Between 1603 and 1692 Somerset House was the official residence of the Queen of England and for most of that period, as the home of Roman Catholic consorts, one of the most controversial buildings in Britain.
It takes its name from Edward VI’s uncle, the protector of England, Edward Seymour the Duke of Somerset. It was he who, at the height of his power, decided to raise a mansion on the banks of the Thames from which to exercise his power as the guardian of the young king. Somerset did not live to see his house finished and we can only speculate as to its proposed final appearance. What was completed, however, was granted, on the death of Edward VI, to his sister, Elizabeth. In this way the young princess acquired her first palace, a building that she would use intermittently as her London home until she ascended the throne in 1559. From then, she had bigger and better palaces to use and the unfinished house of her brother’s former guardian was used as a high class guest house.
On James I accession in 1603 there was not only a monarch, but his wife and three healthy children all of whom needed accommodating. Soon St. James’s Palace was granted to his eldest son and Somerset House to his queen, Anna of Denmark. Anna’s rebuilding of Somerset House was the single most important and ambitious architectural project of James I reign. Between 1608 and 1612 she completed Protector Somerset’s outer court and modernised the Strand façade. She also rebuilt the inner court creating a magnificent suite of state rooms and built a long gallery ending in a closet and library. Between her house and the Thames a garden was laid out with extraordinary waterworks, a fountain and a grotto. The house was renamed Denmark House in her honour.
Anna died in 1618 and her successor as Queen Consort, Henrietta Maria, took up residence in 1625. By the terms of her marriage treaty a Catholic chapel was to be built for her at Somerset House.
This new building, designed by Inigo Jones, was not just a chapel for her private use, it was a small friary with a friary church attached. In rabidly Protestant London gripped by fear of popery the Queen and her chapel became targets of fierce opposition to the Crown. In 1642 as the Stuart regime collapsed Somerset House was amongst the first royal icons to be attacked. The royal chapel was sacked, the fittings burnt and the altarpiece by Rubens stabbed by a pike and thrown into the Thames.
At the Restoration the widowed Queen, Henrietta Maria, returned to Somerset House to find her fine palace in a state of ruin. The Dowager queen set out to rebuild and restore the royal lodgings creating a fine new block of rooms containing a processional stair, presence chamber and drawing chamber. She moved back in 1662 but only enjoyed them for a few years for in 1665 Henrietta Maria went back to France never again to return to England.
The Palace was later occupied by Catharine of Braganza who once again caused considerable controversy by installing friars in the queen’s chapel at a time of extreme anti-papal feeling. Catharine outlived Charles II and occupied Somerset House as dowager queen during James, II and William III’s reign. In 1692 King William, at last, succeeded in evicting to old Portuguese Queen and no subsequent consort was ever to live there and in 1775 it was given up in exchange for Buckingham House, the building which, today, we know as Buckingham Palace.