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The Kynges New Haull: A Response to Jonathan Foyle’s ‘Reconstruction of Thomas Wolsey’s Great Hall at Hampton Court Palace’

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 April 2016

Daphne Ford  and
Michael Turner
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Extract

In Architectural History 45 (2002), Jonathan Foyle proposed ‘A Reconstruction of Thomas Wolsey’s Great Hall at Hampton Court Palace’. Foyle drew attention to Cardinal Wolsey’s intervention at Hampton Court, so long overshadowed by the work of his more flamboyant and better-documented successor, Henry VIII. However, in bringing to the fore Wolsey’s aggrandizement of the manor previously occupied by Giles, Lord Daubeney, Foyle overlooked existing evidence relevant to his thesis, most notably with regard to the Great Hall, where he ascribed a first-floor hall and sequence of apartments to Wolsey. In doing so, he credited Wolsey with introducing the Italian concept of the piano nobile, ten years before the king commenced the surviving Great Hall.

Type
Research Article
Information
Architectural History , Volume 47 , 2004 , pp. 53 - 76
Copyright
Copyright © Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain 2004

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References

Notes

1 Foyle, Jonathan, ‘A Reconstruction of Thomas Wolsey’s Great Hall at Hampton Court Palace’, Architectural History, 45 (2002), pp. 128-58CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

2 Thurley, Simon, The Royal Palaces of Tudor England (New Haven & London, 1993), pp. 51–55 Google Scholar, 120; Foyle, ‘Wolsey’s Hall’, p. 135.

3 Foyle, ‘Wolsey’s Hall’, p. 128; Foyle, Jonathan, ‘An Archaeological Reconstruction of Thomas Wolsey’s Hampton Court Palace’ (doctoral thesis, University of Reading, 2003)Google Scholar.

4 Foyle, ‘Wolsey’s Hall’, p. 131. The duplication of some Henrician building accounts for 1530 and 1532 is noted by Foyle on p. 152. He accepts November-December 1530 as the commencement of demolition of the existing hall, whereas we believe the later dates are the correct ones. Works accounts of 13 November-11 December 1530 (National Archives (hereafter NA): PRO E36/241, pp. 107-27) are all duplicated in entries between 4 February-31 March 1532 (ibid., pp. 475-97) and 8 September-3 November 1532 (ibid., pp. 613-47). Commencement of works in 1530 produces an unexplained cessation of work in 1531, and we consider that commencement in January-February 1532 gives a logical sequence of works through to the hall’s completion in July 1535.

5 Foyle, ‘Wolsey’s Hall’, p. 128.

6 Foyle, ‘Wolsey’s Hall’, p. 129.

7 Colvin, H. M. (ed.), The History of the King’s Works, 5 vols (London, 1963-82), iv, pp. 126-47Google Scholar; ibid., Plan V Hampton Court Palace (1982).

8 The following archaeological research excavations are recorded at Hampton Court Palace between 1966 and 1996:

  1. a)

    a) Peter Curnow and Alan Cook, ‘Clock Court, Pre-Wolsey Range’, 1966-67, Hampton Court Palace Excavations box file including original plans and photographs; boxed small finds; D. Ford, composite plan and section, 1996, HCP2/05/43 and 46, Hampton Court archive. A. Cook notes on phasing, 1966-67, English Heritage, Savile Row, London. ‘Hampton Court Palace: discovery of some foundations in Clock Court; excavations’, 1966-71, contains photographs of the excavations, NA: PRO Work 19/1373.

    1. b)

      b) Pacito, Tony, ‘Base Court, Pre-Wolsey Moat Ditch’, 1971, English Heritage, Savile Row, London Google Scholar. Original section survey in note form, and D. Ford plan and section, 1996, HCP2/05/45 and 47, Hampton Court Archive.

