Step with me into a palace that no longer stands, yet once witnessed some of the most important Christmases of the Tudor age.

In this episode of my Tudor Christmas Advent series, we journey to Richmond Palace, once known as Shene: a beloved winter residence of the Tudor monarchs, rebuilt by Henry VII after a devastating fire and transformed into one of the most elegant palaces of the dynasty.

Although Richmond has almost entirely disappeared, surviving sketches, descriptions, and ground plans allow us to reconstruct it in our imagination - its great halls glowing with candlelight, greenery hung for Christmas, music echoing through long galleries, and the Thames mist curling around red-brick towers.

This was a palace where:

• Henry VII celebrated Christmas with ceremony and splendour
• Henry ...