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Somerset House

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Also referred to as Somerset Place and, for a period, Denmark House, Somerset House was a residence located along the Strand that, during the sixteenth century, was greatly built up and embellished under the direction of Edward Seymour, Lord Protector and Duke of Somerset. The grand palace would go on to house royalty, appointed as a residence for the queen. This tradition would continue through most of the seventeenth century, but because the extravagant house eventually fell into disrepair, Somerset House was demolished and rebuilt in 1775.
Known for being the first building to exhibit Italian, or Renaissance, style architecture in England, the original Somerset House featured Doric and Ionic pillars, a great hall, a large staircase, rooms of state, various other rooms and chambers, stone steps leading down to terraced gardens facing the Thames, gravel walks, avenues of trees, iron gates, a fountain, and statues of gods and goddesses. John Stow was quite pleased by the facade of Somerset House, claiming that it affords us a view of the first dawning of taste in England, this being the only fabric that I know which deviates from the Gothic, or imitates the manner of the ancients (Stow qtd. in Thornbury). The architect of the original design is unknown, but the design is often attributed to John of Padua, an Italian who was given the appellation Deviser of His Majesty’s Buildings in 1544 (Platt 277). Another possible candidate for the architect is John Thynne, a steward of Edward Seymour who built Longleat House (Tudor Palace).
Seymour’s marriage to Henry VIII’s sister had enabled him to rise up among the ranks of nobility, and he was elected Lord Protector to his young nephew King Edward VI in 1546. Already owning significant acreage near Somerset House, including all of Covent Garden and Long Acre, Seymour went about the construction of a palace at the site of Somerset House that would bear testament to his power and elevated station. However, in the words of nineteenth century historian J.C. Platt, Seymour was guilty of some infringements of public and private rights during the building process, responsible for the demolition of several inns and churches in order to make space for his luxurious palace and to procure building materials, namely stone (Platt 276). He even went as far as to tear down the charnel-house at old St. Paul’s, disposing of the bodies in nearby fields. Another historian, Edward Walford, condemns Seymour’s actions as unblessed by either the Church, or the people, or the poor (Walford qtd. in Thornbury). Nevertheless, between 1546 and 1549, the building of Somerset House was in constant progress (Platt 277). By 1551, Seymour’s grand palace was near completion, having cost over £10,000 to build, occupying an area of 600 by 500 feet (Tudor Palace; Platt 277).
However, historians agree that Seymour was largely unable to enjoy the fruition of this project because of his imprisonment in 1549, having to pay for his ambitious seizure of lands and attempts at self-glorification with a two-year sentence in the Tower of London. Only a year after his release, he was committed to the Tower yet again, charged by his opposers with treason. Although he was acquitted for the charge of treason, the Privy Council still found him guiltie of fellonie (Almond 11), and in January 1552, the Lord Protector was beheaded on Tower Hill, leaving his sumptuous palace behind.
The ownership of Somerset House then fell to the Crown, and from 1553 until her accession in 1558, a young Princess Elizabeth took residence at the now completed house (Tudor Palace). When she took the throne, however, she generally resided at Whitehall or St. James, but she still held council meetings at Somerset House on occasion and used it as a place to house foreign diplomats (Tudor Palace). Sir William Segar’s book Honor: Military and Ciuill (1602) describes a procession of the queen in 1588: our Soueraigne Lady Queene Elizabeth rode with great solemnitie in her open chariot from Somerset house in the Strond, to the Cathedral Church of S. Paul in London (Segar 244). After an extensive ceremony that involved the queen publicly thanking God for the English victory over the Spanish Armada, she returned to Somerset House that evening by torchlight (Segar 245).
Somerset House came into its greatest prominence, however, during the reign of King James I when he allotted the mansion to his queen, Anne of Denmark. So linked with Anne would Somerset House be during this period that it would be renamed to Denmark House in her honor (Tudor Palace). Like her husband, Anne entertained guests on a grandiose scale, sparing no expense. She commissioned Ben Jonson, among other playwrights, to write masques that were performed at Somerset House (Thomas 69). These fusions of music, dance, and drama required elaborate and expensive set pieces, which were designed by the legendary architect Inigo Jones (Thomas 72). Queen Anne herself (and the ladies of her court) would participate in some of these performances (Thomas 70-71). In The Masque of Blackness, for example (penned by Ben Jonson in 1605), the queen and her ladies played the role of African women, covering their faces and arms with blackface makeup (Thomas 70). Anne further called on the services of Inigo Jones in the overall redesign and reconstruction of the palace itself, beginning in 1609, which included new buildings, a new three-sided courtyard, and various other additions and renovations (Tudor Palace). These costly improvements to Somerset House would continue until Anne’s death in 1619, amounting to a sum of about £34,500 (Tudor Palace). The remains of Queen Anne lay in state at the palace, on display for the public until her burial, as would the remains of her husband six years later (Timbs 86).