    2. c)

      c) John Dent and Brian Davison, ‘Clock Court, Pre-Wolsey Range’, 1973-74, Hampton Court Palace Excavations box file including site diary, notebooks and feature cards; D. Ford plans, elevations and sections, 1996, HCP2/07/51-59, and 62-73, Hampton Court archive. Excavation plans, 1973-74, 125A AS2/81-83, English Heritage Historic Plans Room, Swindon.

    3. d)

      d) John Dent and Brian Davison, ‘Great Hall Basement, Pre-Wolsey Halls’, 1973-74, Hampton Court Palace Excavations box file including plans, photographs, site diary, notebooks and feature cards, Hampton Court archive. Album of original photographs, 1973-74, English Heritage, Savile Row, London.

    4. e)

      e) Whipp, David, ‘Wolsey Suite, Pre-Wolsey and Wolsey sequences of build’, 1976, English Heritage, Savile Row, London Google Scholar. D. Ford Hampton Court Archaeological Record Survey drawings AS2 /1-7, Hampton Court Archive.

    5. f)

      f) David Batchelor, ‘Lady Mornington’s Garden, Moat ditch’, 1977, published in Batchelor, David, ‘Excavations at Hampton Court Palace’, Post-Medieval Archaeology, 11 (1977), pp. 36–49 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. D. Ford Hampton Court Archaeological Record Survey drawings AS2/11-12, Hampton Court Archive.

    6. g)

      g) Higginbottam, Ted, ‘West Range Clock Court, Pre-Wolsey Range and Moat Ditch’, 1977, English Heritage, Savile Row, London Google Scholar. D. Ford plan, 1996, HCP2/05/42, Hampton Court Archive.

    7. h)

      h) Parnell, Geoffrey, ‘Great Kitchens, Pre-Wolsey West Wall’, 1978, drawings and notes, English Heritage, Savile Row, London Google Scholar; drawings 125A/AS2/27, 1979, English Heritage Historic Plans Room, Swindon. D. Ford Hampton Court Archaeological Record Survey drawing AS2/25, Hampton Court Archive.

    8. i)

      i) Geoffrey Parnell, ‘Exterior East Wall of Chapel Royal, Henrician tile floor’, 1982, drawings and notes, English Heritage Archive. D. Ford Hampton Court Archaeological Record Survey drawing AS2/63, Hampton Court Archive.

    9. j)

      j) David Batchelor, ‘Great Hall North Wall Buttress, Defining Foundations’, 1988, English Heritage Archive. D. Ford Hampton Court Archaeological Record Survey drawing AS2/91, Hampton Court Archive.

    10. k)

      k) Batchelor, David, ‘Apartment 37 basement, Wolsey Moat Bridge’, 1987-88, English Heritage, Savile Row, London Google Scholar.

    11. l)

      l) Derek Gadd, ‘Base Court, Examination of Previous Surfaces’, 1990; small finds, Hampton Court Archive.

    12. m)

      m) Brian Dix and Stephen Perry, ‘The Privy Garden’, 1992-94, published in Dix, Brian and Perry, Stephen, ‘The excavation of the Privy Garden’, in The King’s Privy Garden at Hampton Court Palace 1689-1995, ed. by Thurley, Simon (London, 1995), pp. 79–118 Google Scholar. Site records and small finds in the Hampton Court archive.

    13. n)

      n) Graham Keevil, Oxford Archaeological Unit, ‘The North Arm of the Moat’, 1996, published in Keevil, Graham D. and Bell, Chris, ‘The excavation of a trial trench across the moat at Hampton Court’, Transactions of the London and Middlesex Archaeological Society, 47 (1996), pp. 145-56Google Scholar. Site records and small finds in the Oxford Archaeological Unit Archive, Oxford.

9 Colvin, , King’s Works, IV, p. 126 Google Scholar.

10 The Hampton Court Archaeological Record Survey drawings are in the Hampton Court Palace Archive in the series: AS1/1 and AS1/157, AS2/1-96, AS3/1-22, AS4/1-53, AS5/1-35, AS6/1-6 and AS9/1-43.

