Have you ever done something by accident that made you think of the significance that you just did. I am not talking about like calling somebody a name. Or like stepping in gum and not realizing it. I am sort of talking about the feeling of knowing that you aced a test that you did not study for. I had this feeling at the tower of London in England. But before I tell you about this feeling like every great story we need a little precursor to this story. I am not good with English royalties history. Between all the Williams, Georges, Edwards, Richards, Henrys, Elizabeth’s, Mary’s, Catherine’s and Charles it can be confusing. Sure I know like the big ones, like William the Conqueror (also known as William the illiterate) . Or King George the third who lost the revolutionary war. Or Henry the eighth the man who changed the religion of his country so he could have a male heir to the throne that eluded him. My sister and mom are obsessed with Henry the eighth. They know all the wife’s of him and have watched the other Boleyn girl more times than I could count(I can only count to four). I never knew that much about him. Other than his weight and his fondness of cutting off his wife’s heads. When we first got to Hampton Court Place I did not know the significance of where we were at. Sure the building was pretty and Henry the eight lived there but the building was not that interesting to me. Inside the building it was gorgeous. There was one staircase that was gorgeous. It was like a heavens above that was painted throughout the staircase. I was enjoying the palace and all of its sights. Then we got to the haunted hall way. The haunted hallway is where Catherine Howard ran to a door to hope to have her husband Henry the eighth would save her from capture. She just found out that she was going to be going the the tower. Which I believe is the medieval England equivalent of being called to the principal’s office. Once she learned this she ran to the door of the room where Henry the Eighth would be so maybe he would save her life. But Henry the Eighth
already left and her savior was not there. So apparently now she haunts there replaying her demise every night. I attached a picture of King Henry from that hallway. This picture like looms over the entire room it’s like he is watching . The hallway in general gave me and eerie feeling. But then we had free time to explore. We ended up doing the maze at the palace. Going a little bit of topic here if you ever want to understand why the American felt frustrated with the English during the war. Try to go through the maze at Hampton Court Palace and once you make the wrong term for the fifth time you might feel this frustration. We then left the palace and had free time. Me Jen and Austin decided to go to back to the tower of London. The Tower is awesome like all the history there and the sights around the tower it is gorgeous. After we were at the tower for about an hour Jen turned to me and Austin and said the following. “Ya know we just like retraced Catherine Howards last steps. Because we went from Hampton Court Palace to the place she was beheaded the tower of London. This put chills down my spine. It was like we had a connection to a person in history who we did not know that much about. We tried to see her grave which is located in the chapel in tower. But the Beefeaters who run the tower like closed it before we could look around and find it. This kind of sucked I felt we needed some sort of closure to following the last steps of Queen Catherine Howard.
There and Back Again