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Theobalds, the creation of Sir William Cecil (1520/1-98), first Baron Burghley, has long been a spectral presence in the history of Elizabethan country houses. From the time of its completion in 1585 until the time of its destruction shortly after 1650, less than seventy years passed. During that period, Theobalds gained a reputation throughout Europe, befitting its status as the principal country home of Elizabeth I's principal minister and, from 1607, a major early Stuart royal palace. It was the country house most favoured by Queen Elizabeth, and was visited by all the major court and political figures of the Elizabethan, Jacobean and Caroline periods. It was here that King James I was received by the royal household and court on his journey south from Scotland in 1603, and here that he died in 1625, his son Charles being proclaimed king at the palace's gates.
In architectural terms, Theobalds, which was located near Cheshunt in Hertfordshire, was hugely innovative and influential. Lord Burghley used the house as a platform to demonstrate his power, taste and knowledge, lavishing money on its building and decoration. At Theobalds, architectural features including balconies and compass windows made some of their earliest documented appearances in English architecture, while the house was rivalled by none for its number of loggias, long galleries and rooftop walks. Theobalds set new standards in its scale, plan, style and fitting out, and was imitated in numerous late sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century buildings in England and further afield. Most famously, these include Holdenby in Northamptonshire (1571-83) and Audley End in Essex (c. 1604-14) - both later adopted as royal palaces - but the information set out in this article helps to show that Theobalds's plan and architecture also influenced houses including Wollaton Hall in Nottinghamshire (1580-88), Knole in Kent (as rebuilt c. 1604-08), and Hatfield in Hertfordshire (1607-12). It would be no exaggeration to state that Theobalds was probably the most significant country house of the Elizabethan period. As a result, new discoveries relating to it have the potential to contribute to our knowledge of architecture of the whole era.
To date, Theobalds has attracted only limited scholarly attention, based on a belief that - as the house was demolished so long ago...