| Richmond Palace | |
|---|---|
 Richmond Palace, west front, drawn byAntony Wyngaerde, dated 1562 | |
  Shown inRichmond upon Thames | |
| General information | |
| Coordinates | 51°27′40″N0°18′32″W / 51.46117°N 0.30888°W /51.46117; -0.30888 |
| Destroyed | 1649–1659 |
Richmond Palace was aTudorroyal residence on theRiver Thames inEngland which stood in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Situated in what was then ruralSurrey, it lay upstream and on the opposite bank from thePalace of Westminster, which was located nine miles (14 km) to the north-east. It was erected in about 1501 byHenry VII of England, formerly known as theEarl of Richmond, in honour of which the manor of Sheen had recently been renamed "Richmond". Richmond Palace therefore replacedShene Palace, the latter palace being itself built on the site of an earliermanor house which had been appropriated byEdward I in 1299 and which was subsequently used by his next three direct descendants before it fell into disrepair.
In 1500, a year before the construction of the new Richmond Palace began, the name of the town ofSheen, which had grown up around the royal manor, was changed to "Richmond" by command of Henry VII.[1] However, both names, Sheen and Richmond, continue to be used. Today's districts ofEast Sheen andNorth Sheen, now under the administrative control of theLondon Borough of Richmond upon Thames, were never in ancient times within the manor of Sheen, but were rather developed during the 19th and 20th centuries in parts of the adjoining manor and parish ofMortlake. Richmond remained part of the County of Surrey until April 1, 1965, when it was absorbed by the expansion ofGreater London as a result of theLondon Government Act 1963.
Richmond Palace was a favourite home ofElizabeth I, who died there in 1603. It remained a residence of the kings and queens of England until the death ofCharles I of England in 1649. Within months of his execution, the palace was surveyed by order of theParliament of England and was sold for £13,000. Over the following ten years it was largely demolished, the stones and timbers being re-used as building materials elsewhere. Only vestigial traces now survive, notably a palacegatehouse.[2] (51°27'41"N 0°18'33"W). The site of the former palace is the area between Richmond Green and theRiver Thames, and some local street names provide clues to existence of the former Palace, includingOld Palace Lane and Old Palace Yard.
Henry I divided the manor of Shene from the royal manor of Kingston and granted it to a Norman knight.[3] The manor-house of Sheen was established by at least 1125.
In 1299Edward I took his whole court to the manor-house atSheen, close by the river side. In 1305, he received at Sheen the Commissioners fromScotland to arrange the Scottish civil government.[4]
The house returned to royal hands in the reign ofEdward II and after his deposition it was held by his wife, Queen Isabella. When the boy-kingEdward III came to the throne in 1327, he gave the manor to his motherIsabella. After her death he extended and embellished the manor house and turned it into the first Shene Palace. Edward III died at Shene on 21 June 1377.[3] In 1368Geoffrey Chaucer served as ayeoman at Sheen.
Richard II was the first English king to make Sheen his main residence in 1383. He took his brideAnne of Bohemia there. Twelve years later Richard was so distraught at the death of Anne at the age of 28, that he, according toHolinshed, "caused it [the manor] to be thrown down and defaced; whereas the former kings of this land, being wearied of the citie, used customarily thither to resort as to a place of pleasure, and serving highly to their recreation." For almost 20 years it lay in ruins untilHenry V undertook rebuilding work in 1414.[3] The first, pre-Tudor, version of the palace was known asSheen Palace. It was positioned roughly at51°27′37″N0°18′37″W / 51.460388°N 0.310219°W /51.460388; -0.310219, in what is now the garden ofTrumpeters' House, between Richmond Green and the River. In 1414 Henry V also founded aCarthusian monastery there known asSheen Priory, adjacent on the N. to the royal residence.
Henry VI continued the rebuilding in order that the palace might be worthy of the reception of his queen,Margaret of Anjou.Edward IV granted it to his queenElizabeth Woodville for life.[4]
In 1492, a great tournament was held at the palace by Henry VII.[1] On 23 December 1497 a fire destroyed most of the wooden buildings. Henry rebuilt it and named the new palace Richmond Palace after his title ofEarl of Richmond. The earldom was seated atRichmond Castle, Yorkshire, from which it took its name. In 1502, the new palace witnessed the betrothal ofPrincess Margaret, daughter of Henry VII, to KingJames IV of Scotland. From this line eventually came theHouse of Stuart. In 1509 Henry VII died at Richmond Palace.
