The Young Henry VIII exhibition is the first gallery in a three-year programme to tell the story of Henry VIII in Hampton Court. It will be completed to coincide with the 500th anniversary of the Tudor king's accession to the throne in 1509.
Although he is the monarch most associated with the palace, his presence has been only lightly alluded to until now. The same is true of the palace's other residents, from Cardinal Wolsey, who built the Tudor sprawl, through to William and Mary, who commissioned Christopher Wren to build the more ordered eastern side of the palace.
The core of the interpretation at Hampton Court, like most of Historic Royal Palaces' (HRP) older displays, has been from the perspective of architectural history. The Young Henry VIII exhibition, like the recently reopened Kew Palace, is an attempt to rectify this by including the story of people alongside the history of the building.
As at Kew, this presents HRP, which is responsible for some unique buildings, with challenges. Its finest objects are the palaces themselves. Over the years HRP has built up enormous expertise in study and conservation, and although this may seem less exciting than stories of regal shenanigans, it can lead to fascinating interpretation.
You don't need the House Detectives to appreciate the upper rooms at Kew Palace, with the meagre bedrooms that became the virtual prisons of George III's young daughters.
Yet with no national museum devoted to the Tudors, many visitors want to know more about the people who dominated this monumental pile. At Hampton Court, HRP has bitten the bullet and put its exhibition in the Wolsey Rooms, one of the most evocative suites of rooms in the "old" palace.
While historians would point out that these are far from "pure" spaces - they have been subject to several alterations, including a 19th-century restoration - there is no question of ripping chunks out and filling them with museum case displays. So the exhibition designers, curators and educators have had to find a way of telling a museum-style narrative within these constraints and without compromising the atmosphere of the historic rooms.
Trio of relationships
The new display is set out over seven rooms and covers the period from about 1500 to the early-1530s. It focuses on Wolsey, Henry and his wife Catherine of Aragon, and is designed to look at this period in Henry's reign through their changing relationships. At the beginning, everything looks promising: Wolsey, a snaky politician and a Roman Catholic cardinal; Catherine, warrior daughter of Spain's Ferdinand and Isabella; and the young, athletic and intellectually gifted king.
It was a trio destined to go far. But by the end, Wolsey, having finally fallen out with Henry, faced accusations of treason. Catherine, having failed to produce a male heir, was unceremoniously divorced. And Henry, at the height of his powers, was an altogether darker figure, desperate to secure the succession at any price.
It's a story that HRP has had to cover in broad brushstrokes. It turned to fashionable Dutch designer, Opera, for help. Its solution has been to leave the Italianate ceilings and Tudor fireplaces, panelling and windows intact, and to use period quotations painted on walls, and woven into carpets, to tell visitors the tale of our three protagonists.
Small labels provide architectural information, but link the building back to the story in hand: we are asked, for example, to consider the sort of political gossip that went on around fireplaces on a cold winter's night. All the windows have been screened by almost invisible UV filters, which allow views to the gardens in a way that is far superior to the blinds often used to turn period houses into caverns of gloom.
In the centre of each room are three high-backed chairs, one for each for the three main actors. These are either facing each other, next to each other or, as tensions rose, back-to-back.
More detailed interpretation is provided by a selection of paintings in each room - from an early 16th-century painting showing the imaginary family of Henry VII (even dead children appear in it is as young adults) to great history paintings such as the Field of the Cloth of Gold.
It was no surprise to learn that the lead curator on the project is an expert on historic paintings, as the works have been brilliantly chosen, both for the political stories they tell and their visual impact - and in the way they can be used to interpret history without compromising the historic rooms.
Some were on display, although easy to miss, in other areas of the palace, while others are long-term loans from the Royal Collection. Accompanied by informative interactives, they show how much can be achieved in historic houses through paintings once they have been conserved, rehung and interpreted.
As at Kew, sound has been installed in window seats: it is less adventurous than Kew's radio drama, but a great deal clearer, as with Catherine's famous letter to Henry after her successful campaign against the Scots at Flodden in 1513.
As visitors leave down a stone staircase, a child's voice whispers, "Divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived" and a timeline in a window seat shows how far we have progressed in Henry's career, promising more - as planned - to come.
In comparison with the old Wolsey rooms, this is a big step forward. It has managed to retain much of the atmosphere while exploring a complicated personal and political story - and Henry was a king whose desires changed the face of a nation.
Necessary context
Perhaps Young Henry suffers because it has opened before the publication of new guidebook and a better introductory display to the palace (a job at the moment inadequately dealt with by an ancient video of the actor Ian McKellen talking about architectural styles).
With that in place, this exhibition will gain the context it needs to make sense to people without any grasp of Tudor history. For now, it is an intelligent, if slightly over-designed, addition to a palace that is still one of the best and most varied historic days out.
Jane Morris is an arts writer and editor
Project data
Cost: £160,000-£200,000
Main funder: Historic Royal Palaces (no external funders)
Partner organisation: Royal Collection
Lead curator: Brett Dolman (HRP)
Project manager: Kate Woodall (HRP)
Interpretation manager: Polly Schomberg (HRP)
Design manager: Della Cooper (HRP)
Exhibition design, interactives, audiovisuals: Opera Design
Lighting consultant: Hans Wolff & Partners
Showcases: Keijsers Interieurprojecten
Although he is the monarch most associated with the palace, his presence has been only lightly alluded to until now. The same is true of the palace's other residents, from Cardinal Wolsey, who built the Tudor sprawl, through to William and Mary, who commissioned Christopher Wren to build the more ordered eastern side of the palace.
