Sheen Palace has a lot of history. In reference to my ancestors...
King Edward III died here.
Sheen Palace was renamed Richmond Palace by King Henry VII
Formerly known as Sheen Palace until partially destroyed by fire and rebuilt and renamed by Henry VII. South-West London Archaeological Unit SMR considers it likely that the ground plan of the new building was almost identical with the old. Apparently moated (moat mentioned in 16th century texts). although moat of sheen palace supposedly filled on extension of apartments by Henry VII, section of moat (excavated 1972) was "not an original feature of the tudor palace". However the whole moat need not be of the same date. Layout of palace conjectured as ab lock of state apartments overlooking the river and arranged around a small courtyard. To the north east stood the fountain court flanked by the great hall and chapel, kitchen and ancillary block to north west of hall. Palace sold 1650 and by 1660 the ruins were divided into 27 tenements. Part excavated by P Dixon for DOE in 1972. (Greater London HER)
The remains of Richmond Palace built by Henry VII in 1499-1501 on the site of the manor-house of Sheen established by at least 1125. Two royal residences had previously stood on the site. The first was probably built by Edward III who died there in 1377. This royal residence was destroyed by Richard II in 1395 following the death of Queen Anne there in 1394. The second was built by Henry V between 1413 and 1422. Richmond was his principal residence, but the palace was destroyed by fire in 1497, to be then rebuilt by Henry VII. Henry VII died at Richmond in 1509 and although Henry VIII took possession of the palace he did not make so much use of it as his father, preferring Whitehall and Hampton Court Palaces. His wife Anne of Cleves was bestowed Richmond and occupied it from 1540-47, and Queen Elizabeth I died there in 1603. From the 17th century the palace was used less frequently by the royal family and it began to be demolished with several new buildings constructed
These were part of a new schema for Richmond and Kew Parks and included the early 18th century houses; The Wardrobe and the Trumpeter's House, now private residences. All that remains of Henry VII's Tudor palace is the main palace gateway and the old courtyard which is now known as Old Palace yard. The arms of Henry VII have been restored and have been repositioned above the gateway arch. The plan of the palace is known from Wyngaerde's drawings and other documentary evidence and included a great court and a large royal apartment block next to the river Thames. A privy garden and orchard were enclosed by the palace's walls. (PastScape)
The Old Palace and The Gatehouse. Incorporates the remains of Henry VII's Palace of 1501. The present buildings now 2 houses mainly C18 and C19. Built in dark red brick and battlemented with an octagonal turret, and projecting bays at either end and in the centre. Early C19 square headed Tudor Gothic windows. To the right is the original Palace Gateway (now giving entrance to Old Palace Yard) with the recently restored arms of Henry VII in a stone porch above the arch and a room over which is now part of The Gatehouse. The Old Palace is approached from the Green; the Gatehouse by canopied door just inside the Palace archway. (Listed Building Report)
(Source: HERE)
Richmond Palace was a royal residence on the right (south, or Surrey) bank of the River Thames, upstream of the Palace of Westminster, to which it lay 9 miles (14 km) south-west. It was erected c. 1501 within the royal manor of Sheen, by Henry VII of England, formerly known by his title Earl of Richmond, after which it was named. It was occupied by royalty until 1649. It replaced a former palace, itself built on the site of a manor house that had been appropriated by the Crown some two centuries beforehand, which had been in royal possession for most of that time.
In 1500, immediately preceding the construction of the new "Richmond" Palace the following year, the town of Sheen, which had grown up around the royal manor, changed its name to "Richmond", by command of Henry VII.[1] The two separate nomenclatures of Sheen and Richmond continue to this day, not without scope for confusion, since today's districts called "East Sheen" and "North Sheen", now under the administrative control of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, were never in ancient times within Sheen manor, but were rather carved out of what was formerly the ancient adjoining manor of Mortlake, in recent times. Richmond remained part of the County of Surrey until the mid-1960s, when it was absorbed by the expansion of London.
Of Richmond Palace today only vestigial traces remain, most notably the Gate House.[2] The site occupies the area between Richmond Green and the River Thames, the street names of which provide evidence of the former existence of the Palace, namely Old Palace Lane, Old Palace Yard and The Wardrobe.
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[show]History[edit]
Norman[edit]
Henry I lived briefly in the King's house in Sheen (spelt anciently Syenes, Schene,[1] Sheanes, Shene etc.)
1299 to 1495[edit]
In 1299 Edward I took his whole court to the manor-house at Sheen, close by the river side, which thus became a royal palace. William Wallace was executed in London in 1305, and it was in Sheen that the Commissioners from Scotland went down on their knees before Edward. When the boy-king Edward III came to the throne in 1327 he gave the manor to his mother Isabella. Almost 50 years later, after his wife Philippa died, Edward spent over 2,000 pounds on improvements. In the middle of the work Edward III himself died at the manor in 1377. In 1368 Geoffrey Chaucer served as a yeoman at Sheen.
Richard II was the first English king to make Sheen his main residence in 1383. He took his bride Anne of Bohemia there. Twelve years later Richard was so distraught at the death of Anne at the age of 28, that he, according to Holinshed, "caused it [the manor] to be thrown down and defaced; whereas the former kings of this land, being wearie 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 until Henry V undertook rebuilding work in 1414. The first, pre-Tudor, version of the palace was known as Sheen Palace. It was positioned roughly at51.460388°N 0.310219°W
, in what is now the garden of Trumpeters' House, between Richmond Green and the River. In 1414 Henry V also founded a Carthusianmonastery there known as Sheen Priory, adjacent on the N. to the royal residence.
, in what is now the garden of Trumpeters' House, between Richmond Green and the River. In 1414 Henry V also founded a Carthusianmonastery there known as Sheen Priory, adjacent on the N. to the royal residence.
