Uncover Secrets at Hever Castle - Anne Boleyn's Enchanting Tudor Home!

[Music] hi my name's Kevin Hicks welcome to the history Squad now today we're on location at hea Castle in the lovely County of Kent in the south of England now this was first built in 1383 by John decoin he was a government official in fact he was a tax collector who been unnerfed by The Peasants Revolt he was in fear of the safety of himself and his family so he needed a country Retreat so he built himself hea Castle a fortified Mana house a defensive position complete with the moat it's deep it's wide it flows away into the river you have two towers at the front and a gate house going across it's complete with crenelations so he had license from the King to crelate make a defensive position the big windows that you can see there they later additions Medieval Times you can see he's got these quattra foil Arrow slits well they're also gun ports there's a strange little one at the bottom and I don't know what it's for if you were able to look down through Medieval Times along the side it would be a straight curtain wall complete with all of the crenellation along the back and then up the other side but what we can see now is where the chuda fireplaces have been built into the wall complete with those beautiful chimneys and as you come across you can see the drawbridge you can see the port Callis as you walk around the front of the castle now this leads me into the first secret of hea Castle as you see there's been lots of changes over the centuries here you've had improvements you've had renovation neglect but there's one window that I don't quite understand that circular window on top there what on Earth is it for now when you first look at it could be it for a cannon could it be for light well I'll tell you it's a dove coat or a pigeon Loft they had lots of pigeons flying in and out of there they had their nesting boxes inside and when they wanted to collect the eggs for breakfast they simply went up through a door on the inside of the tower collected the eggs or a pigeon or two for supper but when you see the sides of pigeon eggs if you want scrambled eggs it's going to take more than a dozen to crack don't you think right we're going to take a walk inside so let's go over what would have been the drawbridge it still works but nowadays it's powered by an electric motor which I think is fantastic so I'm going to take a little look so we're inside the gate house right or the archway the entrance to the castle little door there it will take you into your guard room the front pork Cullis is just through the gates here Center PK CIS up there you've got murder holes and it's not boiling oil you're going to drop on people it's scolding hot water and it's boiling sand to get down inside the armor another set of murder holes and then the final pork Callis and this is a good example because you can actually see how heavy how sharp these things would have been and of course you've got your inner doors and you have your day door your wicked gate so this Castle has three port calluses your outer your central one your middle one which has been removed then you have your inner one and then you have your main doors so this is a proper functioning Gate House murder holes the whole business and it is you're in the medieval times but if we step out you're literally stepping out of the medieval into the Judah so here we are in the courtyard and as you can see it's a Juda Courtyard and when it was first built these buildings weren't here it was curtain walls Battlement walls and Towers all the way around then individual buildings were added until the Judah times when they built it into a proper Manor House on this side for the servants apparently there was an entrance way here but even that's been changed on the other side for the actual inhabitants of the house this is where they live kitchens servants this is the living part of the chuda house but what I love about this 1900 this place pretty much derel purchased by William waldof Aster in 1903 and he renovates it brings it back to life and then he makes it his house his home a home for an English Country Gentleman but in fact he was an American just wow isn't it we've step back in time you could almost expect Henry VII himself to step out through the door you know this is quite amazing let's have a look inside let's leave this chuda Courtyard and take a peek so here we are in the entrance hall now this was an addition to hea Castle commissioned by an of cleaves uh B 1540 married to Henry VII for just 6 months and part of the divorce settlement she has he a castle plus a supply of wine other bills are paid she had other houses we she was one of the Six Wives of Henry VII that did really well but eventually when he dies and his son Edward comes on the the throne she loses the other houses and this becomes her main residence and it's this entrance hall really it's built for ladies of the time they're great flowing dresses they will fit down here but when you look at it I just love the craftsmanship so we leave the chuda entrance hall behind and we step into the library this is William wol asers Library you see in 1900 the castle was pretty much derel and William purchased the castle 1903 and his intention was to restore it as close as he could to the Tuda house that it used to be but this is his personal library and some of the bookcases here so I understand are copies of Samuel peeps the diarists bookcases he scoured the world for all of these different books but there's no secrets in this room however if you go down through that door there is one secret door which leads to a bathroom and another secret door in the corner which leads up to the tower which in turn leads to a dove coat so if you in the old Juda times wanted a pigeon pie you didn't go outside and catch them you simply went up the stairs we can't show you in there because it's actually a secret of course the most famous period of history for the house here at hea Castle is the Berlin the Berlin family Je Jeffrey bin 1462 became the sole owner of the property I think he was in The Syndicate with his brother at first and it passes down eventually to Thomas and Elizabeth uh who have their children George then you have Mary and then of course you have an Berlin and this is where the story takes off isn't it an Berlin