Henry VIII and the Building of Hampton Court: A Reconstruction of the Tudor Palace

Thurley, Simon

Henry VIII and the Building of Hampton Court: A Reconstruction of the Tudor Palace

Resource type

Journal article

Creator (person)

Thurley, Simon

Date published

1988

Abstract

When Henry VIII finally took full possession of Hampton Court in 1529 he inherited a house already much embellished by Thomas Wolsey. In 1515 Wolsey had taken a lease from the Order of St John of Jerusalem on the modest manor house of Hampton Court and during the next fifteen years he turned it into one of the largest if not the very largest house in the kingdom. Attached to Wolsey's lease there is an inventory, and this, together with the results of recent excavation, have revealed much about the earliest house on the site. Wolsey's additions to this house seem to have been undertaken in two distinct phases. The first group of additions (1515-25) included the vast base court, new kitchens and a remodelling of the main first-floor reception rooms. In a second phase (1526-29) another storey was added to the main range of reception rooms for the queen, a new range was built on the south side of the second court, and the chapel was begun. The chapel, it appears, was still under construction when the king began his first building campaign. Eventually it was to be finished with materials that Wolsey had set aside at Sonning in Berkshire, for the building of the chapel at Cardinal College, Oxford.