DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61669#0095
JEAN DE DINTEVILLE
The original foundation was of very remote origin. The palace
was built partly on the remains of an ancient castle, which in early
days had formed the western bulwark of the city of London. Though
occupied from time to time by various English sovereigns, from King
John downwards, it had fallen much out of repair when Henry VIII.
took it in hand and rebuilt it for the reception of Charles V. in 1522.
After all, however, the Emperor occupied apartments in the adjacent
monastery of the Black Friars. His suite only were lodged in the new
palace, a covered bridge being thrown across the Fleet, and an aperture
pierced in the city wall to give free access to the Emperor’s quarters.
Henry VIII. frequently resided at Bridewell, which is associated
with several interesting historical events. Hither, in 1528, Cardinal
Campeggio, ill with gout and fever, was carried through pouring rain,
when deputed to hear the divorce case, Wolsey riding at his side. The
palace on this occasion was “ superbly decorated and filled with princes,
prelatesand noblemen.”1 The following year, 1529, Henry VIII. and
Katherine of Aragon were again at Bridewell, when the same interminable
question was being argued in the great hall of the Black Friars. After
the fall of Wolsey and sequestration of his property, the king preferred
York Place,2 the confiscated residence of the see of York, which was
now incorporated with the Palace of Westminster. He could therefore
well afford to place Bridewell at the disposal of any foreign ambassador
to whom he desired to show peculiar favour.
It is amusing to find amongst Dinteville’s first proceedings on his
arrival in England, the importation of “thirty tuns of Gascon wine,” the
claret of to-day, which was conveyed to London by a ship called the
“ Edmund,” of Lynn.3
professing to represent Bridewell in the year 1540. As this view differs equally from that
given by Wyngrerde (1543) and that of 1660, it should probably be received with caution.
1 State Papers, Venetian, vol. iv. (1527-1533), No. 374, Gerardo Molza to the
Marchioness of Mantua. So great was the throng that, in leaving, some of the Italians
actually lost their shoes.
2 Subsequently known as Whitehall.
3 Letters and Papers, For. and Dorn., Henry VIII., vol. vi. (1533), No. 1595, Grant
10, February 16, 24 Henry VIII.
69
The original foundation was of very remote origin. The palace
was built partly on the remains of an ancient castle, which in early
days had formed the western bulwark of the city of London. Though
occupied from time to time by various English sovereigns, from King
John downwards, it had fallen much out of repair when Henry VIII.
took it in hand and rebuilt it for the reception of Charles V. in 1522.
After all, however, the Emperor occupied apartments in the adjacent
monastery of the Black Friars. His suite only were lodged in the new
palace, a covered bridge being thrown across the Fleet, and an aperture
pierced in the city wall to give free access to the Emperor’s quarters.
Henry VIII. frequently resided at Bridewell, which is associated
with several interesting historical events. Hither, in 1528, Cardinal
Campeggio, ill with gout and fever, was carried through pouring rain,
when deputed to hear the divorce case, Wolsey riding at his side. The
palace on this occasion was “ superbly decorated and filled with princes,
prelatesand noblemen.”1 The following year, 1529, Henry VIII. and
Katherine of Aragon were again at Bridewell, when the same interminable
question was being argued in the great hall of the Black Friars. After
the fall of Wolsey and sequestration of his property, the king preferred
York Place,2 the confiscated residence of the see of York, which was
now incorporated with the Palace of Westminster. He could therefore
well afford to place Bridewell at the disposal of any foreign ambassador
to whom he desired to show peculiar favour.
It is amusing to find amongst Dinteville’s first proceedings on his
arrival in England, the importation of “thirty tuns of Gascon wine,” the
claret of to-day, which was conveyed to London by a ship called the
“ Edmund,” of Lynn.3
professing to represent Bridewell in the year 1540. As this view differs equally from that
given by Wyngrerde (1543) and that of 1660, it should probably be received with caution.
1 State Papers, Venetian, vol. iv. (1527-1533), No. 374, Gerardo Molza to the
Marchioness of Mantua. So great was the throng that, in leaving, some of the Italians
actually lost their shoes.
2 Subsequently known as Whitehall.
3 Letters and Papers, For. and Dorn., Henry VIII., vol. vi. (1533), No. 1595, Grant
10, February 16, 24 Henry VIII.
69