Nonsuch Palace, Surrey
Henry VIII already owned dozens of royal residences when he decided to build another one. But Nonsuch was different. It was not built for comfort or convenience. It was built to impress, to outshine the palaces of France, and to announce Tudor power to all of Europe. It worked. And then, 145 years later, it was torn down and sold for parts.
What Was It
Nonsuch Palace was a Tudor royal palace built entirely from scratch on the site of a demolished Surrey village. Unlike most royal residences of the time, it was not adapted from an older building. It was conceived as something entirely new.
The palace was arranged around two interconnecting courtyards, an outer court and an inner court, each roughly 60 metres square. The outer court was built in stone and described by the diarist John Evelyn as looking castle-like. The inner court was timber-framed and covered with extraordinary stucco panels, moulded in high relief, depicting scenes from mythology, history and religion. These were the work of Nicholas Bellin of Modena, an Italian master craftsman poached by Henry VIII directly from Francis I’s workshop at Fontainebleau.
The palace also featured elaborate gardens, including a walled privy garden, an orchard, a wilderness garden, and a Grove of Diana complete with a fountain depicting the goddess and the hunter Actaeon. A banqueting house and a bowling green stood within the grounds. The whole estate was enclosed within two deer parks covering over 1,500 acres.
It cost Henry at least £24,000 to build, equivalent to roughly £19 million today.
Where Was It
Nonsuch Palace stood in Surrey, England, on the site of the former village of Cuddington, which Henry VIII had demolished in 1538 to make way for the new palace. The site lies within what is now Nonsuch Park, on the boundary between the borough of Epsom and Ewell and the London Borough of Sutton.
The location placed the palace within a comfortable day’s ride of London. It was surrounded by a Great Park of around 911 acres and a Little Park of around 671 acres. Nothing of the palace survives above ground today. Two low rises of land mark the positions of the original gatehouses, and granite obelisks indicate the corners of the two main courts. Some fragments are held by the British Museum.
Key Dates
- 1538. Henry VIII purchases land at Cuddington, Surrey. The village church and manor house are demolished. Construction begins on 22 April.
- 1541. Construction is substantially complete, though finishing work continues.
- 1547. Henry VIII dies. The palace passes to his son, Edward VI, still not fully finished and used only rarely.
- 1553. Edward VI dies. Nonsuch passes to Mary I, who considers having it torn down.
- 1556. Mary I sells the palace to Henry FitzAlan, 19th Earl of Arundel, who completes it and adds an extensive library and new garden features.
- 1559. Elizabeth I visits for five days and is lavishly entertained.
- 1580. Lord Arundel dies. The palace passes to his son-in-law, John Lumley, 1st Baron Lumley.
- 1585. The Treaty of Nonsuch is signed at the palace between Elizabeth I and the Dutch Republic.
- 1591-1592. Elizabeth I repurchases the palace from Lord Lumley in exchange for lands valued at £534.
- 1603. Elizabeth I dies. Nonsuch passes to James I, who grants it to his wife, Anne of Denmark.
- 1625. Charles I inherits the palace. He later gives it to his wife, Henrietta Maria.
- 1649. Following the execution of Charles I, the palace is confiscated by Parliament and passes through several hands.
- 1650. A Parliamentary survey of the palace is commissioned, providing the most detailed written description of its layout and contents.
- 1660. The Restoration. Charles II recovers the palace and returns it to his mother, Henrietta Maria.
- 1665. The palace is temporarily requisitioned to house the Office of the Exchequer during the Great Plague of London.
- 1670. Charles II gives the palace to his mistress, Barbara Villiers, Countess of Castlemaine, creating her Baroness Nonsuch.
- 1682-1683. Barbara Villiers has the palace demolished and the materials sold off.
- 1959-1960. Archaeological excavations led by Martin Biddle uncover the palace footprint and thousands of fragments.
Key Players
Henry VIII commissioned and largely funded the palace, conceived as a direct challenge to the architectural ambitions of Francis I of France. He rarely used it and never saw it finished.
Nicholas Bellin of Modena was the Italian stuccatore responsible for the extraordinary decorative panels covering the inner court. Henry VIII refused to return him to France after Francis I demanded him back.
Henry FitzAlan, 19th Earl of Arundel bought the palace from Mary I in 1556 and completed it. He added a celebrated library and commissioned major improvements to the gardens.
John Lumley, 1st Baron Lumley inherited the palace from his father-in-law Arundel and continued to improve it. He sold it back to Elizabeth I in exchange for lands worth £534.
Elizabeth I visited Nonsuch several times and is reported to have liked it better than any of her other residences. She was at the palace in 1599 when the Earl of Essex burst into her chamber before she was dressed, a scandal that contributed to his eventual downfall and execution.
Barbara Villiers, Countess of Castlemaine was given the palace by Charles II in 1670. Facing significant debts, she had it demolished around 1682 to 1683 and sold the building materials. Some timber and stone were incorporated into local buildings in the area.
Martin Biddle led the 1959 excavation of the palace site at the age of 22. The dig attracted over 75,000 visitors and is credited with establishing post-medieval archaeology as a recognised discipline in Britain.
The Story Behind It
Nonsuch was built in rivalry. Henry VIII had been competing with the French king Francis I for decades, in diplomacy, in warfare, and in the display of royal wealth. When Francis commissioned the Chateau de Chambord, Henry responded with Nonsuch. The name itself was a boast: there was none such palace anywhere equal to it.
Henry built it on a flattened village. The church, the manor house, and the homes of Cuddington were cleared without ceremony. Stone from the recently dissolved Merton Priory was carted in and used in the foundations. More than 500 workmen were employed at the height of construction. Henry used the palace only a handful of times before his death in 1547, and he never saw it completed.
The palace changed hands repeatedly over the following century and a half, passing between monarchs, earls, parliamentarians, and royal mistresses. Elizabeth I loved it. James I and Charles I used it for hunting. During the Civil War it was confiscated. After the Restoration it decayed.
By the time Barbara Villiers received it in 1670, the palace was already in poor condition. Samuel Pepys had visited in 1665 and noted the neglected state of the gardens. John Evelyn visited and admired what remained of the stucco work, knowing even then that it was unlikely to survive. Within fifteen years it was gone, the stones carted away, the timber sold, the site returned to parkland.
The story of Nonsuch did not end with its demolition. The 1959 excavation led by Martin Biddle recovered thousands of fragments of tile, stucco, and carved stone. The dig changed how archaeologists thought about post-medieval sites and put Nonsuch back in the public conversation for the first time in centuries.
What Henry built to last forever lasted 145 years. What he built to be seen by all of Europe is now visible only underground, in fragments, in museum cases, and in a handful of paintings made by visitors who sensed, even then, that they were looking at something unlikely to survive.