Woodstock Palace

Woodstock, United Kingdom

No longer standing

Demolished or destroyed.

Woodstock Palace was a royal residence in Oxfordshire that evolved from a Norman hunting lodge into a major seat of medieval kingship. Henry I established the lodge and in 1129 enclosed seven miles of walls to create the first park of its kind, where exotic animals including lions and leopards were housed. Under Henry II, the modest lodge expanded into a palace; the king famously spent time here with his mistress Rosamund Clifford. Henry III continued the tradition of royal visitation, notably receiving his long-imprisoned cousin Eleanor, Fair Maid of Brittany, in 1237. The palace remained in use throughout the Middle Ages, Tudor, and early Stuart periods, but sustained severe damage during the English Civil War. Its final remnants were erased when the park was granted to John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, and Blenheim Palace was constructed on the site.

Movement

Norman architecture

Type: English country house, destroyed building or structure
Place: Woodstock, United Kingdom

This building on

Architecturally similar

Location

51.84194, -1.36167