Clarendon is quite simply one of the most important royal domestic sites in England, continuously in use as a residence by monarchs from the eleventh to the fifteenth century. Some fragmentary remains of this great summer palace survive today in the middle of the remarkably preserved medieval hunting park that always surrounded it.
Initially the house had a free-standing great hall and a nearby chamber block for personal royal occupation, there was also a chapel and wine cellars. The buildings were arranged axially along the top of a ridge with remarkable views across to Salisbury. Under King John and Henry III the palace was extended and the kitchen and great hall were rebuilt on a grander scale, the cellars doubled, as were the queen’s lodgings. Edward III undertook more work and repairs and Richard II added a dancing chamber.
By the fifteenth century it was a vast straggling complex of buildings which, as well as the king’s and queen’s lodgings, had lodgings for the king’s eldest son and rooms for the king’s knights and chaplains. There were extensive service quarters and kitchens and stables for the royal hunting horses. Together with Woodstock this was the finest royal country house in England before 1400. Despite its straggling appearance it was large and very picturesque and much used. It was less popular in the fifteenth century and the Tudors never stayed there. By the civil war it was largely ruinous. At the Restoration it was granted to Charles II’s chief minister Edward Hyde who took his title after the house and, as earl of Clarendon, built himself a new mansion in the park.
The site has been excavated and some of the richness and colour of a medieval royal house can be understood from the finds. Painted plaster, floor tiles and stained glass would have been complemented by the richest textiles. The British Museum has, on show, some of the magnificent tiles and the Salisbury Museum has other objects.