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Woodstock Palace was a royal residence in the England town of Woodstock, Oxfordshire.
Henry I of England built a hunting lodge here and in 1129 he built of walls to create the first enclosed park, where lions and leopards were kept. The lodge became a palace under Henry's grandson, Henry II, who spent time here with his mistress, Rosamund Clifford. Henry III frequently visited the palace for entertainment, including once in 1237 when he invited his long-confined cousin Eleanor, Fair Maid of Brittany.Sharp, Accounts, 89; CPR 1232–47, 204.
A chapel or oratory was built for Eleanor of Provence, the wife of Henry III, in 1250. The new chapel was dedicated to St Edward and located above the Queen's Chamber. Externally the chapel had crenellations.Edward Marshall, The Early History of Woodstock Manor and Its Environs, (Oxford, 1873), p. 382.
Henry VII spent over £4000 from his chamber account on building works at Woodstock.Howard Colvin, History of the King's Works, 4:2 (London: HMSO, 1982), p. 349. The work was supervised by Master George Gainesford, Sheriff of Oxfordshire and others, and the mason was William Este of Oxford.Samuel Bentley, Excerpta Historica: Or, Illustrations of English History (London, 1831), pp. 96, 98. He modified the hall, a bay window for the Queen's chamber (for Elizabeth of York), and, in 1507, the gatehouse. According to Isaac Wake the gatehouse had a carved Latin inscription recording that it was the work of Henry VII. The King's chamber also had a bay window (built by William Flower), and there was a chamber for his mother, Lady Margaret Beaufort.Howard Colvin, History of the King's Works, 4:2 (London: HMSO, 1982), p. 349.
The new hall roof was constructed by a carpenter John Brian of Oxford in 1494. Brian complained that Henry VII had agreed to his drawing for the roof, but after he began cutting and shaping the timbers, Henry Dean, Prior of Llanthony (paymaster at the site) told him to make changes. Brian asked for another £9 to accommodate a change in the plan or "proposition" for the roof involving a round window.Howard Colvin, History of the King's Works, 4:2 (London: HMSO, 1982), p. 349. Stone for Palace in the 1490s was brought from quarries at Shirburn, Barrington, Taynton, and Windrush. Timber was brought from Bladon, Kirtlington, and Spelsbury. Bricks were made at Oxford and at Brill.Howard Colvin, History of the King's Works, 4:2 (London: HMSO, 1982), p. 349.
William Este or East maintained the Palace for many years. In the reign of Henry VIII, Sir Edward Chamberlain organised repairs to the newer buildings and to "Rosamund's Place". The roofs at Woodstock were repaired with lead taken from the Priory at Canons Ashby. According to William Latymer, Anne Boleyn was kind to one of her gentlewomen servants, Mrs Jaskyne, who made a request to leave the court at Woodstock to visit her sick husband in September 1533 or July 1535.Maria Dowling, "William Latymer's Cronickille of Anne Bulleyne", Camden Miscellany, XXX (London, 1990), pp. 52–53. Edward VI sent a carpenter called Thomas Cropper to survey and draw the buildings.Howard Colvin, History of the King's Works, 4:2 (London: HMSO, 1982), pp. 351–352.
Elizabeth is said to have been lodged in the upper floors of the gatehouse in 1554, and scratched inscriptions on the palace windows with a diamond ring, and written on a shutter with charcoal.John Nichols, Progresses of Queen Elizabeth, 1 (London, 1823), pp. 8–11 Including the verse:
Repairs made to the palace in 1576 included the plastering of several rooms. The accounts mention a courtyard with a fountain decorated in an earlier period with heraldic beasts, and a stairway to the great hall also featured four beasts.Howard Colvin, History of the King's Works, 4:2 (London: HMSO, 1982), p. 353. Repairs in 1595 including new decorative plasterwork were supervised by William Spicer, who was also surveyor of the military works at Berwick-upon-Tweed.William Acres, Letters of Lord Burleigh to his son Robert Cecil (Cambridge, 2017), p. 166: Sue Simpson, Sir Henry Lee: Elizabethan Courtier (Ashgate, 2014), p. 87.