11 D. Ford, ‘Hampton Court Palace Brick Typology’, 1991, Hampton Court Archive, including brick samples.

12 Lloyd, Nathaniel, A History of English Brickwork (London, 1925)Google Scholar. For a review of recent research, with particular reference to the seventeenth century, see Campbell, James W. P. and Saint, Andrew, ‘The Manufacture and Dating of English Brickwork 1600-1720’, The Archaeological Journal, 159 (2002), pp. 170-93CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

13 Foyle, ‘Wolsey’s Hall’, p. 129.

14 Ex inf. Sheila Richardson. At Oatlands Palace there was a similar sequence of events to that of Hampton Court, where Henry VIII inherited an important house and proceeded to extend and enlarge it. Cf. Colvin, , King’s Works, IV, pp. 205-17Google Scholar; Cook, Alan, ‘Oatlands Palace Excavations 1968 Interim Report’, Surrey Archaeological Collections, LXVI (1969), pp. 1–9 Google Scholar; final report in preparation.

15 NA: PRO E36/239, 4-17 April 1529, p. 11; ibid., E36/237, 27 March-16 April 1530, p. 403; and ibid., E36/239, 2-30 March 1538, p. 553.

16 The only instance for such re-use so far found is a very small brick-on-edge floor within an Henrician works area immediately north west of the great hall basement which although structurally contemporary with the surrounding walls is composed of pre-Henrician bricks.

17 NA: PRO E101/496/30, 19 March 1529.

18 This period of Wolsey’s work is discussed in more detail in Thurley, Simon, Hampton Court: A Social and Architectural History (New Haven & London, 2003), pp. 27–41 Google Scholar.

19 This cistern was uncovered under the Great Oak Room during restoration work consequent upon the fire of 1986. D. Ford record drawings 125A AS9/36-39 inclusive, 1989, Hampton Court Palace Archive. For the Bayne Tower, see Thurley, Hampton Court, pp. 49-50.

20 Foyle, ‘Wolsey’s Hall’, p. 133.

21 Thurley, Hampton Court, pp. 8-14.

22 Colvin, , King’s Works, IV, p. 222 Google Scholar.

23 P. S., and Allen, H. M. (eds), Letters of Richard Fox, 1487-1527 (Oxford, 1929), p. 122 Google Scholar, cited in Colvin, , King’s Works, IV, p. 127 Google Scholar.

24 Thurley, Hampton Court, pp. 8-9. For an early reference to Daubeney at Hampton Court, see Law, Ernest, The History of Hampton Court Palace, 3 vols, 2nd edn (London, 1903), 1, Tudor Times, p. 16 Google Scholar.

25 Curnow and Cook, ‘Clock Court, Pre-Wolsey Range’, 1966-67, Hampton Court Archive.

26 Higginbottam, ‘West Range Clock Court, Pre-Wolsey Range and Moat Ditch’, 1977, English Heritage.

27 Dent and Davison, ‘Great Hall Basement, Pre-Wolsey Halls’, 1973-74, Hampton Court Archive. An L-shaped construction trench appears to be cut by the phase В cross wall, but Dent assigned to this a separate later phase C (J. Dent, ‘Hampton Court Palace Excavation in Undercroft of Great Hall, 1973. Site Notebook’, p. 23). We suggest that this trench predates the phase B footings, and have accordingly shown it as a Phase A feature on Fig. 2.

28 See D. Ford, ‘Cellars under Apartment 32A’, Archaeological Record Survey Drawing AS2/85, Hampton Court Archive.

29 See D. Ford, ‘Great Kitchens, Excavations’, Hampton Court Archaeological Record Survey Drawing AS2/25, Hampton Court Archive.

