Medieval What would become Hampton Court Palace was originally a property of the
Order of St John of Jerusalem. Daubeney expanded the previous structures, and built the Great Kitchens that still survive today (although much altered). After Daubeney's death in 1508, his 14 year-old heir,
Henry Daubeney, had to wait until 1514 to inherit his father's possessions. A month later, he relinquished his lease, and the Order of St John of Jerusalem re-leased Hampton Court to
Thomas Wolsey.
Tudor times Thomas Wolsey,
Archbishop of York, chief minister to and a favourite of Henry VIII, took over the site of Hampton Court Palace in 1514. Over the following seven years, Wolsey spent lavishly (200,000
crowns) to build the finest palace in England at Hampton Court. (
B on plan), was his creation, as was the second, inner gatehouse (
C) which leads to the Clock Court (
D) (Wolsey's seal remains visible over the entrance arch of the clock tower) which contained his private rooms (
O on plan). Henry VIII stayed in the state apartments as Wolsey's guest immediately after their completion in 1525. In building his palace, Wolsey was attempting to create a
Renaissance cardinal's palace of a rectilinear symmetrical plan with grand apartments on a raised
piano nobile, all rendered with classical detailing. The historian
Jonathan Foyle has suggested that it is likely that Wolsey had been inspired by
Paolo Cortese's
De Cardinalatu, a manual for cardinals that included advice on palatial architecture, published in 1510. The architectural historian Sir
John Summerson asserts that the palace shows "the essence of Wolseythe plain English churchman who nevertheless made his sovereign the arbiter of Europe and who built and furnished Hampton Court to show foreign embassies that Henry VIII's chief minister knew how to live as graciously as any cardinal in Rome." Whatever the concepts were, the architecture is an excellent and rare example of a thirty-year era when English architecture was in a harmonious transition from domestic Tudor, strongly influenced by
perpendicular Gothic, to the Italian Renaissance classical style. Perpendicular Gothic owed nothing historically to the Renaissance style, yet harmonised well with it. This blending of styles was realised by a small group of Italian craftsmen working at the English court in the second and third decades of the sixteenth century. They specialised in the adding of Renaissance ornament to otherwise straightforward Tudor buildings. Henry VIII and his courtiers visited Wolsey at Hampton Court in
masque costume in January 1527, disguised as shepherds to play
mumchance and dance. Wolsey was only to enjoy his palace for a few years. The architecture of King Henry's new palace followed the design precedent set by Wolsey: perpendicular Gothic-inspired Tudor with restrained Renaissance ornament. This hybrid architecture was to remain almost unchanged for nearly a century, until
Inigo Jones introduced strong classical influences from Italy to the London palaces of the first Stuart kings. Hampton Court Palace, Great Hall - Diliff.jpg Hampton Court Palace, The Great Hall Richmond upon Thames 1193127 20230823 0110.jpg Hampton Court Palace, The Great Hall Richmond upon Thames 1193127 20230823 0131.jpg Between 1532 and 1535 Henry added the Great Hall (the last medieval
great hall built for the English monarchy) and the
Royal Tennis Court. The Great Hall has a carved
hammerbeam roof. During Tudor times, this was the most important room of the palace: here, the King would dine in state seated at a table upon a raised
dais. The hall took five years to complete; so impatient was the King for completion that the masons were compelled to work throughout the night by candlelight. This last item was of great importance to those visiting this Thames-side palace from London, as the preferred method of transport at the time was by barge, and at low water London Bridge created dangerous rapids. This gatehouse is also known today as
Anne Boleyn's gate, after Henry's second wife. Work was still under way on Anne Boleyn's apartments above the gate when Boleyn was beheaded. During the Tudor period, the palace was the scene of many historic events. In 1537, the King's much desired male heir, the future
Edward VI, was born at the palace, and the child's mother,
Jane Seymour, died there two weeks later. Four years afterwards, whilst attending
Mass in the palace's chapel, the King was informed of the adultery of his fifth wife,
Catherine Howard. She was then confined to her room for a few days before being sent to
Syon House and then on to the
Tower of London. Legend claims she briefly escaped her guards and ran through the Haunted Gallery to beg Henry for her life but she was recaptured. King Henry died in January 1547 and was succeeded by his son Edward VI, and then by both his daughters in turn. It was to Hampton Court that Queen
Mary I (Henry's elder daughter) retreated with King
Philip to spend her honeymoon, after their wedding at
Winchester. Mary chose Hampton Court as the place for the birth of her first child, which turned out to be the first of two
phantom pregnancies. Mary had initially wanted to give birth at
Windsor Castle as it was a more secure location, and she was still fearful of rebellion. But Hampton Court was considerably larger and could accommodate the entire court and more besides. Mary stayed at the palace awaiting the birth of the "child" for over five months, and only left because of the uninhabitable state of the palace due to the court being kept in the one location for so long. Her court departed for the much smaller
Oatlands Palace. Mary was succeeded by her half-sister,
Elizabeth I, and it was Elizabeth who had the eastern (privy) kitchen built; today, this is the palace's public tea room. Two entertainments for the Stuart court were staged in the Great Hall in January 1604,
The Masque of Indian and China Knights and
The Vision of the Twelve Goddesses. On 6 January, Scottish courtiers performed a
sword dance for
Anne of Denmark. Their dance was compared to a Spanish
matachin. Later in 1604, the palace was the site of King James' meeting with representatives of the English
