The Tudors

Kentwell Hall, a mellow red-brick house in Long Melford Suffolk, is one of England‘s finest Tudor Houses.  The hall has been home to a succession of owners each having left their mark; the gardens have evolved over five centuries with elements of all still visible.

The year is 1535, Ann Boleyn is still the king’s ‘most dere and entierly beloved lawful wiff’ married two years earlier.  15 January, king Henry VIII declares himself head of the Church of England.  On 20 May – William Tynsdale is arrested in Antwerp for heresy in relation to his Bible translation to English.  He had opposed Henry VIII’s desire to secure annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon.  On 22 June Cardinal John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester is executed  for his refusal to swear an oath of loyalty to Henry VIII.   On 6 July, Sir Thomas More is executed for treason after refusing to agree to Henry VIII’s decision to separate the English church from the Roman Catholic church.

In August, religious establishments are surveyed which forms the beginning of the Dissolution of the Monasteries.  On 4 October the first complete English translation of the Bible is published by Myles Coverdale – Bishop of Exeter. 

Kentwell Hall is transformed by living history experts, you walk through a portal and are transported back in time.  Latin, old English and French have been the language of England for centuries.  Henry VIII has been ruling England for 26 years, in September of this year he visits the Seymour family home in Wiltshire and notices Jane who will become his third wife next year after he executes his current wife Anne Boleyn.