Image: Hertford castle gatehouse rebuilt; remnants of curtain wall (photos: C.A. Stanford)
Acquired: 1509 (by inheritance)
Few of the castles in the Crown’s possession at this time were used residentially, but Hertford was an exception. Henry VIII employed this castle as a residence for the royal children (in particulary Princess Mary and Prince Edward). The king also appears to have visited the castle, as it appears on the royal itinerary along with the estates of Hunsdon and Hatfield.
A survey of 1522 reported that the castle possessed a “fayre courtyarde and large which is almost finished rounde aboute with fayre [houses] (Victoria County History). Many of these buildings were pulled down in the early seventeenth century, but the gatehouse remains in altered form.