Blenheim Palace

Blenheim Palace is a large and monumental country house situated in Woodstock, Oxfordshire, England. It is the only non episcopal country house, in England, to hold the title "palace". The Palace, one of England's greatest houses in every sense of the word, was built between 1705 and circa 1722. Its construction was originally intended to be a gift to the 1st Duke of Marlborough from a grateful nation in return for military triumph against the French. However, it soon became the subject of political infighting which led to Marlborough's exile, the fall from power of his Duchess, and the irreparable damage to the reputation of the architect Sir John Vanbrugh. Designed in the rare, and short lived, English baroque style, architectural appreciation of the palace is as divided today as it was in the 1720s. {{fn|1}} It is unique in its combined usage as a family home, mausoleum and national monument.

The site

The estate given by the nation to Marlborough for the new palace was the manor of Woodstock, sometimes called the Palace of Woodstock, which had been a royal demesne, in reality little more than a hunting box. Legend has obscured the manor's origins. King Henry I enclosed the park to contain the deer. Henry II housed his mistress Rosamund Clifford (sometimes known as "Fair Rosamund") there in a "bower and labyrinth"; a spring where she is said to have bathed remains, named after her. It seems the unostentatious hunting lodge was rebuilt many times, and had an uneventful history until Elizabeth I, before her succession, was imprisoned there by her sister between 1554 and 1555. Elizabeth had been implicated in the Wyatt plot. Elizabeth's imprisonment at Woodstock was short, and the manor remained in obscurity until bombarded and ruined by Cromwell's troops during the Civil War. When the park was being re-landscaped as a setting for the palace the 1st Duchess wanted the historic ruins demolished, while Vanbrugh, an early conservationist, wanted them restored and made into a landscape feature. The Duchess as so often in her disputes with her architect won the day and the remains of the manor were swept away.

Related Topics:
Manor - Palace of Woodstock - Demesne - Henry I - Henry II - Rosamund Clifford - Elizabeth I - Sister - 1554 - 1555 - Wyatt plot - Cromwell - Civil War

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