Barbara A Smith's Blog

Neuschwanstein castle nestled on top of a ledge overlooking the Pöllat Gorge, near Füssen, in Bavaria was the beginning of my love of castles and history. I was 17, backpacking around Germany with a friend when we arrived in this beautiful town filled with dreams and fairytales.

On the 30 minute climb from the ticket area to the castle, we encountered a lovely older man who (for a few coins) would let you take a picture with him.

I had learned about Neuschwanstein while taking German in high school and it had been a dream of mine to visit it one day. I was in love with the whole atmosphere of the place, the town, the people and the castle that grew ever closer with each step we took.

The king who would build the castle of dreams, King Ludwig II, was but a mere figure head with no real authority after losing power to Prussia in 1866. He isolated himself and created his own world within the walls of his castle. He made changes to the design of the castle to better fit with his illusions of being a grand king.

A small writing room became a grotto. A small dripstone cave. As you go through the grotto, you can see stalactites, a waterfall, and an underground pool. They all bring together the sense of being in a real cave.

The small audience room became a grand throne room that was a combination of a Byzantine church and throne to show what Ludwig felt was his birthright, to be a go between God and the world.

The majority of the castle interior was never finished and there are only about 15 rooms available to see out of the 200 that were constructed.

King Ludwig II only lived in the palace for a total of 172 days before being declared insane and taken into custody in June of 1886. His body was found floating in the Lake Starnberg the next day along with the doctor. It was ruled a suicide, but there were many unanswered questions that led people to speculate it was not as it was recorded.

Though his life and death are surrounded in sadness and mystery, he left a beautiful legacy in Neuschwanstein for millions of people to enjoy.

Upon entering Oxford one of the first things you will see is the Martyrs’ Memorial at the intersection of St Giles’, Magdalen Street and Beaumont Street.

I have been drawn to this memorial long before I started studying the Tudor period. It is such a sad reminder of a dark time in England’s history.

Queen Mary was burning heretics and 3 are memorialized here.

Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury.

Hugh Latimer

Nicholas Ridley

All three were instrumental in the break from Rome and the creation of the Church of England, and for that, they were burned at the stake.

It is my opinion that Cranmer was doomed from the start, mainly because he was the catalyst behind the end of Katherine and Henry’s marriage and Henry’s subsequent marriage to Anne Boleyn. Even though he signed a statement of recantation, Queen Mary would not change her mind. She wanted him to die by burning and in the end he renounced what he had done, saying,

“And for inasmuch as my hand offended in writing contrary to my heart, therefore my hand shall first be punished; for if I may come to the fire it shall be first burned.”

When Latimer and Ridley were burned a few months before, Latimer said to Nicholas Ridley,

“Be of good comfort, Master Ridley, and play the man; we shall this day light such a candle, by God’s grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out.”

I think as much as this is a significant event in history, it is one that I am glad I did not witness. Such a horrific end to three men of strong convictions.

Thornbury is a little market town in the Severn Valley in south Gloucestershire England. The life of Thornbury castle began in 930, as a smaller manor house. William the Conqueror gave it to his wife, Matilda upon invading England and claiming all it’s land.

Construction of the castle began in 1511 by Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham after receiving a license from Henry VIII to build a fortified castle at Thornbury. He was later beheaded for treason and in 1521 the castle was confiscated by Henry VIII.

In 1535, while on Royal Procession, King Henry VIII stayed in the castle with his new queen, Ann Boleyn for 10 days. Whether he actually stayed there is debated by many, but he was in the area on Procession so it is very possible.

What really fascinates me about the castle beside the history is the alleged hauntings.

The most frequently seen ghost is Jasper Tudor, uncle to Henry VII. Apparently when he lived there, the first floor, where the offices are now kept, was for gentlemen only (I’ve also heard in another account that it was formerly his bedchamber). Whatever the room was, Jasper now seems unhappy that females are invading the space, and he makes his presence known – turning on the photocopier, knocking things off of shelves, etc. – but he seemed perfectly quiet and content when there was only one man working in the office. 

King Henry VII’s, daughter, Mary, was known to have stayed at Thornbury on several occasions, after the castle passed to her father.

The young princess has been reportedly seen wandering in the gardens with her greyhounds.

Hampton Court – Anne Boleyn

Some people love her, others think she ruined England, some believe she was manipulated and used, others believe she was the master manipulator.

No matter what your opinion, one thing is undeniably true. King Henry was obsessed with her. He changed the face of England for her, to be with her.

If you have ever been to Hampton Court, you can still see evidence of his love for her. Just walk through Anne Boleyn’s Gateway…

Look up…there hidden in the design you will still see King Henry and Anne Boleyn’s initials. After her death, King Henry had everything removed and replaced with his and Jane Seymour’s initials, but these were overlooked and forgotten.

