Oatlands Palace - The Palace

The Palace

Much of the foundation stone for the palace came from Chertsey Abbey which fell into ruins after the Dissolution of the Monasteries.

Henry VIII acquired the house in 1538, and rebuilt it for Anne of Cleves. The palace was built around three main adjoining quadrangular courtyards covering fourteen hectares and utilising an existing 15th-century moated manor house. He married Catherine Howard in the palace on 28 July 1540.

It subsequently became the residence, at various times, of Mary I, Elizabeth I, James I and Charles I. It was to Oatlands that Mary Tudor retreated after acknowledging her "pregnancy" was phantom. Her previous residence Hampton Court Palace had housed the entire court and nursery staff that was assembled for the birth of the child. The announcement of a movement to Oatlands (considerably smaller than Hampton) ended any hope of a happy outcome of the Queen's pregnancy.

James I's wife Anne of Denmark employed Inigo Jones to design an ornamental gateway from the Privy Garden to the Park. In 1646, it was a temporary home of Princess Henrietta of England, daughter of Charles I of England and thus, grand-daughter of Anne of Denmark and King James I and sister-in-law of Louis XIV.

Charles used it for his queen's residence, employed John Tradescant the elder for its gardens, and was later imprisoned here by the army in 1647. After the King's execution the palace was sold and demolished, leaving a single house - remote from the site of the palace itself - that may have originally functioned as a hunting lodge.