At Christmastide in 1497, a great fire broke out in the king's private chambers, destroying a large portion of the palace. The Milanese ambassador, Raimondo Soncino, witnessed the blaze, and estimated the damage at 60,000 ducats, in modern money about $10 million or £7 million. The fire lasted three hours and tore through the rest of the palace, causing hundreds to flee in panic.[5]Hammerbeam roofs of the Middle Ages were a structural necessity as much as they were pretty architecture, as they kept the heavy timbered roofs from caving in; they were the carpenter's equivalent of the stone vaulting found in Gothic cathedrals of the Middle Ages because, as in famous examples likeWestminster Hall, they let the architect achieve greater heights with thinner walls, and evenly distributed the lateral weight.[6] In as large a fire as described by Soncino the English oak beams of the great hall, a centrepiece of a royal Christmas, would have stood no chance of remaining upright and intact. They would have been engulfed in flames at a temperature of over 270 °C (518 °F). Much of the tapestry work of earlier ages was burnt to cinders, and losses included crown jewels and much of the royal wardrobe, including a large amount ofcloth of gold, at this time a luxury item only wearable by royalty; and in the case of Sheen Palace it was a feature of the bedding.[7]
Accounts refer toHenry VII, his mother,Margaret Beaufort, and his wife,Elizabeth of York, running for their lives, with the King barely making it out in time: one of the corridors nearly collapsed on top of him. As it was the time of the Christmas revels, also present during the disaster were all but one of the royal children, and all under the age of 10:Margaret,Mary, and a six-year-oldHenry VIII, each of them described as being hurried out in the arms of their nursemaids. For Queen Elizabeth, this would have been a horrible blow: records show that as a child in the 1470s this was where she spent much of her childhood; the palace would also have had strong associations with her motherElizabeth Woodville: Edward IV left Sheen to his wife in his will. Soncino reports all of the events outlined above, and also states in his accounts that the king "does not attach much importance to this loss. He purposes to build the chapel all in stone, and much finer than before."[8]
Construction of the new palace began in 1498. Henry named his creation Richmond Palace, in honour of the title he had held before acceding to the throne which he had inherited from his father: Earl of Richmond. Though the palace did not survive theEnglish Civil War, fragments of the edifice still remain along the bank of the Thames, as doesRichmond Park, originally a royal hunting reserve that Henry Tudor and all members of the Tudors and early Stuarts used for their personal entertainment. Henry Tudor built a large and grand palace that became the centre of royal life for many years to come, a very important centre of the court of each Tudor monarch and also James I. Drawings and descriptions of the palace survive, as does the documentation of a 1970s excavation of the grounds; thus posterity has a fairly accurate idea of the contents and features of the building.
Richmond Palace was largely a building of brick and white stone in the latest styles of the times, with geometric octagonal towers, pepper-pot chimney caps, and ornateweather vanes made of brass.[9] Though it retained the layout of Sheen Palace, it had new additions that would mark theRenaissance: for example, long galleries to display sculpture and portraiture. Henry VII also established a library and a richly appointed chapel.[10] The windows were panelled, built to bring in more light than the tiny slit-like windows of a castle, built for defence. From its earliest it had inner courtyards designed for leisure, with several portions built for the royal family overlooking a large green. Richmond Palace covered 10 acres (4 ha) of land and was large and well appointed enough to have its own orchards and walled gardens. It is known that Henry Tudor decorated his home with many gifts he accepted from Italian bankers in Venice, and the evidence for this and the other accoutrements survives in a 17th-century inventory taken of the palace that is now held inThe National Archives. The inventory also describes new tapestries he commissioned to replace the ones lost in the fire.
Later the same year, Henry VIII celebrated Christmas toTwelfth Night at Richmond with the first of his six wives,Catherine of Aragon. The events were described inEdward Hall's Chronicle.[11] During those celebrations, saysMrs. A. T. Thomson, in herMemoirs of the Court of Henry the Eighth:
On the night of theEpiphany (1510), a pageant was introduced into the hall at Richmond, representing a hill studded with gold and precious stones, and having on its summit a tree of gold, from which hung roses and pomegranates. From the declivity of the hill descended a lady richly attired, who, with the gentlemen, or, as they were then called, children of honour, danced amorris before the king. On another occasion, in the presence of the court, an artificial forest was drawn in by a lion and an antelope, the hides of which were richly embroidered with golden ornaments; the animals were harnessed with chains of gold, and on each sat a fair damsel in gay apparel. In the midst of the forest, which was thus introduced, appeared a gilded tower, at the end of which stood a youth, holding in his hands a garland of roses, as the prize of valour in a tournament which succeeded the pageant!"
