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| Tom outside of Hever Castle |
A LITTLE CASTLE HISTORY - As we left the great entryway we took a look back at the castle. We learned that the castle dated back over 700 years, and most of the inside had been refurbished by U.S. multi-millionaire William Waldorf Astor.
However, the original medieval defensive castle and gatehouse was built in 1270 and in the 15th and 16th century was the home to powerful families, like the Boleyn family (that gave birth to Anne, Henry VIII's second queen). Anne's reign as queen only lasted 1,000 days.
HOW ANNE CHANGED ENGLISH HISTORY - Henry VIII's love for Anne Boleyn changed England. Because of Henry's insistence that Anne be his queen and not his mistress, the king renounced Catholicism and created the church of England (so he could get a divorce from Catherine, his first wife/queen).
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| Rob outside of Hever Castle |
THE BOLEYN NAME GAME - We also learned that the spelling of Anne Boleyn's family name was originally "Bullens" and somehow got changed through history.
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| Hever Castle's entrance |
TEA WITH DAFFY - We decided to walk around in some of the pathways outside.There was a small cafe in the gift shop where we stopped for some Tea and scones, and sat outside at a small table. That's when we were joined by a number of ducks, and one particular duck that we dubbed "Daffy" would not stop circling the table until we gave him some of our scone.
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| Daffy begged for some of our scone... he got some! |
We were both very touched by the little graves for their dogs, and instantly appreciated the Astor family.
MAZES WE DIDN'T ATTEMPT - There were other things in the gardens, but we didn't check them out. There were 3 different garden mazes. The Tower Maze is all about the six wives of Henry VIII.Then
there was the Water Maze. You have to get to the
middle of the maze without getting wet dodging the brick platforms that are traps. The last maze was the Yew maze, made by Mr. Astor.
NEXT: HOW ANOTHER QUEEN GOT THE BOLEYN CASTLE
