Chuki & Hitin | Hatfield House Wedding Hertfordshire

Hatfield House Wedding in Hertfordshire

Chuki & Hitin’s fantastic Hatfield House Wedding in Hertfordshire UK

Hatfield House

Hatfield House is a grand country estate situated on the eastern side of Hatfield, Hertfordshire, England. The estate includes expansive grounds and surviving fragments of a former palace. The present Jacobean house, which exemplifies prodigy house architecture, was constructed in 1611 by Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, who was Chief Minister to King James I. The house is considered a notable example of Jacobean architecture and is currently the residence of Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 7th Marquess of Salisbury.

The previous structure on the property was the Royal Palace of Hatfield, of which only a portion still remains a short distance from the current house. This palace was the favored dwelling and childhood home of Queen Elizabeth I. Constructed in 1497 by John Cardinal Morton, King Henry VII’s minister, who served as the Archbishop of Canterbury (formerly Bishop of Ely), it consisted of four wings arranged in a square around a central courtyard. The palace was seized by Henry VIII along with other church properties. The nearby parish church of St Etheldreda’s in Old Hatfield formerly served the bishop’s palace as well as the village.

King Henry VIII’s children, King Edward VI, and the future Queen Elizabeth I, spent their early years at Hatfield Palace. Mary I, his eldest daughter, lived there between 1533 and 1536 before being sent to serve the then Princess Elizabeth as punishment for refusing to recognize Henry’s marriage to Anne Boleyn and his religious reforms. In 1548, when Elizabeth was just 15 years old, she was suspected of having unlawfully agreed to marry Thomas Seymour. Edward VI’s agent, Robert Tyrwhitt, seized the house and her staff, and she was questioned there. She successfully defended herself with wit and defiance. Seymour was later executed in 1549 for multiple offenses against the crown. Elizabeth returned to Hatfield after spending two months in the Tower of London as her sister, Queen Mary, had imprisoned her. The Queen Elizabeth Oak on the estate grounds is said to be the location where Elizabeth was informed of her ascension to the throne following Mary’s death, but this is considered unlikely since Mary passed away in November. In November 1558, Elizabeth conducted her first Council of State in the Great Hall.