Look closely at 11 and 5 o’clock places and you can see the H & A…a reminder for all time of the passionate, all consuming love that he had for her.

It’s 1501, you’re 15 and you’ve just married the future king of England. After living for month in Tickenhill Manor you move on to your new home, Ludlow Castle in Wales.

What was it like to walk around these grounds, to take your gown in hand and walk up the stone stairway into the castle. Did your laughter echo through the corridors?

Did you and your love sit on the stone benches as the sun warmed your face or is this where you sat when you were told the news that he would smile at you no more. Did your tears fall here?

Are these now abandoned passageways where you walked as you wondered what the future held for you without him?

As I walked through these ruins some 505 years later, I thought of you and was amazed by the strength you showed throughout your life and how you held to your convictions, no matter how many people turned against you.

Tucked away in the gardens of the Versailles, just 12 miles outside of Paris, is The Hameau de la Reine or The Queen’s Hamlet.

Most people associate Marie Antoinette with angering the French Revolutionaries with the saying of “Let them eat cake,” but that phrase was actually noted to have been uttered, before she even arrived in France, supposedly by Marie-Therese, the Spanish princess who married King Louis XIV in 1660 and also by two aunts of Louis XVI.

No, one thing that angered them greatly was that they were starving and she was spending lavishly on building a little peasant village within the palace gardens. Due to her uninhibited spending, she was nicknamed Madame Deficit by the people.

Rumors made they’re way around that she and her ladies maids would “dress up as peasants and pretended to be milkmaids and shepherdesses.” It was also rumored that she had numerous affairs with various counts and nobles there.

It is said that she defended the hamlet as a place for her to escape the demands of court life and a place that her children could learn what life outside of the palace was like. Part of the hamlet did include 2 dairies and a working farm.

I have walked through some the beautiful gardens of Versailles and had I known this little gem was there, I would have spent a day just sitting, watching and wishing the walls of buildings could whisper the truth of Marie Antoinette and her time there.

Most have heard the tales of Henry VIII and his six wives (divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived), but the one that fascinates to so much is the young Catherine Howard.

By far the youngest of his queens; he 50 and she just a teenager, one wonders; could she have ever measured up to be the queen he needed?

She was far from the virginal girl her family portrayed her to be when she married the king, but I don’t believe she was the over sexed young woman many claim her to have been either. She was a teenager, plain and simple. A young woman who had no idea of the horror her decisions, and those of others around her, would bring to her life.

It took just one note; filled with confessions from men who were tortured, to bring the end to Catherine’s short life.

When arrested at Hampton Court in November 1541; Catherine reportedly broken free from her guards and ran screaming down the corridor to the Chapel Royal. She screamed for the king to have mercy on her, but none came.

Her ghost has been seen and heard running and screaming down what is now called the haunted gallery.

When I walked down that corridor, I thought of that young woman and the fear she must have felt as she screamed for mercy. I did not hear, nor see her ghost, but maybe on another trip there I just might….

Have you ever just wondered through an old graveyard? Have you ever stopped to read the tombstones?

When I was a teenager, some friends and I visited an old local cemetery at night, did etchings of the headstones and recorded ourselves as we read out the person’s information. Of course I got scared and creeped out and that was the last time I went on a night visit of any cemetery.

Now though I find them so fascinating and truly filled with a beauty that most don’t see.

When you look at a fading tombstone, you are not seeing death, but someone’s life. There is the date of birth and date of death, but it is that time in between those dates that is filled with life!

Did they lead a happy life, follow their dreams or stay in a comfort zone of no risks? Did they have a secret love, a wondrous love or no love at all? Did they make a difference or did they stay out of view of the world?

I love to think about all those things, trying to imagine the person they were, those they loved and those who loved them.

Cemeteries are filled with so much history…so many chances to imagine life in times past and the chance to gaze at the beauty that is there.

Picture provided by Hannah McGowan. Primrose flowers at the All Saints Church on Viney Hill, Forest of Dean, England

This is one of my favorite places to visit.

As you walk across the grounds of this grand castle one can not help but wonder of the people who had walked it before.

Were they a courtier following the royal family on progress or one of the many servants it took to run such a place.

Do you see a pair of young lovers stealing a kiss under the stone arch or the kitchen young boy spying on them unseen.

No matter the time period it is, when a royal family is present, there is always something to see or hear.

Forest of Dean…

The bluebells of the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire blanket the forest each year in May. People from every where travel to see the beauty of these flowers but do they know that beneath that beauty is a rumored Roman road that cuts through the forest? What was the forest and neighboring villages like during their occupation. If you walk through the forest on a quiet day, will you hear the echo of time long ago ?