoise. And we also have soapwort, which is flowering at the moment, which people made into paste to wash their clothes with.
[00:58:48] Speaker C: Fantastic. It's really beautiful.
[00:58:52] Speaker C: So we've come up to the viewing platform. Platform with a lovely little gazebo here, looking out across the palace there. So what happened after the Tudor period? What's its story?
How did it part of it come into ruin and when and what is it today?
[00:59:14] Speaker D: So it continued to be a bishop's palace, but it wasn't in as much use after the dissolution of the monasteries. And also there began to become the creation of other diocese. So the diocese of Lincoln was reduced inside during Oliver Cromwell's time, it was let out to the Lord Mayor of London for a while. People peak and really the place was stripped of everything that was good.
Bishop John Williams, in between 1621 and 41, he made repairs to the chapel stables. And he entertained lavishly while he was here. But then, as I said, Kilvert from the star chamber moved in and made a mess of the place.
And then Sanderson.
[01:00:06] Speaker D: Restored some of the grounds, and then it continued to be with the bishops until the end of the 18th century.
And one of the last bishops, Bishop Prettyman Tomlin, filled in the moat. But he also added a library to the great chambers next to the tower. But by 1838, they decided they were. It was going to be sold, and it was sold eventually to Marshall, who built the Victorian house.
And unfortunately, he knocked down the buildings adjacent to the tower.
[01:00:43] Speaker C: It's just unbelievable because you showed me the engravings of these buildings and they were in beautiful condition and he just knocked them down. Oh, my goodness.
I can hardly believe it.
[01:00:55] Speaker D: And in 1911, Marshall retired to Folkestone and the house became a convalescent home during the First World War. And then after that time, it was sold to Dr. Edelstone, who.
[01:01:12] Speaker D: Built a crypt at the back of the chapel and did some restorative work to the inner gate house. But for Eddleston, it wasn't just. It wasn't his main house. This was where he came in the summertime and plants and vegetables came. Well, he left it to his sister when he died in 1952, and she gave it to the Catholic Bishop of Northampton, Leo Parker. And he invited the Claritian missionaries to come and set up a junior seminary here. And they came in 1956. So it functioned as a junior seminary for a while, but junior seminaries were abolished by the Vatican in 1960.
And since that time, the parish of St Hugh has been developed and the Victorian house has been used as.
Is used as a conference center. And the inner gate house had restoration done in the 1990s, and people can stay in apartments there. And the great tower is used for visitors, school parties, and whoever else would like to come and stay in it.
[01:02:16] Speaker C: Yeah, so there's a few things. Things there to pick up on. First of all, I love the fact that it still has a strong Catholic connection, which is lovely. In honor of. I don't know whether that was in honor of Catherine and whether that thread was somehow picked up on, but it's lovely to think that such a religious queen who was so devout there is still that kind of element and that thread here today.
[01:02:40] Speaker D: Well, it may have been why the Cloacians were asked to come, because their founder, Anthony Marie Claret, is Spanish.
[01:02:47] Speaker C: Oh, I see.
[01:02:48] Speaker D: But I don't know if that's the case.
[01:02:50] Speaker C: Interesting.
[01:02:50] Speaker D: It's a possible link.
[01:02:52] Speaker C: Yeah, it's interesting. And secondly, you've enlightened me because I didn't know you could stay here. Now, if anybody follows the Tudor travel guide, and as part of my blog, I'm writing something called the Ultimate Guide to Exploring Tudor England. And one of the sections that we focus on is historic accommodation. Accommodation. So we're building up a catalogue of fantastic medieval and Tudor places people can go and stay. If they're touring around England and want to put the icing on the cake by not saying in some faceless premier inn, but staying something with some character and some history behind it. And I didn't know you could stay here, so I want to flag that up, listeners.
[01:03:30] Speaker D: Yes, you can stay in the inner gate house.
