Westhorpe Hall

Westhorpe Hall was the residence of Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk and of Princess Mary (daughter of King Henry VII and sister of King Henry VIII), a love match and second marriage for Mary (she was briefly Queen consort of France as wife of Louis XII) and third marriage for Charles.

There, they raised their children, Frances (mother of Lady Jane Grey), Eleanor, and Henry Brandon, 1st Earl of Lincoln.

Princess Mary Tudor died at Westhorpe Hall where her body was embalmed and held in state for three weeks.

[1] When the house was being demolished in the late 1760s, the site was visited by the antiquarian Thomas Martin of Palgrave: "I went to see the dismal ruins of Westhorpe Hall, formerly the seat of Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk.

The coping bricks, battlements and many other ornamental pieces, are made of earth, and burnt hard, as fresh as when first built.