Palace of Beaulieu
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England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, north of Chelmsford.
The estate on which it was built - the manor of Walhfare in Boreham - was granted to the Canons of Waltham Abbey
Waltham Abbey (abbey)
The Abbey Church of Waltham Abbey has been a place of worship since at least 1030, and is in the town of Waltham Abbey, Essex, England. The Prime Meridian passes through its grounds. Harold Godwinson is said to be buried just outside the present abbey...
in 1062.Charter S 1036 After various changes of possession, it was granted by the Crown to the Earl of Ormond in 1491. By this time, it had a house called New Hall.
In 1516, New Hall was sold by Thomas Boleyn to Henry VIII of England
Henry VIII of England
Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...
for £1,000 (£421,000 in today's money). The king rebuilt the house in brick at a cost of £17,000, a considerable sum at the time. He gave his new palace the name Beaulieu, meaning beautiful place, the name expressed Henry's desire for fine things, though the name change did not outlast the century.
On July 23, 1527, Henry's court arrived at Beaulieu on his summer progress, staying, unusually, for over a month. In the company of the a large number of nobles and their wives, including Anne Boleyn's father Viscount Rochford, Viscount Fitzwalter, the earls of Oxford, Essex and Rutland, the marquess of Exeter and the dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk, it was here that Henry devised a scheme to allow him to cohabit with the intended successor of Katherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn
Anne Boleyn
Anne Boleyn ;c.1501/1507 – 19 May 1536) was Queen of England from 1533 to 1536 as the second wife of Henry VIII of England and Marquess of Pembroke in her own right. Henry's marriage to Anne, and her subsequent execution, made her a key figure in the political and religious upheaval that was the...
, by obtaining a Papal bull
Papal bull
A Papal bull is a particular type of letters patent or charter issued by a Pope of the Catholic Church. It is named after the bulla that was appended to the end in order to authenticate it....
to allow him to commit bigamy
Polygamy
Polygamy is a marriage which includes more than two partners...
. This plan was dropped when Cardinal Wolsey discovered the plan, though the pope did, in fact, issue a bill to the same effect that December.
In October 1533, the daughter of Queen Katherine of Aragon, Mary
Mary I of England
Mary I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from July 1553 until her death.She was the only surviving child born of the ill-fated marriage of Henry VIII and his first wife Catherine of Aragon. Her younger half-brother, Edward VI, succeeded Henry in 1547...
, who had been staying at Beaulieu for some time, was evicted as the palace had recently been granted to George Boleyn (Anne Boleyn's brother). George had been a former keeper at Beaulieu when the palace was in the hands of the king. The royal inventory of 1547
Inventory of Henry VIII of England
The Inventory of Henry VIII of England compiled in 1547 is a list of the possessions of the crown, now in the British Library as Harley Ms. 1419....
noted 29 great beds, four bathing rooms with wooden floors and beds set in the wall, and a library with 37 titles.
After Anne Boleyn was beheaded and Henry married Jane Seymore, he was convinced by his new wife to bring his daughters back to court. In 1537,when Queen Jane died after giving birth to a son, Edward, Mary, Henry's eldest daughter was made godmother to her half-brother Edward and acted as chief mourner at the Queen's funeral.[42] Henry granted her a household and Mary was permitted to reside in royal palaces. Her privy purse expenses for nearly the whole of this period have been published and show that Hatfield House, the Palace of Beaulieu (also called Newhall), Richmond and Hunsdon were among her principal places of residence.
Queen Elizabeth I of England
Elizabeth I of England
Elizabeth I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...
granted the estate in 1573 to Thomas Radcliffe, 3rd Earl of Sussex, who seems to have largely rebuilt the north wing. It is not known though whether he rebuilt other parts of the palace, a fire occurred in Henry VIIIs time and the palace itself could mostly have been rebuilt. Soon after the north range was completed, Thomas installed Elizabeth's coat of arms above the main entrance which is still visible today. In 1622, it was sold to George Villiers 1st Duke of Buckingham
George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham
George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham KG was the favourite, claimed by some to be the lover, of King James I of England. Despite a very patchy political and military record, he remained at the height of royal favour for the first two years of the reign of Charles I, until he was assassinated...
for £30,000.
During the English Civil War
English Civil War
The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...
, Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....
took possession of the estate for the sum of five shillings in 1640. After reverting to the 2nd Duke of Buckingham
George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham
George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, 20th Baron de Ros of Helmsley, KG, PC, FRS was an English statesman and poet.- Upbringing and education :...
at the Restoration
English Restoration
The Restoration of the English monarchy began in 1660 when the English, Scottish and Irish monarchies were all restored under Charles II after the Interregnum that followed the Wars of the Three Kingdoms...
, it was sold to George Monck, 1st Duke of Albermarle, and the court of Charles II of England
Charles II of England
Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...
was frequently entertained there. Cosimo III, Grand Duke of Tuscany, visited in 1669 and a member of his retinue produced a view of the house. A copy of this view was published in 1821.New Hall in 1669
Benjamin Hoare acquired the property in 1713, but it was in a poor state when purchased in 1737 by John Olmius, later 1st Lord Waltham, who demolished and rebuilt much of the former palace. The north wing was left largely untouched and forms the present house.
The estate was acquired in 1798 by the English nuns of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre
Order of the Holy Sepulchre
The Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem is a Roman Catholic order of knighthood under the protection of the pope. It traces its roots to Duke Godfrey of Bouillon, principal leader of the First Crusade...
, who opened a Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
school there the following year. New Hall School
New Hall School
New Hall is one of the oldest Catholic schools in England. It is located in the former Tudor Palace of Beaulieu in Essex.Today New Hall is a leading Catholic independent boarding & day school for boys and girls aged 3–18. Founded in 1642, New Hall School, Chelmsford, is the oldest Catholic school...
remains a school to this day. The Royal Arms of Henry VIII are in the school chapel. In 2006, (New Hall and its school) was published by Tony Tuckwell, it can be purchased through the school.
The Beaulieu name is now remembered in the name of the nearby housing estate, Beaulieu Park.
In February 2009, Channel 4's Time Team visited and excavated the grounds of the former palace. The programme was broadcast on Easter Monday, in the excavations, the time team uncovered the chapel, west wing and the gatehouse.