Where do I start? There is so much information I want to share because so much has been going on for the past several months that I couldn’t share. In addition to the release of the people who would carry the torch, LOCOG (The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games) also released the street by street map of where exactly the torch would travel. Prior to this weekend, all I knew was that I would carry the torch between the cities of Oxford and Reading. Now I know the exact place I will carry the torch and it is so exciting!
I was told I would carry the torch in Bisham (pronounced Biss-um) which is a village that sits on the Thames River. I went and looked it up online and found out that it is a very small village with a population of less than 1200 people. As the day went on though, I found out that this was indeed a very special location. As information released from London, I discovered that along the entire torch route, there are places noted as landmark locations. It turns out that my location was actually called Bisham Abbey and it was one of the landmark locations. One of the other landmark locations was Stonehenge, so this made me curious as to what made Bisham so special. What I learned was really fascinating!
Bisham Abbey is a manor house that was built around 1260 for the Knights Templar. The Knights Templar was a very powerful order of knights during the Middle Ages. In 1307, King Edward II took over the manor. Our President has Camp David to get away and spend quiet time with his family; well, in the early 1300’s Queen Elizabeth of Scots, her husband Robert the Bruce and her stepdaughter Princess Marjorie had the Bisham Abbey manor. Then in 1540, King Henry the VIII had the manor and gave it to his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves, as part of their divorce settlement. Anne ended up swapping the house with Sir Philip Hoby and members of the Hoby family lived there until 1768.
I started thinking…..and this is the part I really hate to have to admit……you know all that stuff that they teach us in school that we think is boring and always ask why we need to learn that….now I know. I took World History this year and I remembered King Henry VIII was the one who had lots of wives because he needed an heir to the throne. When the Pope denied him a divorce from his first wife, King Henry VIII left the Catholic Church and formed the Church of England. In all he married six times and had two children, King Edward VI and Elizabeth I. After his death, his only son inherited the throne, but died soon after. Eventually his daughter from his second marriage, Elizabeth I, became Queen of England. So Queen Elizabeth stayed at Bisham Abbey as a young girl! They say that even once the Hoby family moved into the home, Queen Elizabeth I frequently visited. Who would have ever guessed that something I learned in school this year would make my torch journey so much more exciting! So the next time you are sitting and class wondering why you need to learn this – remember that you never know when it might become something significant!
If you want to see the detailed torch route and the torch bearers for that route, visit http://www.london2012.com/olympic-torch-relay
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