she becomes the second wife of Henry VII it should be a fairy tale but of course it is a tragedy a tragedy that is so deep that I don't think even Shakespeare could written one to equal it because of course an Berlin and her brother George end up being executed in one of the saddest parts of English History and yet this is part of the magic that draws people in to hea Castle the home of amberin so we're going into the inner hall now when I first saw this room it blew my mind it really did and I'll show you why first of all you just look at the intricate work just these pillars alone the carvings on them to me I love this kind of stuff it just really does just the flower petals alone you know the patience the craftsmanship in this the problem is though this is just one little bit when you step into the middle of this Hall and you look around and your eyes open wide the faces of cherubs the intricate carving the scroll work and then when you look up at the gallery there you know this to me that is oh just mind-blowing how beautiful and then an Elizabethan style ceiling with all the Tudor roses on it wow and if you step back you see hanging on the wall there is a tapestry now I learned from another house that a third of a nobleman's wealth hung on his walls in the old days medieval times so there you have it and here this is keep your food warm put some coals in the center there put your food in there keeps it nice and warm and as wonderful as this whole room is you look old Henry VII there the whole business it's a recreation this is somebody's idea of what the hall should have looked like in reality this is an old Judah kitchen there were two enormous fireplaces here originally and it would have been very hot sweaty work for all those Cooks who beavered away in here to feed their household but in the 1880s this war was dangerously unstable and it eventually came down destroying those original fireplaces and it was recreated into the idea of a chuda in a hall and to me it just blows my mind it's just wonderful and I'd just like to be able to sit in here read a book but actually it's not that comfortable if you come through here there's a better room to read a book so we've come out of the hallway in all its splendor but if you turn the clock back to the Tuda times it was the kitchen this was the servant part of the castle but what the asers wanted was a comfortable place to withdraw to relax to live your life but still retaining that ch feel that chuda look now the ceiling inspired by the ceilings at Hampton Court but I've learned something about these the way the Craftsman actually made this was not by using straight edges and tools he wanted it to look authentic so it's all been done by line of sight by using your eyes to create this ceiling and then the paneling Oak bog Oak Hollywood is actually what's been used and this is taken from caer Castle in Cumbria and it's Elizabethan style so even though this is a comfortable room to entertain to sit to relax it is still retaining this idea that hea castle was a chuda house and this room has a little secret I can't show it you cuz it's a secret not only that there's some furniture blocking the way but down in the bottom there you can just see a vase on top of a little side table and if you look at the paneling halfway up you can see that there's a gap in it that is one of the secret doors it opens up to reveal a drinks cabinet because to have your drinks on open display was a little bit vulgar but these little passages these little ways in the old days they led to the T hour or of course to the old garderobe people let's face it if you have to go you want somewhere convenient to go and this Castle has got lots of conveniences now I just want to show you this this fantastic portrait there William Waldorf Aster first vicount Aster great portrait but have a look at this cabinet this is part of his family heirlooms a sword carried by Colonel Aster during the American Civil War some watches there some memorabilia and a photograph of some of the soldiers so from where I can gather he was part of the New Yorkers so he would have been a Union soldier this was built in 1383 this is the original medieval Great Hall but as you can see it ain't medieval this is the chuda recreation well first of all Let Me Explain the medieval get rid of this wooden screen The Parlor behind there push that all the way back so this was a much bigger Great Hall take the windows out get rid of that big fireplace and you have a fire in a halfth in the center of this room the smoke will go all the way up and the ceiling was open to the rafters it's called a crown post ceiling so this was all open to the rafters the smoke Finds Its way up there the Tuda times the times of the Berlin they changed the whole thing the wooden screen put across so there's a parlor the other side they don't want the Smoky business here of a fire so there is a fireplace and chimney and two windows cut through the curtain walls because don't forget this started its life as a fortified manor house so now it's not fortifying because there are those lovely windows there would have been a dis up here a raised platform so the noble family would sit above the guests showing who they really were in status and of course you have the most beautiful hunting scene on this tapestry it covers virtually the whole of the wall and then as you come around you have this incredible Min gallery and you know it it does look like a film said wow you can imagine the minstrels playing up there but the fact is that has been recreated that is part of what the asers did to recreate this chudo Hall but the ceiling which used to be open to all the the rafters and all of that they were removed there's this incredible ceiling put on top here but that supports the long gallery that was put in on the orders of an of cleaves so they could walk up and down in the inclement weather and this fireplace when you look at it and that coat of arms wow the the craftsmanship in it to me it just literally blows my mind the coat of arms there the whole facade of it but it's a recreation it's put in by the asers there the grand fireplace and it's not until you kind of move down a little bit that you're reminded that this is in fact a Tuda building this is where in modern days we'd call it a cupboard but this is where they would have stored