Richmond Palace was a Tudor royal residence on the River Thames in England which stood in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

Situated in what was then rural Surrey, it lay upstream and on the opposite bank from the Palace of Westminster, which was located nine miles (14 km) to the north-east.

Twelve years later Richard was so distraught at the death of Anne at the age of 28, that he, according to Holinshed, "caused it [the manor] to be thrown down and defaced; whereas the former kings of this land, being wearied of the citie, used customarily thither to resort as to a place of pleasure, and serving highly to their recreation."

In 1502, the new palace witnessed the betrothal of Princess Margaret, daughter of Henry VII, to King James IV of Scotland.

[5] Hammerbeam roofs of the Middle Ages were a structural necessity as much as they were pretty architecture, as they kept the heavy timbered roofs from caving in; they were the carpenter's equivalent of the stone vaulting found in Gothic cathedrals of the Middle Ages because, as in famous examples like Westminster Hall, they let the architect achieve greater heights with thinner walls, and evenly distributed the lateral weight.

[6] In as large a fire as described by Soncino the English oak beams of the great hall, a centrepiece of a royal Christmas, would have stood no chance of remaining upright and intact.

[7] Accounts refer to Henry VII, his mother, Margaret Beaufort, and his wife, Elizabeth of York, running for their lives, with the King barely making it out in time: one of the corridors nearly collapsed on top of him.

As it was the time of the Christmas revels, also present during the disaster were all but one of the royal children, and all under the age of 10: Margaret, Mary, and a six-year-old Henry VIII, each of them described as being hurried out in the arms of their nursemaids.

Drawings and descriptions of the palace survive, as does the documentation of a 1970s excavation of the grounds; thus posterity has a fairly accurate idea of the contents and features of the building.

Richmond Palace was largely a building of brick and white stone in the latest styles of the times, with geometric octagonal towers, pepper-pot chimney caps, and ornate weather vanes made of brass.

[9] Though it retained the layout of Sheen Palace, it had new additions that would mark the Renaissance: for example, long galleries to display sculpture and portraiture.

Richmond Palace covered 10 acres (4 ha) of land and was large and well appointed enough to have its own orchards and walled gardens.

It is known that Henry Tudor decorated his home with many gifts he accepted from Italian bankers in Venice, and the evidence for this and the other accoutrements survives in a 17th-century inventory taken of the palace that is now held in The National Archives.

From the declivity of the hill descended a lady richly attired, who, with the gentlemen, or, as they were then called, children of honour, danced a morris before the king.

On another occasion, in the presence of the court, an artificial forest was drawn in by a lion and an antelope, the hides of which were richly embroidered with golden ornaments; the animals were harnessed with chains of gold, and on each sat a fair damsel in gay apparel.

In the midst of the forest, which was thus introduced, appeared a gilded tower, at the end of which stood a youth, holding in his hands a garland of roses, as the prize of valour in a tournament which succeeded the pageant!"

[4] George Cavendish, the biographer of Cardinal Wolsey, described carved and painted royal heraldic beasts in a garden at Richmond Palace.

There continue to be red deer in Richmond Park today, possibly descendants of the original herd, free from hunting and relatively tame.

Within months of the execution of the King in 1649, Richmond Palace was surveyed by order of Parliament to see what it could fetch in terms of raw materials, and was sold for £13,000.

All the accounts which have come down to us describe the furniture and decorations of Richmond Palace as superb, exhibiting in tapestries the deeds of kings and heroes.

The prince's lodgings are described as a "freestone building, three stories high, with fourteen turrets covered with lead," being "a very graceful ornament to the whole house, and perspicuous to the county round about."