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Wolsey’s great house
Thomas Wolsey, Archbishop of York and Henry VIII’s chief minister, took over the site in 1514 and began building in February 1515. In 1529 he gave the palace to the king, who enlarged it and quadrupled its kitchens.


Henry VIII’s palace
Henry added the Great Hall, with its hammerbeam roof, between 1532 and 1535. His son, the future Edward VI, was born here in 1537, and the astronomical clock was set on the gatehouse in 1540.
A Baroque palace
In 1689 William III and Mary II began rebuilding much of the palace to designs by Christopher Wren, and the maze was planted for William in the 1690s. Queen Victoria opened the palace to the public in 1838.


