A Drawing of the Royal Palace of Whitehall from the Thames
See below for an engraving of Whitehall from St James' Park.

The Palace of Whitehall, just north of Westminster on the northern bank of the Thames, was built originally by Sir Henry Hubert de Burgh, Earl of Kent, in the reign of Henry III and was bequeathed by him on his death to the Convent of Black Friars in Holborn. In 1248 the Convent disposed of it to Walter de Grey, Archbishop of York, and it was inhabited by the archbishops of York until the early sixteenth century and was known as York House.

In the sixteenth century Cardinal Wolsey renovated the house in 'luxurious style' where "he accumulated his vast libraries and exquisite picture galleries. The walls of his apartments were covered with hangings of cloth-of-gold and tissue, and his tables with velvets, satins, and damasks of various hues. The great gallery is described as a scene of unparalleled magnificence; and in two other apartments, known as the Gilt and Council Chambers, two large tables were covered with plate of solid gold, many of them studded with jewels and precious stones. The household of this haughty churchman consisted of 800 persons, many of whom were knights and noblemen. These numerous retainers were clad in the most magnificent liveries - even the master cook of the cardinal was dressed in velvet and satin, and wore a chain of gold about his neck."

In 1529 Wolsey fell into disgrace with Henry VIII (for not obtaining a papal dissolution for Henry's marriage with Katherine of Aragon so the king could marry Anne Boleyn) and the cardinal surrendered the palace to Henry (a polite term for the king seizing it). Henry banned the name York House, and the palace became known as Whitehall (no one quite knows the reason for the name - it was perhaps because of the light-coloured stone used in the construction of some of its buildings, or more likely it came from the generic term of White Hall, a name often used for a festive hall during the medieval period - Westminster Palace also had a White Hall).

Henry spent a great deal of money on Whitehall, intending to use it as his main residence in London (probably because by this stage his apartments at Westminster Palace were in a state of some decay and disrepair). He enclosed the land now known as St James Park, and, together with other additions, added a tennis court, cock pit and bowling green and where Horse Guards is now was his great tilt-yard. It was at whitehall that Henry eventually married Anne Boleyn, and their daughter, Elizabeth I, made Whitehall one of her favourite residences. Elizabeth's successor, James I, constructed the great Banqueting House (which still remains, and which was the site of the execution of James' son, Charles I) which was meant to be part of a grand reconstruction of the entire palace, but which was halted by the war between Parliament and Charles I in the mid-seventeenth century. Oliver Cromwell was Whitehall's next resident, where he died in 1658 from malaria.

Subsequently Whitehall passed into the hands of Charles II at the Restoration of 1660. Whitehall at this time was described as a palace of much magnificence which stretched along the Thames, although in reality it was a jumble of buildings and rooms which were often dank, in desperate need of refurbishment, and poorly furnished (the king may have had richly furnished rooms, but everyone else often had to make do with what they found).

In the late seventeenth century, William and Mary, on ascending the throne, transferred their main residence to Kensington Palace as William claimed not to like the dank air of the Thames in Whitehall. A fire badly damaged Whitehall in 1691, and then the entire palace burned to the ground in 1698 (save for the Banqueting Hall) due to the carelessness of a Dutch laundry woman.