Palace of Placentia

• 1. Introduction

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  The Palace of Placentia sat on the south bank of the River Thames at Greenwich, its red-brick facade stretching for two hundred metres along the waterfront, accessible only by boat. For two centuries it was the principal royal residence of England, the place where kings and queens were born, married, and buried in political scandal. What began as a riverside retreat for a powerful duke would become the cradle of the Tudor dynasty. And yet today it is gone, replaced first by a hospital, then a naval college, and now a university. How did one of England's greatest palaces vanish so completely? The answers lie in a story of ambition, disgrace, royal birth, and political revolution that spans more than two hundred years.

• 2. Humphrey's Bella Court

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  Prince Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, began building the original residence in 1433, calling it Bella Court. He was regent during the minority of his nephew, King Henry VI, and the estate represented his considerable power. That power collapsed in 1447, when Humphrey fell out of favour with Henry VI and was arrested for high treason. He died in prison, likely from a stroke, though popular belief held that he had been murdered. William Shakespeare dramatised this suspicion in his plays about Henry VI, ensuring the duke's fate entered the popular imagination for centuries. Margaret of Anjou took over the estate and renamed it the Palace of Placentia, sometimes written as the Palace of Pleasaunce. Behind the main riverside building, Humphrey had already erected a tower on the hill above, later known as Greenwich Castle. That structure was eventually demolished to make way for the Royal Observatory, which still stands on that hill today.

• 3. Friars and Royal Rites

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  Edward IV donated land adjacent to the palace for a friary founded by the Observant Friars, a branch of the Franciscans. Papal approval came through, and by 1485 the community was formally established in a newly constructed church and cloister. The friary church functioned as the chapel royal at Greenwich and became the site of some of the most consequential ceremonies of the Tudor era. Henry VIII married Catherine of Aragon there. The future queens Mary I and Elizabeth I were both christened within its walls. The friary's position within the court, however, made it a target. The friars faced persecution during the English Reformation and Elizabeth I finally expelled them in 1559. Their church, which had witnessed so much royal history, did not survive them.

• 4. Henry VII's Masterwork

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  Henry VII undertook a sweeping reconstruction of the palace between 1498 and 1504. The master mason was Robert Vertue, and the project included plans described as a "platt of Greenwich which was devised by the Queen", acknowledging the direct role of Elizabeth of York in shaping the design. The new palace was built in the Tudor style with a red-brick exterior; brick was expensive to manufacture and considered an extravagance, making the facade itself a statement of royal wealth. The King's lodgings occupied the riverside, including a five-storey tower or donjon. Scholars have noted that this tower and its surrounding lodgings seem to have drawn from Burgundian precedents, specifically the now demolished Ducal Palace at Ghent and the Princehof at Bruges. The rebuilt palace was said to rival Hampton Court in size and character, which was constructed around the same period.

• 5. A Palace of Births and Pageants

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  Henry VIII was born at Greenwich in 1491, and the palace remained inseparable from his reign. On the 1st of May 1515, he and Catherine of Aragon rode from the palace to breakfast in an arbour built in a wood at Shooter's Hill. Catherine and her ladies wore Spanish-style riding gear; Henry rode in green velvet. The royal guard was dressed as Robin Hood and his men, and the morning ended with a pageant and masque. Mary I was born at the palace in 1516. After Henry's marriage to Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth I was born there in 1533. New wooden coops were built further from the palace to house peacocks and a pelican, because their calls were disturbing Anne Boleyn in the mornings. Henry married Anne of Cleves at Greenwich in 1540. A fallen tree in Greenwich Park, known as Queen Elizabeth's Oak, is said to be where Elizabeth played as a child.

• 6. Decay, Demolition, Survival

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  James I and Charles I shifted royal attention to the Queen's House, built to the south of the old palace. When James I ordered the redecoration of the chapel in May 1623, it had not been refurbished since the reign of Mary I. The old palace declined further during the English Civil War, when it served as a biscuit factory and a prisoner-of-war camp. Charles II decided in 1660 to tear it down and replace it with a new palace, hiring John Webb as architect. Only the east range of what is now called King Charles Court was completed, and it was never used as a royal residence. The rest of the site lay empty until 1694, when construction of Greenwich Hospital began. Queen Mary II directed that remodelling, and the hospital eventually became the Greenwich Royal Naval College in 1873 after the college moved from Portsmouth. The buildings are now home to the University of Greenwich and the music faculty of Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance.

• 7. What the Excavations Found

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  Construction work on drains in late 2005 uncovered previously unknown Tudor remains beneath the site. A full archaeological excavation completed in January 2006 revealed the Tudor Chapel and its Vestry, with the tiled floor still in place. The vestry had never been demolished; it had survived as the home of the treasurer of Greenwich Hospital. Work on the visitors' centre for the painted hall in 2017 uncovered two more Tudor palace rooms. One contained bee holes, structures used for keeping hives through the winter. The other was believed to be part of the service range. That same year's excavations also produced lead-glazed tiles, thought to have floored service areas such as the kitchen. Anne of Denmark, who commissioned the Queen's House and its associated gardens in the early seventeenth century, had also ordered a grotto aviary designed by the French architect and engineer Salomon de Caus; it was ornately decorated with pearls, shells, and moss, and has since vanished. The Queen's House itself, designed by Inigo Jones, survives as what is often credited as the first classical building in England.