The Old Court House pea shingle path which is flanked by lawn. This path then leads to a pond and fountain that was built by Wren and which was listed before The Old Court House itself. Wren’s tool house is now a charming garden room from which to enjoy the garden in the summer. King Henry VIII took the newly built Hampton Court Palace from Cardinal Wolsey in 1526. All the property around Hampton Court then belonged to the Monarch. (See "Hampton Court: The Story of a Village" by Gerald Heath.) In 1669, Wren (1632-1723) was appointed as the Royal Surveyor by King Charles
Thomas Wolsey in London; thereby, Wolsey was asserting his independence of Rome. An alternative hypothesis is that Campeggio was kept waiting until Wolsey received his legacy, thus asserting Wolsey's attachment to Rome. Though the English gain from the wars of 1522–23 was minimal, their contribution certainly aided Charles in his defeat of the French, particularly in 1525 at the Battle of Pavia, where Charles' army captured the French king, Francis I. Henry then felt there was a realistic opportunity for him to seize the French crown, to which the kings of England had long laid claim. Parliament, however, refused to raise taxes.