Look What The Postman Brought Me

It took me ages to take this picture. My camera just didn't want to play ball!

After reading a post over at MadameGuillotine yesterday morning, I had to check out the link that pointed to the Charles II coin. So off I toddled to RubyLane, a rather fantastic online antique shop, and there it was in all it's glory. I didn't think twice as I hit the purchase button, paid the $60 (thank you credit card, I'm sorry you have taken a bashing these past few days what with Hampton Court as well but shhhh, I only live once!) and waited with baited breath.

And then, about half an hour ago there was a knock on my front door and I was handed a parcel. Which I of course promptly tore open and what should I find inside? The most beautiful, tiny, solid silver three pence from Charles II's reign.

Pictures from the Charles II Coin page on RubyLane

Isn't it just the prettiest little thing you have ever seen? According to the website it dates from 1670-84, with the front face showing the bust of Charles II, and the words (which you can just make out) Carolus II Dei Gratia which means Charles II by the Grace of God. On the back of the coin which is very very worn away, you can just make out the words MAG BR FRA ET HIB REX which means King of Great Britain, France and Ireland. The emblem, which is quite hard to make out, is of three intertwined "C''s topped by a crown with the date on top of it. The date is one that you can just about make out and thanks to staring at it copiously for a good few minutes, and zooming in on the websites pictures I can say that it does indeed say "16-9", and if the dating is correct (which I don't doubt at all) then it can only date from 1679! During 1679 Charles II disbanded Parliament, The Habeus Corpus Act was passed in the UK and it was the year of the supposed Meal Tub Plot, a non existent plot invented by Thomas Dangerfield to stop James Duke of York from ascending to the throne after Charles II's death!

Doing a bit of digging online, I managed to find a better picture of the back of this coin:

 Picture credit

According to the many coin websites I've looked at this morning (hey, don't judge me, I was researching the pretty!) this coin would not have been hand struck as coins had been for a very long time. Hammered coins involved a blank coin being places between two dies (or in my language, molds) and then bashed with a hammer. With milled coins, they were basically cut and imprinted with a machine and the edges were decorated - which meant that it could be shown coins had not been clipped, basically when some nasty little thief cut off a load of the metal to sell for himself. Milled coins first came fully into use around 1662 when they completely took over from the old school hammered coins.

I just want to say as well, whilst mooching around having a look at other examples of this gorgeous little three pence piece, that I am really quite shocked at how much these can be sold for online. Some of them go for well over £200, looks like I got myself a bargain!

I will certainly treasure this little beauty, and I'm not sure as yet whether I'll get a chain and wear it or whether I'll keep it safe somewhere. It seems a shame to have it locked away somewhere when it's lasted for so long and would have spent it's time passing through the hands of the people of Restoration England. Imagine how many people have touched it, what they bought with that coin. Amazing.

Hampton Court Take Two

So as I'm sure you're all aware from the amount I've been harping on and on about it on twitter and facebook for the past few weeks that yesterday I went to Hampton Court. The main reason for the visit was to see the Wild, the Beautiful & The Damned, all about sex and beauty at the Court of Charles II. But of course, Hampton Court isn't all about that and there was plenty of other stuff to see and do. So here we go, complete with lots and lots of photos!

Of course, Hampton Court is full of Tudor bits and bobs and is best known as "the home of Henry VIII", as well as the stories that haunt the entire Palace. The one that always gets me is that Hampton Court is where Henry found out that Katherine Howard was having it away with other men, thanks to Cranmer leaving him a note in the Chapel Royal. Katherine was confined to her chambers (the staff reckon this was where Mary II's chambers now are) and she ran down the gallery where all the Tudor Portraits now hang, screaming out for him. Is this a true story? Who knows, but there are plenty of stories about visitors getting creeped out in the gallery, and staff members noticing some funny goings on!

Hung along the so called Haunted Gallery are an absolute cornucopia of Tudor portraits, including the famous family portrait, the famous portrait of the young Edward VI and the well known face of Henry VII.

At the end of this gallery you have the Great Watching Chamber. When we were here last time, a dude dressed up as Henry VIII received petitions in here, and I had the honour of asking him to help my "unmarried sister" find a husband. Today there were no costumed interpreters (they were too busy in the courtyard) but the room still managed to take my breath away.

Just off from here is the Great Hall, where the royalty would have eaten their dinner/massive banquets. My photos of the Hall didn't come out very well, but here goes...

Now then, earlier on I mentioned costumed interpreters. We found these in Clock Court...

Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn decided to have a full scale argument about the fact Katherine of Aragon was still making his shirts! After Anne stormed off, Henry just couldn't work out what he had done wrong and wandered off leaving George Boleyn to get help from the audience! Later on, Anne was much happier as Katherine was no longer allowed to make his shirts and she was going to made Marquess of Pembroke. I did wonder whether George took forward my suggestion of flowers!

After lunch we decided to take a walk around the Gardens because the weather was actually AMAZING and last time we were there it was raining too hard to even think about going for a walk around them. I was absolutely stunned at their beauty. And it was Charles II who introduced the central avenue of trees!

After this, we headed back inside and discovered a whole wing of the Palace that we had never seen before. I spotted a sign pointing to William III's apartments leading to an extraordinarily grand staircase. Now the staircase I had seen before but we hadn't gone up there, which is a shame because I was completely in awe seeing these wonderful rooms.

At first I thought this was a painting of a group of people in the room where we were standing. But at a closer look I realised that it was actually a photograph of people re-enacting a scene from the time of William III! This room as well (I didn't manage to get any pictures due to rubbish lighting) was decorated with guns all over the walls in incredibly beautiful patterns. After this we were taken through a series of room which made up grand bedrooms, huge rooms with gorgeous portraits hung on the wall...

And then I was surprised by this guy...

Standing there, in all regal and kingly glory was Charles I. I may have had a bit of a moment when I saw it and jumped up and down squealing with joy. Yes, I adore this man almost as much as I adore his son and I have far too many feelings for the Stuart family. They were just incredibly unlucky, and made some bad decisions but just...wow. I adore them. As you may have gathered from my 17th Century, Stuart family rambles on this blog. And after this room full of fab, there were even more rooms that just made me long to live in the palace. Oh, and I discovered the royal toilet as well!

Wait? More Charlie? I'm not sorry at all. Anyway, after finding more fabulous portraits of Charlie I we stumbled across this absolutely stunning corridor which reminded me, somewhat weirdly, of the mansion from the original Resident Evil game.

Isn't it just fantastic? And the best bit was that there was literally no one there! It seems these parts of the Palace are much less known about than the Tudor areas, which is so sad because these hallways and galleries are just absolutely stunning.

And that was that. I'm sure there are many more nooks and crannies to discover in this fantastic palace and I will say now that next time I go I will be spending more time in the Stuart and later era rooms than the Tudor parts. Just because...I mean look at them. I just adore Hampton Court, and it has a really special place in my heart - mainly for the massive Charles II portrait that hangs in Mary's apartments. But not only that, it's like something out of a fairy tale with so many hidden gems it's unreal. I doubt I will ever love anywhere as much as I love Hampton Court, the stories that just come at you from every angle. It is certainly a very magical place. Now, I will leave you with a picture of me and a wooden man getting drunk in Base Court.