Shene Manor, Surrey, England

Originally part of the Royal Manor of Kingston, Shene (with Kew) was formed into a separate manor by Henry I, who granted it to the Norman family of Belet. It remained in lay hands until the manor house was rented by Edward, Prince of Wales, in the 1290’s. The manor reverted to Crown ownership by 1313.

Edward I and Edward II used it occasionally, then it was granted to Queen Isabella, mother of Edward III. After her death, Edward III converted the manor house into the Palace of Shene, where he died in 1377.

It was the favourite home of his successor Richard II and Richard’s wife Anne of Bohemia. When Anne died there of the plague, in 1394, Richard was so heart-broken that he ordered the destruction of the Palace.

Henry V began the building of a new Palace in 1414, but this was not finally completed until the 1440’s in the reign of Henry VI. This second palace was extensively damaged by fire in December 1497 when Henry VII and his court had come to Shene for the Christmas season.

Henry VII, patron of the Renaissance arts, resolved to rebuild the Palace and in 1501 changed its name from Shene to Richmond after his earldom in Yorkshire. Occupying in its heyday an area of about 20 acres, the Palace extended from the Green to the river, and from approximately the line of the present Old Palace Lane to Water Lane. It assumed the appearance accurately recorded by Wyngaerde in 1561-2.

The Palace attracted many courtly attendants and the trade necessary to support a vast household. Richmond’s royal patronage influenced the nobility and the wealthy to look to the place for their out-of-town residences. The village which grew up around the palace also took the name Richmond.

Henry VII died in his new Palace in 1509, and Henry VIII made full use of it until he acquired the larger and even grander Hampton Court Palace from Cardinal Wolsey. The Palace in history was given to Anne of Cleves as part of her divorce settlement, but she gave it back to Edward VI.

Queen Mary spent her honeymoon with Philip of Spain in the Palace in 1557. Nearly half a century later Queen Elizabeth I, who made much use of The Palace in history, especially at Christmas, died there in March 1603. Sir Robert Carey, a cousin of the Queen, carried the news from Richmond to King James VI in Scotland, to inform him of his succession to the English throne.

Under the Stuart monarchy Richmond became the seat of the new Prince of Wales. Prince Henry, eldest son of James I, had great plans for rebuilding, but died of fever in 1612 before they could be implemented. His brother Charles abandoned such ideas but, as King, formed the great new Richmond Park. The Palace was used mainly as a house for his children until the Civil War (1642~1651).

After the overthrow of the monarchy and the establishment of the Commonwealth in 1649, a detailed survey of the Palace was carried out by the Parliamentary Surveyors and, in 1650, the buildings were sold. The purchasers divided up the property. The main stone buildings, including the Chapel, the Hall and the great block of royal apartments by the river, were rapidly demolished. By 1660 all that remained was the outer Great Court, including the middle gate, and the Wardrobe, and the range of brick buildings along the wall facing the Green on either side of the Outer Gateway. A small part of these still remains, but much was redeveloped from the early 18th century onwards.

Of the original Tudor buildings facing the Green, only the gateway itself, the Palace Gatehouse, and a small part of the house called The Old Palace now remain. The front of the Wardrobe facing the Court is also mainly Tudor. Tudor Lodge and Tudor Place and Maids of Honour Row have replaced most of those on the east side of the gate; the Old Court House, Wentworth House and Garrick Close those on the west side.

The Museum of Richmond in the Old Town Hall has a detailed model of the Palace as it looked in 1562 based on the detailed drawings made by Antonis van Wyngaerde (the earliest known views of the Palace). The model puts into context what remains to be seen on the ground, and evokes well the great size and magnificence of the Palace of King Henry VII.

The wooden buildings were destroyed by fire when the king and his court were there celebrating Christmas in 1497. In 1500, the name of Shene was changed to Richmond, in honour of the title, Earl of Richmond, which Henry VII held when he won at Bosworth Field.

Built of white stone, the new palace had octagonal or round towers capped with pepper-pot domes that bore delicate strap work and weather vanes. Of three stories set in a rectangular block with twelve rooms on each floor round an internal court. This area contained staterooms and private royal apartments, while the ground floor was entirely given over to accommodation for palace officials.

