Prodigy house said to be Henry VII's Richmond Palace, completed in 1501 but now destroyed. But as a royal palace it does not strictly fit the definition. Hampton Court Palace, built by Cardinal Wolsey but taken over by the king on his fall, is certainly an example. The trend continued through the reigns of Henry VIII, Elizabeth, and into the reign of James I, when it reached its height. Henry was a prolific builder himself, though little of his work survives, but the prudent Elizabeth (like her siblings) built nothing herself, instead encouraging her courtiers to "...build on a scale which in
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