venus in pieces @dreamtdior - Tumblr Blog

katherine howard, oatlands palace (28th july 1540)

“an orchard, its mature trees groaning under the weight of fruit, offered shade to the heads of courtiers and servants, as they endured the stifling heat. the trees were old, but the orchard was not. they had been uprooted from st peter’s abbey at nearby chertsey, a nine-century-old monastery founded by saint erkenwald, [...] and brought to grace the king’s gardens when the abbey was shut down [...] the stones that built the little palace’s extension had come from the augustinian priory at tandridge as it was pulled down to make way for aristocratic demesnes. the price paid by many of his subjects for the king’s religious revolution weighed heavily and silently on oatlands, but as thick carpets from the ottoman empire, chairs upholstered in velvets and cloth of gold, gilt cups, bejewelled table services, and beds hung with cloth of silver were all processed into oatlands, there was little outward sign of the stresses and tribulation that had gone into making it suitable for the royal household.” (gareth russell, young and damned and fair)

#Katherine Howard