Book Review: "The Palace"by Gareth Russell (Pt. 3)

This review covers chapter 7 to chapter 12

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We're carrying on with our review of The Palace by Gareth Russell and I cannot lie, I am devouring this book so thoroughly I might just go back and read the whole thing again. Chapters are named after rooms, whispers are carrying gossip from chamber to chamber, ladies in waiting are also ladies of intrigue, there's so much to digest. I love Gareth Russell's writing as well, it makes for such interesting reading as I feel like I could shut my eyes and watch Edward VI participating in jousts and games in a place like Hampton Court, made for entertainment.

Many people though King Edward VI was sent by god and of course, the author makes a whole side story out of this thing especially the comparisons between King Edward VI and characters from the Bible. Little did everyone know, the boy-king was to die young. He did his best to ward off the Catholicism of his half-sister, but of course not enough - Lady Jane Grey would only rule for nine days before she was beheaded.

As we move into Mary's time on the throne, we look at the intrigue that surrounds her trying to bring England back to the Catholic faith. Hampton Court also begins to decay. We know much about Mary's rule but Hampton Court was a disgusting horror at the time. For once, we have a mystery of Mary's pregnancy in which she cannot get even a moment's privacy in the gardens whilst walking. The second is the cesspit and sewer that Hampton Court is becoming. Unhygienic and unpleasant, the food was running low and the gossip was even worse.

I'm not going to lie, learning about Hampton Court falling into its dire situation at a time when a woman who was quietly trying to live kind of makes me feel a bit sorry for her. There were all these political discussions going on whilst there's a queen having what is probably a phantom pregnancy and atop of this, we have a house that is starting to rot from within. The author definitely makes it look like everything is going wrong at this point and it just gets more and more interesting as we go on.

The paradise room is being renovated and is described as being a 'wonder'. It is the 'finest' room at the court and is decorated with jewels, has a backgammon board and lots of musical instruments. Elizabeth I is Gloriana, a brilliant and wonderous woman who can only be represented as the paradise room. She is an equestrian, a musician, an intelligent linguist, a translator, a political philosopher and so much more - perhaps one of the last great monarchs that was actually a proper 'monarch' in every sense of the word. These were though all undermined by the fact that many could not accept the fact that she was Protestant and a woman - some though, backtracked after she actually became queen because of course they were afraid of being beheaded.

There are many things to be admired by Queen Elizabeth I, but there is another thing that is covered in this chapter: Elizabeth's haunting. She would choose not to live at Hampton Court and of course, because of her smallpox in which she was seen screaming in pain. She was definitely different went she came to the end of her life. There were legends and myths about her, looking at her from the point of view of being scarred and deformed because of smallpox (and of course, because of her lack of an heir and husband). Honestly, this disgusts me because there is no evidence of her being deformed and it rightly pisses off the author as well.

When we move on to 'empty rooms' we get to see the way in which Hampton Court was set to change after the death of the Queen of England. Many are struck by the power of Queen Elizabeth I, many from overseas, and even towards the end of her life - she is still considered a superpower of the world. But the more important part comes in section 2 - chapter 11 in which we see the run up to the Civil War. The Pages' Chamber is described as being a room in which servants slept on the floor. There's natural sunlight and even through renovation - it seems to still have an air of the same atmosphere which it had in the past. Queen Elizabeth I has since died and we start to gain access into a whole new era of Hampton Court.

Hampton Court has lots of entertainment going on whilst King James is in charge. Women hold dances and balls, they perform as characters in plays (something they were not allowed to do in the theatre). There was lots of decadence going on, one example being that the women performing random plays as Ancient Greek goddesses in the court would wear the dresses of the dead Queen Elizabeth as costumes. There was also a lot of hedonism going on, which led many to think that God would soon punish the royal household. And it did. Plague and frost was brought on, but of course the royals did not die. They would continue partying and banqueting and eating and drinking etc. They were free of death. Almost.

But of course, after yet another renovation of Hampton Court - there was something more being done in those rooms. King James had authored several books, one of them condemned tobacco as it caused sickness (he may have been on to something there even though his books on witchcraft were weird as hell). But now, it is time for the King James Bible. By the time we get to the end of chapter 12 - we learn from the author that King James was actually quite intelligent and philosophical, even though he wasn't always correct about everything.

As we move forward, we still see the author's wit pass through as strange similes such as 'about as subtle as a brick through a window' which I will definitely be using from now on. We also see that this guy definitely knows what he is talking about. It's less about presumption, more about presenting us with all the evidence, and presenting us with the sheer importance of Hampton Court.