DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.16632#0466
*
England in the Time of the Renaissance 437
to strengthen, all those plans for the guidance of the state that were entrusted to him.
Thus does he appear before us in Cavendish's biography:
My galleries ware fayer both large and long,
To walk in them whan that it lyked me best;
My gardens sweet, enclosed with walles strong,
Embanked with benches to sytt and take my rest;
The knotts 1 so enknotted, it cannot be exprest,
With arbors and alyes so pleasant and so dulce,
The pestylent ayers with flavors to repulse.
These gardens lay to the south-east, between the house and the river and on the
other side there were orchards and vegetable-gardens. To the north, on either side of the
wide road, there was a park, one enclosed with a wall, the other with a wooden fence,
the whole embracing two thousand acres.
But Wolsey in the long run had not the strength to keep in check the overweening
pride of the king. Henry soon outgrew his instructions, and Wolsey had always made
himself hated by his contemporaries because of his ambition and his extravagant love of
display. He had particularly shown this whenever he was travelling to his country place,
and every man who had like ambitions now became his enemy. He was bound to fall as
soon as these men could induce the king (whose favour was Wolsey's sole support) once
to behold his favourite with their eyes—that is, with jealousy and envy; and they knew
that Hampton Court was a very special attraction to their royal master. Wolsey did what
he could to stay the impending storm by making a present of his estate to Henry. There
is a story (misplaced before 1526) which says that when the king asked angrily, "Why
should a subject build such a gorgeous palace?" the cardinal, who was prepared for the
blow, replied, "To give it to his master." But Wolsey continued to live at Hampton
Court till his fall in 1529*
After the death of Wolsey, Henry made the greatest possible haste to take over the
palace which he so eagerly desired, and from that moment it is closely connected with
his life. It was the home of nearly all his wives, and rumour says that the restless spirit of
Catherine Howard still wanders in torment through the halls. The king's first care was
to have the cardinal's coat of arms removed, and the Tudor arms carved instead; and,
as he was passionately fond of every kind of sport, he had two closed courts on the
north side made for tennis. The games, especially tennis, were importations from
France, but they became extraordinarily popular in England. The government grew
to look on them with an unfriendly eye, because they feared, not unreasonably, that
men would be led away from archery, which was really useful to the state. But no
restrictions made the slightest difference; and in 1541 games were strictly prohibited m
public places, and only allowed at private houses if the owners got a licence, which cost
£100 a year. Of course rich people, like the king, laid down parts of their garden for these
games. The king had also confiscated Wolsey's town palace, unmindful of the fact that
it belonged to the Archbishopric of York, and had given it a new name, White Hall
(Whitehall), which it bears to this day; and here first of all a bowling-green was laid out.
These places for games were sometimes covered rooms, sometimes open, turfed, and
bordered with hedges. They now play an important part in the English garden.
1 Beds of interwoven pattern; see remarks on a following page.
England in the Time of the Renaissance 437
to strengthen, all those plans for the guidance of the state that were entrusted to him.
Thus does he appear before us in Cavendish's biography:
My galleries ware fayer both large and long,
To walk in them whan that it lyked me best;
My gardens sweet, enclosed with walles strong,
Embanked with benches to sytt and take my rest;
The knotts 1 so enknotted, it cannot be exprest,
With arbors and alyes so pleasant and so dulce,
The pestylent ayers with flavors to repulse.
These gardens lay to the south-east, between the house and the river and on the
other side there were orchards and vegetable-gardens. To the north, on either side of the
wide road, there was a park, one enclosed with a wall, the other with a wooden fence,
the whole embracing two thousand acres.
But Wolsey in the long run had not the strength to keep in check the overweening
pride of the king. Henry soon outgrew his instructions, and Wolsey had always made
himself hated by his contemporaries because of his ambition and his extravagant love of
display. He had particularly shown this whenever he was travelling to his country place,
and every man who had like ambitions now became his enemy. He was bound to fall as
soon as these men could induce the king (whose favour was Wolsey's sole support) once
to behold his favourite with their eyes—that is, with jealousy and envy; and they knew
that Hampton Court was a very special attraction to their royal master. Wolsey did what
he could to stay the impending storm by making a present of his estate to Henry. There
is a story (misplaced before 1526) which says that when the king asked angrily, "Why
should a subject build such a gorgeous palace?" the cardinal, who was prepared for the
blow, replied, "To give it to his master." But Wolsey continued to live at Hampton
Court till his fall in 1529*
After the death of Wolsey, Henry made the greatest possible haste to take over the
palace which he so eagerly desired, and from that moment it is closely connected with
his life. It was the home of nearly all his wives, and rumour says that the restless spirit of
Catherine Howard still wanders in torment through the halls. The king's first care was
to have the cardinal's coat of arms removed, and the Tudor arms carved instead; and,
as he was passionately fond of every kind of sport, he had two closed courts on the
north side made for tennis. The games, especially tennis, were importations from
France, but they became extraordinarily popular in England. The government grew
to look on them with an unfriendly eye, because they feared, not unreasonably, that
men would be led away from archery, which was really useful to the state. But no
restrictions made the slightest difference; and in 1541 games were strictly prohibited m
public places, and only allowed at private houses if the owners got a licence, which cost
£100 a year. Of course rich people, like the king, laid down parts of their garden for these
games. The king had also confiscated Wolsey's town palace, unmindful of the fact that
it belonged to the Archbishopric of York, and had given it a new name, White Hall
(Whitehall), which it bears to this day; and here first of all a bowling-green was laid out.
These places for games were sometimes covered rooms, sometimes open, turfed, and
bordered with hedges. They now play an important part in the English garden.
1 Beds of interwoven pattern; see remarks on a following page.