S7 • E10 Sep 11, 2008
Richard flies from Offa's Dyke to Sandringham, looking at places that have connections with royalty. He starts at Offa's Dyke - Offa was a king of Mercia in the year 757 who built the dyke to keep out the Welsh. He then visits: Ludlow Castle which has connections with the Wars of the Roses and the Princes in the Tower (Edward V and Richard, Duke of York); Boscobel House, near Wolverhampton, where Charles II hid in an oak tree after the Battle of Worcester in the Civil War; Dudley Castle, home of Lady Jane Grey, queen for just nine days; Coughton Court, Redditch, where the Gunpowder Plot conspirators met to plan the attack on James I; Sudeley Castle where Catherine Parr (sixth wife of Henry VIII) lived after Henry's death; Warwick Castle, home of Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, who became known as Warwick the Kingmaker after he was instrumental in Henry VI being deposed and replaced by Edward IV in the Wars of the Roses; Kenilworth Castle which has connections with various monarchs from Henry I to Henry V and where it is alleged that Elizabeth I may have given birth to an illegitimate child; Althorp House, family home and burial place of Diana, Princess of Wales; Holdenby House, built by Sir Christopher Hatton, a close friend of Elizabeth I: he said he would not sleep a night in the house until Elizabeth had slept there... which she never did; Fotherighay Castle, where Mary Queen of Scots was executed; Burghley House near Stamford, built in the shape of a letter E to honour Elizabeth I who was a frequent visitor; King's College Chapel, Cambridge, founded by Henry VI; Castle Rising, King's Lynn, where Queen Isabella of France, queen consort of Edward II, was exiled after she tried to depose him; Blickling Hall, probable birth place of Anne Boleyn, second wife of Henry VIII who had her beheaded. Richard's journey ends at Sandringham, one of the country residences of the present royal family.