In 1611, King James I gave Woodstock Palace to his son Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales,Horatio Brown, Calendar State Papers Venice, 1610-1613, vol. 12 (London, 1906), p. 207 no. 324. who had a banqueting house built of leafy tree branches in the park, in which he held a dinner for his parents and his sister Princess Elizabeth in August 1612.Steven Veerapen, The Wisest Fool: The Lavish Life of James VI and I (Birlinn, 2023), p. 287: Mary Anne Everett Green & S. C. Lomas, Elizabeth, Electress Palatine and Queen of Bohemia (London, 1909), p. 23.Thomas Birch, Life of Henry Prince of Wales (London, 1760), pp. 331-2. Henry paid for a poor boy from Woodstock to be apprenticed with Thomas Wilson, a shoemaker on the Strand who worked for the royal family.Peter Cunningham, Extracts from the accounts of the Revels at court (London, 1842), p. xiv On 19 February 1617, Woodstock was given to Prince Charles.Edward Marshall, The Early History of Woodstock Manor and Its Environs (Oxford, 1873), p. 177.
In 1649, a survey was made of the manor buildings, mentioning, "a large gatehouse and a courtyard, on the north of which there is range of buildings called the Prince's Lodgings, on the east a spacious hall, adjoining to which there is a chapel and lodgings, known by the name of the Bishop's Lodgings, another courtyard called the Wardrobe, surrounded with the Lord Chamberlain's lodgings and wardrobe rooms, adjoining which is the Queen's Hall and the steward's lodgings. There is a fair staircase leading up to the Guard Chamber, to which joins the Presence Chamber, on the right hand of which is the King's withdrawing room, bedchamber and closet, on the right hand the Queen's lodgings". The rooms were then mostly empty of furnishings.Edward Marshall, The Early History of Woodstock Manor and Its Environs (Oxford, 1873), pp. 206-7.
Woodstock Palace was mostly destroyed during the English Civil War.
Later in 1705, Parliament granted the royal manor and honour (i.e. feudal barony) of Woodstock to John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough (1650–1722), in recognition of his victory over the French at the Battle of Blenheim on 13 August 1704. The manor was to be held in feudal tenure from Queen Anne in free socage by service of grand serjeanty "of presenting at Windsor Castle, on the anniversary of the battle, a standard bearing the fleur-de-lys of France".A P Baggs, W J Blair, Eleanor Chance, Christina Colvin, Janet Cooper, C J Day, Nesta Selwyn and S C Townley, 'Blenheim: Woodstock manor', in A History of the County of Oxford: Volume 12, Wootton Hundred (South) Including Woodstock, ed. Alan Crossley and C R Elrington (London, 1990), pp. 431-435 http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/oxon/vol12/pp431-435 An inescutcheon "of the Honour and Manor of Woodstock" was further granted by royal warrant in 1722 as an augmentation of honour to his coat of arms and was borne at his funeral. By a further Royal Licence, 26 May 1817, the inescutcheon was added as an augmentation of honour to the arms of the Dukes of Marlborough, and is still borne by them today. The arms comprise a Cross of St George surmounted by the royal arms of France.Blazon: On an escutcheon argent the Cross of St George surmounted by another escutcheon azure charged with three fleurs-de-lis two and one or (Montague-Smith, P.W. (ed.), Debrett's Peerage, Baronetage, Knightage and Companionage, Kelly's Directories Ltd, Kingston-upon-Thames, 1968, p.747)
Blenheim Palace was built in the manor of Woodstock for the Duke as his new seat. Some stone from the old Palace was used. The ruins of the old palace or manor house of Woodstock were removed in 1723.Edward Marshall, The Early History of Woodstock Manor and Its Environs (Oxford, 1873), p. 263.
