Royal Palaces

While not as famous as some of the other royal residences, Oatlands Palace, on the bank of the River Thames in Surrey, was an important palace in the Tudor period. The palace was built by King Henry VIII for his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves, and it stood on the site of an old medieval manor. A lot of the stone came from Chertsey Abbey, one of the many abbeys destroyed during the dissolution of the monasteries. After Henry's divorce from Anne, he married his fifth wife, Katheryn Howard, at the palace on 28 July 1540.

Queen Elizabeth stayed at this palace from time to time and made further additions and alterations. Like all Tudor palaces, Oatlands was an impressive building, having towers and fanciful chimneys, and from the palace was a glorious view across the Thames.

Sadly, most of the palace was demolished in the seventeenth century and nothing remains today except a gateway.