Field site of former King’s Langley manor (photo: C.A. Stanford)
Acquired: 1509, by inheritance
King’s Langley was a royal manor dating back at least to the thirteenth century. A palace was built on site, but nothing of it remains. In the late fifteenth century the Crown allowed Ralph Verney the lordship of the site, and “Verney’s Lodgings” were apparently large and fashionable. By the sixteenth century the property was back in royal hands, as Henry VIII ordered in 1534 that the manor should be repaired and made ready to act as residence for the infant princess Elizabeth, but no records survive to tell us what, if anything, was actually done.
Archaeological digs have revealed the location of the palace, but nothing now remains above ground for this site.