It’s been a setting for drama among the most powerful for over half a millennium and its corridors have echoed to struggles for dominance between some of the most notorious leaders the world has ever known. Now Hampton Court Palace has opened its doors to the man one heartbeat away from being leader of the free world. JD Vance just hit Hampton Court Palace.
The Vice President of the United States visited the palace on August 10th, on his way from a stay with the Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, at Chevening to a reported holiday in the Cotswolds. With Hampton Court neatly nestled on his route into the heart of England, the VP and his not inconsiderable entourage pulled up for a private tour of the estate, most famous as the backdrop for some of the most dramatic moments in the reign of Henry VIII.
The king’s fifth wife, Catherine Howard, is said to haunt parts of the palace after she was dragged from it, screaming, after being arrested there in November 1541 on suspicion of being unfaithful to the monarch. Sunday’s visit was understood to be much more peaceful.
For many, it is Henry VIII’s palace. And indeed, the king’s formidable presence remains palpable. The hammer-beam roof of the Great Hall still towers above rows of wooden tables, a space where the monarch once dined while lute music mingled with the clink of goblets and whispers of courtly intrigue. Yet Hampton Court is more than a royal relic. It is a living document of Britain’s monarchical and architectural evolution, and a case study in how history lingers in stone.
Construction began in the early 16th century under Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, the powerful Lord Chancellor to Henry VIII. In its earliest years, Hampton Court was Wolsey’s personal project — a palace of ecclesiastical ambition, lavish enough to rival those of Europe’s greatest monarchs. But Wolsey’s grip on power proved fragile. By 1529, as Henry’s patience with papal delays in securing a divorce from Catherine of Aragon wore thin, the palace passed quietly to the king. A “gift,” as the court phrased it. In truth, it was a survival tactic.
From there, the palace became the centerpiece of Henry’s Tudor court — the site of marriages, births, and political maneuverings. Jane Seymour, his third wife and the only one to bear him a male heir, died there just days after giving birth to Edward VI. The end to his fifth marriage took place there just four years later while in July 1543, Henry married for the final time at Hampton Court with Katherine Parr becoming wife number six.
But while Henry’s ghost may be the palace’s most infamous, Hampton Court’s story extends far beyond the Tudors. A century later, in the late 17th century, King William III and Queen Mary II undertook an ambitious Baroque redesign, commissioning Sir Christopher Wren — the architect behind St. Paul’s Cathedral — to modernize the palace. The result is a striking juxtaposition: Tudor chimneys and turrets on one end, French-inspired symmetry and stately gardens on the other.
Today, Hampton Court stands not just as a preserved artifact, but as a curated experience. Managed by Historic Royal Palaces, the independent charity that also oversees the Tower of London and Kensington Palace, it attracts over a million visitors annually. It offers costumed interpreters, live cooking demonstrations in the Tudor kitchens, and even a functioning maze that has challenged guests since 1700.
It is a space that witnessed the rise and fall of favorites, the beginnings of religious reform, and the sometimes brutal consequences of royal favor.
Step through the Tudor gatehouse, past the astronomical clock and into the vast courtyards, and it’s clear: history here doesn’t rest quietly. It murmurs through stone corridors and roars through banquet halls. Hampton Court Palace is no museum. It’s a memory made manifest — and a kingdom, once, unto itself.
