Chapel Royal
The double-height chapel was begun by Wolsey and completed under Henry VIII. Its timber and plaster ceiling, a Gothic vault with Renaissance pendants completed by trumpeting boys, is considered the "most important and magnificent in Britain". The altar is framed by a massive oak reredos in Baroque style carved by Grinling Gibbons during the reign of Queen Anne. Opposite the altar, at first-floor level, is the royal pew where the royal family would attend services apart from the general congregation seated below. Queen Catherine Howard was painfully dragged down this gallery pleading to Henry not to be executed.
Read more about this topic: Hampton Court Palace
Famous quotes containing the words chapel and/or royal:
“whan he rood, men myghte his brydel heere
Gynglen in a whistlynge wynd als cleere
And eek as loude as dooth the chapel belle.”
—Geoffrey Chaucer (1340?–1400)
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—O. Henry [William Sydney Porter] (1862–1910)