30 Thurley, Hampton Court, p. 17.

31 D. Ford, ‘Great Kitchens’, Hampton Court Archaeological Record Survey Drawings, AS2/24-AS2/32, Hampton Court Archive.

32 Law, , The History of Hampton Court Palace, 1, p. 155 Google Scholar, cited in Foyle, ‘Wolsey’s Hall’, p. 129, n. 4.

33 Colvin, , King’s Works, IV, p. 134 Google Scholar.

34 Foyle, ‘Wolsey’s Hall’, pp. 137-42, 152.

35 Colvin, , King’s Works, IV, p. 127 Google Scholar. The plan on p. 130 (fig. 12) also attributes Daubeney’s north wall of the Great Hall to Wolsey.

36 Foyle, ‘Wolsey’s Hall’, p. 136.

37 Foyle, ‘Wolsey’s Hall’, p. 143, quoting the accounts of Garett Haryson, smith, of Kingston: NA: PRO E36/235, 30 July 1515, p. 769; and ibid., 10 September 1515, p. 789.

38 NA: PRO E36/235, 24 September 1515, p. 796.

39 Oxford Archaeology, ‘Hampton Court Palace Research Excavations’ (20 June 2002). The excavations were designed as part of a research project ‘to reconstruct the first purpose-built palace constructed for Thomas Wolsey from 1515-21’ (ibid., p. 1). The use of the phrase ‘first purpose-built palace’ is curious and unexplained, and could only be justified if Wolsey had razed all of the pre-existing buildings to the ground and built de novo, which was clearly not the case. But Oxford Archaeology’s report betrays no knowledge of the Daubeney building phase, nor is there any mention of previous excavations which could have clarified the interpretation of their own findings.

40 Oxford Archaeology, ‘Hampton Court Palace Excavations’, p. 3.

41 Foyle, ‘Wolsey’s Hall’, p. 148.

42 Oxford Archaeology, ‘Hampton Court Research Excavations’, pp. 7-9, fig. 6.

43 The south wall stepped brick footings are shown on C. J. Spencer, W. Lindsay and J. S. Dent, ‘Hampton Court Palace 73/4 Undercroft of the Great Hall’, drawing HCP73/4/S1, ‘Sections of pits, drains etc.’, English Heritage, Savile Row, London.

44 Oxford Archaeology, ‘Hampton Court Palace Excavations’, p. 17. This observation is subsequently reinforced on page 18 of the report: ‘Caution must be used with the interpretations of the excavations as only a small part of the surviving structures were exposed. This is particularly noticeable in Site 2 — South wall of the Great Hall, where the results from the excavation appear to be contradictory with the building evidence above ground. To resolve this conflict a study of all of the foundations of the Great Hall and Oriel window would be needed.’

45 Foyle, ‘Wolsey’s Hall’, p. 47, figs 6 and 10.

46 NA: PRO E36/242,18 July-15 August 1534, p. 176.

47 A further reference from 1535 to the main cellar as the buttery is: ‘the pyppe goyng frome the fontayne in the Inner Cowrtt throw the buttery under the haulle’, NA: PRO E36/243, 16 January-13 February 1535, p. 39. The 1529 Henrician building which projects into the north-east corner of Base Court is popularly known today as ‘The Buttery’. This can cause confusion. It was this 1529 building which finally housed the offices of the Great and Privy Buttery at ground floor where the records of the royal butteries were kept. The basement of the 1532 Great Hall became the storage areas of the butts themselves. The identification of the larger basement area as the Great Buttery and the smaller as the Privy Buttery is confirmed by the Lodgings List of 1674, NA: PRO LC5/201, pp. 145-57 which makes this final identification of rooms in both areas very clear.

48 Foyle, ‘Wolsey’s Hall’, pp. 137-39.

49 Colvin, , King’s Works, IV, p. 134 Google Scholar. The court’s east wall was rebuilt, on the same alignment, by Kent in the 1720S. See the survey drawings at All Souls I. 34, 35, 36 & 57, reproduced in the Wren Society, 20 vols (Oxford, 1924-43), vu, pis 24-25; All Souls I. 57 is reproduced in colour in Thurley, Hampton Court, fig. 264. See also Colvin, , King’s Works, v, p. 160 Google Scholar.

