Hi everyone!
This week we’re bringing you the second episode in look at Oxfordshire - Blenheim Palace.
Blenheim’s an interesting one. Not only is it the only ‘palace’ in England that’s not owned by the Royal Family, but it’s also seen not one but two palaces on its land.
Woodstock Palace
The original palace on the Blenheim site, Woodstock Palace, was one of Henry I’s hunting lodges and used by his grandson, Henry II, as a place to meet his mistress Rosamund the Fair - although legend has it that she met a bit of a grim end there when Henry’s wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine, gave her a very deadly ultimatum.
While it might not have ended well for Rosamund, Henry III faired much better when he was saved from death-by-assassin because, when the man arrived at the kings bedroom, Henry was in fact in his wife’s room instead.
It did make Henry rethink Woodstock Palace’s security system, though.
Moving forward *quite* a way, the future Queen Elizabeth I was imprisoned at Woodstock Palace for a year in 1553 by her sister, Mary I, after a failed rebellion to remove Mary from the throne.
Mary’s husband, King Phillip II of Spain, finally convinced his wife to release Elizabeth, but more because he was trying to protect Spain. In the event of his wife’s death without an heir, even Protestant Elizabeth was a better option in his eyes than a catholic Mary Queen of Scots, given her alliance with his arch-nemesis, France.
But enough of that. Let’s get to Blenheim Palace.
Blenheim Palace was named after the 1704 Battle of Blenheim and built as a monument to honour the Duke of Marlborough, who had led the English in the battle.
Although it was supposed to be paid for by Queen Anne and Parliament as a gesture of their gratitude, the Marlboroughs ended up absorbing a fair amount of the £300,000 cost of the palace.
£300,000 then. Not now. Now that would be more than £62 million.
Ouch.
During that time there were a lt of ups and downs for the Duke and Duchess of Marlborough. The Duchess, Sarah Churchill, fell out with Blenheim’s architect John Vanburgh and fell out of favour with Queen Anne, while the Duke of Marlborough’s enemy became the leader of Parliament.
Still, despite one bout of self-imposed exile, the Marlborough’s finally saw Blenheim completed in 1724.
Well, Sarah did. The Duke, unfortunately, died in 1722.
Skipping forward to the nineteenth century and the British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, was born at Blenheim Palace and, during World War II, it was actually home to MI% and played host to a number of evacuees.
Today Blenheim Palace is still the seat of the Duke and Duchess of Marlborough, but it’s open to the public to visit (usually - this is subject to COVID conditions).
And we highly recommend you do. It’s one of the most beautiful palaces we’ve ever visited.
To find out more about Blenheim, make sure to give this week’s Podcastles episode a listen.
As always, to stay current with all our wanderings into the past, don’t forget to rate, review, and subscribe via your preferred streaming platform.
See you next week!
Sources:
Samuel J. Rogel, ‘John Vanburgh and the Blenheim Controversy’, Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Vol. 33, No. 4, 1974, pp293-303
Erin Keating, ‘In the Bedroom of the King: Affective Politics in the Restoration Secret History’, Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies, Vol. 15, No. 2, 2015, pp58-82
John Foxe & Thomas S. Freeman, ‘ ‘As True a Subject Being Prysoner’: John Foxe’s Notes on the Imprisonment of Princess Elizabeth, 1554-5’, The English Historical Review, Vol. 117, No. 470, 2002, pp104-116
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