After a big sleep in a late brekkie, we dragged our bags down the crooked corridor and down the rickety stairs to check out. I got there first, did what I had to do and waited for Saskia and the others in the bar/lounge area. While Saskia was checking out she met up with two nice young lads who just happened to be a the wedding the day before and were two of Nick's very good friends. So when she came over to get me, she said "Let's go, we've got two blokes coming with us."
The two blokes were Ed and Matt. Lovely chaps.
We headed over to the Lewes castle to have a look. The village of Lewes is quite historical and was apparently quite significant back in the days of Henry VIII and the like.
We arrived, but none of us saw the "buy tickets here" sign and walked straight past it up through the gate.
We made it all the way to the top and somehow joined on to some foreign student group tour who were going...... somewhere until we asked this kind lady where the entrance was. She literally lead us up a garden path and showed us the way.
It's so amazing that these buildings that have been there for 100s of years are still standing and in the condition they are today. There was quite a bit missing from this castle, but still, what is there was pretty sturdy.
There were amazing views from the top of the Shell Keep
And the view inside the Shell Keep weren't too shabby either....... see what I did there?
It was at this point that we thought we should take some snaps of us all together and put them on Facebook so that Nick would see them and wonder how the hell we all came to be together.
Who says Brits don't have a sense of humour hey?
⬇
There was a museum attached to the castle where they had built a miniature 3D town of Lewes. You sat in theatre seats and watched the screen hanging above which showed a little movie of the history of Lewes and when they would refer to a place in the village, it would light up on the little model.
The next stop on our "Lewes Day Out Adventure With Nick's Buddies" was to Anne of Cleaves House.
Anne of Cleaves, for those of you who aren't brushed up on your Henry VIII's wives knowledge, was Hank's 4th wife.
First there was Catherine of Aragon
who he had one daughter with, 'Bloody' Mary, who when she became Queen changed England back to a Catholic state and killed all the Protestants, hence earning her nickname. Henry famously divorced Catherine so he could marry his second wife, Anne Boleyn.
Poor AB was only able to give the king one child, a girl and had subsequent miscarriages. Then she was accused of having adulterous relationships with 5 men, including her brother George and was beheaded!
Wife No. 3, Jane Seymour had already been moved in and the day after Anne was executed, they became engaged. Henry wasn't known for his compassion - clearly!
Jane wasn't around for long. They got married a couple of weeks after Anne's head was lopped off and she gave birth to Prince Edward just over a year later, when she died from complications with the birth.
Enter: Anne of Cleaves.
Henry apparently hadn't met nor seen A o C except for a painting where she was portrayed in a very flattering light so Henry agreed to marry her, however when they met he wasn't that fussed and it wasn't long before he wanted that marriage annulled so he could marry someone else. Anne was said to have been pretty happy about this and went quietly. She got a couple of houses out of it and the title of "King's Sister", and she got to marry the man that she was meant to marry before the Henry got involved. That all worked out and nobody needed to lose their heads, so that's nice.
Next was Catherine Howard - Anne Boleyn's first cousin.... she had a few affairs and was beheaded (honestly, you'd think they'd learn!)
His last wife was Catherine Parr who made him find piece with his first two daughters so that he included them in the succession line up, then she outlived him.
So it goes
Divorced, Beheaded Died
Divorced, Beheaded, Survived
This is one of Anne of Cleaves' houses, but apparently she never lived here.
There were a whole lot of dress ups that we fossicked through and encouraged the chaps to get involved. Ed was very eager to pop a costume on, however Matt was not as keen.
A little bit of bed warming hijinx
Then down to the kitchen for the wenches. Such fun!
This was the house from the back garden. Not a bad little divorce settlement for back in those days.
There is a hotel called "The Shelleys" in Lewes. I tried to book us in there, but a) it was very posh and expensive and b) it was all booked out!
So we just went to have a little look at it and had some afternoon tea.
Twas a lovely day in Lewes.
No comments:
Post a Comment