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K is for Kings (and Queens!)

Our series of posts helping you to explore our county is an A-Z of Bedfordshire places, landscapes and history. Each post includes tips for walks and places to visit.

In this instalment we follow in the footsteps of some royal visitors to Bedfordshire – both kings and queens.

Medieval kings and Dunstable

Henry I gave Dunstable its market charter, he also built a small palace for use when travelling. After his first visit in 1109, he founded a priory opposite the palace. In the years that followed many medieval kings stayed in the town – King Stephen met the barons there for a peace conference, King John gave the palace and its garden to the priory in 1204, and 1290 saw the funeral procession of Queen Eleanor, Henry III’s wife, with her coffin resting before the High Altar overnight in the priory church.

Sheep grazing at the top of a slope, the view is of open fields. — Sheep grazing on Dunstable Downs.

Henry III named Dunstable as one of only four towns allowed to host tournaments. These were huge mock battles with armoured horsemen. There is no record of precisely where they were held but the ideal sites would have been places like the lower slopes of the Downs, at this time open fields stretched all the way to Luton – an ideal spot for galloping without the fear of destroying crops. The ‘armies’ were divided into two bases and the tournament held in the space between, it continued until nightfall or until the participants were exhausted. Dunstable was a good location for several reasons – it stood on the crossroads of Watling Street and the Icknield Way and there were plenty of places to find a bed and a meal. Tournaments saw a huge influx of people into the town, each knight might have as many as ten men as his support and they were also popular with spectators.

Henry VIII and his Queens at Ampthill

Henry VIII was a regular visitor to Ampthill Castle and Great Park, often coming in the autumn to hunt. In 1533 Katherine of Aragon lived in the castle, a fortified house, whilst the annulment hearings were in progress. A memorial to her, Katherine’s Cross, was erected in 1773 as a garden feature in Capability Brown’s new landscape. The verse on the memorial was written by the politician and writer Horace Walpole and begins:

In days of old, here in Ampthill’s towers were seen,

The mournful refuge of an injured queen.

Here flowed her pure but unavailing tears

Here blinded zeal sustained her sinking years.

Anne Boleyn also visited at least once, hunting alongside the King. The whole court would have accompanied them, bringing their wealth to the town. There is archaeological evidence of a Tudor hunting lodge on the eastern side of the park, including a ‘standing’ or vantage point from where guests could shoot or watch the deer hunt. Henry praised Ampthill for its ‘marvellous good health and cleanness of air’ and enjoyed his stays at the Castle.

By the 1600s the castle had fallen into disrepair, and it was demolished completely in 1649.

A slender cross on a stone base. The monument is surrounded by a wooden fence. — Katherine’s Cross, Ampthill Great Park.

Woburn plays host to two Queens

In 1572, Henry VIII’s daughter, Elizabeth I, paid a visit to Lord Russell, the Earl of Bedford, at Woburn Abbey. Elizabeth’s royal progresses around the country allowed her to see her realm and also to be seen by the people. They were also a good excuse to escape London, with its outbreaks of plague, for country air. The visits passed on the whole cost of maintaining her court to her most important subjects and Russell pleaded with Lord Burleigh for help to make sure that she didn’t stay for more than two nights as he had no time to improve the rooms that would be put at her disposal beforehand.

Woburn Abbey seen from across the lake. — The Woburn Abbey we see today was almost entirely rebuilt in the mid 18th century.

Almost three hundred years later, Queen Victoria visited in July 1841. Her visit drew the crowds, with between 8,000 – 10,000 people gathering in the grounds. A cold tea was laid on for 200 tenants from the Duke of Bedford’s farms, and there were sports, including a donkey and wheelbarrow races, gingerbread stalls and all the appearances of a fair in Woburn itself. At the Abbey the royal guests were treated to a ball, dinners, fireworks and specially composed music. The Queen was shown round the sculpture gallery, the collection of paintings and the library.

Edward VII at Wrest Park

The visit of Edward VII to Wrest Park in 1909 was covered extensively in the local newspapers. He was the guest of the tenants, the US Ambassador Whitelaw Reid and his wife. He was given a suite of redecorated rooms that faced south so that the King had ‘a fine view of the well-kept pleasure grounds with a glimpse of the Barton Hills in the distance.’

View of a parterre and formal gardens through ornate black railings. — Wrest Park.

As with Queen Victoria’s visit to Woburn, the royal guest drew a crowd with reports of hundreds of bicycles resting against garden walls and local residents doing a brisk trade in teas and offering vehicle storage. School children from Silsoe, Clophill, Gravenhurst, Greenfield and Pulloxhill lined the approach avenue in the park, along with tenants and villagers from the estate. On the Sunday on his visit Edward VII visited Silsoe Church for the morning service and was shown round Flitton Church and Mausoleum in the afternoon. During his visit he also had time to explore the gardens at Wrest and enjoy dinners and music from an orchestra.

Bedfordshire at war

During the First World War George V visited both Bedford and Luton. His 1914 visit to Bedford included a review of the Highland Troops, which was followed by a march past, each section headed by a band of pipers. Later in the war, in 1917, he toured munitions factories in Luton, visiting the workshops and meeting staff. Newspaper reports suggest that he was interested in all stages of the process from the raw materials to the finished products and enjoyed engaging with the workers.

George VI and Queen Elizabeth visited Tempsford during the Second World War. Their 1943 visit to the airfield marked its importance to the Special Operations Executive whose operatives flew out of Bedfordshire, as well as returning to the base. The SOE was responsible for espionage, sabotage and reconnaissance in German-occupied Europe, working with explosives and wireless telegraphy. Their work was secret and many lived undercover. A Millennium Garden and SOE Memorial were opened in Tempsford in 2000.