The core of the interpretation at Hampton Court, like most of Historic Royal Palaces' (HRP) older displays, has been from the perspective of architectural history. The Young Henry VIII exhibition, like the recently reopened Kew Palace, is an attempt to rectify this by including the story of people alongside the history of the building.
As at Kew, this presents HRP, which is responsible for some unique buildings, with challenges. Its finest objects are the palaces themselves. Over the years HRP has built up enormous expertise in study and conservation, and although this may seem less exciting than stories of regal shenanigans, it can lead to fascinating interpretation.
You don't need the House Detectives to appreciate the upper rooms at Kew Palace, with the meagre bedrooms that became the virtual prisons of George III's young daughters.
Yet with no national museum devoted to the Tudors, many visitors want to know more about the people who dominated this monumental pile. At Hampton Court, HRP has bitten the bullet and put its exhibition in the Wolsey Rooms, one of the most evocative suites of rooms in the "old" palace.
While historians would point out that these are far from "pure" spaces - they have been subject to several alterations, including a 19th-century restoration - there is no question of ripping chunks out and filling them with museum case displays. So the exhibition designers, curators and educators have had to find a way of telling a museum-style narrative within these constraints and without compromising the atmosphere of the historic rooms.
Trio of relationships
The new display is set out over seven rooms and covers the period from about 1500 to the early-1530s. It focuses on Wolsey, Henry and his wife Catherine of Aragon, and is designed to look at this period in Henry's reign through their changing relationships. At the beginning, everything looks promising: Wolsey, a snaky politician and a Roman Catholic cardinal; Catherine, warrior daughter of Spain's Ferdinand and Isabella; and the young, athletic and intellectually gifted king.
It was a trio destined to go far. But by the end, Wolsey, having finally fallen out with Henry, faced accusations of treason. Catherine, having failed to produce a male heir, was unceremoniously divorced. And Henry, at the height of his powers, was an altogether darker figure, desperate to secure the succession at any price.
It's a story that HRP has had to cover in broad brushstrokes. It turned to fashionable Dutch designer, Opera, for help. Its solution has been to leave the Italianate ceilings and Tudor fireplaces, panelling and windows intact, and to use period quotations painted on walls, and woven into carpets, to tell visitors the tale of our three protagonists.
Small labels provide architectural information, but link the building back to the story in hand: we are asked, for example, to consider the sort of political gossip that went on around fireplaces on a cold winter's night. All the windows have been screened by almost invisible UV filters, which allow views to the gardens in a way that is far superior to the blinds often used to turn period houses into caverns of gloom.
In the centre of each room are three high-backed chairs, one for each for the three main actors. These are either facing each other, next to each other or, as tensions rose, back-to-back.
More detailed interpretation is provided by a selection of paintings in each room - from an early 16th-century painting showing the imaginary family of Henry VII (even dead children appear in it is as young adults) to great history paintings such as the Field of the Cloth of Gold.
It was no surprise to learn that the lead curator on the project is an expert on historic paintings, as the works have been brilliantly chosen, both for the political stories they tell and their visual impact - and in the way they can be used to interpret history without compromising the historic rooms.
Some were on display, although easy to miss, in other areas of the palace, while others are long-term loans from the Royal Collection. Accompanied by informative interactives, they show how much can be achieved in historic houses through paintings once they have been conserved, rehung and interpreted.
As at Kew, sound has been installed in window seats: it is less adventurous than Kew's radio drama, but a great deal clearer, as with Catherine's famous letter to Henry after her successful campaign against the Scots at Flodden in 1513.
As visitors leave down a stone staircase, a child's voice whispers, "Divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived" and a timeline in a window seat shows how far we have progressed in Henry's career, promising more - as planned - to come.
In comparison with the old Wolsey rooms, this is a big step forward. It has managed to retain much of the atmosphere while exploring a complicated personal and political story - and Henry was a king whose desires changed the face of a nation.
Necessary context
Perhaps Young Henry suffers because it has opened before the publication of new guidebook and a better introductory display to the palace (a job at the moment inadequately dealt with by an ancient video of the actor Ian McKellen talking about architectural styles).
With that in place, this exhibition will gain the context it needs to make sense to people without any grasp of Tudor history. For now, it is an intelligent, if slightly over-designed, addition to a palace that is still one of the best and most varied historic days out.
Jane Morris is an arts writer and editor
Project data
Cost: £160,000-£200,000
Main funder: Historic Royal Palaces (no external funders)
Partner organisation: Royal Collection
Lead curator: Brett Dolman (HRP)
Project manager: Kate Woodall (HRP)
Interpretation manager: Polly Schomberg (HRP)
Design manager: Della Cooper (HRP)
Exhibition design, interactives, audiovisuals: Opera Design
Lighting consultant: Hans Wolff & Partners
Showcases: Keijsers Interieurprojecten
