Hampton Court Palace Hampton Court Palace Hampton Court Palace is a royal palace in the borough of Richmond upon Thames, south west and upstream of central London on the River Thames. Building of the palace began in 1515 for Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, a favourite of King Henry VIII. In 1529, as Wolsey fell from favour, the cardinal gave the palace to the King to check his disgrace; Henry VIII later enlarged it. Along with St James's Palace, it is one of only two surviving palaces out of the many owned by King Henry VIII. In the following century, King William III's massive rebuilding
Henry FitzRoy, 1st Duke of Richmond and Somerset June 1519. His mother was Elizabeth Blount, King Henry VIII's wife's lady in waiting and his father was the 27-year-old King himself. FitzRoy was conceived when Queen Catherine was approaching her last confinement with another of Henry's children, a stillborn daughter born in November 1518. To avoid scandal, Elizabeth Blount was taken from the royal court to the Augustinian priory of St Lawrence at Blackmore near Ingatestone, in Essex. FitzRoy's birthdate is often given as 15 June 1519, but the exact date is not known. His birth may have been earlier than predicted. Thomas Cardinal Wolsey was out of London