The Palaces of Henrietta Maria and Charles II, at Greenwich, From an original Painting temp. James II. in the possession of Henry S Richardson, Greenwich

A rural scene showing the Palaces of Henrietta Maria (i.e. The Queen's House) and Charles II (the unfinished eastern range of what is now the King Charles Court of the Old Royal Naval College). Greenwich had been popular with kings and queens long before the time of the Stuarts. The pre-Tudor palace, Placentia, had been birthplace of King Henry VIII and its successor, the Palace of Greenwich (as redeveloped by Henry VII around 1500, was much used by his children and immediate successors, Edward VI, Mary I, and Elizabeth I. Like the Tudors, the subsequent Stuart rulers enjoyed coming to Greenwich because it was well away from the dirt and smells of London. This is either a 19th-century etched copy of the oil by Danckerts, now NMM BHC1818, or from another version or copy of that, given small variations of detail. The owner of the canavas from which the etching was made, Henry Richardson, was a well-known Greenwich bookseller and author of a history of the town. The etching may have been done for an edition of Hasted's 'History of Kent'. [PvdM updated 10/12]