HYLAND
Syon House has a most interesting and tumultuous
history. The Bridgettine Abbey, founded by King Henry
V in 1415, was dedicated to the great Swedish mystic,
St. Bridget, and was famed as a place of spiritual
learning, public preaching and for its library. When, in
1535, Henry VIII divorced Catherine of Aragon (who
had favored Syon) and made himself Supreme Head
of the Church of England, he had Richard Reynolds,
Father Confessor of the nuns, executed and his corpse
placed on the abbey gateway. In a turn of poetic justice,
indeed, divine judgment, in 1547, Henry VIII's coffin was
brought to Syon on its way to Windsor for burial; the
coffin burst open during the night and his body was
devoured by dogs.
State dining room, looking into ante room
