The Tudor Room

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Appropriately many of the exhibits in this room are connected more or less closely with that popular figure King Henry VIII.

Notably there are the quaint helmet with the ram's horns on it and the body armour on the central mounted figure in the room which were both presented to King Henry VIII by the Emperor Maximilian. The suit for fighting on foot weighs 93 lbs. The complete armour for man and horse at the end of the room was made for the King in later life when he was big and heavy, and if we reckon that the King himself weighed at least 16 stone, the horse was asked to carry very nearly 400 lbs (180 kilo).

The heavy spiked club was known as "Henry VIII's Walking Staff." The visitor leaves the Tudor Room by the north-east staircase and descends to the basement popularly called the "dungeons," which, in spite of the romantic tales of prisoners drowned at high tide, is more than ten feet above high water mark. It was vaulted in brick about 1730, and is divided into three rooms, of which that entered from the stair is known as THE MORTAR ROOM.



Next page: Mortar Room

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