Hampton Court Palace is a Grade I listed royal palace in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, 12 miles south west and upstream of central London on the River Thames. Building of the palace began in 1514 for Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, the chief minister of King Henry VIII. In 1529, as Wolsey fell from favour, the cardinal gave the palace to the king to check his disgrace. The palace went on to become one of Henry's most favoured residences; soon after acquiring the property, he arranged for it to be enlarged so that it might more easily accommodate his sizeable retinue of courtiers. Along with St James' Palace, it is one of only two surviving palaces out of the many the king owned. The palace is currently in the possession of Queen Elizabeth II and the Crown.
The Restoration of the Stuart monarchy in the kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland took place in 1660 when King Charles II returned from exile in continental Europe. The preceding period of the Protectorate and the civil wars came to be known as the Interregnum (1649–1660).
The Convention Parliament was a parliament in English history which, owing to an abeyance of the Crown, assembled without formal summons by the Sovereign. Sir William Blackstone applied the term to only two English Parliaments, those of 1660 and 1689, but some sources have also applied the name to the parliament of 1399.
Real tennis – one of several games sometimes called "the sport of kings" – is the original racquet sport from which the modern game of tennis is derived. It is also known as court tennis in the United States, formerly royal tennis in England and Australia, and courte-paume in France. Many French real tennis courts are at jeu de paume clubs.
Thomas Killigrew was an English dramatist and theatre manager. He was a witty, dissolute figure at the court of King Charles II of England.
The Irish Real Tennis Association encourages the preservation and development of the game and facilities of real tennis in the Republic of Ireland.
The Dean of the Chapel Royal, in any kingdom, can be the title of an official charged with oversight of that kingdom's chapel royal, the ecclesiastical establishment which is part of the royal household and ministers to it.
Restoration style, also known as Carolean style from the name Carolus, refers to the decorative and literary arts that became popular in England from the restoration of the monarchy in 1660 under Charles II until the late 1680s. Similar shifts appeared in prose style.
William Talman (1650–1719) was an English architect and landscape designer.
The International Tennis Club of Washington plays real tennis on Prince's Court at the Regency Sport and Health Club in McLean, Virginia, 6 miles from Washington, D.C. Dedicated on October 11, 1997, Prince's is the only new real tennis venue to be constructed in the United States since the Racquet Club of Chicago was built in 1923. The court, named after financial supporter and club co-founder Frederick H. Prince, features an 18 foot high main wall made of plate glass giving spectators an unrivalled view of play.
The Dorset Garden Theatre in London, built in 1671, was in its early years also known as the Duke of York's Theatre, or the Duke's Theatre. In 1685, King Charles II died and his brother, the Duke of York, was crowned as James II. When the Duke became King, the theatre became the Queen's Theatre in 1685, referring to James' second wife, Mary of Modena. The name remained when William III and Mary II came to the throne in 1689.
Edward Backwell was an English goldsmith-banker, and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1673 and 1683. He has been called "the principal founder of the banking system in England", and "far and away the best documented banker of his time".
The King's Company was one of two enterprises granted the rights to mount theatrical productions in London, after the London theatre closure had been lifted at the start of the English Restoration. It existed from 1660 to 1682, when it merged with the Duke's Company to form the United Company.
Lisle's Tennis Court was a building off Portugal Street in Lincoln's Inn Fields in London. Originally built as a real tennis court, it was used as a playhouse during two periods, 1661–1674 and 1695–1705. During the early period, the theatre was called Lincoln's Inn Fields Playhouse, also known as The Duke's Playhouse, The New Theatre or The Opera. The building was demolished and replaced by a purpose-built theatre for a third period, 1714–1728. The tennis court theatre was the first public playhouse in London to feature the moveable scenery that would become a standard feature of Restoration theatres.
Gibbon's Tennis Court was a building off Vere Street and Clare Market, near Lincoln's Inn Fields in London, England. Originally built as a real tennis court, it was used as a playhouse from 1660 to 1663, shortly after the English Restoration. As a theatre, it has been variously called the "Theatre Royal, Vere Street", the "Vere Street Theatre", or simply "The Theatre". It was the first permanent home for Thomas Killigrew's King's Company and was the stage for some of the earliest appearances by professional actresses.
Sir Peter Lely was a painter of Dutch origin whose career was nearly all spent in England, where he became the dominant portrait painter to the court.
The English Army existed while England was an independent state and was at war with other states, but it was not until the Interregnum and the New Model Army that England acquired a peacetime professional standing army. At the Restoration of the monarchy, Charles II kept a small standing army, formed from elements of the Royalist army in exile and elements of the New Model Army, from which the most senior regular regiments of today's British Army can trace their antecedence. Likewise, Royal Marines can trace their origins back to the formation of the English Army's "Duke of York and Albany's maritime regiment of Foot" at the grounds of the Honourable Artillery Company on 28 October 1664.
The Stuart period of British history lasted from 1603 to 1714 during the dynasty of the House of Stuart. The period ended with the death of Queen Anne and the accession of King George I from the German House of Hanover.
The Restoration was the return of the monarchy to Scotland in 1660 after the period of the Commonwealth, and the subsequent three decades of Scottish history until the Revolution and Convention of Estates of 1689. It was part of a wider Restoration in the British Isles that included the return of the Stuart dynasty to the thrones of England and Ireland in the person of Charles II.
The Massacre of Paris is a 1689 tragedy by the English writer Nathaniel Lee. It was first staged by the United Company at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. It is based around the 1572 St. Bartholomew's Day massacre which led the killing of many Huguenots during the French Wars of Religion. The events had previously been portrayed in Christopher Marlowe's Elizabethan play The Massacre at Paris.