Tudor[edit]
Henry VII, builder of Richmond Palace[edit]
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 of Earl of Richmond. The earldom was seated at Richmond Castle, Yorkshire, from which it took its name. In 1502, the new palace witnessed a betrothal. Princess Margaret, daughter of Henry VII, became engaged to King James IV of Scotland. From this line eventually came theHouse of Stuart. In 1509 Henry VII died at Richmond Palace.
Henry VIII[edit]
Later the same year, Henry VIII celebrated Christmas to Twelfth Night at Richmond with the first of his six wives, Catherine of Aragon. During those celebrations, says Mrs. A. T. Thomson, in her Memoirs of the Court of Henry the Eighth:
On the night of the Epiphany (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 a morris 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!"
In 1533 Richmond became the principal residence of Henry's daughter Mary after she was evicted from her previous residence of Beaulieu. Mary stayed at the palace until December of that year when she was ordered to Hatfield House to wait on the newly born Princess Elizabeth.
(Over the next hundred years from 1509, the Christmas celebrations gradually increased with music, dancing, theatricals and revels. The 12 days of Christmas were barely celebrated before the sixteenth century. By the time Elizabeth I died at Richmond in 1603, celebrating Christmas was well established in court circles.)
Almost nothing survives of earlier manors. In the 1520s Cardinal Wolsey adopted new renaissance architectural styles at Hampton Court Palace. This was only a few miles from Richmond and Henry was boiling with jealousy. On Wolsey's fall, he confiscated it and forced him to accept Richmond Palace in exchange. In his Chronicles, Hall says "when the common people, and especially such as had been servants of Henry VII, saw the cardinal keep house in the manor royal at Richmond, which that monarch so highly esteemed, it was a marvel to hear how they grudged, saying, 'so a butcher's dogge doth lie in the manor of Richmond!'".
In 1540 Henry gave the palace to his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves, as part of her divorce settlement.
Mary I[edit]
In 1554 Queen Mary I married Philip II of Spain. Forty-five years after her mother Catherine of Aragon had spent Christmas at Richmond Palace, they spent their honeymoon there (and at Hampton Court). Later that same year, the future Elizabeth I was held prisoner at Richmond by Mary I. Mary's father Henry VIII married Anne Boleyn and produced a daughter, Elizabeth. Despite periods of closeness throughout their childhood Mary grew to fear her half-sister's claim to the throne and their relationship deteriorated. When Mary became queen she chose to banish her own half-sister to Richmond Palace.
Elizabeth I[edit]
Once Elizabeth became queen she spent much of her time at Richmond, as she enjoyed hunting stags in the "Newe Parke of Richmonde" (now the Old Deer Park). Elizabeth died there on 24 March 1603.
Stuart[edit]
James I[edit]
King James I preferred the Palace of Westminster to Richmond but his eldest son Prince Henry was able to commission water-works for the garden designed by the French Huguenot, Salomon de Caus, and the Florentine Gostantino de Servi, shortly before his death in 1612.[3] Before he became king, Charles I owned Richmond Palace and started to build his art collection whilst living there. Like Elizabeth, James enjoyed hunting stags, and in 1637 created a new area for this now known as Richmond Park, renaming Elizabeth's "Newe Parke" the "Old Deer Park". There continue to be red deer in Richmond Park today, possibly descendants of the original herd, free from hunting and relatively tame.
Charles I and Commonwealth[edit]
Within months of the execution of Charles I in 1649, Richmond Palace was surveyed by order of Parliament 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.
Architecture and internal decoration[edit]
All the accounts which have come down to us describe the furniture and decorations of Richmond Palace as very superb, exhibiting in gorgeous tapestries the deeds of kings and heroes.
Survey of 1649[edit]
The survey taken in 1649 affords a minute description of the palace. The great hall was 100 feet in length, and 40 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, with fourteen 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 feet long and 40 broad, with cathedral-seats and pews. Adjoining the prince's garden was an open gallery, 200 feet 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.
Surviving structures[edit]
These include the Wardrobe, Trumpeters' House and the Gate House, all three of which are Grade I listed.[2][4][5]The Gate House was built in 1501, and was let on a 65 year lease by the Crown Estate Commissioners in 1986. It has five bedrooms.
Archaeology[edit]
During 1997 the site was investigated in the Channel 4 programme Time Team which was broadcast in January 1998.[6]
Curiosity[edit]
This palace was one of the first buildings in history to be equipped with a flushing lavatory, invented by Elizabeth I's godson, Sir John Harington.[7] Henry VIII had earlier installed flushing latrines at Hampton Court.[8]
Richmond Palace was built on the site of the old royal residence of Sheen (named from the Old English word for a 'beauty spot') in Surrey along the banks of the Thames. The royal family had taken up residence at Sheen for Christmas of 1498, but a fire broke out on December 21 and destroyed the old building, along with many valuable royal possessions.
The king decided to build a new palace in Sheen's place. Most people think of Henry VII as a miser who pinched every penny of the royal treasury, but there were several examples to contradict this image, and Richmond Palace was certainly one. The palace featured an amazing number of windows and the roof contained a large amount of lead. The new palace was ready for the royal family's use within two years. The name of "Richmond" was given to the Palace from the earldom that Henry held when he won at Bosworth Field.
Henry VIII lived at Richmond until Wolsey gave him Hampton Court Palace. Anne of Cleves lived at Richmond after her divorce and both Henry VII and his granddaughter Elizabeth I died there.
Not much of Henry VII's palace remains, but a walk around the area between Richmond Green and the Thames reveals a few sections of the Tudor structure. What remains has been made into a private residence and is not open to the public.
(Source: HERE)
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