Henry's son,Henry, Duke of Cornwall, was born there on New Year's Day, 1511, but died on 22 February.[12] Some years later, the King received a present ofHampton Court from Wolsey, and in return the Cardinal received permission to reside at the royal manor of Richmond, where he kept up so much state as to increase the growing ill-feeling against him. When he fell into disfavour he took up his residence at the Lodge in the 'great' park, and subsequently moved to the Priory.[4]
George Cavendish, the biographer ofCardinal Wolsey, described carved and painted royal heraldic beasts in a garden at Richmond Palace.[13] Wolsey said adun cow (referring to theEarldom of Richmond) was also found in the heraldry ofThomas Boleyn and was a portent of the relationship ofAnne Boleyn and Henry VIII.[14]
In August 1531, Richmond became the principal residence of Henry's daughterMary after Henry separated her from her mother, Catherine.[15] Mary stayed at the palace until December 1533, when she was ordered toHatfield House to wait on the newly born Princess Elizabeth.[16]
In 1540, Henry gave the palace to his fourth wife,Anne of Cleves, as part of her annulment settlement.[17] In 1546, Anne appointedDavid Vincent keeper of "Shenealias Richemonde" and the New Park of Richmond.[18]
In 1554,Mary I marriedPhilip of Spain. Forty-five years after her motherCatherine of Aragon had spent Christmas at Richmond Palace, they spent their honeymoon there (and atHampton Court). Later that same year, her sisterElizabeth I was taken to Richmond as a prisoner on her way toWoodstock Palace.
Once Elizabeth I became queen she spent much of her time at Richmond, as she enjoyed hunting stags in the "Newe Parke of Richmonde" (now theOld Deer Park). Elizabeth I died there on 24 March 1603. Her body was taken by barge to lie in state atWhitehall Palace.[19]
KingJames I preferred thePalace of Whitehall to Richmond, but his eldest sonPrince Henry was able to commission water-works for the garden designed by the FrenchHuguenot,Salomon de Caus, and the FlorentineCostantini de' Servi, shortly before his death in 1612.[20] Before he became king,Charles I owned Richmond Palace and started to build his art collection whilst living there. Like Elizabeth I, Charles I enjoyed hunting stags, and in 1637 created a new area for this now known asRichmond Park, renaming Elizabeth's "Newe Parke" the "Old Deer Park". There continue to bered deer in Richmond Park today, possibly descendants of the original herd, free from hunting and relatively tame.
Charles I gave the palace with the manor to QueenHenrietta Maria, probably in 1626, and it became the home of the royal children. Within months of theexecution of the King in 1649, Richmond Palace was surveyed by order ofParliament to see what it could fetch in terms of raw materials, and was sold for £13,000. Over the next ten years it was largely demolished, the stones being re-used as building materials.
Following theRestoration of the Monarchy in 1660, the palace and manor were restored to QueenHenrietta Maria (d.1669), the mother ofCharles II of England and widow of the beheaded King Charles I, who during the Civil War had lived in exile in France. It was then in a dismantled condition, having suffered much dilapidation during the inter-regnum. The ruined palace was never rebuilt.
All the accounts which have come down to us describe the furniture and decorations of Richmond Palace as superb, exhibiting in tapestries the deeds of kings and heroes.
The survey taken in 1649 affords a minute description of the palace. The great hall was 100 ft (30 m) in length, and 40 ft (12 m) in breadth, having a screen at the lower end, over which was "fayr foot space in the higher end thereof, the pavement of square tile, well lighted and seated; at the north end having a turret, or clock-case, covered with lead, which is a special ornament to this building." The prince's lodgings are described as a "freestone building, three stories high, withfourteen turrets covered with lead," being "a very graceful ornament to the whole house, and perspicuous to the county round about." A round tower is mentioned, called the "Canted Tower," with a staircase of 124 steps. The chapel was 96 ft (29 m) long and 40 ft (12 m) broad, with cathedral-seats and pews. Adjoining the prince's garden was an open gallery, 200 ft (61 m) long, over which was a close gallery of similar length. Here was also a royal library. Three pipes supplied the palace with water, one from the white conduit in the new park, another from the conduit in the town fields, and the third from a conduit near the alms-houses in Richmond.
In July 1997 the site was investigated as part of series 5 of theChannel 4 programmeTime Team which was broadcast in January 1998.[21]
This palace was one of the first buildings in history to be equipped with a flushing lavatory, invented by Elizabeth I's godson, SirJohn Harington.[22] Henry VIII had earlier installed flushing latrines at Hampton Court.[23]
Structures of the former palace that have survived include the Wardrobe, the Trumpeters' House and the Gate House, all three of which areGrade I listed.[2][24][25] The Gate House was built in 1501, and was let on a 65-year lease by theCrown Estate Commissioners in 1986. It has five bedrooms.
