Elsyng Palace - History

History

The manor originally known as Wroth's Place was inherited in 1413 by John Tiptoft, 1st Baron Tiptoft (whose mother was Agnes Wroth) from his cousin Elizabeth Wroth. John was succeeded by his son John Tiptoft, 1st Earl of Worcester (1427–70) who is said to have built the house. After Worcester's execution in 1470 the manor (now called Tiptofts) passed to his sister Phillipa. From here it passed to Phillipa's son Edmund de Ros, 11th Baron de Ros and in 1492 to Edmund's sister Isabel and her husband Sir Thomas Lovell, Speaker of the House of Commons. On Lovell's death in 1524 it passed to his great-nephew, Thomas Manners, 1st Earl of Rutland. In 1539 he exchanged the manor, by now called Worcesters, with property in Leicestershire, and the manor therefore came into the ownership of Henry VIII.

The original building date of the house is not known. Earliest traced records show it belonged to Thomas Elsyng, a Citizen and Mercer of London. Under the ownership of Sir Thomas Lovell it was extended to become a brick palace sufficient to receive the court on progress; Lovell also contributed to the clerestory and glazing of Enfield parish church. Henry VIII's sister Queen Margaret of Scotland stayed at Lovell's house in 1516.

After 1539 the estate which was called Little Park was used by Henry VIII as a base for hunting. His children spent part of their childhood here, and it is where Elizabeth and Edward heard of their father's death. There were extensive repairs by James Needham, Clerk of the King's Works in 1542 in preparation for a Christmas visit by Prince Edward and his sisters Mary and Elizabeth, and again under Elizabeth I, who is believed to have stayed at Elsyng on at least four occasions.

The palace fell out of use in the Stuart period in favour of nearby Theobalds. In 1608 James I had it partly demolished and the materials used for extensions there. The remaining part, including the gatehouse and hall, was occupied from 1616 to 1623 by Philip Herbert, Earl of Montgomery. By 1630 however he had succeeded his brother as Earl of Pembroke and was busy remodelling Wilton House. Elsyng probably began to fall into disrepair and in 1641 Charles I sold it to Pembroke.

In 1646 Nicholas Raynton, owner of the neighbouring Forty Hall, died and his estate passed to his son, also Nicholas. Following the death of Pembroke in 1650, Raynton acquired the remains of Elsyng to extend the Forty Hall estate. Initially the ruins of the palace may have been retained as a folly, however it was eventually demolished sometime in the 1650s with some reuse of bricks in other houses around Enfield.