1494
Giles Daubeney, later Lord Chamberlain, leases and modernises the medieval manor of Hampton Court
1514
Thomas Wolsey, soon to be made cardinal, leases Hampton Court Palace. He begins rebuilding on a grand scale, converting Hampton Court into a lavish palace. Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon visit for the first time.
1523
Henry VIII’s former tutor John Skelton writes that, 'The King’s Court should hath the excellence. But Hampton Court hath the pre-eminence'.
1529
Henry VIII’s royal workmen take over building works at Hampton Court Palace
1530
Henry VIII and his councillors send the first letter threatening a break with the Papacy to Rome from the palace
1537
Queen Jane Seymour, Henry VIII’s third wife, gives birth to Prince Edward. He is baptized with great ceremony in the Chapel Royal, but she dies soon after due to complications from the birth.
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1540
Henry VIII’s divorce from Anne of Cleves is signed at the palace. It is also where Henry VIII marries his fifth wife, Catherine Howard, and she is proclaimed queen.
1541
Catherine Howard’s earlier sexual liaisons are revealed to Henry VIII at Hampton Court. She is interrogated and kept under house arrest in the palace.
1543
Henry VIII marries his sixth and final wife, Kateryn Parr, in the Chapel Royal
1603
Shakespeare and his company the ‘King’s Men’ perform plays in the Great Hall for King James I
1604
James I calls the Hampton Court Conference which commissions the King James Bible
1689
Sir Christopher Wren demolishes large parts of the Tudor palace and begins building a new palace for King William III and Queen Mary II
1760
George III becomes king. He abandons Hampton Court as royal residence and it begins to be divided up into grace-and-favour apartments.
1838
Queen Victoria opens the gardens and state apartments to the public free of charge
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1944
General, later President, Eisenhower plans the Normandy landings in Bushy Park
1984
Prince Charles, speaking at Hampton Court, calls for 'a new harmony between imagination and taste and in the relationship between the architects and the people of this country'.
