By royal example

A grand house ‘practically in the palace gardens’ of Hampton Court and another on the site of a royal hunting lodge in Oxfordshire show how to live the good life

- Penny Churchill

IN 1539, having acquired and extended the grand palace built on the banks of the River Thames by his disgraced former chancellor Cardinal Wolsey, Henry VIII established the ‘Honour’ of Hampton Court by Act of Parliament, annexing manors and lands throughout Middlesex and Surrey. The statute provided for the creation of a new forest or ‘chase’ over the claimed Surrey lands, from the Thames on the south side of Hampton Court manor to Cobham and Weybridge.

The chase was deeply unpopular among the ‘men of Molsey and other towns in the chace’ who protested vigorously at the damage done by the deer and the loss of their commons and pastures. After Henry’s death in 1547, the deer were moved to Windsor Forest and the former tenants—and their much-needed rent rolls—were reinstated.

Hampton Court’s Thames-side location and green open spaces were much appreciated by Henry’s successors. Charles I had grand plans for waterworks in the grounds, but abandoned the scheme at the outbreak of the Civil War, after which Oliver Cromwell moved to Hampton Court and made his own improvements. The Restoration under Charles II saw further heavy expenditure on the palace and gardens, then William and Mary had the palace largely rebuilt by Sir Christopher Wren from 1689 onwards.