The
manor was originally called Cullynges, later Tongs (after William de Tongge), and since 1440, Thebaudes, Tibbolds, and finally Theobalds. The original manor house was surrounded by a
moat. In 1563, it was bought by
William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, senior councillor of Queen
Elizabeth I. He entertained Elizabeth in this house on several occasions.
Fit for a queen Lord Burghley commissioned a grand new house, which was built between 1564 and 1585. Burghley's intention in building the mansion was partly to demonstrate his increasingly dominant status at the
royal court, and also to provide a palace fine enough to accommodate the Queen on her visits. The Queen visited eight times between 1572 and 1596. The location was ideal in that it lay just off the main road north from
London to
Ware, a 2.5 hour horse trot journey from London, and thus an ideal stop at the end of the first day of a royal tour. A list of rooms to be prepared for the royal visit in 1572 survives. The
formal gardens of the house were modelled after the
Château de Fontainebleau in France, the English
botanist,
John Gerard, acting as their superintendent. A plan for rebuilding the inner or conduit court in 1572 was made by Henry Hawthorne, who was a "purveyor" in the royal works. In 1582, brass figures called "terms" were supplied for the Great Chamber fireplace and the windows were glazed with heraldry. There was a water feature, six artificial trees, and the ceiling was decorated with the signs of the zodiac. The great staircase with its oak carvings, similar to those at
Hatfield House, was salvaged and eventually installed at
Herstmonceux Castle. Another schedule of rooms and lodgings was drawn up in May 1583, when Elizabeth stayed for a week at Theobalds and was reconciled with the
Earl of Oxford. Elizabeth came in May 1591 and an entertainment, the ''
Hermit's Welcome at Theobalds'', was performed. Visitors would first enter the Great Hall. It was two storeys high, with oak panelling and a
minstrels' gallery. The hall ceiling was arched over "with curved timber of curious workmanship" and may have resembled the slightly later decorative
hammerbeams of the Great Hall at
Wollaton. The chimneypiece was carved from blue marble. In 1585 a painter called Jenings drew the heraldry of the peers of England on the wall and provided a frame for a map, the "chart of England". The Painted, or Green Gallery, completed in 1574 ran over a wing of lodgings and bedchambers. The decoration of the Green Gallery was also of a topographic and heraldic character. It was described by a German visitor, Jacob Rathgeb, secretary to the
Duke of Wirtemberg, who visited in 1592, and the
Baron Waldstein in 1600. Frederic Gerschow, secretary to the
Duke of Stettin-Pomerania, saw the hall in 1602 and explained that England was represented by 52 "trees", a tree for each province hung with arms of the earls and barons. There were also token items depicting the produce of the regions.
Paul Hentzner mentioned a canal in the garden for visitors to row boats amidst the shrubbery. Two thieves, John Todd
alias Black Jack and Thomas Travers got into the Queen's privy chambers and stole an inkstand and two silver bowls in September 1597. They were caught and executed. Burghley employed the London goldsmith
Richard Martin to recover the silver they had sold. Lord Burghley's younger son,
Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, inherited the house. The
Earl of Northumberland paid him a compliment, writing that for planning his own new house he was going to look at
Copthall and as a builder he "must borrow of knowledge somewhat out of Tibballs, somewhat out of every place of mark where curiosities are used.
King James and Theobalds —are all that remain today of Theobalds. After the Queen's death in 1603, Robert Cecil arranged for the new king,
James I, to stay on his way from Scotland to London, and receive homage from the
Privy Council. The king was troubled by the dust of the entrance road or drive, and an alternative route was made through the lands of
Cheshunt Park and Peryours. James wrote to Cecil to provide stags for him to hunt in the woods and park of Theobalds in July 1604.
Fulke Greville went to Theobalds in May 1605 to report on Salisbury's horses and survey the lake and islands in the park. Greville suggested enlarging some windows in one of the galleries of the house. In July 1606, Cecil again entertained King James and his brother-in-law, King
Christian IV of Denmark, at Theobalds, while
Anne of Denmark stayed at
Greenwich. Both monarchs were notoriously heavy drinkers, and according to Sir
John Harington, the occasion was simply an orgy of drunkenness, as few English or Danish courtiers had their rulers' capacity to hold their drink: an attempt to put on a
masque of
Solomon and Sheba descended into a farce, as most of the players were too inebriated to remember their lines, or even to stand up. The five-day visit cost Cecil £1,180 including presents worth £284. Cecil paid
Inigo Jones £23 for making and designing the masque scenery. Doubts have been expressed about the details in Harington's description of the masque. In 1607, King James I acquired Theobalds in exchange for
Hatfield Palace, also in Hertfordshire. James gave Theobalds to Anne of Denmark in 1607, and this formality was the occasion of court festivities in May 1607 involving hunting, tournaments, and the
Prince de Joinville. James ordered improvements, and bought neighbouring lands to extend the park, and Theobalds quickly became his favourite country residence. The house had some disadvantages compared with other aristocrats' houses. Although James declared in 1607 that it was "a fitting place for our sports",
Godfrey Goodman noted that it had no "lordship nor tenants, nor so much as provision of fuel, only a park for pleasure and no more". In 1624, Prince
Charles wrote "there is no kind of
field-hawking there". Theobalds was however conveniently near to
Waltham Forest where the king could hunt. In July 1613
Anne of Denmark was hunting deer at Theobalds and accidentally shot and killed the king's dog "Jewel" with a crossbow bolt. King James invited a young
Polish-Lithuanian nobleman
Tomasz Zamoyski to join the hunt at Theobalds in July 1615. In September 1618 James gave orders for the demolition of two new buildings nearby that housed tobacco shops patronised by his courtiers. He also ordered the keeper of the gardens, Munten Jennings, to build a house to keep silkworms and feed them mulberry leaves. The architect
John Smythson visited and made drawings, a surviving diagram shows the panelling of the great chamber in "walnut tree colour"
graining with black and gold mouldings. On 9 January 1622 King James rode from Theobalds after dinner to see the ice on the
New River and fell in head first so that his companions could only see his boots. He was rescued by Sir
Richard Young and returned to a warm bed at Theobalds. A new pool with a barge and barge house was created in the gardens in 1622. The ambassador
Diego Sarmiento de Acuña, 1st Count of Gondomar arranged for the gift of two camels and a breeding pair of asses to be sent from Spain for the park in 1622.
King James died at Theobalds on 27 March 1625. The
Knight Marshal,
Edward Zouch proclaimed King
Charles at Theobalds gate. James had made few changes to the main suites, installing panelling in the Great Gallery to which his son Charles I added a number of carved and painted stag's heads. Charles I hunted in the park at Theobalds. Platforms known as "stands" were built in the park each season for shooting at game. In September 1633,
Henry Cary, 1st Viscount Falkland fell from a stand at Theobalds and died after his leg was amputated. Later, after the
execution of Charles I, Theobalds was listed, amongst other royal properties, for demolition and disposal by the
Commonwealth. This was achieved speedily, and by the end of 1650, the house was largely demolished. After the
Restoration, the estate was granted to
George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle, but reverted to the Crown after the death of the
2nd Duke of Albemarle, who left no heir. ==Eighteenth and nineteenth centuries: the new house==