their silverware ready for their functions so one of the fascinating features in here is the lock on the back of the door is this the original or is this one the original you see the story is that Henry VII was so concerned about security when he was staying in other houses that he bought his own locks and one of these has been left behind and there is the keyhole so you can lock the door isn't that just fantastic just one of the more amazing little secrets of hea Castle and you could hire this Hall you could have your private dining experience your wedding reception in here and that would be let's face it a once in a lifetime experience so we're in the staircase Gallery it's above the entrance wall overlooks the wonderful Courtyard this is where they could prominade with their long dresses there are benches that could actually seat a couple of girls with their lovely frocks but what I love about this room is not just the architecture the way it's been restored and done good Queen beess in a later years and that's painted on your wooden planks which is mind-blowing but what I love is the little bits of furniture in here you've got a baby's chair a child's chair this is a Tuda chair I think probably Elizabethan just look at it and it lifts up so you can put stuff underneath you can store or you could even put a potty there so the baby can have a poop and we have a crib here and these are wonderful pieces of furniture but they were handed down kept in the family and of course you have a newborn baby in there and you can rock it backwards and forwards but when you look at the mortality rate amongst the infants especially in the chuda times it was tragic in fact Henry VII uh his firstborn son Henry Duke of kmore by Katherine of aragan lived for only a few weeks heartbreaking just imagine how different history would have been if that boy had have survived how different England even the history of the world would have been but something I read about these is even though mortality rate was so high people in history still loved their children they still felt the pain and there's another piece of child Furniture just up here that I find fascinating now my favorite piece of furniture in this lovely room it isn't the incredible Oak Buffet it's this simple piece of furniture here it's a child's high chair these figured great you know in the Tuda times in the Palaces and the houses you imagine the little child sat there and being fed its pottage you know I once saw a a picture of a child Walker for the Elizabethan times a little circle thing with wheels and a seat in the middle and you could push your baby or your youngster up and down which I think they're banned now because of health and safety but this reflects they love their children and here we have a high chair a beautiful piece of personal functional Furniture if you go back to the tudah times we think this was a bedroom you've got all the oak ceiling the paneling the most incredible view over the gardens nice fireplace interestingly this is the front of an old carved chest and I I was put to test put to task to tell the story and I really had to dig so here we have Adam and Eve being taken from a rib and there's God and then you have the Temptation the serpent with the apple and Adam and Eve they are then cast out of the Garden of Eden with a flaming sword and she is shamed and here you have them as ordinary people dressed in cha gar as it so happens and they have their two sons Cain and Abel and then you have the falling out and I think description is the murder of one brother by the other now in the corner you have a little room it's actually a chapel and this is a Catholic Chapel in the time of Mary the first of course this would have been no problems at all but then under Queen Elizabeth England becoming a Protestant State this could be dangerous if you were having cathol Mass so this would have all been hidden behind a secret panel but of course nowadays in our time of religious freedom in England we have the chapel open so everybody can see no problems at all but the real Treasures housed in hea Castle are two beautifully illuminated prayer books that belong to amberin they're quite wonderful now they're known as the book of ours which comes from the short services to the Virgin Mary that were read at fixed hours of the day and at the bottom of this one is an inscription written by amberin it says remember me when you do pray that hope doth lead from day to day and you can just about see that she signed it and she's also signed her name in the other book these are her pages and apparently she took these with her when she was imprisoned in the tower so a genuine personal piece of History the treasures of this house so we're upstairs now in the long Gallery an of cleaves long Gallery it literally runs the back of the house from one side to the other a room for entertaining guests taking exercise if it's in Clement weather how dare they have in Clement weather in Kent in England this is a fantastic room but when you look at the ceiling you go wow look at those TS well actually that's early 20th century that's part of the restoration apparently the ceiling would have been plainer than this but the paneling is all early Tuda from what I can tell but they've got all of the portraits running through from the wars of the Roses right the way through the Tuda dynasties giving you a little bit of English History and in the bottom corner you have a portrait of my hero Richard III now people pick out different uh paintings here different portraits to show which is their favorite and apparently most people go for amberlin because of course this is her ancestral home isn't it she's down here in the middle so this is the the people's favorite portrait this is amberin herself she a pretty girl for sure with her Little Neck as she described it before her own execution but an interesting thing here she's wearing the French Hood bit of a fashion thing there uh and it was risque as well apparently in the tudah times because it showed so much of your hair but it's this Berlin broch or pendant that you have here now we don't know if it actually existed there's no proof that it ever existed it may have been painted on afterwards we simply do not know but we do know one thing about Henry Henry VII he was a canny beggar if he divorced you you or in