Puritans, known as the
Hampton Court Conference; while an agreement with the Puritans was not reached, the meeting led to James's commissioning of the
King James Version of the
Bible. King James was succeeded in 1625 by his son, the ill-fated
Charles I. Hampton Court was to become both his palace and his prison. leaving Hampton Court After the
Restoration, King
Charles II and his successor
James II visited Hampton Court but largely preferred to reside elsewhere. By current French court standards, Hampton Court now appeared old-fashioned. It was in 1689, shortly after
Louis XIV's court had moved permanently to
Versailles, that the palace's antiquated state was addressed. England had joint monarchs,
William III and
Mary II. Within months of their accession, they embarked on a massive rebuilding project at Hampton Court. The intention was to demolish the Tudor palace a section at a time while replacing it with a huge modern palace in the Baroque style retaining only Henry VIII's Great Hall. The country's most eminent architect, Sir
Christopher Wren, was called upon to draw the plans, while the master of works was to be
William Talman. The plan was for a vast palace constructed around two courtyards at right angles to each other. Wren's design for a domed palace bore resemblances to the work of
Jules Hardouin-Mansart and
Louis Le Vau, both architects employed by Louis XIV at Versailles. However, the resemblances are there: while the façades are not so long as those of Versailles, they have similar, seemingly unstoppable repetitive rhythms beneath a long flat skyline. The monotony is even repeated as the façade turns the corner from the east to the south fronts. However, Hampton Court, unlike Versailles, is given an extra dimension by the contrast between the pink brick and the pale
Portland stone quoins, frames and banding. Further diversion is added by the circular and decorated windows of the second-floor mezzanine. This theme is repeated in the inner Fountain Court, but the rhythm is faster and the windows, unpedimented on the outer façades, are given pointed pediments in the courtyard; this has led the courtyard to be described as "Startling, as of simultaneous exposure to a great many eyes with raised eyebrows." . However, at Hampton Court, the linking gallery is of more modest proportions and decoration. The King's staircase was decorated with
frescos by
Antonio Verrio and delicate ironwork by
Jean Tijou. Other artists commissioned to decorate the rooms included
Grinling Gibbons, Sir
James Thornhill and
Jacques Rousseau; furnishings were designed by
Daniel Marot. Hampton Court stairs.jpg Hampton Court Palace, Staircase to William III's Apartments Richmond upon Thames 1193127 20230823 0068.jpg Hampton Court Palace, Staircase to William III's Apartments Richmond upon Thames 1193127 20230823 0072.jpg After the death of Queen Mary, King William lost interest in the renovations, and work ceased. However, it was in
Hampton Court Park in 1702 that he fell from his horse, later dying from his injuries at
Kensington Palace. He was succeeded by his sister-in-law Queen
Anne who continued the decoration and completion of the state apartments. On Queen Anne's death in 1714 the
House of Stuart's rule came to an end. Queen Anne's successor was
George I; he and his son
George II were the last monarchs to reside at Hampton Court. Under George II and his wife,
Caroline of Ansbach, further refurbishment took place, with the architect
William Kent employed to design new furnishings and décor including the Queen's Staircase, (1733) and the Cumberland Suite (1737) for the
Duke of Cumberland. However existing residents could continue to live there. In 2005 three remained, with none by 2017. In 1796, the Great Hall was restored and in 1838, during the reign of
Queen Victoria, the restoration was completed and the palace opened to the public. The heavy-handed restoration plan at this time reduced the Great Gatehouse (
A), the palace's principal entrance, by two storeys and removed the lead
cupolas adorning its four towers. Once opened, the palace soon became a major tourist attraction and, by 1881, over ten million visits had been recorded. Visitors arrived both by boat from London and via
Hampton Court railway station, opened in February 1849. On 2 September 1952, the palace was given statutory protection by being
Grade I listed. Other buildings and structures within the grounds are separately Grade I listed, including the early 16th-century tilt yard tower (the only surviving example of the five original towers);
Christopher Wren's Lion gate built for Anne and George I; and the Tudor and 17th-century perimeter walls. In 1986, the palace was damaged by a major fire, which spread to the King's Apartments. The fire claimed the life of Lady Daphne Gale, widow of General Sir
Richard Gale, who resided in a grace and favour apartment. She was in the habit of taking a lighted candle to her bedroom at night, which is thought to have started the fire. The Hampton Court fire led to a new programme of restoration work which was completed in 1990. The
Royal School of Needlework moved to premises within the palace from Princes Gate in
Kensington 1987, and the palace also houses the headquarters of
Historic Royal Palaces, a
charitable foundation.
21st century The location was used for a performance of
The Six Wives of Henry VIII by rock keyboardist
Rick Wakeman in 2009. The palace was the venue for the
Road Cycling Time Trial of the
2012 Summer Olympics and temporary structures for the event, including a set of thrones for time trialists in the medal positions, were installed in the grounds. In 2015, Hampton Court celebrated the 500th anniversary of the groundbreaking of construction of the palace. The celebrations included daily dramatised historical scenes. The palace's construction began on 12 February 1515. On 9 February the following year,
Vincent Nichols, the Catholic
archbishop of Westminster, celebrated
vespers in the Chapel Royal. This was the first Catholic service held at the palace for 450 years, and the first since the
Elizabethan Religious Settlement established
Protestantism as the national denomination. ==Contents==