In Houston, we’ve got the Hampton Inn near the Galleria and Reliant Park. We’ve got the Hampton older adult living centre at Post Oak. We’ve even got a short-term nursing facility called the Hampton.
I don’t know. I just thought it was some quaint name that a lot of folks used thinking it would help to sell their services. But it wasn’t until I got to our stopping place on the Thames that I discovered what it originally meant.
The name is connected to King Henry VIII’s favourite court palace, a mammoth structure that completely blew my mind. I had no idea we were going to end up there. It was way to the west of London: way out in the country.
It started off belonging to the Revd. Thomas Wolsey who worked his way up to become King Henry’s chief minister and cardinal to the pope at Rome.
But when Cardinal Thomas fell from favour, Henry took over the palace and greatly expanded it to accommodate his wiles and whims.
We got to see the kitchen area, the throne room, the bedroom, and the privy, all sorts of antechambers, the gardens, the inner courtyard, and many more. And yet, we only saw a fraction of the thousands of rooms.
Walking around, knowing that Henry walked some of the very places that I did, and trying to soak up a little of the history, I could better sense how paranoid rulers might have become. Their lives could so very easily become a target by some unscrupulous worker within the compound. I wondered why so far out in the country. But if a waterway was the best way to get there, wouldn’t that be safer? Besides it was a great area in which to hunt and throw lavish parties. A trip from London to the Hampton could take several days with the royal retinue stopping at other royal residences along the way to the Hampton.