Ok, so here I am, being assaulted by ladybugs, but still powering through to bring you another post! I'm serious about the ladybugs - they are way bigger than the ones at home, and are trying to hibernate in my room, but every so often, they just leapt out at you from nowhere, scaring the proverbial out of me. And they get everywhere - I found one in my bag on the Tube yesterday.
But enough about my ladybug issue, and on with more exciting stories of Hampton Court (and show you more photos)! This part is about William III and Mary II. I first heard about them when I was a Kensington Palace and thought they were pretty interesting - they were the only diarchy in British history. Usually there is a monarchy (one ruler, either a King with a queen, or a Queen with a Prince Regent), but William was a Prince of Orange in his own right, while Mary was Queen of England, so they ruled jointly.
It worked out pretty well for them, 'cause Mary, despite being smart, beautiful and friendly, wasn't really the powerful, dynamic type of ruler. However, she did have to take the reins when William was away at war, which was A LOT. If there was one thing William loved above anything else, it was doing to war, and he did it for up to 6 to 9 months of the year, usually against the French. Even when he got home, he slept on a camp bed in one of the private rooms. He wasn't actually that good at it, and he made very little progress against the French. He also wasted a fair amount of money at the same time.
Here is William, bravely riding out to war - sorry about the bad photo quality! |
Apart from this inclination towards warfare, William had one or two other faults. Mainly he disliked appearing in public - at the time, it was expected that the king and queen would go about their daily business in the public eye: the public could come and watch the king receive guest, eat and even get ready for bed. A little strange, but its actually a cunning public relations scheme. However, William didn't do this very often, and this made him unpopular with the public. In fact, William and Mary's reign was the beginning of the end for public court rituals.
ONE of the public throne rooms. |
There were also rumours floating around that William liked the camaraderie of war a little more than anyone with a wife should, if you get my drift. William had a very close friend, Hans, who had nursed William through scarlet fever when he was young. William had never forgotten this, and Hans was given appropriate honours at court. But later on, William found another favourite, an exceptionally beautiful and slightly effeminate young man called Arnold. William consequently forgot his best friend Hans, and focus on Arnold, which is when things took a turn for the scandalous! Hans took offence at this, as you would after you saved someones life and then they ditched you for someone prettier, and so he left court and never spoke to William again.
William's private rooms, where the men would hang out. |
These rumours only served to further decrease William's popularity, and after Mary died of smallpox, it only dropped more and more. William had truly loved his wife, and when she died, he took to eating and drinking a little more than was good for him. He died of pneumonia, caused by a broken collarbone after his horse threw him after it tripped on a molehill.
However, in my opinion, William's greatest mistake was wanting to completely demolish Hampton Court, and replace it with a whole new palace. I mean, SERIOUSLY?! Hampton Court is so beautiful, I don't know how anyone could want to get rid of it. Thankfully, there wasn't enough money to raze the palace and build a new one, so they just added Baroque addition. Just on the side, casual-like:
Baroque columns in front of the famous Hampton Court red brick chimneys. Just slapped on to the front there. |
Anyway, I think that's enough royal scandal for now. Tune in same time next week for the final instalment in our Hampton Court series! Now just let me find that stupid ladybug...
No comments:
Post a Comment