Timeline
Important events that took place at the palace or manor include:
Henry VII and family
Henry VII rebuilt a part of the palace in the 1490s. He resided at Woodstock in August and September 1497, July and September 1507, and September 1513.Edward Marshall, The Early History of Woodstock Manor and Its Environs (Oxford, 1873), p. 135. On 15 August 1497, a ceremony of betrothal or proxy wedding was held for Catherine of Aragon and Arthur, Prince of Wales at Woodstock.Theresa Earenfight, Catherine of Aragon: Infanta of Spain, Queen of England, pp. 46, 51. During a visit in September 1507, the Spanish ambassador Dr Puebla encouraged Catherine of Aragon to compose a letter in cipher code to a Spanish minister Almazan.Gustav Adolph Bergenroth, Calendar State Papers Spain, vol. 1 (London, 1862), pp. 427–428.
Elizabeth I and the gatehouse
Elizabeth I, as Princess or "Lady Elizabeth", was at Woodstock from 20 May 1554 to June 1555.Joseph Stevenson, Calendar State Papers Foreign, Elizabeth, 1558–1559, 1 (London, 1863), pp. lxv–lxiv. Her keeper was Henry Bedingfeld of Oxburgh Hall.David Loades, Mary Tudor: A Life (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1989), pp. 284–285.Richard Grafton, Chronicle At Large, 2 (London, 1809), p. 548. John Foxe recorded some anecdotes of her time at the palace. According to John Foxe, there were five or six locked door between her lodging and the garden walks, and Elizabeth envied the freedom of the milkmaids at Woodstock who she could hear singing in the garden.A. F. Pollard, Tudor Tracts (Archibald Constable, 1903), pp. 355, 360.
Much suspected by me,
Mary, Queen of Scots, quoted this phase in 1584,John Daniel Leader, Mary Queen of Scots in Captivity (Sheffield, 1880), p. 571. and Elizabeth's words were noted by the travellers Paul Hentzner and Henri, Duke of Rohan in 1600.William Brenchley Rye, England as Seen by Foreigners in the Days of Elizabeth and James the First (London: John Russell, 1865), pp. 108–109. A chamber in the gatehouse had an arched oak ceiling, with carving, painted blue with gilt decoration, and was later known as Queen Elizabeth's Chamber.Edward Marshall, The Early History of Woodstock Manor and Its Environs (Oxford, 1873), pp. 155-7, 164-5. According to Foxe, the route taken by Elizabeth from Woodstock to Hampton Court in 1555 included stops at Rycote House, the house of William Dormer at Wing, and the George Inn at Colnbrook.A. F. Pollard, Tudor Tracts (Archibald Constable, 1903), pp. 355, 360.
Nothing proved can be,
Quoth ELIZABETH the prisoner.A. F. Pollard, Tudor Tracts (Archibald Constable, 1903). p. 359.
17th century
King James I and his wife Anne of Denmark, her secretary William Fowler, and Arbella Stuart came to Woodstock in September 1603 during a time of plague. HMC Salisbury Hatfield, vol. 15 (London, 1930), p. 243. Sir Robert Cecil criticised the building as, "unwholsome, all the house standing upon springs. It is unsavoury, for there is no savour but of cows and pigs. It is uneaseful, for only the King and Queen with the privy chamber ladies and 3 or 4 of Scottish council are lodged in the house".Edmund Lodge, Illustrations of British History, vol. 3 (London, 1791), p. 186. The court was at Woodstock again in September 1610.Horatio Brown, Calendar State Papers Venice, 1610-1613, vol. 12 (London, 1906), pp. 40-1.
Later history
In 1705, Benedict Leonard Calvert, 4th Baron Baltimore sold Woodstock Park to the Crown, which was owned at the time by virtue of his wife, Charlotte Lee. Charlotte Lee was the daughter of the 1st Earl of Lichfield and Lady Charlotte FitzRoy, the illegitimate daughter of King Charles II.
External links
Categories: 1129 Establishments In England, Buildings And Structures Completed In 1129, 17th-century Disestablishments In England, Buildings And Structures Demolished In The 17th Century, History Of Oxfordshire, Palaces In England, Calvert Family Residences, Royal Residences In The United Kingdom, Country Houses In Oxfordshire, Former Palaces In England, Norman Architecture In England, Henry I Of England, Henry Ii Of England, Henry Frederick, Prince Of Wales, Charles I Of England
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