Somerset House - Sixteenth Century

Sixteenth Century

In the sixteenth century, the north bank of the Thames between London and Westminster was a favoured site for the mansions of the nobility. In 1539, Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford, obtained a grant of land at "Chester Place, outside Temple Bar, London" from Henry VIII of England. When the boy-king Edward VI of England came to the throne in 1547, Seymour became Duke of Somerset and Lord Protector. About 1549 he pulled down an old Inn of Chancery and other houses that stood on the site and began to build himself a truly imposing residence, making liberal use of the other nearby buildings including some of the chantries and cloisters at St. Paul's Cathedral which were demolished at the behest of Somerset and other leading Protestant nobles as part of the ongoing Dissolution of the Monasteries. It was a two storey house built around a quadrangle with a gateway rising to three stories and was one of the earliest examples of Renaissance architecture in England. It is not known who designed the building.

Before it was finished, however, Somerset created too many enemies for himself in the Council. In the struggle for power he was overthrown and in 1552 and was executed at Tower Hill. "Somerset Place" then came into the possession of the Crown and was used by Princess Elizabeth for some years before she was crowned Elizabeth I of England in 1558.

For a long time thereafter it served as one of the Royal palaces. Elizabeth I lived there during the reign of her sister Mary I of England. The process of completion and improvement was slow and costly. As late as 1598 Stow refers to it as "yet unfinished".