Acquired: 1539
Tyttenhanger was a large house and deer park that belonged to the abbot of St. Albans. Henry VIII visited its house in 1528 and liked the property; he made plans in 1531 to acquire it but in the event did not get it until the dissolution of the abbey eight years later. In 1547, the king granted the estate to one of his courtiers.
Little is known of the sixteenth-century appearance of the house beyond the fact that it was a moated site of sufficient size to house the king and queen and their entourages for a two-week stay. There were a number of outbuildings and gardens, including fishponds, but the mid-seventeenth century house now on the site appears to have been built over the foundations of the previous structure, thus preventing further reconstruction. No additions or alterations appear to have been carried out during Henry’s ownership, although Weir notes that Henry arranged for Prince Edward to have lodgings next to the king’s own at Tyttenhanger (Weir, 402).