Thomas More Research

Walk 7. Upstream the Thames, from east to west

Description of Eltham Palace | English Heritage
  • Greenwich (and Eltham) on the South Bank
  • The Tower of London on the North Bank (Walk 2)
  • London Bridge (Walk 2)
  • Old Swan Piers (Walk 2) 
  • The steelyard and Hanseatic piers (Walk 2)
  • Walbrook Stream (Walk 2) 
  • River Fleet
  • Westminster Hall (Walk 5)
  • Westminster Abbey (Walk 5)
  • River Tyburn (Walk 5)
  • Lambeth Palace (linked to the North Bank by a wherry. Walk 5) 
  • Chelsea (Walk 4)
  • Syon House
  • Richmond Palace
  • Hampton Court
  • Windsor Castle

During the life of Thomas More the River Thames was a most important means of communication. It provided the access of goods from other ports of England and it was the gateway from the European continent. 

London Bridge was first built by the Romans, and for many centuries it was the only bridge between the north and south banks at London. Many houses were built on the bridge. Thomas More, while under-sheriff of the City of London was responsible for the maintenance of London Bridge. After his beheading his head was placed on a spike on London Bridge.

The Thames was also the way Lutheran books came into England, through ships from the Hanseatic League (See Hanseatic Piers on Walk 2). 

The river was the link between the various royal palaces at Greenwich, Westminster, Richmond, and Windsor, and royal journeys, such as that to Abingdon. Important houses were built along the Thames, precisely to be well communicated with the royal palaces or with London. These royal palaces and houses are considered in this walk going upstream. 

Pilgrims of Thomas More have often gone by boat from Chelsea Harbour to Greenwich, landing at Westminster stairs and / or The Tower. 

Greenwich and Eltham

More (aged 21) met Prince Harry in 1499 at the Royal Palace in Eltham. Erasmus was staying in Greenwich in the house of Lord Mountjoy, who was More’s friend and had studied in Paris under Erasmus. Mountjoy invited More to his house and introduced him Erasmus for the first time. More went to Greenwich with his fellow student at Lincoln’s Inn, Edward Arnold. So, More, Mountjoy, Arnold, and Erasmus (aged 33), walked to Eltham and met Harry (aged 8). In reading this episode in biographies and historical novels we should bear in mind the difference of ages. Harry was a child, but not Thomas. See Thomas More’s Vocation, chapter 2: Qum exaltatus fuero a terra, omnia traham ad meipsum, pp. 43-76. 

The Great Hall of Eltham Palace, the third largest hammer-beam roof in England, is open to the public, but the rest is gone.

More served “the Court at Greenwich”.

On 25 October 1529, Henry VIII delivered the Great Seal of England to Thomas More, as the new Lord Chancellor, in his palace at Greenwich. 

Syon House

Here there was a Bridgettine Abbey founded in 1415. The abbey moved to the site now occupied by Syon House in 1431. As other Bridgettine abbeys, it included a monastery of women and one of men. It had an important library and it was a centre humanistic learning. The Catalogue of the Books kept at Syon Abbey is extant. Richard Reynolds, one of the five first martyrs in the reign of Henry VIII, was a Bridgettine priest and a friend of Thomas More. He was executed at Tyburn on 4 May 1535. 

Richmond Palace

See Thomas More’s Vocation, pp. 97 and 155. 

Hampton Court

The building was begun by Thomas Wolsey in 1514 and surrendered after his fall in 1529 to Henry VIII. More was often in this palace to do business both with Wolsey and later with Henry. In the Wolsey Art Gallery, there is a portrait of Erasmus that Erasmus gave to More as a token of their friendship. The film A Man for All Seasons opens here.

Windsor Castle

Although More served at Henry’s court in Windsor Castle, the whole place is more an illustration of royalty than – in my opinion – a site that recalls the memory of St. Thomas More. A pilgrim might give it a miss, apart from those interested in Holbein’s sketches of More and of his family members which are housed here, although not on public display. Researchers have access to them, and prints of them can be acquired from the Royal Collection, Saxon Tower, Windsor Castle, Windsor, SL4 1NJ, Tel.: 01753 868286, ext. 2615.

The castle was first built by William the Conqueror, who came to England in 1066. The castle has continued being used by the English monarchs until the present day.

Close to Windsor Castle is Runnymede, a large meadow where King John signed the Magna Carta in 1215. At his trial, More referred to the first clause of the Magna Carta, a clause which states that “the English Church shall be free, and shall have its rights undiminished and its liberties unimpaired”.