Collection of a King: Tapestries at Hampton Court Palace

Henry VIII, King of England from 1509 to 1547, is famous for many things. But not everyone knows that he was a great collector. For one thing, he collected handcuffs. He married six different women at a time when divorce was basically forbidden and wives were uncooperative, often dropping dead alone. The king also collected houses. He claimed numerous important houses and palaces, including Westminster, Berkhamsted, Fotheringhay, Warwick, Kenilworth, and some of his favorites: Greenwich, Whitehall, and Hampton Court. He even had Royal Residences in the Tower of London. One of the most important collections of King Henry were the tapestries. Eventually, he gathered more than 2,000 of these woven images to decorate Hampton Court Palace and his other royal residences.

But why would the King spend so much money and energy collecting woven pictures to decorate his walls? What was behind these expensive wall hangings?

Tapestry making was a huge industry in northern France and southern Netherlands during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Tapestry is a form of textile art created by skilled artisans. The pieces were woven by hand on a loom. Weaving a tapestry required each thread to be carefully loomed by hand. This painstaking process allowed workers to create complex designs that included intricate features for people, animals, and plants. Usually the threads of the chain were made of flax or Picardy wool. The striking threads were made from Italian silk or gold and silver threads imported from Cyprus. Textile workers and guilds flourished in Belgium and France, advertising tapestries created there were exported throughout Europe.

Sometimes the tapestries were woven in sets. A set of tapestries usually tells a biblical or mythical story through a series of images. This art on the woven tapestry was intended to produce illusions of what reality should be like: a more intellectual, more scientific, grander world. This world could follow the owner wherever he went, as the tapestries were portable and could be transported from one residence to another.

Rich and powerful men collected tapestries because they could really impress visitors. Before handing over Hampton Court to King Henry, Cardinal Wolsey sent London merchant Richard Gresham to Brussels with 1,000 marks to buy the best tapestries he could find. The Venetian ambassador told this story of his visit to Wolsey: “One has to go through eight rooms before reaching his audience room, and they are all upholstered with tapestries, which are changed once a week” (1).

In September 1528, King Henry became displeased with Wolsey’s work and took over Hampton Court Palace. King Henry embarked on a massive rebuilding project, creating new kitchens, a Council Chamber, and a series of private rooms for himself. In addition, Henry rebuilt the Great Hall, which featured large walls for displaying tapestries. To decorate Hampton Court and other royal residences, Henry collected tapestries to communicate his wealth and power. Tapestries adorned such important public rooms as the Great Hall and the Great Surveillance Chamber.

One of the most famous series in Henry’s collection is Abraham’s story series, which he commissioned specifically for Hampton Court. This series was woven in Brussels around 1540 by Wilhelm Pannemaker according to the designs of Bernard van Orley. Tea Abraham’s story The tapestries include ten separate pieces, each of which is approximately five meters high and six meters wide. These tapestries are of astonishing quality, with highly skilled weaving and a high number of metal threads, with many gold and silver threads. In fact, the amount of gold makes them one of the most opulent products in the Brussels industry.

Due to the quantity of gold and silver and the high quality of the workmanship, it is estimated that each tapestry cost Henry as much money as a fully equipped and staffed battleship. This means that the whole set costs as much as a fleet of battleships. Tea Abraham The tapestries are a good example of King Henry’s primary purpose in collecting tapestries – to demonstrate his vast wealth to visitors from around the world. King Henry believed that these tapestries would create a positive impression and would convince everyone who came to Hampton Court and other palaces of his royalty.

King Henry was right that the Abraham tapestries were a symbol of wealth and power. His influence lasted much longer than Enrique. About 100 years after Henry’s death, during the English Revolution, revolutionaries took control of the country and executed King Charles I, and Oliver Cromwell ruled as Lord Protector. Much of the royal property was sold to the highest bidder. But Abraham the tapestries were worth so much money that he couldn’t sell them. They remained in the possession of Oliver Cromwell at Hampton Court. Like the rest of their possessions, they returned to be owners of the crown when the monarchy was restored. These tapestries were selected to adorn the walls of Westminster Abbey at the coronation of King James II in 1685.

The choice of Abraham The tapestries, commissioned by Henry VIII in 1540, to celebrate the restoration of the monarchy more than 100 years later, demonstrate its importance as a symbol of royalty and power. Although Henry VIII could not have understood their full historical significance, he did understand the impact of the tapestries on his perception as king. Hampton Court Palace was one of King Henry’s favorite residences. He made it a great symbol of his royalty and the strength of the Tudor dynasty. The magnificent tapestries that adorned the palace walls during his reign were a fitting symbol of the wealth, wisdom and royalty of King Henry VIII. Tapestries were much more to him than decorations or insulation. They were literally the embodiment of his royal image.

1. Hedley, O. (1971) Hampton court palace. London: Pitkin Pictorials.