Houses of power - Simon Thurley

What was it like to live as a royal Tudor? Why were their residences built as they were and what went on inside their walls?
Who slept where and with who? Who chose the furnishings? And what were their passions?

The Tudors ruled through the day, throughout the night, in the bath, in bed and in the saddle. Their palaces were genuine power houses - the nerve-centre of military operations, the boardroom for all executive decisions and the core of international politics. Houses of Power is the result of Simon Thurley's thirty years of research, picking through architectural digs, and examining financial accounts, original plans and drawings to reconstruct the great Tudor houses and understand how these monarchs shaped their lives. Far more than simply an architectural history - a study of private life as well as politics, diplomacy and court - it gives an entirely new and remarkable insight into the Tudor world.

Includes:


Baynard's Castle

Bridewell Palace

Coldharbour

Durham Place

Eltham Palace

Friars' churches at Greenwich and Richmond

Kennington Palace

Blackfriars

Palace of Westminster

Somerset Place

St James's Palace

St Paul's

Suffolk Place

Tower of London

Westminster Abbey

Whitehall Palace (formerly York Place)

Dartford Priory

Enfield

Esher Place

Hampton Court Palace

Hanworth House

Havering-atte-Bower

Nonsuch Palace

Oatlands Palace

Richmond Palace

Syon Monastery

Wanstead House

Windsor Castle

Woking Palace

Abingdon Abbey (now in Oxfordshire)

Reading Abbey

Ditton House

Basing House

Birling House

Cobham Hall

Dover Castle

Knole

Leeds Castle

Otford

Rochester Priory

St Augustine's Priory, Canterbury

Westenhanger Castle

Woodstock Palace

Guildford Friary

Woking House

Cowdray House

Petworth House

Beaulieu (formerly New Hall)

Ingatestone Hall

Ruckholt Manor

Ewelme Manor

Thornbury Castle

Wolfhall

Loughborough Hall

Burghley House

Collyweston House

Fotheringay Castle

Grafton Manor

Nottingham Castle

Ludlow Castle

Kenilworth Castle

Royal House, Langley

Tickenhill Manor

Ampthill House

Ashridge Priory

Berkhampstead Castle

Hatfield House

Hitchin

Hundson House

Manor of the More

Theobalds House

Tyttenhanger House

Kenninghall Place

Hengrave Hall

Newcastle

Warkworth Castle

Hull Manor

Middleham Castle

Pontefract Castle

York Abbey