Beaumont Palace

Beaumont Palace once stood just north of Oxford’s medieval walls, built by Henry I around 1130 as a royal retreat near Woodstock’s hunting grounds. The palace’s name lives on in Beaumont Street, where a stone marker notes its site and records the births of Richard I in 1157 and John in 1167. Henry I celebrated Easter 1133 in the palace’s grand new hall, marking the birth of his grandson Henry II with great ceremony. Edward I was the last monarch to use it as a royal residence before granting it to an Italian diplomat, Francesco Accorsi, in 1275. Edward II later gave the palace to the Carmelite friars in 1318 after surviving defeat at Bannockburn. The palace played a part in English history beyond royal births and visits. In 1318, a man named John Deydras claimed to be the rightful king and seized the palace, only to be executed for treason. After the Carmelites were forced out during the Reformation, most of the building was taken apart and its stone used to construct Christ Church and St John’s College. An engraving from 1785 shows the last remains, which vanished when Beaumont Street was laid out in 1829. Today, Beaumont Palace exists only in memory and a single inscribed stone on Beaumont Street. The street itself follows the line of the old palace grounds, and the marker stands near Walton Street as a quiet reminder of royal power once centred here. The site’s history ties Oxford to England’s medieval kings, their triumphs and failures, and the slow transformation of a royal residence into a modern city street.