House & Family History: King Henry VII visited Elsyng Hall twice in 1497. In 1539 Thomas Manners, 1st Earl of Rutland, was forced by Henry VIII to exchange Elsyng Hall for land owned by the king in Leicestershire. Henry VIII, a enthusiastic hunter, was attracted to the Elsyng Estate because of Enfield Chase, a large tract of enclosed hunting land. The king, who celebrated Christmas at Elsyng in 1541 and 1542, converted the old manor house into a royal palace that became the childhood home of two his children: the future King Edward VI and Queen Elizabeth I (Edward and Elizabeth were told of their father's death at Elsyng in 1547). In 1641 the palace was purchased from King Charles I by the 4th Earl of Pembroke, who had been letting Elsyng from the crown since 1616. Lord Pembroke died in 1649 and Elsyng Palace was mostly demolished by the 1650s. Nicholas Raynton, who owned the neighboring estate of Forty Hall, acquired the remains of Elsyng and may have even used the ruins of the palace as a folly; however, by 1659 the palace was completely demolished and its bricks used in houses around Enfield. The archaeological remains of the Tudor palace (discovered in the 1960s) are today a Scheduled Ancient Monument within the grounds of Forty Hall.

John Bernard (J.B.) Burke, published under the title of A Visitation of the Seats and Arms of the Noblemen and Gentlemen of Great Britain and Ireland, among other titles: 2.S. Vol. I, p. 90, 1854.

House Listed: Scheduled Ancient Monument

Park Listed: Not Listed

Past Seat / Home of: Thomas Elsyng, 14th century. Elizabeth Wroth, until 1413. John Tiptoft, 1st Baron Tiptoft, 1413-43; John Tiptoft, 1st Earl of Worcester, 1443-70. Edmund Ros (Roos), 10th Baron Ros of Helmsley, until 1492. Sir Thomas Lovell, 1492-1524. Thomas Manners, 1st Earl of Rutland and 12th Baron de Ros of Helmsley, 1524-39. King Henry VIII, 1539-47. Philip Herbert, 1st Earl of Montgomery and 4th Earl of Pembroke, 1616-49.

Current Ownership Type: Demolished

Primary Current Ownership Use: Demolished

House Open to Public: No

Historic Houses Member: No