A bridge over the moat, surviving from Edward III’s time, linked the Privy Lodgings to a central courtyard some 65 feet square, flanked by the Great Hall and the Chapel and with a water fountain at its centre. The Great Hall had a buttery beneath, the Chapel ceiling was of chequered timber and plaster decorated with roses and portcullis badges, underneath which were extensive wine cellars.

The middle gate that opened into the Great Court, was turreted and adorned with stone figures of two trumpeters, and to the east was situated the palace wardrobe where soft furnishings were stored. There was also a moat, a Great Orchard, public and private kitchens and a Library. The palace gardens were encircled by two-storey galleries, open at ground level and enclosed above, where the court could walk, play games, admire the gardens, watch the tennis.

Richmond Palace became a showplace of the kingdom, and the scene of the wedding celebrations of Henry VII’s eldest son, Prince Arthur to Catherine of Aragon. Also, the betrothal of Princess Margaret to King James of Scotland took place at Richmond in 1503.

Henry VII died at Richmond in 1509, and the following year, his son, Henry VIII married his brother’s widow, Catherine of Aragon. In 1510 Catherine gave birth to a son, Henry, at Richmond, whose lavish christening celebrations had barely finished, when the baby died a month later.

Henry VIII’s jealousy of Wolsey’s palace at Hampton Court led to him confiscating Hampton and giving Wolsey Richmond in exchange. Richmond became home to Mary Tudor, who stayed for a few months before being moved to Hatfield House, then the palace was given to Anne of Cleves as part of her divorce settlement from Henry VIII.

In 1554, when Queen Mary I married Philip II of Spain, Richmond was where they spent their honeymoon, and within a year, Mary had imprisoned her sister Elizabeth there.

Queen Elizabeth was particularly fond of Richmond as a winter home – and loved to hunt stag in the "Newe Parke of Richmonde" (now the Old Deer Park. It was here she summoned companies of players from London to perform plays – including William Shakespeare’s. She also died there in 1603.

James I gave Richmond to his son, Henry Prince of Wales, as a country seat, but before any refurbishment could be done, Henry died and it passed to Prince Charles, who began his extensive art collection, storing it at Richmond.

In 1625, King Charles I bought his court to Richmond to escape the plague in London, and he established Richmond Park, using the palace as a home for the royal children until the Civil War.

After Charles I’s execution, the Commonwealth Parliament divided up the palace buildings and had them extensively surveyed, in which the furniture and decorations are described as being sumptuous, with beautiful tapestries depicting the deeds of kings and heroes. The brick buildings of the outer ranges survived, the stone buildings of the Chapel, Hall and Privy Lodgings were demolished and
the stones sold off.

By the restoration of Charles II in 1660, only the brick buildings and the Middle Gate were left. The palace became the property of the Duke of York (the future James II) and his daughters, Mary and Anne grew up there. Their only surviving half-brother, Prince James Edward (the ‘Old Pretender’) was nursed at Richmond, but the restoration work, begun under the auspices of Christopher Wren, ceased in the revolution of 1688 when James II fled to France.

The surviving buildings were leased out, and in 1702, ‘Trumpeters’ House’ was built, replacing the Middle Gate where two statues of trumpeters stood. These were followed by ‘Old Court House’ and ‘Wentworth in 1705-7. The front of The Wardrobe still shows Tudor brickwork as does the Gate House. ‘Maids of Honour Row’ built in 1724 is a uniform terrace built for the maids of honour of Caroline of Anspach, the wife of George II. These replaced most of the buildings facing the Green in 1724-5 and the majority of the house now called ‘Old Palace’ was rebuilt in about 1740.

Traces of the elaborate gardens are still there, having been incorporated into private residences, but the view from the river is still beautiful and as you pass in a barge, and squint a little, maybe you can still see the ‘pepper pots’ and turrets of the old palace where kings and queens once lived.