[01:03:32] Speaker C: That's fantastic. It certainly will get added to my cast catalog, that's for sure. So perhaps keep a lookout for the link, any link. I'll try and find a link where people, if they want to know more, can. Can pick that up. Up that information. I think that's fantastic.
And I think the final thing I like to pick up on is your bit about visiting.
So if people want to come, because this is a gem, this is way off the beaten track, but it's. It's the documentation of what happened here with Catherine is so vivid and enough survives that allows you to come here and really just sort of soak up the history. So how can people get access and how can they come and visit?
[01:04:16] Speaker D: Well, the grounds are open 365 days a year, so you can walk around the grounds or you can book yourself a tour and the details will be on the.
[01:04:29] Speaker C: Yes, I'll put those on the website.
[01:04:30] Speaker D: One of the volunteer guides like myself will show you round and we can offer a tour or we can offer tour and tea, if you'd like to have tea in the almondry where Catherine sat with her ladies.
[01:04:42] Speaker C: Yes. And we've sampled the tea and cake today and heartily. Well, Chris has, of course, could heartily recommend that we do tours to fit.
[01:04:52] Speaker D: In with people's requirements.
We ask for a couple of days, dates and then I check the diary because it is a working site and sometimes there are people staying in the tower and then we can't go in the tower.
[01:05:06] Speaker C: Yeah. So if people want to get in the tower, they really need to plan ahead, let, you know, get a date that's convenient and then we look for.
[01:05:12] Speaker D: A guide and so on and so forth.
[01:05:13] Speaker C: Fantastic. Lovely. And do you have, like. I seem to remember there was A Friends of Buckton palace open day sometimes during the summer. Do you still do that?
[01:05:22] Speaker D: We. We don't have the open day in October. We do have a plant sale in May. It's May 16, 2026, and you can come and see. But the best way to view the buildings is to book a tour.
[01:05:36] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Okay. Well, I think that brings us to the end of our tour of this, the first location in our series that focuses on the final few years of Catherine of Aragon's life. So it's a massive thank you to you, Frances, for being our guide today.
[01:05:53] Speaker D: Thank you. Well, thank you for coming. It's been really interesting.
[01:05:56] Speaker C: Yeah, we've got a few questions, haven't we, about which rooms were what and are they still here? But that's the fun of history, isn't it? I think.
[01:06:03] Speaker D: Absolutely.
[01:06:04] Speaker C: Thanks very much.
[01:06:05] Speaker D: Thank you.
[01:06:07] Speaker B: Well, that's a huge thank you from me, of course, to Frances Farmer.
Do check out the website associated with the Friends of Buckton Towers, or Palace.
[01:06:17] Speaker C: As I prefer to call it, and.
[01:06:19] Speaker B: See what events they've got going on there. And as I say, perhaps you'll be able to arrange your own guided tour of the palace.
[01:06:29] Speaker B: Well, it is, of course, the end of the year, which means we have done another 12 months of podcast recording. I'm busy trying to sort out our agenda from February onwards, when I think since I have now moved to Wales, there may be a particular Welsh influence and of course, a little bit of a focus on Henry vii.
Of course, it won't all be Wales focused. There'll be other places on the agenda for you to enjoy. So stay tuned and let's see what unfolds in 2026.
So, finally, all I wanted to say for those of you who tune in regularly is a huge thank you for being part of our journey this year, for virtually accompanying me on our Tudor road trips around the uk. I hope that you have enjoyed listening to them as much as we have enjoyed recording them. And I look forward to many, many more adventures ahead.
[01:07:33] Speaker C: So all I need to say now.
[01:07:35] Speaker B: Of course, is a very merry Christmas to you all and a very happy, prosperous and healthy new year.
[01:07:41] Speaker C: And I'll see you on the other side.
[01:08:04] Speaker B: Thank you for tuning in to today's.
[01:08:06] Speaker C: Episode of the Tudor History and Travel Show. If you've loved the show, please take a moment to subscribe, like and rate this podcast so that we can spread the Tudor love.
Until next time, my friends. All that remains for me to say is happy time traveling.
