Discovering our Royal Side...

This week has been half term for the girls so they had the whole week off including Halloween. I have been dying to take them to Hampton Court Palace since they have now both studied the Tudors in school. Abby studied the Tudors last year and Sammy is studying them this year. They both LOVE reading about them. The above is a picture of Sammy and Alexandra with the crowns they got to make when we first got to the palace.

Here is a small part of the palace. This place is HUGE! Charles and I came here years ago when we saw an opera performed in the courtyard and had a picnic dinner in the gardens but we never really toured the palace itself.

Upon entering the palace, the girls went directly to the robing room and picked out their royal robes. They got to wear them the entire time we were at the palace. Here they are with their friend Zoe looking especially royal!

This is the ceiling of the great hall. (My camera is rubbish.)

Large tapestries cover the walls in the great hall.

Sammy, Alexandra and friends testing out the royal goblets, bowls and seats in the great hall.

The girls sat with Queen Katharine Parr (the last wife of King Henry the VIII) and her ladies in waiting, musician and a french ambassador. They taught them some Tudor songs. (There is a rotation among the queens since there was six wives. You go and never know who will be the queen that day.)

After singing with the Queen in her private chambers, the girls went to the great hall where some of the courtiers sent them on a mission as spies to the Spanish Ambassador. They were supposed to feed him some false information and embarrass him at court. They ran through the palace with the courtiers (running through passageways and doors that were not used by the public) and found the Spanish Ambassador on the toilet. He claimed to be waiting for some secrets papers from the French to be handed up the toilet. They told him the false information and he believed every word of it. Then they went to report what they had done to the King and Queen. Above is King Henry VIII and Katharine Parr listening to the spies' report.

Here is Abby in the King's Throne room, listening to the King. Abby and Sammy were so into every minute of this. They loved it and so did I! It all felt so exciting! The actors and actresses were amazing! Abby and Sammy loved the huge dresses the ladies were all wearing.

Here are my girls looking exceptionally royal!

The great clock tower

At the end of the day, Abby and Sammy went again into the great hall and were able to learn some dances and short plays in order to entertain the King and Queen at court. They were also taught what to do when the King entered the room in Tudor times. You stood and then went down on one knee and stayed there until the King says you can rise. King Henry VIII and Katharine Parr came into the great hall with the royal sound of trumpets. It was very grand. King Henry was even wearing the new crown that has just been made as an exact replica of his original crown. (The original was destroyed.) The King and Queen came in and sat on their thrones and watched the entertainment of the court. The girls danced and acted. Then the Spanish ambassador blurted out the wrong information and embarrassed himself according to plan. And we did all this while sitting in the REAL palace, in the REAL great hall, next to REAL tapestries... What an incredible experience! What a fun way to learn history!This is not a special event at the palace either. They do this everyday!

I would have paid more money for this palace. It was so worth our time. I bought a season pass so we can go back to Hampton Court as well as several other palaces (including the Tower of London and Kensington Palace) as much as we'd like for the next 15 months! Can you tell how much I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE living here? I love that my children study these things in school and then we can take them to the REAL, actual places where they happened. They study William Shakespeare, we take them to Stratford-Upon-Avon. Abby is studying the Romans this year, we can take her to see REAL Roman ruins in London and St. Albans. They study King Henry VIII, we take them to HIS palace! Its the same with the Victorians, the Georgians, Charles Dickens and the list goes on. Abby is dying to go to the Tower of London since she was Anne Boleyn for Halloween. She really wants to see where she was held and then be-headed! I am just as excited!