Somerset House would become something of a controversial site following Queen Henrietta Maria’s taking up residence there in 1626. In addition to yet further renovations to the house, Inigo Jones was also given the task of designing a Roman Catholic chapel so that the queen could freely exercise her religion there (Platt 279). Completed in 1636 (having taken six years to build), the chapel became a popular place of worship for practicing Catholics living in Protestant England (Tudor Palace). Capuchin friars presided at the chapel to carry out the liturgy, daily saying mass, hearing confessions, teaching catechism, giving sermons, and singing hymns at vespers (Thornbury). Unsurprisingly, the establishment of the chapel led to many conversions to Catholicism, and the angered authorities were eventually able, upon the queen’s absence from the country, to expel the Capuchin priests, tearing down their living quarters and desecrating the chapel (Thornbury).
Aside from importing her religion into the environs of Somerset House, Henrietta Maria also infused the palace with the styles and sensibilities of her native country France. Scholar Karen Britland explains, Jones developed a style for her in England that drew on French precedents and promoted her national identity (Britland 42). The great hall at Somerset House became a central place for performances of scenic drama that showcased Jones’ brilliant set pieces and stage designs. Plays performed at Somerset House during this period include Walter Montague’s The Shepherds’ Paradise in 1633 (which required the construction of a separate theater in the Paved Court), John Fletcher’s The Faithful Shepherdess in 1634, two performances of Thomas Heywood’s Love’s Mistress (also in 1634), and Lodowick Carlell’s The Passionate Lovers in 1638. Henrietta herself, along with her French ladies, would perform in some plays; the queen played the leading role in the French pastoral Artenice in 1626.
During the Civil War, Henrietta fled from the country, and Somerset House fell temporarily to General Fairfax, commander of the Parliamentary Army (Tudor Palace). Confiscated royal treasures were brought here at this time and inventoried to be sold, the profits of which were used to pay the army. The inventory of the collected artwork is extensive, including some 1,760 paintings by artists of the likes of Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo, Correggio, Titian, Tintoretto, Holbein, and Van Dyck (Tudor Palace). Not long after the Civil War ended, Inigo Jones died at Somerset House in 1652 (Tudor Palace). The Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell died in 1658, and his effigy would lay in state at Somerset House for several weeks (Tudor Palace).
In 1659, Somerset House was to be sold for £10,000, but with the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, the now widowed Henrietta Maria stepped in to save the palace and keep it in royal hands (Timbs 86). She once again took up residency there, setting about new reconstructions and additions to the house such as stables, coach houses, and a building that housed the Presence Chamber and Privy Chamber (Tudor Palace). In On the Queens Repairing Somerset House (1668), Abraham Cowley mourns the state of Somerset House prior to the queen’s return before going on to describe the rewards of her efforts:
Nothing remain’d t’ adorn this Princely place
Which Covetous hands could Take, or Rude Deface.
In all my rooms and galleries I found
The richest Figures torn, and all around
(Cowley.)
In Vpon Her Majesties New Buildings at Somerset-House (1686), Edmund Waller also praised the return of royalty to the palace:
This, by the Queen her self design’d,
Gives us a pattern of her mind;
The State and Order does proclaim
The Genius of that Royal Dame,
Each part with just proportion grac’d,
And all to such advantage plac’d,
(Waller 229.)
The queen would get to stay at the palace for only five years, however, because the plague of 1665 drove her, among others, out of England. Henrietta Maria fled to France, where she died in 1669.
Catherine of Braganza, the widow of King Charles II, was the last queen to live at Somerset House, residing there from 1685 to 1692 (Tudor Palace). Catherine’s devotion to Catholicism assured the continuity of the house’s religious identity, but once again this affiliation caused some controversy. Having been charged and acquitted during investigations of the fictitious Popish Plot, Catherine nevertheless faced opposition from the ruling monarchs (Platt 281; Tudor Palace). Protestant Mary II accused Catherine of failing to pray for her husband William III, who was fighting in Ireland. Amidst such accusations, Catherine made the decision to move back to Portugal, her native country (Tudor Palace).
In the eighteenth century, Somerset House ceased to be associated with royalty and began to fall into ruin. In 1776, demolition of the old building was under way, and construction of the new building commenced (Tudor Palace). Occupants of the new Somerset House included the Royal Society, the Society of Antiquaries, and the Royal Academy of Painting (Thornbury). The east wing of the building was originally left incomplete by architect Sir William Chambers, but in 1829, that section was completed and allocated for King’s College (Thornbury).
This building stands today in the same location along the Thames, on the site where the Duke of Somerset built his namesake in the 1500s. It continues on in the tradition of art and culture that poets like Cowley and Waller endorsed, playing host to open-air concerts, films, and art exhibitions. Rooms are rented out to various cultural organizations and creative industries (Tudor Palace).

