Apethorpe Palace

Apethorpe Palace in the parish of Apethorpe, Northamptonshire, England is a Grade I listed country house dating back to the 15th century and was a "favourite royal residence for James I". The main house is built around three courtyards lying on an east–west axis and is approximately 80,000 square feet in area. It is acknowledged as the finest example of Jacobean stately home and one of Britains ten best palaces. The building successive alterations are attributed to three major architects : John Thorpe for the Jacobean royal extension, Roger Morris for the Neo-Palladian modifications, and, Sir Reginald Blomfield for the formal gardens and the Neo-Jacobean embellishments. The Lebanese cedar planted in 1614 is a scheduled monument considered as the oldest surviving one in England.

Apethorpe holds a particularly important place in English history because of its ownership by, and role in entertaining, Tudor and Stuart monarchs. Elizabeth I inherited the estate from her father Henry VIII. Her successor James I personally contributed to its extension resulting in a set of impressive state rooms featuring some of the most important surviving plasterwork and fireplaces of the period. There were at least thirteen extended royal visits from the Stuart kings – more than to any other house in the country – between 1603 and 1636, and it was at Apethorpe that James met George Villiers, his favourite, later to become Duke of Buckingham. A series of court masques written by Ben Jonson for James I were performed while the King was in residence at Apethorpe. The house was also lived in regularly by Charles I.

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