Richmond Palace (previously known as the Palace of Shene) is associated with all the Tudor Monarchs (it played a large role within all their lives), but it was mostly favoured by King Henry VII - the first Tudor king.
Elizabeth Woodville, the wife of King Edward IV, held the great Palace of Shene until shortly after Henry VII's victory over King Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth on the 22nd August 1485, where she then handed it over to her new son-in-law. When the Palace of Shene had come into the king's hands, he had relatively little to do with it, that is until him and his court visited over the Christmas of 1497, and he decided to rebuild/restore the fire ravaged palace into a modern day Tudor pleasure palace. The king's carpenters and stonemasons set to work soon after.
Elizabeth Woodville, Queens College Collection, Cambridge, portrait 88.
Building work finished in 1501, (the palace now covered over 20 acres) after the king had "rebuilt it up again sumptuously and costly..", with the King then changing the palace's name to Richmond after his father Edmund Tudor, whose title was that of the Earl of Richmond.
Richmond Palace by Anthonis van den Wyngaerde, C. 1558-1562
Henry VIII was not as fond of Richmond Palace as his father had been and during his reign it quickly became one of the homes for his discarded queens. Anne of Cleves (Henry VIII's 4th wife) was even given it as part of her marriage settlement. However, Henry VIII's daughter Mary I and Elizabeth I made better use of the palace, with Mary staying at the palace with her new husband Phillip II of Spain as part of their honeymoon, and Elizabeth frequently visiting over the winter months, particularly at Christmas and Shrovetide. Elizabeth I was even at the palace when she died on the 24th March 1603.
The palace then passed from royal hand to royal hand until it was sold by the Commonwealth (after the execution of King Charles I). With the buildings of the royal estate being divided up, and some of the buildings even being destroyed so that the stone could be sold off. To this day the only surviving parts that can be seen of the Tudor Palace of Richmond are the Wardrobe buildings and the gate house.
The surviving Gatehouse
This stonework above the gateway is Tudor, but has been restored over the years.
To give you an idea of the scale of how big the palace would have been - this is me and the doorway.
When I got home after visiting the remains I opened my copy of 'The Royal Palaces of Tudor England' by Simon Thurley, and leafed through it to try and find a picture of the Gateway that I had just seen. And here it is...
Image from 'The Royal Palaces of Tudor England' by Simon Thurley.
You can clearly see the gateway, the stonework above it and the now bricked up doorway to the right of the gateway.
If you are walking through Richmond, or are looking for somewhere to visit on your holidays/travels do not neglect the remains of the palace. They are well worth a visit. It was always on my Tudor Bucket List to visit and it didn't disappoint. The perfect Tudor hideaway from the busy hustle and bustle of London...
Sources
- https://www.queens.cam.ac.uk/life-at-queens/about-the-college/college-facts/foundresses-and-patronesses/elizabeth-woodville
- https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c7/Wyngaerde_Richmond_1562.jpg
- https://www.richmond.gov.uk/media/6334/local_history_richmond_palace.pdf
- The Royal Palaces of Tudor England by Simon Thurley, Yale University Press; First Edition; (31st Aug 1993)
- http://blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/blog/richmond-lost-palace/
- http://richmond.gov.uk/services/libraries/branch_libraries/local_studies_collection/local_history_timelines/royal_richmond_timeline
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