“We have nothing to equal this!” King George III famously exclaimed when visiting the 4th Duke of Marlborough at his Oxfordshire home, Blenheim Palace, in 1786. Returning to London, the King promptly set about transforming the dowdy Queen’s House in London into Buckingham Palace.
The only non-royal, non-ecclesiastical palace in Britain, Blenheim has always been known not just for its sheer scale and Baroque grandeur, but also for its close ties to the British royal family.
There has been a connection between the royals and the Oxfordshire village of Woodstock, where Blenheim now stands, since the Middle Ages. In 1129 King Henry I added miles of wall around his hunting lodge to the west of the village.
