This afternoon and tonight I was at the Hampton Court Palace to see Van in concert. I had gone to see him in St James Palace on 18th January this year.
HAMPTON COURT PALACE, 17th JUNE 2012
IT WAS A FINE CONCERT. HIS DAUGHTER SHANA MORRISON JOINED HIM TO DUET ON 3 SONGS,
Setlist
Brown Eyed Girl
Higher Than The World
Fair Play
I’m Not Feeling It Anymore
All In The Game
Sometimes We Cry w/Shana Morrison
I Can’t Stop Loving You w/Shana Morrison
Enlightenment
Crazy Love
Moondance
In the Garden
Old Black Magic w/Shana Morrison
Help Me
Ballerina
Gloria
Hampton Court Palace is a royal palace but it has not been inhabited by the British royal family since the 18th century. Formerly a property of the Order of St John of Jerusalem it was originally built for Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, a favourite of King Henry VIII, circa 1514; in 1529, as Wolsey fell from favour, the palace was passed to the King, who enlarged it.
The following century, William of Orange’s massive rebuilding and expansion project designed by Sir Christopher Wren and intended to rival Versailles was begun. Work halted in 1694, leaving the palace in two distinct contrasting architectural styles, domestic Tudor and Baroque. While the palace’s styles are an accident of fate, a unity exists due to the use of pink bricks and a symmetrical, albeit vague, balancing of successive low wings.
Today, the palace is open to the public, and a major tourist attraction. It is cared for by an independent charity, Historic Royal Palaces, which receives no funding from the Government or the Crown.
The Palace’s Home Park is the site of the annual Hampton Court Palace Festival and Hampton Court Palace Flower Show. Along with St James’s Palace, it is one of only two surviving palaces out of the many owned by Henry VIII, so Van has played in both this year. Musical entertainment has been a feature of Hampton Court Palace since the 16th and 17th Centuries.
I have just finished reading Heartstone by C.J. Sansom, which centres on the trully beautiful Catherine Parr, Queen of England and Ireland, my favourite of Henry VIII’s six wives, and introduces her at her residence at the Palace .
Catherine Parr (Katherine, Kateryn, Katheryne or Kathrine); (c. August 1512 – 5 September 1548) was Queen consort of England and Ireland and the last of Henry VIII’s wives. She married Henry on 12 July 1543. She was the fourth commoner Henry had taken as his consort, and outlived him. She was also the most-married English queen, as she had a total of four husbands.
Catherine enjoyed a close relationship with Henry’s three children and was personally involved in the education of Elizabeth and Edward, both of whom became English monarchs. She was influential in Henry’s passing of the Third Succession Act in 1543 which restored both Lady Mary and Lady Elizabeth to the line of succession to the throne..She was a remarkable woman.