References

  • Citation

    Almond, Oliver. The uncasing of heresie, or, The anatomie of protestancie. Douai: Pierre Auroi, 1623. STC 12.

    This item is cited in the following documents:

  • Citation

    Britland, Karen. Drama at the Courts of Queen Henrietta Maria. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2006. Print.

    This item is cited in the following documents:

  • Citation

    Cowley, Abraham. On the Queens Repairing Somerset House. The Works of Mr. Abraham Cowley. London: Henry Harringman, 1668. Remediated by Abraham Cowley Text and Image Arcive.

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  • Citation

    Platt, J.C. Somerset House. London. Ed. Charles Knight. Vol. 4. London: Charles Knight and Co., 1841. Print.

    This item is cited in the following documents:

  • Citation

    Segar, Sir William. Honor military, and ciuill contained in foure bookes. Viz. 1. Iustice, and iurisdiction military. 2. Knighthood in generall, and particular. 3. Combats for life, and triumph. 4. Precedencie of great estates, and others. London: Robert Barker, 1602. STC 22164.

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  • Citation

    The Tudor Palace. At Somerset House. Somerset House Trust. http://www.somersethouse.org.uk/history/the-tudor-palace.

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  • Citation

    Thomas, Courtney. Politics and Culture at the Jacobean Court: The Role of Queen Anna of Denmark. Quidditas 29 (2008): 64-107.

    This item is cited in the following documents:

  • Citation

    Thornbury, Walter. Somerset House and King’s College. Old and New London. Vol. 3. London, 1878. 89-95. Remediated by British History Online.

    This item is cited in the following documents:

  • Citation

    Timbs, John. Abbeys, Castles, and Ancient Halls of England and Wales: Their Legendary Lore, and Popular History. Frederick Warne, 1870. Print.

    This item is cited in the following documents:

  • Citation

    Waller, Edmund. Vpon Her Majesties New Buildings at Somerset-House. Poems, &c. written upon several occasions, and to several persons. London, 1686. Wing W517.

    This item is cited in the following documents:

Cite this page

MLA citation

Hogue, Jason C., and Catriona Duncan. Somerset House. The Map of Early Modern London, Edition 7.0, edited by Janelle Jenstad, U of Victoria, 05 May 2022, mapoflondon.uvic.ca/edition/7.0/SOME1.htm.

Chicago citation

Hogue, Jason C., and Catriona Duncan. Somerset House. The Map of Early Modern London, Edition 7.0. Ed. Janelle Jenstad. Victoria: University of Victoria. Accessed May 05, 2022. mapoflondon.uvic.ca/edition/7.0/SOME1.htm.

APA citation

Hogue, J. C., & Duncan, C. 2022. Somerset House. In J. Jenstad (Ed), The Map of Early Modern London (Edition 7.0). Victoria: University of Victoria. Retrieved from https://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/editions/7.0/SOME1.htm.

RIS file (for RefMan, RefWorks, EndNote etc.)

Provider: University of Victoria
Database: The Map of Early Modern London
Content: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

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T1  - Somerset House
T2  - The Map of Early Modern London
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PY  - 2022
DA  - 2022/05/05
CY  - Victoria
PB  - University of Victoria
LA  - English
UR  - https://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/edition/7.0/SOME1.htm
UR  - https://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/edition/7.0/xml/standalone/SOME1.xml
ER  -

TEI citation

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