Nonsuch Palace

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View from the north of the main gatehouse to the Outer Court

Nonsuch Palace was a palace of the English King Henry VIII in today's Borough Epsom and Ewell in the county of Surrey . From this by far the most expensive and elaborate prestige object of Heinrichs only remains of the foundation are left. Three contemporary representations of Nonsuch Palace have been preserved, parts of the former interior can be seen in other buildings and the appearance of other objects is known through drawings.

History of construction and ownership

The most famous representation of the palace, a copper engraving based on a drawing by Georg Hoefnagels from 1582. The south side can be seen from the front with the two octagonal towers. The buildings on the right are the palace's kitchen buildings

Henry's rival, King Francis I of France , had started building Chambord Castle on the Loire in 1519 and then expanded Fontainebleau Castle considerably. Henry VIII saw the very expensive construction of Nonsuch Palace as a direct competitor to show that he could keep up technically and financially. Construction began on April 22, 1538, after the Cuddington church here was closed. Stones and tracery from the also demolished Merton Priory were used for the construction . The structure, which was no longer completed during Heinrich's lifetime, swallowed up the sum of 23,000 pounds by 1545, and by 1547 it was 24,500 pounds, which corresponds to a current purchasing power of well over 100 million pounds. The buildings and towers were essentially erected until 1544, only parts of the building were missing in the northern section of the palace around the Outer Court . The building was completed in 1556.

The antiquarian John Leland reported about the extraordinary palace in the middle of the 16th century:

Hanc quia non habeat similem laudare Britanni
Saepe solent, nullique parem cognomine dicunt
(Because there is no one similar to this one to praise, the British often use the nickname none to be called the same ).

So the name was common from the time it was built.

Some names of the participating artists and builders have come down to us. It was not so much local architects and builders who worked on the project, but mainly Italians and Dutch people. One of the participants was from Modena Dating Nicholas Bellin . He had experience building palaces, having previously worked with Francesco Primaticcio on Fontainebleau. Another was William Cure, recruited from Amsterdam . A Giles Gering or Geringes is also called , certainly not from England, although its exact origin is not known. The construction of Nonsuch became an attraction for highly qualified and therefore expensive specialists from various trades.

Detail from the Speed's Map of Surrey, woodcut from 1610, the south side can be seen again, in the middle above the high gatehouse of the transverse building between the courtyards

After the death of Henry VIII, the building was inherited by his daughter and successor Queen Maria I , but she had no use for it, so she sold the palace in 1556 to Henry FitzAlan, 19th Earl of Arundel , who had it completed. In turn by inheritance, the building went to his son-in-law, Lord Lumley. Lumley owed the royal treasury, in the course of these negotiations the palace was returned to the crown in 1592, to Queen Elizabeth I. The queen liked the palace very much; the time she spent here is known as the Golden Age of the Palace. Her successor, King James I , left the building to his wife, Anna of Denmark , in 1603 , and King Charles I also left it to his wife Henrietta Maria of France for her use. When King Charles II left the building to his mistress Barbara Villiers at the time in 1669 , she had it torn down from 1682 due to gambling debts and the individual parts sold. By 1687 the entire building had been demolished down to the foundation walls.

Appearance and equipment

The Inner Court fountain from the Red Velvet Book of 1590

The palace, like other of his time, a construction to two square courtyards, the northern outer court (outer court) and the southern inner (inner court) . Overall, the palace was 114.9 meters long and 61.6 meters wide. The main entrance was through a gatehouse equipped with four corner towers, which led into the outer court . Both courtyards had the same area, around 40.2 × 35 meters and were designed completely differently. The parts of the building surrounding the outer court were rather plain on the courtyard side as well as on the outside and were based on modeled Gothic models, they were built on two floors. In the east, separated by a kitchen garden, the kitchen wing, which was not built into the palace itself for fire protection reasons, was connected. It is believed that the king's servants and guards were housed in the buildings around the outer court . The wing of the building separating the two courtyards is likely to have been the tallest component in the middle part, next to the towers. It contained a gatehouse flanked by four corner towers and the palace's wine cellar in the basement.

The architecture of the southern part of the palace around the inner court followed French models. The buildings were three-story, in the octagonal towers four-story. Based on the usual principles of the use and floor plan of English palaces in the 16th century, it can be assumed that the king's reception and representation rooms were in the west wing of the inner court , those of the queen were in the east wing and were both connected by a gallery in the south wing. The king's bedroom was on the first floor on the outer side of the south wing with a view of the private garden, the gallery ran towards the courtyard, the queen's on the first floor of the cross bar to the outer court . The exact functions of the rooms are unknown.

