Court of St James's meetings or the annual Diplomatic Reception attended by 1,500 guests, are held wherever the monarch is in residence—usually Buckingham Palace. The court is named after St James's Palace, hence the "s" at the end of the name. This is because St James's Palace is the most senior royal palace and has remained the official residence of the British Monarchy despite the nearby Buckingham Palace becoming the main London residence of all the British sovereigns since the accession of Queen Victoria in 1837. When the court's name is spoken, it is sometimes incorrectly identified as the "Court of St James", without
Buckingham Palace the Great Seal before King Charles I fled London, which it needed to do for legal execution". It was this critical omission that helped the British royal family regain the freehold under King George III. The improvident Goring defaulted on his rents; Henry Bennet, 1st Earl of Arlington obtained the mansion and was occupying it, now known as Goring House, when it burned down in 1674. Arlington House rose on the site—the location of the southern wing of today's palace—the next year. In 1698, John Sheffield, later the first Duke of Buckingham and Normanby, acquired the lease. The house which