50 Oxford Archaeology, ‘Hampton Court Research Excavations’, pp. 6-7.

51 NA: PRO E101/496/30, 19 March 1529.

52 Brewer, J. S., Gairdner, J. & Brodie, R. H. (eds), Letters and Papers Foreign and Domestic of the Reign of Henry VIII, 21 vols (London, 1862-1910), IV part III, 1529-1530, p. 2563 Google Scholar, no. 5754, quoted in Thurley, Hampton Court, p. 41.

53 J. Dent and B. Davison, ‘Great Hall Basement, Pre-Wolsey Halls’ (1973-74), English Heritage Archive, copied to Hampton Court Palace Archive.

54 J. Dent, ‘Hampton Court Palace Excavation in Undercroft of Great Hall, 1973. Site Diary’, entry for 3 January 1974. Foyle confused the visitor ‘B.K.D.’ (Brian Davison) with Vicki Doughty, one of the excavators, while Dent misheard Alan Cook and subsequently wrote ‘Allan Clarke?’.

55 J. Dent, ‘Hampton Court Palace Excavation in Undercroft of Great Hall, 1973. Site Notebook’, pp. 23-24.

56 J. Dent, ‘Hampton Court Palace Excavation in Undercroft of Great Hall, 1973. Site Diary’, entry for 12 December 1973. Foyle refers to this sketch in endnote 13, although he attributes the Henrician north wall to Wolsey in his fig. 6.

57 Oxford Archaeology, ‘Hampton Court Palace Excavations’, p. 18.

58 David Batchelor, ‘Great Hall North Wall Buttress, Defining foundations’ (1988), English Heritage Archive.

59 Foyle, ‘Wolsey’s Hall’, p. 146.

60 John Dent and Brian Davison, ‘Great Hall Basement, Pre-Wolsey Halls’ (1973-74). Thurley, Royal Palaces, p. 120.

61 Foyle, ‘Wolsey’s Hall’, p. 149.

62 Foyle, ‘Wolsey’s Hall’, pp. 143-46.

63 Foyle, ‘Wolsey’s Hall’, p. 143.

64 Foyle, ‘Wolsey’s Hall’, p. 146, figs 6 and 10.

65 NA: PRO E36/239, 4 April-17 April 1529, p. 6.

66 NA: PRO E36/239, 4 April-17 April 1529, p. 7.

67 NA: PRO E36/242, 5-19 December 1534, p. 330. At Hampton Court Palace there are many instances where a sixteenth-century exterior brick face has become encased and protected by slightly later building. Here final cosmetic treatment sometimes survives. The usual form this treatment takes is firstly a red-ochre wash applied to the entire face. Diaper work (if it exists) was picked out in black and finally the pointing (usually double-struck) would be lined out in white. A particularly fine example can be seen on the east exterior face of the Chapel Royal.

68 Thurley, Hampton Court, pp. 58-59.

69 NA: PRO E36/240, 25 December 1535-29 January 1536, p. 618.

70 NA: PRO E36/235, 10 September 1515, p. 789. The relevant sections in Garett Haryson’s account are: ‘for Serment for the Uper Story of the [blank space] Chamber for 3 wyndows’ and ‘for part serment for the uper story of the gret chamb[er]’.

71 Foyle, ‘Wolsey’s Hall’, p. 149 and fig. 10.

72 All Souls I. 34, 35, 36 and 57, reproduced in the Wren Society, VII, pls 24-25.

73 For a discussion of Kent’s transformation of this sixteenth-century east range, see Allan, Juliet, ‘New Light on William Kent at Hampton Court Palace’, Architectural History, 27 (1984), pp. 50–55 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

74 Thurley, Royal Palaces, p. 120.

75 Colvin, , King’s Works, iv, p. 126 Google Scholar.