Palace of Beaulieu

The Palace of Beaulieu stands on the edge of Boreham in Essex, east of Chelmsford. It began as a manor called Walhfare, held by Waltham Abbey’s canons in the 11th century. Henry VIII bought the house in 1516 for £1,000 and rebuilt it in brick at a cost of £17,000. He renamed it Beaulieu, meaning ‘beautiful place’ in French. The king filled the palace with Flemish tapestries covering 1,818 square yards. Court chronicler Edward Hall describes a masque in 1519 when disguised courtiers danced before Catherine of Aragon. The palace became the setting for Henry’s plans to set aside Catherine and marry Anne Boleyn. In 1527 he stayed for over a month with Anne’s father, the Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk, and other nobles. After Anne’s execution and Jane Seymour’s rise, Henry gave the palace to his daughter Mary. Elizabeth I visited in 1579, greeted by a play featuring Jupiter and a thunderstorm. The 3rd Earl of Sussex rebuilt the north wing and left his coat of arms above the entrance, still visible today. Today the north wing forms the core of New Hall School. The chapel holds Henry VIII’s royal arms above the altar. Archaeologists from Channel 4’s Time Team uncovered the chapel, west wing and gatehouse in 2009. The Beaulieu name lives on in the nearby Beaulieu Park estate. The school continues to occupy the surviving parts of the former royal palace.