From British History Online:

There is no mention of SHEEN, now known as RICHMOND, in the Domesday Survey, as it was at that time included in the neighbouring manor of Kingston (q.v.), which was held by the king. By the reign of Henry I, however, the manor had acquired a separate existence under the name of Sheen, and was granted by the king to the family of Belet, who held it by the serjeanty of butlery. In 1206 Master Michael Belet paid the sum of £100 for the office of butlership. He seems to have forfeited his lands, and those in Sheen were granted to Hugh de Nevill in 1215. Michael was evidently restored shortly afterwards, as he granted a virgate and a half of land in the manor of Sheen to Walkelin de Canetone early in the reign of Henry III. At his death the custody of his daughter and heir, with her inheritance in Sheen, was acquired by Wimund de Ralegh. This daughter appears to have been the Maud Belet who died in or before 1229, when her lands devolved on her kinsman John Belet, who paid ten marks for relief in that year. He died in 1231, leaving two daughters, Emma Oliver, and Alice who married John de Vautort a tenant on the manor, and thus the manor of Sheen became divided. In 1253–4 Emma Oliver, or Emma Belet as she is here called, was party to a fine with John de Vautort and Alice his wife as to lands in Sheen and other places which were said to have been the right of John Belet the father of Emma. By 1258 Emma Oliver had become the wife of Robert de Meleburn, and in that year they confirmed a lease of the manor of Sheen (as Emma's moiety was always called) to John Maunsel, treasurer of York and reeve of Beverley, for fourteen years. In 1264 Emma conveyed all her lands held in chief in Sheen to the king, for him to grant to Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Gloucester and Hertford, which was accordingly done. A few years later the manor of Sheen came into the possession of Hugh de Windsor, who granted it in 1272 to Robert Burnell, Bishop of Bath and Wells, the gift being confirmed by Henry III. The bishop then enfeoffed Otto de Grandison of the manor in tail-male, with reversion to himself in case of Otto's death without issue, but Edward I took it into his own hands because he was given to understand that Hugh de Windsor had enfeoffed the bishop while he was of unsound mind. Afterwards, however, the king inspected the confirmation of Henry III, and on reflection that no right in the manor could accrue to him he restored it to Otto de Grandison, who was a specially trusted servant and friend of the king's, and granted him free warren in his demesne lands there in 1279. On setting out for his second expedition to Palestine, before the fall of Acre (1291), Grandison appears to have delivered the manor to the custody of Burnell, who died holding it in 1292. Otto de Grandison survived the bishop, and in 1299 the king gave a curious order that no person, with the sole exception of the king's son, should enter, stay, or lodge in Otto's manor of Sheen, or put his baggage or goods there, against his will or the will of the keeper of the manor, as it appeared that great damage had been done by people lodging in the houses there. Otto seems to have conveyed the manor to the king, probably about 1305, for Letters Patent, &c., are dated there from that year onwards, and in 1316 Sheen is called the king's manor.

