📍Hever Castle, Hever Road, Hever, Edenbridge TN8 7NG, UK
1506 – 1513“I spent my earliest years at my family's house at Blickling in Norfolk, but when I was small my father, Thomas, moved us to Hever Castle in Kent — a compact, moated castle among woods and meadows, where my sister Mary, my brother George and I grew up learning music, dancing, needlework and French. My father was an ambitious diplomat, and in 1513, when I was about twelve, he found me a place at the court of Margaret of Austria at Mechelen, one of the most cultured in Europe; she wrote to him that I was bright and pleasant for my age. From there I went to France, serving Queen Claude for seven years and absorbing the fashions, wit and learning of the French court. When I came home in 1522 I was unlike any other lady at the English court. King Henry rode to Hever to court me, and wrote me letters there. I became his queen, and our daughter Elizabeth became the greatest monarch England ever had. Hever, where I grew up, still keeps two prayer books I wrote in.”
🗺️ Approximate location today
📍 Street view today