The More
The More (Manor of the More) was a 16th-century royal palace in Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire, owned by Cardinal Wolsey and later Henry VIII; Catherine of Aragon lived there after her annulment. The house stood at the northeast corner of More Park on the edge of the Colne flood plain and was a centre for royal hunting and diplomatic events such as the Treaty of the More. Nothing of the building remains above ground; the site is a scheduled ancient monument.
Its prime
1542
Today
Demolished
As it stood in 1542
What The More looked like in its prime.
A low-lying 16th-century brick and timber palace set beside the Colne flood plain and within a deer park; the ensemble included long red-brick ranges and a timber-framed long gallery some 253 feet in length and 15 feet wide, tiled pitched roofs, masonry entrance piers with Renaissance carving, extensive leaded windows with stained glass, and adjacent hunting structures (grandstands and deer barns). Interiors were richly hung with tapestries and painted by contemporary painters.
Its story
The story of The More.
Cardinal Wolsey's Palace on the Colne, 1515–1531
The site at Rickmansworth, on the edge of Hertfordshire's Colne flood plain, had been inhabited by the 12th century. The house came to Cardinal Wolsey in 1515 as a possession of the Abbey of St Albans, and it was there that Henry VIII celebrated the Treaty of the More with the French ambassadors. In 1527 the ambassador Jean du Bellay judged it more splendid than Hampton Court. The house passed to Henry VIII himself in 1531.
Catherine of Aragon and the Tudor Court, 1531–1547
By the middle of the 16th century the house had a timber-framed long gallery fifteen feet broad and 253 feet long; most of the rest of the house was built in brick. Catherine of Aragon came to live there in the winter of 1531–32, after the annulment of her marriage to Henry VIII. In 1534 the painter John Hethe redecorated the house with the queen's badges, the ciphers of Anne Boleyn, and in 1541 he painted the king's bedchamber in blue bice and fine colours; Galyon Hone installed the stained glass.
Provision was made in 1542 for the king's archery, with two deer barns and two grandstands built for watching the hunt. The royal inventory of 1547 listed 157 items at the More in the care of Richard Hobbes, including ten suites of tapestry bordered with Wolsey's coat of arms and two crimson velvet chairs embroidered and carved with Anne Boleyn's initials.
Decline, Demolition and Rediscovery, 1547–2012
Remedial work was attempted between 1547 and 1552, but the building seems to have been abandoned after 1556, perhaps because of inadequate foundations; a further survey was taken in 1568. In 1576 Francis Russell, 2nd Earl of Bedford, leased the house. He apparently judged it not worth restoring, and by 1598 it was recorded as being in ruins. It was finally demolished in 1661.
Around 1617 Edward Russell, 3rd Earl of Bedford, built a new house on the hill to the south-west, within the deer park. Lucy Russell, Countess of Bedford, described the work in a letter to a friend: "...my works at the More, where I have been a patcher this summer, and I am still adding some trifles of pleasure to that place I am so much in love with, as, if I were so fond of any man, I were in hard case." This house was later replaced by the present Moor Park.
The site of the Tudor palace was partly excavated between 1952 and 1955, and now lies buried under a metre of imported topsoil, laid to give Northwood Preparatory School — since renamed Merchant Taylors' Prep — a level playing field. Two stone pillars carved in the Renaissance style were uncovered during scrub clearance in the school grounds in 2010, and the site featured in an episode of the archaeology programme Time Team in 2012. It has been protected as a scheduled ancient monument since 1997.
Step inside
8 places to explore in 1542.
The record describes 8 distinct spots at The More, including 3 interiors: timber-framed long gallery, the king's bedchamber, royal private lodgings. Create your own photoreal reconstruction and explore every one, more scenes means more rooms, more angles, and more of the place to stand in.
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Clans who held The More.
The families that held The More for a decade or more across its history, follow a name to its clan.
Leased by Francis Russell, 2nd Earl of Bedford, from 1576; the 3rd Earl built a new house within the deer park around 1617.
Nearby