The other property in Sheen, which descended to John Belet's daughter Alice, was held by her husband John de Vautort by the grand serjeanty of being one of the king's cup-bearers. He died seised of the vill of Sheen about 1301, and was succeeded by a son John, who appears as John de Vautort of Sheen in 1313. This John was deprived of his lands there by Hugh le Despenser the elder, who granted them to Edward II; and the petition to Edward III for their restoration by Richard de Vautort, brother and heir of John, in 1329, was apparently without avail. They were evidently added to the Crown manor, which has remained in royal hands from about 1305 until the present day, although granted out at various times by successive kings. In 1315 it was described as the king's manor of Sheen, and Edward II made it an occasional place of residence, as his father had done towards the close of his reign. Edward III granted the manor in 1331 to his mother, the dowager Queen Isabella, for her life. She died in 1358, and in 1359 William of Wykeham, at that time an influential favourite with the king, was given the custody of the manor. Two years later Ralph Thurbarn was made keeper. In 1377 John de Swanton, who had previously been granted the custody of the warren of Sheen, was appointed to the keepership of the manor for life. He held the office during the greater part of the reign of Richard II, but gave it up to his son Thomas in 1390. Edward IV, soon after his accession, made William Norburgh custodian of the manor of Sheen for life. In 1466 the king granted the manor for life to his queen Elizabeth Woodville, together with the park, warren, and all appurtenances, and she conceded the office of custodian to William Norburgh in 1468, allowing him to hold it himself or by deputy. A few months after the accession of Richard III, however, Henry Davy obtained from the king a grant of the keepership of the manor for life. This grant included the custody of the garden, warren, and park belonging to the palace, and it is interesting to notice that the several offices were worth 6d. a day for the manor, 4d. a day for the garden, 3d. a day for the warren, and 2d. a day for the park, with another 2d. for the maintenance of the palings of the park. The custody of the manor was again transferred on the accession of Henry VII, who granted it for life to Robert Skerne in 1485. The manor itself was still the right of Queen Elizabeth, the widow of Edward IV, but in 1487 Henry VII held a council at Sheen, and declared that she had forfeited her property by deserting his cause before he became king. After that time she retired into the abbey of Bermondsey, where she died in 1492. Henry, having appropriated the manor of Sheen, held it throughout his reign, and changed its name to Richmond. In 1522 Henry VIII granted a lease of the lordship of Richmond for thirty years to Massi Villiarde, serjeant of the king's pleasure-water, and Thomas Brampton, with the exception of the palace and the park, of which they were only granted the custody. In 1540 the king bestowed the manor, palace, and park upon Anne of Cleves as part of the provision made for her after her divorce. She granted a lease for eighty years to David Vincent, which was confirmed to him by Edward VI in 1547, a reservation being made of the palace and park, or one of the parks, belonging to it. Later Vincent transferred his lease to Gregory Lovel. Sir Thomas Gorges received a grant of the keepership of the house, park, and garden, with the wardrobe, vessels, and victuals, in 1597. This grant was repeated to himself and his wife, the Marchioness of Northampton, for their lives, about 1603, and in 1607 Sir Thomas Gorges obtained a grant of the manor for forty years, with the exception of the palace, park, and ferry. Sir Thomas died in 1610, and in the same year the king granted the manor, palace, and park to Henry Prince of Wales and his heirs. In January 1617, a few years after the death of Prince Henry, they were assigned to Sir Francis Bacon and others in trust for Prince Charles, who received a direct grant of the manor, palace, and park for himself and his heirs in February of the same year. As Charles I he is said to have settled them on his queen, Henrietta Maria, in 1626. A court leet, to be held twice a year, was appointed for the manor of Richmond in 1628, and the king ordered that the tenants of the manors of Richmond, Petersham, and Ham should attend it instead of the court leet at Kingston, as had been the custom. Sir Robert Douglas was made steward of the court for life. In 1638 he, as Viscount Belhaven, was the keeper of the palace and park, as well as steward of the court leet and court baron; but he surrendered these offices in that year, and the king granted the custody of the palace and park to James Stuart, Duke of Lennox. In 1639 William Murray, afterwards Earl of Dysart, was the lessee of Richmond Manor under the queen, and on her determination to surrender it to the king, Murray petitioned for a grant of the manor in fee-farm together with the court leet and view of frankpledge. An order to this effect was accordingly given, but was evidently not carried out, as the manor remained part of the queen's jointure. It became the property of Sir Gregory Norton, bart., and later of his son Sir Henry Norton during the Commonwealth, but was restored to Queen Henrietta Maria in 1660. In July of that year the custody of the manor, palace, and park was consigned to Edward Villiers, who petitioned that the grant might extend during the lives of his two sons. Queen Henrietta Maria did not die until 1669, but perhaps exchanged the manor with the king, as in 1664 it was granted with the 'capital messuage' and the park to James, Duke of York, afterwards James II, and his heirs. On his accession he settled the manor on his queen, Mary Beatrice, as part of her jointure. It must have been appropriated with the rest of her jointure by William and Mary, as in 1690 her trustees desired that no grant of the manor might be made until they were first heard on her behalf. The manor does not appear to have been granted out again until 1733, when it was conferred by George II upon George, Earl of Cholmondeley, to hold during the life of Queen Caroline, who died in 1737. In 1770 it was granted, exclusive of the site of the palace, to Queen Charlotte for her life, by George III. This is the last grant of the manor that has been found, and it is now in the possession of His Majesty King George V.

One or more fisheries were appurtenant to the manor from very early times. The first mention of a free fishery occurs in an extent of the manor in 1292.

Among the customs claimed by the tenants of Richmond Manor by grant of 1481 which still survive is that of Borough English, or the succession of the youngest son to all copyhold lands; if there are no sons the youngest daughter inherits.