Royalty and The Elvetham

As we prepare for the coronation of King Charles III on Saturday 6 May 2023 at Westminster Abbey, it is the perfect time to reflect on the long history of The Elvetham and its ties with the monarchy.

Our first recorded visit by the English crown was back in 1205. Heading west to Marlborough, King John (1166-1216) stayed at Elvetham manor, gathering local nobles for a swearing of allegiance as he prepared for possible French invasion, and a further foray across the Channel.

The next link with royalty proved to be much more intimate. In 1492, John Seymour inherited the Elvetham estate after his father’s death. John was a soldier and courtier who rose in favour under Henry VII, knighted by the king in 1497. John Seymour remained in high regard by the next king, Henry VIII, and attended the famous Field of Cloth and Gold, a lavish diplomatic meeting between the English court and Francis I, King of France in 1520. By 1532 John Seymour had become one of the King’s ‘grooms of the bedchamber’, a title given to well-born courtiers favoured by the monarch. 

On 21st October 1535, King Henry VIII stayed at Elvetham with his second wife, Anne Boleyn. The royal couple dined with John Seymour’s family, including his 27-year-old daughter Jane. Once it became clear that Anne Boleyn could not provide Henry VIII with an heir, Jane Seymour swiftly became the king’s new favourite. Henry returned again to The Elvetham to visit Jane within the month, apparently on the pretext of escaping London’s pestilence.  

A Royal Summer Getaway

On 20th May 1536, the day after Anne Boleyn’s execution, Lady Jane Seymour was betrothed to Henry VIII, securing the Seymour family’s place at the very heart of power and influence in Tudor England. Jane and Henry disappeared from public view for eight days following their betrothal. They are believed to have escaped to The Elvetham prior to their wedding, this having been the Seymour’s summer residence. The two visited The Elvetham again in August 1536, underlining the affection in which the Tudor king held this small estate where he first seduced his third wife.

Jane Seymour was considered to be Henry’s favourite wife, having been the only wife to receive a queen’s funeral. When Henry VIII died in 1547 he was buried beside her in St George’s Chapel, Windsor. 

When Henry VIII died in 1547, the Seymours of Elvetham remained at the heart of power, with a Seymour boy inheriting the throne. As Edward VI was only nine when he became king, he was placed in the care of a regency council whose leader, a king in all but name, was his powerful uncle, Edward Seymour, Jane Seymour’s brother. 

The following year, Edward VI died aged just 15. With his death, the last vestiges of power and favour held by the Seymours were snuffed out, and Elvetham, so recently the fashionable summer focus for the Tudor court, sadly faded from favour with the dawn of a new monarchy.   

A Lavish Event

In 1591, Queen Elizabeth I favoured the earl of Hertford, the latest Edward Seymour, with a stay at Elvetham Manor. Being visited by the queen and her court, comprising at least 1000 people, was a golden opportunity to display the size and magnificence of one’s house, as well as how imaginatively one could entertain the queen.  

The earl set 300 men the task of building a new tented village to host the Queen’s court, including accommodation, a large entertainment hall, and a separate area for her guards and other officers. For the Queen herself, the construction included an elaborate walled court, living area and separate wardrobe building. Between Elvetham’s manor house and the rise which housed the travelling court, a lake was dug out to the perfect figure of a half moon. This, the earl of Hertford’s masterpiece, was large enough to have three artificial islands.  

The 1st edition of the Ordnance Survey map of the estate in 1810 shows a hollow containing an irregular shaped pond, with another pond nearby to the south east. Map analysis and aerial photography indicated that these fragments, which survived into the 20th century, were remnants of Queen Elizabeth’s half moon lake. Archaeological remains of the lake lie near the modern tennis court at The Elvetham.  

Queen Elizabeth expected the nobles she visited to entertain her, and the amusements laid on by the earl of Hertford at Elvetham cannot have disappointed her. The earl spared no expense, employing musicians, poets, dancers and actors to take part in plays, mock battles and musical renditions in tribute to the Queen. The islands were the setting for music, artillery and fireworks during the four days of entertainment. The lake was also the setting for the central water pageant, a carefully written and intricately choreographed battle designed to spotlight her military leadership against the Spanish Armada.  

During her stay, Queen Elizabeth also watched the first ever public display of lawn tennis, enjoyed a special banquet while watching fireworks explode over the lake on her final night, and on the morning of her departure, planted an oak tree in the Elvetham grounds, which still stands to this day as a reminder of the spectacle and one of the most expensive events ever staged for the monarch.

The End Of An Era

The Elvetham was later favoured with a visit by King James I, who reputedly planted several Scots Pine trees in the grounds as part of his stay. But this marked the last hurrah of the Elvetham and its centuries old royal patronage.

Sir William Seymour was the last of the Seymour line to own the Elvetham. During his life, he served as one of King Charles I’s generals in the English Civil War, which divided the country in a series of bloody battles between 1642 and 1649. Elvetham was at the thick of the action during the Civil War, with Oliver Cromwell, the opposition to the monarchy, having his headquarters at nearby Hartford bridge, and a two year siege taking place at the royalist stronghold of Basing House, half a day’s march west of Elvetham.

During King Charles I’s imprisonment in 1646, William Seymour remained with him and was one of four loyal senior nobles who petitioned parliament to allow their own death to be in place of their king’s. Their petition was refused and in 1649 King Charles was executed for treason. In 1650, the Elvetham estate was sold to Colonel Robert Reynolds, a distinguished military leader and senior legal advisor in Cromwell’s camp, thus ending the historic loyalty of the estate to the English Crown.

We can only hope that one day The Elvetham will once again host a royal visit. In the meantime however, we trust that our guests will enjoy the magic and splendour of our unique and historic estate, as they follow in the footsteps of royalty here at The Elvetham Hotel.