this case beheaded you bless you all of your jewelry was taken back and then handed over to the next wife so it's quite possible that that beef for Berlin was actually repurposed into some other kind of jewelry the fact is we simply do not know and just check in 1 2 3 4 yeah she doesn't appear to have six fingers well that's BN out by the evidence they found in the tower when they recovered her bones there wasn't an extra finger apparently but my favorite is further down we've got Thomas woy here uh it was through him that Henry VII got h on court but just here this tiny little portrait Thomas krer Archbishop of Canterbury he helped build a case for the enor of Henry VII's marriage to his first wife cathine of aragan but under the reign of Henry's daughter Mary he was put on trial and found guilty of heresy and burned to death at the stake in 1556 Mary hated krer she blamed him for his involvement in her mother's divorce and of course this Gallery would not be complete without a portrait of old heners himself here we have Henry VII King of England not all his wives are present here in their portrait but how does it go divorced beheaded died divorced beheaded survived but we do have a portrait of someone rather special we are in an of cleaves long gallery and here she is just tucked around the corner an of cleaves and she is an important character in the history of hea Castle some of the extensions and some of the changes she's made are still evident to this very day how lovely now just look at this beautiful bed chamber it's widely believed that Henry VII visited hea Castle a couple of times when he was caught in amberlin we don't know for sure if he actually slept in this room but that not withstanding it's certainly one of the best rooms in their house and look at this bed we call them four posters now don't we but back in the day they were called Full tester beds this one dates back to 1540 he's got a beautifully carv suround at the top and these posts they're just incredible you know you can get half tester beds too they just had half a canopy they're incredibly heavy now the paneling around the walls is all cheer except for this beautiful piece over the fireplace which was put in when they restored the place but we're now going to go all the way down into the council chamber we're going all the way back into the medieval times so we're in the medieval part the council chamber it's over the gate house this is the first part of this castle that's built this is where the lord of the Mana would have met his vassals would have held meetings that kind of thing there may have even been a screen across this piece because there's a hid little room around the corner and if you look through the window here you have a pork Cullis this is one of the original pork Cullis and so I'm informed it's the oldest working pork CIS in the country to me that's wow there it is you lower it it gives you a clear view of the of the front of the house and you could shoot down fire down if you had a gun here but these chains and the counterweights are the originals too upstairs you would have had the winding mechanism the capston to pull up the draw bridge as the drawbridge the port kis the drawbridge of course he's outside so I would presume the mechanism might be upstairs as well but what fascinates me is what lies under this floor there is the second PK Callis under here somewhere also there's a row of murder holes so anybody trying to break their way in you can have scolding hot water boiling sand put down on them and then over on the back here here you have the final pork Callis the third one and you can't see it you can see it from the outside but you can't find it on the inside and I read that it used to come up and form a sill along here so I asked where is it and we're lucky enough to open one of the secrets inside the cupboard you can actually see the pork CIS it's raised and jammed in position so it won't fall down on any of the visitors coming in and this is your hidden little room you have an arrow slit protecting the stairway you would have had a gunport small Arrow slit here but this has been changed and of course the most important little room in the house you have the garderobe and as ever with these houses you poop and it goes down into the moat it must have been delightful but I asked a question earlier on where does the moat drain the moat actually flows from a lake around the house and then off into a river so it would not have been stagnant so this a private little room for that little private occasion what we have here is a partially restored fireplace partially or original but in the house wherever you go look for these tiles these tiles are set in one on top of the other this is so that the bricks don't crack what they have in the council chamber is an entire collection of executioners Acts uh torture implements and serving swords executioner swords these ones are from Germany and you know it kind of blows your mind how cruel people can be today and as you know what they were like in history but I was asked by one of the the gu here what's my favorite thing in a castle there's two bits there's this one here which is 18th century it's a double wooden halter you've got two two ladies neighbors having a row creating problems having a fight so what you do you put one head in there put their hands in there then you put the other girl's head in there and their hands in there and they're facing each other and they will stay in there until their argument is resoled olved but that's not my favorite piece it's hanging on the wall just here one of my favorite parts of English History well it's British history really is the Civil War 1642 to 1651 this is a Mory Hilt sword a Cavalry sword from that period And I must be honest with you it is a fine example I've had a close look at that and maybe the book of ours is the most impressive but to me personally this is a gutsy piece of English History well I hope you enjoyed our little tour of hea Castle there if you did like share and subscribe and if you'd like to support the channel further why not have a look at joining our patreon community the link is in the description now before I leave this wonderful place quick shout out to some of our patreon members we've got Aussie Dave Chris Michael and Bob tusker hey guys thanks a million see you soon