Hatfield House
“Hatfield became a prison for Elizabeth during her sister’s reign; but it was also there, on 17 November 1558, seated under an ancient oak, that she learnt she had become Queen of England”
Clockwise from top left: Hatfield House today; An old oak in the medieval parkland; The Ermine Portrait of Elizabeth I; The King James drawing room; An example of the elaborate carvings; The Armoury; The Old Palace, close by
Palace at Hatfield was too modest for his taste, so he suggested swapping it for Robert Cecil’s imposing and recently done-up house nearby, Theobalds. Cecil could hardly refuse, of course. But he decided, once he had taken over the old redbrick Tudor Palace, to pull it down (leaving just one wing standing) and build a magnificent new house there instead. He employed John Tradescant the Elder, as he had done at Theobalds, to furnish the extensive gardens with rare plants imported from all over the world. This new house, which cost a massive £38,000 to build
and decorate, was designed by English carpenter and architect Robert Lyminge, with modifications by others, including, it is believed, a youthful Inigo Jones. Built of red brick, it has contrasting stone mouldings around windows and doors, a stone clock tower, and stone steps sweeping up to the main entrance. It was designed to entertain royalty, with lavish state rooms, and apartments in the two side wings for the King and Queen. Both James I and his son, Charles I, visited Hatfield. The house was decorated in the
height of contemporary fashion, with interior work by the finest English, Flemish and French craftsmen. Tudor houses tended to have spiral staircases in towers, but Cecil’s modern home was graced by an elaborately carved
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grand staircase, in an adaptation of Italian Renaissance style. It’s as splendid today as when it was built, as is the two-storey Marble Hall, with oak carving by John Bucke, a black and white marble floor, the original tables and benches and a 17th-century Brussels tapestry. Cecil was a patron of the painter John de Critz, whose
commissioned works remain in the Hatfield collection, together with the treasured Rainbow and Ermine portraits of Elizabeth I. Equally stunning Jacobean craftsmanship can be seen in the Four Seasons tapestries in the Winter Drawing Room, thought to be the finest English tapestries of their period in existence; and the stained glass windows in the private chapel. One of the joys of a house like Hatfield is the sense of
continuity, borne of the fact that it has been owned by the same family for 400 years. But that doesn’t mean the house has stood still: it has changed and evolved over the centuries. The Cecils, like many other noble families, had problems
in the turbulent 17th century, with the 4th Earl (1666-94) being imprisoned for his support of James II. The 6th Earl (1713-80) was a spendthrift rake, who was satirised by Pope and Hogarth. These were chequered times for both house and gardens. “Towards the end of the 17th century a decline set in”, says the present Dowager Marchioness of Salisbury. “The gardens mouldered, decayed and slept for a century or so, then were largely swept away”. The house began to come back to life at the time of the 1st Marquess of Salisbury (1748-1823), chamberlain to
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