The most remarkable thing was the design of both the inner facades towards the inner court and the outer facades of the southern building block. According to some, they were decorated with renaissance motifs, both with images of people or animals, as well as floral motifs, as well as with grotesques . It was this lavish sculptural jewelry that led to the name Nonsuch , nothing like it . It was calculated that the work covered a total wall area with a length of over 274 meters with building heights of between 3 and 7 meters, i.e. several hundred square meters. The motifs of the representations came from a wide variety of models from Italy and France. These precious stonemasonry and sculptural works as well as the interior furnishings were sold individually by Barbara Villiers.

Todays situation

The foundation walls of the former palace were first fully archaeologically examined in 1959, further excavations followed in the early 1960s. So far, not all of the findings of these investigations have been scientifically published; an illustrated book on the 1959 excavation has appeared.

Of the above-ground parts of the palace, apart from fragments of the foundation walls, nothing can be seen anymore, only a stone with a hint and the floor plan of the palace provides information on the spot where Nonsuch Palace was. The modern street The Ave between north London Road and south Ewell Road runs almost in the middle of the western section through the remains. The surrounding Nonsuch Park takes its name from the former palace gardens , in the northeast corner of which is Nonsuch Manor , a country house from the 18th century.

In addition to the drawings of individual objects in the courtyards and gardens in the Red Velvet Book of 1590, the panels in the Losley Park Gallery near Guildford are certainly by Nonsuch. It is uncertain whether the paneling of the Great Hall there also comes from there. This is possible because, in addition to illusionistic inlays of the time, there are also initials on it that would fit Henry VIII and Katherine Parr .

literature

  • Martin Biddle: Nonsuch Palace. Vol. 2: The Material Culture of a Noble Restoration Household. Oxbow, Oxford 2005, ISBN 1-900188-34-1 .
  • John Cannon, Anne Hargreaves: Kings and Queens of Britain. 2nd edition revised. Oxford University Press, Oxford et al. 2009, ISBN 978-0-19-955922-0 .
  • Peter Sager : South England. From Kent to Cornwall. Architecture and landscape, literature and history (= DuMont art travel guide ). 5th edition. DuMont, Cologne 1981, ISBN 3-7701-0744-6 .
  • John Steane: The Archeology of the medieval English Monarchy. Edition 2004. Taylor and Francis, London 2004, ISBN 0-203-16522-5 .
  • John Summerson : Architecture in Britain 1530-1830. 9th edition. Yale University Press, New Haven CT et al. 1993, ISBN 0-300-05886-1 .

Web links

Commons : Nonsuch Palace  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Peter Sager: South England. From Kent to Cornwall. 1981, p. 89.
  2. ^ Peter Sager: South England. From Kent to Cornwall. 1981, p. 89.
  3. ^ John Stean: The Archeology of the medieval English Monarchy. 2004, p. 91.
  4. ↑ measuringworth.com ( Memento of the original from March 5, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed on January 10, 2013. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.measuringworth.com
  5. ↑ Thomas Graham Jackson: Nonsuch Palace. In: The Renaissance of Roman Architecture. Vol. 2: England. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1922, reprint New York 1975, pp. 31-36, here p. 34 .
  6. ↑ See also William Camden : Britannia. London 1607, Barkshire Chapter , Section 8 .
  7. ^ John Summerson: Architecture in Britain 1530-1830. 1993, p. 34.
  8. ^ John Summerson: Architecture in Britain 1530-1830. 1993, p. 36.
  9. ^ John Summerson: Architecture in Britain 1530-1830. 1993, p. 36.
  10. ^ John Cannon, Anne Hargreaves: Kings and Queens of Britain. 2009, section of Nonsuch palace, Surrey.
  11. ^ John Cannon, Anne Hargreaves: Kings and Queens of Britain. 2009, section of Nonsuch palace, Surrey.
  12. ^ Peter Sager: South England. From Kent to Cornwall. 1981, p. 89.
  13. ^ John Summerson: Architecture in Britain 1530-1830. 1993, p. 33.
  14. ^ John Stean: The Archeology of the medieval English Monarchy. 2004, p. 91.
  15. ↑ See floor plan from Peter Sager: South England. From Kent to Cornwall. 2009, p. 90.
  16. ^ John Stean: The Archeology of the medieval English Monarchy. 2004, p. 91.
  17. ^ John Stean: The Archeology of the medieval English Monarchy. 2004, p. 91.
  18. ^ John Cannon, Anne Hargreaves: Kings and Queens of Britain. 2009, section of Nonsuch palace, Surrey.
  19. ^ John Stean: The Archeology of the medieval English Monarchy. 2004, p. 91.
  20. ↑ See floor plan from Peter Sager: South England. From Kent to Cornwall. 1981, p. 90.
  21. ^ Peter Sager: South England. From Kent to Cornwall. 1981, p. 90.


Coordinates: 51 ° 21 ′ 14.9 "  N , 0 ° 14 ′ 20.2"  W.