Theobalds House

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Theobalds House (also known as Theobalds Palace), located in Theobalds Park, just outside Cheshunt in the English county of Hertfordshire, was a prominent stately home and (later) royal palace of the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries.

The house was built on an ancient manorial estate between 1564 and 1585 to the order of Lord Burghley, the location desirable in that it lay just off the main road north from London to Ware. The formal gardens of the house were modelled after the Château de Fontainebleau in France, the English botanist John Gerard acting as their superintendent.

In 1607 the house passed in ownership from Robert Cecil, who had inherited it from his father, to James I, who exchanged Theobalds House for the nearby Hatfield Palace, which Cecil promptly demolished to make way for a new "building project" designed to entice the King to stay. Theobalds House quickly became a favourite country seat of the king James I of England (James VI of Scotland), who eventually died within its walls on March 27 1625.

With the execution in 1649 of James I's son, Charles I, Theobalds was listed amongst other royal properties for disposal by the Commonwealth. This was achieved speedily and by the end of 1650, the house was largely demolished, but it was rebuilt after the Restoration.

It was given by King William III to William Bentinck, 1st Earl of Portland. Theobalds House was replaced in the Georgian period by yet another stately mansion, known as Theobalds Park after the estate on which it stands, and which still survives. This was built by George Prescott, a merchant and MP who had bought the estate from the 3rd Duke of Portland in 1763. Theobalds Park passed from the Prescott family to the Meux family about 1820, and they made alterations and added extensions during the nineteenth century. In 1910 the estate was inherited by Admiral The Hon Sir Hedworth Meux, a member of the aristocratic Lambton family.

After his death, the house was a hotel for some years. It was later used as a school, then as an adult education centre, and is now a conference centre.